At first, she was just stunned. Completely shocked, unable to believe her eyes. That passed pretty quickly, and, instead, she gave in to pure, unadorned fury.

He’d played her. He’d known he was going to be part of the company where she worked, he’d known who she was, and he hadn’t cared. Hadn’t cared about the risk to her career, about making things awkward with James, who was practically part of her family.

Bryant Croft was lucky she didn’t have a superman laser vision right about now. Still, it didn’t stop her from glaring at his annoying, smug smirk and wishing she could burn holes in his shiny suit. She was shaking with rage.

Tori considered just calling in sick and hiding under her covers with a tub of ice cream, pretending today was just a nightmare. Everything would be back to normal in the morning. And she would have done just that, if she didn’t think that the asshole wouldn’t have guessed that she was running.

So, she stayed put, burying herself under a pile of work to ignore the mess unfolding in the real world.

It was lunchtime when she saw an opportunity. Bryant was right in front of her, flirting with a temp in front of the copy room. How cliché. And infuriating. The temp had dropped some papers, and he couldn’t help her gather them without shooting her compliments and panty-melting smiles, apparently.

How had she fallen for that? She was boiling.

Eventually, he detached himself from the girl and carried on walking down the corridor, towards Tori. It was now or never. The temp had gone into the copy room, so they were alone.

Bryant stopped in front of her, and started talking, but Tori just grabbed him by his collar, and dragged him to the closest conference room, locking it behind them.

“How dare you!” she yelled. She might also have growled.

She was certain she had the upper hand right now. This was her two minutes, today. She was just about to tell him what an ass he was, and that she wanted nothing to do with him – ever again.

Right before another word crossed her lips, though, he leaned in to her, closing the distance between them, and, inconveniently, she got a whiff of his bewitching scent. Her brain betrayed her, replaying some of the things that had occurred the last time he’d stood so close to her. Her body was more embarrassing yet. Now she was boiling in a very different sense of the term, her pussy responding to his proximity by getting hot, and moistening for him. Fuck. What was wrong with her!

“How dare I, what, darling?” he asked, tilting his head, still fucking smirking.

“You lied to me. You’re Bryant Croft! If I’d known, I would never…”

“Hey, let’s rewind for two seconds, there,” he chuckled. “Two weeks ago, we met at a party, we hit it off, and we fucked. I didn’t ask for your name – because I knew it – and I didn’t give you mine, because I assumed you knew it, too. Besides, it’s Bryant Parker. I dropped the Croft as soon as I was legally able to.”

She kept on glaring because, damn him, he had a point. She hadn’t asked his name. She’d thought she’d heard Parker - now, he’d explained why. Even if she’d heard Bryant Parker, it probably wouldn’t have made her jump to Bryant Croft. He was very different to James’ blond hair and blue eyes. Bryant was dark haired, with deep hazel eyes designed to hypnotize anyone who looked at him for too long. He also was much younger; closer to her age, which only served to accentuate their differences. Now she paid attention, though, she recognized that the two brothers had common features: their square jaws, the overall shape of their faces. Damn it. Damn him.

“I’m sorry you were taken aback, Tori,” Bryant said, almost sounding sincere, but his maddening smirk betrayed him. “Still, I don’t see why it’s problematic. We’ve had sex, and we’re going to work together. No big deal. We’re both adults. I’m confident we can forget about it and remain professional.”

He was saying all the right things; in fact, exactly what she’d planned to tell him once she was done shouting at him. The problem was, he was saying them while being close enough for her to feel his body heat, and her gaze had somehow zoomed in on his lips.

Her heart beat fast, hot waves of lust burned her insides.

Bryant stared at her in silence, his expression mirroring hers.

Then, he laughed, and stepped away.

“We have a lot of chemistry, Victoria Brown. In other circumstances, I would have loved to explore it further. But, oh well.”

And on that note, he unlocked the door, and went on his way, leaving her alone in the empty conference room, seething, and turned on.

