Chapter 2

Oliver

I thought I made myself pretty fucking clear, but obviously, the message had gotten lost somewhere along the way.

“I mean, have you seen her?” Neil said, raising his eyebrows at me from across the desk and lounging in that confident way he always does.

I ran my fingers through my hair.

“Of course, I fucking have,” I snapped back in his direction, irritated.

Even though he was my business partner and we’d worked together for years, sometimes he really got under my skin.

“And I told you I didn’t want someone like her.”

That new secretary of mine had started the previous day, and I could already tell I was in for a rough ride. After what happened the last time, I had been pretty clear about not wanting anyone even remotely distracting, and look who they sent me.

“Oh, come on,” Neil chided. “You worried you can’t keep your eyes on your own paper?”

“Not at all,” I shot back, my voice a little more tense than I intended it to be. I sat down in my chair and let out an enormous sigh.

Mona – was that her name? It was the kind of name you wanted to say over and over again, like a spell on the tip of your tongue, my lips forming into a kiss when I spoke it. She was due to start her second day any minute now, and I knew I had to get myself the fuck in order if I wanted to make sure there was no repeat of last time.

“What did you say in the advert?” asked Neil, leaning forward, and sensing an opportunity to rip the piss out of me, no doubt. “Only uggos?”

“Come on,” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Look, if you can’t control yourself…”

“I can control myself fine,” I replied firmly. “It’s just…”

“Yeah, I know, it wasn’t exactly like you pounced on her walking down a corridor.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “Just play it a little cooler with this one, okay buddy?”

“I will, I know,” I muttered.

Neil got to his feet and clapped his hands together, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.

“I should get back to the office and get some work done.” He glanced at his watch. “See if you can keep your mind on track and you do the same, eh?”

“Get outta here, asshole.”

I waved him in the direction of the door and he grinned, clearly pleased he’d managed to get a rise out of me.

That was how we always played it, busting each other’s balls. It was the only way to keep sane in a business like this one. It could be so easy to get all pumped up on the compliments, the adulation, and the success, so it was good to have someone around to keep my ego at bay.

I watched him leave, then raked my fingers through my hair and attempted to focus on the papers on the desk in front of me. I knew, though, that I wouldn’t be able to relax until Mona was sitting behind closed doors in the office next to me, out of sight and out of mind.

Neil was right. I had to keep her at arm’s length. In theory, that shouldn’t be hard. She worked for me, after all, and I’m sure the last thing she wanted was to hook up with some two-decades older man in a suit like me.

This was surely a stepping stone to something bigger for her, and getting attached was likely the last thing on her mind. I had seen her qualifications, and I doubted Mona wanted to spend the rest of her life running around after me.

Nevertheless, I was doing my best to make it clear that I wasn’t interested in those pouty lips of hers, or those eyes, or the way her legs looked in that slightly too-short skirt. She was a stone-cold stunner, one of those women who could have cars squealing to a halt on the street as she walked by, even if she didn’t know it.

It wouldn’t take long for her to figure it out, and God help the men she encountered when she did.

The door clicked open in front of me, and my head snapped up. There she was.

“Morning,” she said, smiling at me shyly and headed straight for her office.

“Uh, Mona?”

I said her name again before she could close the door behind her, and she paused. I wasn’t sure what it was I wanted to say, but I knew I wanted her to stay in the room with me for a moment longer.

“Could you double-check my schedule for the day?” I furrowed my brow. “I want to know when the Harrelson meeting is.”

“Of course.”

She nodded, flashing me a dazzling smile, and started up her computer.

I shifted in my seat and found that my gaze followed her. Shit, how did she keep doing this? Why was I so drawn to her? Maybe because she was as close to fucking perfect as I’d ever come across in my life.

In any other circumstance, I’d have been buying her a drink and inviting her back to my apartment. As the situation was, however, I’d have to find a way to keep it firmly in my pants, because she was my fucking secretary, and like I’d be damned if I was I going through all that again.

