Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
I’m angry with this assessment for about ten reasons, but he’s moved on about a second before I unleash on him. “I need to see every project you’ve touched in the time you’ve been here and your recommendations on each, along with the outcome,” he says. “How fast can I have it?”
“As fast as it takes me to email it to you. I record that data and have from the day I started to work.”
“Good. We’ll go over it together, later. After we deal with the staff. When can we hold a meeting?”
“It has to be after hours.”
“After hours it is then,” he replies. “Make it happen, and then we’ll review your track record.”
My track record.
We will review my track record.
Anger is starting to burn in my belly all over again. I stand but I can’t let him off, I can’t let him pretend this is anything but what it is. I press my hands on the desk again and look him in those baby blues. “You aren’t a hero. You’re the reason I didn’t get the chance to save the company and I would have had you not swept the stock. You’re the reason my father was pushed out.”
“Your father needed to be pushed out and you couldn’t save it until he was. Deep down, I know you already know that.”
“You really are an asshole.”
“There she is,” he says. “Samantha live and in person. Keep her here because we both need her, and you were wrong earlier. This is about you, me and the handcuffs. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.”
“What does that even mean?”
“You came at me. You weren’t afraid. You even got something out of it. That was impressive. That earned you a chance you can use that killer instinct here, but don’t underestimate me. I’m not here to be your friend, but I’m not here to fuck you either.”
“Because you already did. You fucked me. You fucked my family. You don’t need to do it again and yet I know, I know, that in the end, I will claw and fight to save this company because I have to, because this place is all I have, and yet, you will. You will fuck me, and I just signed the contract that says I approve.” I straighten and head for the door, but the minute I reach for the knob, his big body is behind me, his hand on the knob. I’m now caged between the door and Reid Maxwell.
Chapter six
Reid
“Let me out of this office,” Carrie demands without turning to face me, my hand still planted on the door above her head; her pink dress hugging her perfect ass that’s a lean away from being pressed against me.
“If you walk out of this office with an attitude,” I warn, “you fuck me and you,” her damn floral perfume scents the air like I know it does her skin. “If you divide us,” I add, “I’ll be forced to let you pack that box and leave. Is that what you want?”
She rotates to face me, lifting that perpetually defiant chin, those perfect, pink lips tilted upward, begging me to kiss them. “If I wanted this to end that way,” she says. “I wouldn’t have signed that contract.”
“Then stop thinking of me between your legs, because obviously only one of us can do that and still get our jobs done.”
“Are you trying to be crass or is that just natural for you?”
“Does it make you hate me more?”
“Yes.”
“Then hate me, Carrie, but do it behind closed doors, with or without me. In fact, if you want me to yank your skirt up and help you fuck it out of your system, we can do that too, but you will not do it in front of the staff.”
“What happened to you not fucking where you work?” she fires back.
“Seems like breaking that rule might be a public service.”
“Stop being an ass. It doesn’t help me help you, and don’t tell me that I’m not helping you. You’ve made it clear that you wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”
“I’ll make no apologies for who and what I am. Support me or move on. Can or can’t.”
“Can,” she bites out. “I already said ‘can,’ so you’re the one who needs to move on.”
“You said ‘can’ and then you insulted me and charged for the door.”
“As you said. I’ll save the hate for more intimate moments, the ones spent without you.”
In other words, my reminder of our encounter won’t intimidate her. My lips quirk. She’s got balls and I fucking love it. “You’re with me. We are one. Say it.”
“I’m with you,” she bites out, anger vibrating off of her. “We are one.”
She’s defiantly submissive, which on her is both sexy as hell and the best I can hope for just minutes after I’ve stripped her of the control she believes should be hers. “Don’t make me regret this,” I say, pushing off the door and heading back to my new desk.