She was seething and turned on the next morning, too, as she watched him play the room. He was good. The laziest employees couldn’t wait to start working after he’d made them all feel special. Like their ideas were pure genius. He spoke casually, openly, hands in his pockets, the top buttons of his shirt undone, and people responded to it.

It was probably because she’d done the same for the last few years, but Tori recognized his stance. He was posturing. Doing the exact opposite of her, in fact. She’d hardened herself up, making sure that her clothing and attitude kept people on their toes. Bryant was a hard-ass, almost a slave driver, but he kept his sharp, tailored suit a little messed up, and made sure his body language gave every indication that he was relaxed.

In short, he was an office wolf in a sheep’s clothing, and the flock was falling for it.

That didn’t piss her off too much. Okay, so having to admit that he was great at his job was a hard pill to swallow. She hadn’t really wanted him to fail, but couldn’t he have been average or something? Was it too much to ask? But, no, Bryant Parker wasn’t one to settle for average – at anything.

The worst thing, though, was that within days, every single female employee – young or old, single or married – had changed their wardrobe, amped up their makeup, and practiced eyelash batting. Everyone, except Tori.

Lexi also stopped fawning over him once Tori explained the situation.

“I get it. You called dibs. No more giggling or playing with my hair when he talks to me, even if it kills me.”

“I didn’t call dibs,” she’d hissed. “I called I’m probably going to murder him and end up needing your help to hide the body.”

Lexi had rolled her eyes, but, more importantly, she’d made a considerable effort to ignore him. For that, Tori would forever be grateful.

Everything he did made her grind her teeth. The flirting – with everyone. The fact that everyone flirted back. The fact that he also didn’t exclude her from that rule – she’d never risen to the occasion, responding to everything he said professionally, without giving him the satisfaction of seeing her expression betray any emotion. But he often came by her office, trying to make her take the bait, until the day she caved. Sort of.

“If this isn’t my best account manager,” he said, walking in without so much as a knock, and bearing gifts.

The best kind of gifts: her Starbucks drink of choice, and a pumpkin cupcake.

Pumpkin. Not vanilla, not even chocolate. Pumpkin. Her Achilles’ heel. The man was the devil.

“How was your weekend?”

“Adequate, Mr. Parker.”

Did she sound like a robot? Yes. Perfect.

“Marvelous. Now, tell me about the Perkins and Reynolds deal. Vanessa seems to think it’s in the bag. Is it?”

Tori sighed, and stopped pretending she was typing a fascinating email.

“I’m not managing Vanessa’s account.”

“No, Jana is. I talked to Jana and I have her point of view on it. But we’re a team here. You’re part of that team. One of our biggest assets, in fact.”

See? He was good. Even knowing he was just being Bryant Croft, the Office Wolf, she was pleased. She hid it, though, unwilling to let him see that anything he said affected her.

“Talk to me, Tori.”

“It’s Victoria,” she rectified. Never mind that no one called her that, except her mother. “Although Ms. Brown would do.” But he’d engaged her about work, and for better or worse, he was right: they were a team. “And no, we don’t have Perkins and Reynolds in the bag. They’ve been with Oliver’s for the last decade, even when more reputable companies have come knocking. That suggests a lot of trust, for good reasons. Oliver’s did a great job for them in the past. Vanessa is amazing, but she can’t land them on her own.”

It was because Vanessa was great that Jana had assigned her Perkins and Reynolds, setting her up for her first failure. Women, particularly well- established women, were real sharks when they went after the same bone. Vanessa was confident in her project, and getting a big fat no was going to damage her performance review.

“So, what? You think you could get it?”

Tori chuckled. “No way. If it had been thrown on my desk, I would have put it on my pile of extras after the first glance. Vanessa has a brilliant proposal, but she doesn’t stand a chance.”

They were given five projects at any time, three of which they were expected to nail to get a decent review score – the two extras gave them bonus points. No one got canned for not getting to their targets, but their personal bonus and their promotions depended on it.

Tori had always nailed four to five projects.

“Why is that?”

She turned the monitor of her computer and walked around her desk, holding her keyboard. Then, she researched the first partner of the tech firm they were bidding for.