I was almost certain I’d laid out as much to Ann when she was getting ready to hire for the assistant position. I mean, I couldn’t come right out and say it, because it would have been a big HR deal if I had, but she’d seen what a cluster-fuck the last one turned out to be. Not that I was completely innocent in all of that, but still, I assumed she’d be a little more careful about who she’d hire for the position.

Or maybe, just maybe, she expected someone with as much experience as I had to be able to overlook things like sex and beautiful women to focus on his damn business.

I bet Neil convinced her to hire someone like Mona because he knew it would get to me. It seemed exactly like the kind of thing he might do – a little nudge and a wink to let me know he knew what I was capable of.

I rocked back in my chair and ran my fingers through my hair, staring at the ceiling and tightening my lips. I was overthinking this. For damn sure, I was overthinking this.

I got up to go to a meeting and resolved that for the next week, I would be nothing but cool toward the new girl. Not unpleasant, not an asshole, but nothing more than pointedly, carefully cool.

If she was still around at the end of it, then I’d know she wasn’t here just to get underneath my skin. I rolled my shoulders back as I walked down the corridor, readying myself for the day ahead, but I couldn’t shake the image from my brain of the gorgeous woman sitting in the office next to mine.

I did my best to get her to prove herself. Part of me hoped she would take me aside, admit this whole thing had been a mistake, and move on, but she didn’t.

She took in stride every change of plans, every late meeting that required her to stick around, every note I needed her to take. She had merely nodded, smiled professionally, and disappeared back to her office to take care of it. She was totally unfazed by it all.

I had to admit, I was impressed. Usually, the high pace and thinking on your feet required for this job had the new starts frantically trying to get a grip on it all.

Not Mona. She never let me see anything other than complete level-headedness and control, moving comfortably through the office and taking everything that needed to be completed in stride.

Maybe Anne had actually hired her for her acumen at the job.

Somehow, that was worse than the other possibility, that she had been picked just to fuck with me. She was proving herself to be indispensable.

Mona was smart, resourceful, and intelligent, precisely the kind of assistant I’d always needed, but she was also so goddamned gorgeous, I was having a hard time keeping my mind off her.

I sat in the office on Friday afternoon, staring out the window, processing the accomplishments of the past week and the impending meetings I still had to attend. It had been a long, busy week, and I still had a couple events to endure over the weekend. It was nice to steal a little moment or two of solitude.

“Hello?”

My head snapped up, and I turned around, to find Mona. She was hanging through the door between our offices and had her bag over one shoulder.

“I was going to go unless there’s anything else you need?” she asked, her voice ticking up nervously at the end of the sentence.

“No, you’re good.” I said. “Doing anything this weekend?”

She paused at the door, obviously surprised by the interest I was taking in her. She glanced around slowly, as though I could actually be talking to her.

“Uh, nothing really,” she said with a nervous smile. Her lashes fluttered briefly as she looked at me, and she leaned her shoulder against the door frame, as though settling in for a longer conversation.

“You?” she asked.

I snorted with mirthless laughter.

“I haven’t had any decent weekend plans in years,” I replied. “It’s all business, I’m afraid.”

“Well, I’m your assistant,” she pointed out. “Maybe I could use some of my organizational skills to free up some time for fun in your schedule?”

“You’re good, but I’m not sure anyone’s that good,” I warned her. “I’m also not very good at actually taking time off when I need it.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she teased and straightened up from the door frame. “I should probably get going. My train leaves soon.”

“Have a good weekend.”

I nodded, keeping my tone neutral, but when she turned to leave, I couldn’t help my eyes drifting down to her ass as it swayed out the door and away.

I closed my eyes and leaned back in my seat. I needed to get my shit together, and soon. This kind of attitude wasn’t going to fly if I was to work with Mona in the long term. How long did those initial contracts last? Six months? More? It wasn’t like I could find a good reason to get rid of her if she continued to be as sharp anyway. I would just have to get over the attraction and remind myself I was a grown man who didn’t need to get hooked on every cute, young thing who walked into my office.

And find some way to erase from my imagination the image of her bent over my desk with her skirt pulled up over her hot ass.