The blood pounding in my head and cock makes it damn near impossible to concentrate on the eagle-eyed, hawk-nosed woman standing in the open doorway. One glances tells me everything I need to know about her. She’s tough, she’s determined, and she isn’t the type of woman who’s going to yield. My dad calls women like her battle axes. He says they’re tenacious and powerful when they’re on your side of an argument, but hellish when they’re on the other side of a debate table.

Her sharp gaze bounces back and forth from my face to Cassie’s. Her mouth clenches like a sphincter muscle. Clearly my ploy to cover up what Cassie and I have truly been doing in her office worked. Lynette was way too busy being scandalized by our little make-out session to even consider that we’d broken into her computer.

Several long seconds pass before Lynette draws herself up to her full height and puffs out her chest. “This is a work environment.” She hurls the words at us. “Not a bordello. How dare you treat my office as such?”

It’s a good thing she didn’t spend more time in the hallway. Cassie and I were on the verge of losing all control. A couple more seconds and Lynette would have really been treated to an eyeful.

The older woman’s gaze zeros in on Cassie’s. “Ms. Mayers. I expect better behavior from you.”

The flush my kisses brought to Cassie’s face darkens. Her body goes taut beneath my hands.

“From me!” Cassie yells. “What about him?” She jabs her thumbnail into my chest. I wince.

“He’s a man.” Lynette’s matter-of-fact tone indicates that the fact I have a penis means all my actions are instantly explainable and excusable. Cassie said that Northwest has a serious problem with misogyny, but I didn’t expect it from another woman. “Ms. Mayers, you should know that I’m seriously considering reporting your behavior to your boss. I’m certain he’ll be very disappointed to learn about this little episode.”

“Oh, for crying out loud.” Cassie starts to move off my lap, but I hold her in place. Partly because I’m using her sweet ass to hide both my erection and the roll of papers I’m stealing, but mostly because I like the way she feels.

“You had better report me too,” I say.

Lynette’s eyes widen and meet mine. “What?”

“There are two of us here. If Cassie’s behaving badly, then so am I. Therefore, you’d better report both of us.” I keep my tone even.

“But Ms. Mayers should know better.”

I float a brow. “And I shouldn’t? For your information, I’m the one that started this little make-out session. Up until I pulled her down in my lap, Cassie was a model of professional behavior. Northwest should have a dozen more people just like her on staff. If they did, they might start making money, rather than watching it drain away.”

I let my last words hang in the air and watch Lynette closely, curious to see if she shows even the slightest sign of guilt. She doesn’t.

Instead she swallows and glares at both of us. “Fine,” she finally huffs. “I won’t report either one of you. This time. But if I catch you acting like randy teenagers again …” She leaves the threat empty. “Now why are you here?”

“You mean, aside from making out?” I say innocently.

Lynette isn’t amused.

“Yes,” she snaps.

“I had some documentation I needed to drop off. Just some tax papers I didn’t have time to turn in before I started flying.” I nod to a small stack of papers on the corner of Lynette’s desk. “That’s them right there.”

“Very well.” Lynette picks up the papers and swiftly sorts through them. “I’ll get these filed right away.” She turns her distinctly disapproving eyes onto Cassie. “And you’re here because?”

“My paycheck,” Cassie snarls. My hand, still buried under the brick red T-shirt she’s wearing, feels the angry flush that warms her smooth, silky skin. While I admire her spirit and spunk, I’m glad all that furious energy isn’t directed at me. “The past two weren’t deposited into my checking account. I’d like to know why.”

“I see.” Rather than walking around to the side of desk Cassie and I are on, Lynette leans across it and slides her laptop across the desktop, opens it, clicks on a few keys. “According to my records, both of your checks were deposited on time into your account.”

Cassie and I exchange looks.

“Are you sure?” I ask. “Check the account numbers. Maybe Cassie’s checks were deposited into someone else’s account.”

Lynette makes a show of looking at her records a second time. “It was deposited into the same account we always deposit your checks into. If the money isn’t there, the bank must have made a mistake. You’ll have to take it up with them.”

Cassie’s thin body vibrates beneath my hands.

“I have checked with my bank,” she says through tightly clenched teeth. “They’ve assured me that neither check is in my account and that since none of their other accounts show a surplus of funds, the mistake must be on this end.”

I wonder if Cassie had actually checked with the bank, or if she was using what we learned from our illicit peek at the payroll files. Either way, I’m proud of the way she’s handling herself.

“The only thing I can do is cancel both of those checks. Then, I can deposit two more into your account for you.”

“And how long will that take?” Cassie asks.

“A full pay period.”

Cassie’s fingers curl into fists. I’m surprised she doesn’t leap off my lap and start beating the snot out of Lynette. “Two weeks! How’m I supposed to survive for two more weeks without any money?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Mayers, but it’s company policy.”

“Well, company policy sucks,” Cassie shouts. “I have bills I need to pay but can’t because you screwed the pooch when it came to my checks.”

“You’re going to simply have to find a way to make things work out.” Lynette closes the laptop. “It shouldn’t be too difficult. You spend most of your time in an airplane, flying around on the company’s dime. Since we cover all of your expenses while you’re working, I can’t imagine you have many bills while you’re home. This company is in financial trouble. We can’t afford to write a check each time someone claims that there’s a problem. We have to investigate.”

“Fuck you.” Cassie jerks free of my grip and leaps to her feet. I scramble to mine and wrap an arm around her waist, preventing her from launching herself across the desk and scratching out Lynette’s cold eyes. “I work hard for that money. I expect it to be there. And I know why the company is floundering, if—”

Uh oh. I can’t have Cassie blurting out what we’ve learned about Lynette, not until we know what we’re going to do with the information.

“Cassie, honey.” I tug her close to my side. “How ‘bout we take off for a little while and calm down?”

Cassie turns on me. “You want me to calm down? Then make that bitch give me my money.”

“I understand.” I place a palm on either side of Cassie’s face, holding her in place so I can look deeply into her eyes. “But you’re getting too worked up to accomplish anything. Let’s get you out of here. Once you’ve calmed down and are thinking rationally again, we can come back here and talk to someone a little higher up on the food chain than ole Lynette here is. I bet they’ll get things sorted out right away.”

“Fine,” Cassie relents. “But I wouldn’t count on me calming down until I have the money this company owes me.”

“Fair enough.” I nudge her to the door.

She starts walking to it, but a split second before she crosses over the threshold and into the hallway, she skids to a stop and angles a final, angry glare at Lynette. “I’m not going to let this matter drop, and I’m not afraid to throw you to the wolves if that’s what it takes.”

With that parting word, Cassie strides out of the room.

Holding my arm in such a way that it at least partly obscures the bulges pushing against the front of my pants, I follow at a slighter slower pace. As I leave the office, I shoot Lynette one final glance. “For the record, I agree with every word she said. If I were you, I’d watch my back.”