Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
But like its own special brand of pixie dust magic, all of that bad shit swirls right down the drain when Ellie walks into my office an hour after closing bell.
God, she’s stunning. Even in that boxy suit and makeup, she can’t hide the real deal from me. Especially not after last night.
Just thinking about all the things we did in this room has me hard and ready again.
“And to think I used to dread late nights at the office.” I grin and loosen my tie as she closes the door and crosses to my desk. Beneath the cloying fragrance of Axe body wash—yes, my woman takes her role as a finance dude-bro seriously—I smell the sweet, feminine scent that’s all Ellie, and it makes my mouth water. “I missed you like crazy.”
I take her into my arms and claim her mouth in a deep kiss, ignoring the tickle of her mustache on my skin.
“Mmm.” Ellie sighs against my lips. “Keep kissing me like that, and I might start to believe you.”
“If you insist.” I lean in for round two, but Ellie puts her hands on my chest, holding me back. Her eyes twinkle with mischief, and I can’t keep the grin off my face. “You’re killing me, El. You know that, right?”
“I’m trying to be professional, Mr. Holt,” she teases. “Which means first we cover work business, then we get to the naughty business.”
“Work business? But it’s after hours.” I’m not sure I can hold out much longer. My hands are already roaming over her curves, sliding under her perfect ass, pulling her toward my rock-hard cock as I give myself a slow-motion mental preview of all the ways I’m going to make her come…
“Five minutes.” She squirms out of my grip, tossing her suit coat onto the chair behind her. “I have an update on my research, a quick request, and then I’m all yours. Promise.”
“Is the request related to the naughty business?”
She pins me with a no-nonsense look, lips pursed beneath her mustache.
I lift my hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll behave. What’ve you got for me?”
Ellie perches on the edge of my desk. I sit on my chair in front of her, my hands curled around her hips.
“When it comes to hiring practices and advancement opportunities,” she says, “There’s clear evidence of preferential treatment toward male employees. It took a bit of time to correlate, but now that all the dots are connected, you can’t miss it.”
I nod, impressed with her research skills. For the first time since she started this project, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The day she turns in her story and resigns from her “position” at S&H is the day we can stop sneaking around and—bonus—the blissful day I stop kissing someone with an intensely tickly mustache. “I’ll take your findings to Ryan and Blair, and we can start implementing some changes.”
“That’s the idea. But…” Ellie exhales with a weary shake of her head. “I’m barely scraping the surface, Jack.”
“Hey.” I stand, brushing the man-bangs from her eyes. “You’re kicking ass. If you need more data, we’ll just have to dig deeper. Right?”
She smiles softly. “Thanks for the ‘we’ part.”
“You know I’m all in. So where do we go from here?”
“I have anecdotes from some of the women in the office, but some of these issues are hard to quantify.”
“How so?”
“It’s not a problem unique to S and H,” she says, her voice darkening. “The truth is women are penalized for our biology and our gender roles in almost every facet of life. All the scientific research and the studies I’ve been reading…it’s all so deeply depressing. And if you’re a woman of color or an older woman, the roadblocks are even bigger.”
I slide my hands to her shoulders, giving her a reassuring squeeze. I hate that I don’t have words for this, but I’m out of my depth. As much as it stings to admit it, this past week is the first time I’ve ever given gender politics much thought.
I’ve never had to think about it before because it doesn’t affect me personally.
Kind of proves her whole point…
“It’s crazy.” Ellie rises from the desk and begins to pace the office. “Most of the time, childcare, healthcare, and other domestic responsibilities fall to women, but women are working outside the home just as much as men. So what happens when a parent has to stay home with a sick kid? Or someone has to take Grandma to the doctor? And what about single parents? Should a mom be punished for leaving the office for a family emergency, even if she’s able to make up the work at a later time?” She stops pacing and turns toward me, hands on her hips. “Serious questions, Jack.”
I blink as I lean back to sit on the edge of my desk. “I guess it depends on the nature of the job, and what the person’s manager—”