“Bruce Perkins, 57, married three times; at each of his divorces, proof of extramarital relations came to light, all of them with employees of his company. There’s a strict anti-fraternization policy in place, by the way.”

“Dumb rule, if you ask me.”

Of course he’d think so. She rolled her eyes.

“Thomas Reynolds, married for forty years to his childhood sweetheart, who has raised a big, happy family. Do you know what they have in common?”

Bryant shrugged.

“A similar understanding of the place women should have in society, in their point of view. They’re old school. The fact that there’s no females in an executive position in their company corroborates that theory. That, and when I met them at a benefit last year, one of them asked when I was going to think about popping out a few babies, and the other tried to cop a feel.”

“Can’t actually blame the guy, luv.”

Impossible. The man was absolutely impossible.

Tori ignored the last remark.

“So,” Bryant summarized, “they’re sexist.”

“Their success depends on their marketing campaign, and neither of them have been raised to believe women could be as successful as men.”

Bryant seemed to think it through.

“Okay, we’ll pull Vanessa from the file. You’ll present it.”

She groaned.

“Did you hear a word I’ve just said to you?”

“Yes, I did. But you can pull it off, and maybe that way your two buddies will learn a thing or two.”

Tori held her head in her hand, counting to ten. Normally, it worked. Today, she just couldn’t do it. She had to push back.

“No.”

Bryant smiled like she’d given him a present wrapped in a big bow.

She’d known he’d just been trying to get a rise out of her, dammit.

“No?”

“No. I’m not poaching a colleague’s account – especially not a minor account we don’t actually need. I have bigger fish to fry, Vanessa needs to go through it to learn a thing or two herself, and, as I said, I don’t even manage her. So, no. Just don’t think it’s her fault when it all comes crashing down. Instead, you could just ask yourself why Jana has always given P&R to young, pretty girls who never stood a chance.”

He was looking at her funny, so she caved, barking, “What? Do I have something on my forehead?”

Bryant’s eyes were annoying as fuck. More often than not, they had that amber-hazel-ish tint that seemed made of layers of caramel, gold, and forest green, but, as though that wasn’t bad enough, sometimes they seemed emerald green, and sometimes, ocean blue. They’d opted for the latter shade today.

He shrugged. “Nothing, luv. Absolutely nothing.” He got up, and headed towards the door. “Thanks for the insight.”

After that day, he basically started to spend so much time in her office he actually had one of his ergonomic chairs brought in.

She had the best office in the building, apart from his. It had belonged to Aiden Warren, one of James’ first employees, and, when he’d retired, she’d inherited it along with his position. Tucked right next to the CEO’s, the corner office was smaller than Jana’s, but it also had an incredible view, as it shared a wall with the CEO’s. The additional bonus was the fact that her walls weren’t made of glass, which meant she could genuinely relax. Or she could have, if Bryant hadn’t seen fit to pop in all the damn time.

“That’s my chair,” he remarked one morning.

She shrugged. “My office.”

Out of curiosity, Tori had tried it, and she hadn’t felt a little bit guilty when she’d exchanged her office chair with his. It supported her back, pushing it up in a way that prevented her from slouching, all the while supporting her lower back. So, yeah, she was stealing it.

The next day, she arrived to find that every chair in her office had been replaced by those amazing, ergonomic ones, and she couldn’t help a smile.

Bryant was a good boss. Not managing accounts on top of running the business, he had the time to be more attentive than James, and it showed. For example, rather than letting Vanessa take the fall with P&R, he suggested she be paired up with Peter Neilson. “Peter could learn a lot from your presentation, Vanessa,” he’d said, rather than explaining that having him standing in the background would make her seem more trustworthy to the two idiots they were going to woo. They got the deal.

He got to know the cases they all worked on, and his questions were pertinent. He came up with suggestions worth considering, and he valued everyone’s opinion, hers especially. Under his thumb, people were more productive, targets were met on time, because everyone wanted to hear him say well done at the weekly team breakfasts.

Tori had almost reconciled herself to working with the guy when the first rumor started. Then, he was back to being the insufferable office wolf.