Filed to story: Swallow Me Whole (Sadie & Ashton) Book Free
“Probably because I fucked him, to which he repaid me by asking for my resignation.”
Cash holds my gaze, his eyes brimming with smoldering ash. “Do you always talk about your sex life during job interviews?”
“Nope. This is a first.”
“Your old boss sounds like an ass. I hope you handed him his.”
This interview is an epic fail, a mockery of professionalism. But we tossed propriety out the window the instant I walked through the door.
“He was a mistake.” My lungs seem to shrink, and I draw in a deep breath until the suffocation subsides. “I don’t plan to go down that road again.”
Cash settles back in his chair, dark brows pulling together as he fingers his chin. The line of his jaw is cut from granite. “What are your top three strengths as an employee?”
“I thrive under pressure, can multitask without sacrificing work quality, and despite what you might think of my personal life, I have good work ethic.”
A sigh puffs off his lips. “You have no idea what I’m thinking. If you did, you would have left already.”
I can no more leave this office than he can push me out. I’m the magnet to his steel, the yin to his yang. A force of nature brought us together, and we can neither defy nor define it.
“What would you say is your biggest weakness?”
“Married men, apparently.”
One in particular, and he’s sitting across from me with a glower on his gorgeous face. “I’m trying here, Jules. Do you want the job, or not?”
“I want to go back in time and know you’re married.”
Had I known, I wouldn’t have flirted. I wouldn’t have lost myself to his voice and touch, and I definitely wouldn’t have ached for his kiss. A fucking kiss that should have never been a possibility, because even though I didn’t know he was married, he did.
“Jules…” he says, pushing a hand through his mussed hair. “An apology will never be enough for my behavior that night. If you take the job, we’ll keep things professional.”
Doubt plummets to the bottom of my gut. “I’m not sure I can.” Meeting his eyes is impossible—not after admitting in a roundabout way that my feelings for him are lightyears away from professional.
“You’re right,” he says, his voice strangled. “Working together is just asking for trouble, but professionalism aside, the thought of you walking away again is…” He’s shaking his head, as if trying to find the right words, but none are needed.
I know exactly what he means. For all the confrontational shit I’ve flung at him, I feel the same way.
“Ask yourself how you ended up in my office, of all places.”
Fate.
I crash into the storm of his eyes, unable to brake in time. The damage is done, and if I’m honest with myself, I was headed for destruction the instant I decided not to run the other way.
“Accept the job, Jules.”
There’s that tone again—a deep and commanding timbre that vibrates straight to the delta of my thighs. My mind is galloping ahead of me, imagining him using that tone as he bends me over his desk. The attraction I had to Perry was mild compared to this. It was minuscule and lacked depth—in truth harmless, until we somehow ended up in bed together.
But the chemistry between Cash and me is all-consuming, awakening me in ways I never believed possible. In ways I never knew existed. In ways I never knew I wanted. The energy surrounding us is scorching, and I’m too far gone to heed the warning licks of fire.
“Okay,” I say as I imagine my life going up in flames.
This man is going to be the death of me.
9. Bathroom Break
Cash
For the second time in a month, I’m thoroughly…poleaxed. It’s the most appropriate word I’m able to come up with, since the object of my obsession just left after agreeing to work for MontBlake.
For me.
Of course, she had questions. Like how long would it take to train her, when would she start, and why hadn’t I told her I was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company? She seemed to have a very accurate memory of our time on that plane.
For every one of her questions, I had one of my own. Only I couldn’t ask them. Doing so would be intrusive and personal.
Like did she love her previous boss?
How long did the affair last?
Did his wife find out?
Is he the reason she left Oklahoma?
No, she was heartbroken over the boyfriend—I remember that much. So the boss must have been the mistake she was talking about. I let my thoughts drift back to the last half hour, to her wide, deep brown eyes and the way she nibbled her lip. How she stared at me as if I’m the next mistake she’s going to make.
I’d give anything to dig underneath her exterior, to unearth her secrets and desires. But I won’t, even if it kills me. We’ve catapulted too far over the line of professionalism as it is, and it’s going to be hell to fight our way back to the right side of the equation, to the sum of boss and employee, minus a whole shitload of trouble neither of us want. That’s the way it has to be, since I’m blatantly ignoring the professional and right thing to do.
Which would be to send her on her way.
Hell, I might as well stop breathing. Watching Jules walk away a second time will gut me. No matter the right or wrong of it, she’s lived under my skin ever since I laid eyes on her. And the way she looked at me today…
Too fucking tempting.
I shouldn’t have hired her.
How the hell did this happen?
I glance at my watch and realize I’ve been sitting in a daze for the last twenty minutes. I’ve got emails that need sorted and answered, phone calls that need to be returned, appointments that need to be made, not to mention putting travel plans into motion. All of this shit piled up because my last personal assistant up and left last week without notice.
What I need is Jules.
I’m also behind on finalizing the building plans for MontBlake’s newest hotel. Ironically, it’s scheduled to begin construction in Oklahoma City soon. I don’t have time for this raging hard-on, compliments of one Jules Harley.
But God, she’s sexy. Bold. Blunt. She speaks before thinking, which can be a bad thing, but on her it’s a damn aphrodisiac.
Shaking the rails loose on that train of thought, I attempt to get my mind in the right headspace before she returns. I sent her down to HR to get the paperwork rolling, deciding not to have her sign a nondisclosure agreement about her knowledge of my marriage troubles. Having that document in place is company policy on such matters, but there was no way I could ask that of her. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
She’s the only one who knows, other than the private investigator I hired and the unknown person who outed my wife’s affair. Regardless of how little I actually know Jules, my gut tells me I can trust her.
Cursing under my breath, I check my watch again, remembering that Monica wanted to talk to me. Jules should be back in an hour or so, but my wife could show up in five minutes or five hours.