Jack
The universe had finally succeeded in getting him. In teaching him a lesson. Haha, the joke was on him. He acted like a gentleman for once, though he still had a serious case of the world’s worst blue balls, and this was what he got as a reward.
A damn succubus invading his workspace. At least he now knew her name. It was emblazed across the front door in black block letters. Tia Reid. His new assistant and his new nightmare. Goddamn it to hell. I should have known better. I should have known that she wasn’t someone’s date. Jack wished he could say, honestly, that he would have steered clear of her, but he didn’t even know if that was the truth. He’d spent Saturday and Sunday reliving Friday night, or the early hours of Saturday morning, as it were. He might have jacked off in the shower, Tia’s nameless face heady in his mind…
“Fuck me,” he ground out under his breath, then realized that was the perfectly wrong thing to say and not just because they were in the workplace.
Surprisingly, Tia’s gorgeous rose hued lips turned up at the corners. “I would say that that’s about the worst thing you could do that the moment.”
Jack winced. He swore that his balls just went a shade bluer. At the rate they were going, they were probably purple. No amount of getting himself off seemed to help. “You know what I mean.”
Even though he knew the door was shut, he looked over his shoulder, just to be sure. No one else was there. No one else was even in the hallway, he was pretty damn sure. While the others had been instructed to let their newest team member settle in, since she was going to be working directly under him- he closed his eyes at that thought- he’d come to introduce himself before a crowd was clamoring at her door.
Tia’s eyes followed his to the door before they flicked back to his face. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I might know what you mean. I- we- look, we can just forget that Friday night ever happened. I doubt anyone saw us leave and as far as anyone has to know, we live in close proximity, I think… and- and you helped me catch a cab home because I was drunk. You did the honorable, gentlemanly thing.”
Jack barely covered up a snort. He just about dropped a snide retort, but managed to choke back the words as a faint blush crept up on Tia’s cheeks. She was pretty when she was blushing. Hell, she was always pretty. He didn’t like it. His hand gripped the fabric of his hands and balled into a tight fist. He didn’t like it at all. He didn’t like his lack of restraint or how he wished he could throw her up on that desk, push up that pretty black pencil skirt, tear open her pale blue blouse, and fuck her senseless. A nice welcome to the company.
He gave his head a shake. That wouldn’t be nice at all. She was standing there, as professionally as she possibly could after she’d been fucked by him on her staircase two nights ago, giving him an out. And he was damn well going to take it. Because what happened between them was never going to happen again.
“I doubt it was overly gentlemanly. Unless servicing you was the honorable thing to do. You were obviously hard up.”
Her lips thinned out in a hard, thin line and her brow creased into a frown. He wanted to kick his own ass at the moment, for his decided lack of tact.
“No one has to know. I’m saying we can both move on. Maybe we can’t pretend it never happened.” She paused for a minute, her mouth working uselessly. “No, we will do more than pretend it never happened,” she amended. “It never happened. We will never speak of that again. We won’t even think about it.” The blush riding high on her cheekbones belied her words.
Jack was willing to bet she was indeed thinking about it. Which part? Which part is she thinking about at the moment? Which part did he want her to be thinking about? He didn’t like the fact that he was currently thinking about it, but what else was there to do?
Tia slowly extended her hand. “I’m Tia Reid. Good to meet you Jack-”
“Jack Stevens.”
“Jack Stevens.” She mulled that over. God, even his name sounded sexy coming from her. She could probably read the damn phone book out loud, name by name, number by number, and he’d get a hard on.
“You’re going to be assisting me,” he nearly choked on the word. He did indeed have something she could assist him with. His aching fucking balls. “I- uh- we- are working on a new campaign about…”
She waited patiently, eyes locked on his face. He cursed his bone dry mouth and a throat that felt like someone jammed an old gym sock down. Thinking about gym socks made him think about that old joke about condoms which made him think about the fucking fact that they hadn’t had one on Friday night and if they did, he wouldn’t be standing there with the world’s hardest hard on.
Tia was diplomatic enough not to look down. Maybe because she knew what she’d find and she didn’t want to notice it.
“About?” She finished for him, waiting.
“Right. About- well it’s a campaign geared on showing people that they don’t have- all the- uh- time in the world and they shouldn’t wait to get life insurance. We’re trying to make it sensitive while at the same time, drive the nail into the coffin.”
“How apt. A coffin.”
He nearly smiled, just because she suddenly did. He folded his hands in front of him, carefully hiding the damn tent going on in his pants. “Yes- well- we would never put that on an ad.”
“No, that’s been done. It’s too obvious.” Tia walked around to her desk and sat down. “I have a few ideas that might be useful. Unless- unless, that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. I was told that I’d receive on the job training. I have a degree with a major in marketing, so I don’t feel out of my element, just so you know.” Her eyes narrowed. “There might be a few things that I actually am proficient at, whatever you think.”
She sat there, daring him to challenge her, and for once, he was struck speechless. It didn’t happen very often. He couldn’t remember it ever happening once. His background in life had prepared him for more- scenarios- than most people could dream up.
“Yes, that’s fine,” he managed to say, voice thick. “I’ll have some emails you can go through, phone calls for you to field and answer, that kind of a thing. You’ll deal with our printers and the people involved should we decide to do things like TV or radio advertising, but for now, yes, just- just sit there and come up with ideas. That would be helpful. I’ll tell the rest of the department to leave you alone. We have a meeting at eleven. I’ll introduce you then.”
Tia nodded sagely. Her hands flew to the laptop and pulled it open. “Great. Does this thing have a password?”
“No. Not unless you set it.”
Her head bobbed again. A strand of her long, gloriously shiny hair flew free from the loose braid and flew to her cheek. He wanted, more than anything, to step closer, reach out, and brush it away. She beat him to it, tucking the strand firmly back behind her ear.
“I just have one more question.” She paused and when he waited, she continued. “What’s the company’s policy on after hours work? Overtime, if you will? Just so I know.”
“I’m the only one allowed to put in overtime. Or if I really need it, one or two others.”
“Good.” She breathed a long sigh and her shoulders slumped with relief. “Thanks again.” Her smile was fake and dismissive and he took the hint.
Jack turned around and left Tia’s office. As the door shut behind him, he had to give her credit. No one had simultaneously struck him wordless and dismissed him. Ever. If only she knew his background. She might have been less hesitant to tell him, with a look, to get the hell out of her space. Or would she? He thought not. For a woman who was so woefully unpracticed and even shy when it came to getting naked, she was a tiger in other parts of her life.
Lord. That’s the last thing he needed to think about that the moment. Tia aggressive, making demands, telling him what to do. He never thought it could be sexy, that thought, but when Tia was involved, it sure as hell was. God, she isn’t even my type. His internal battle of words died a hard death. She was indeed his type and he damn well knew it.
It didn’t occur to him until just before he went into their meeting, what she’d meant about overtime. She was relieved because she didn’t ever want to be in the office with him alone. Without anyone else around.
Which meant that maybe even a tigress had a weakness. Maybe even stair goddesses were human.