“Are you kidding me?” I exclaimed loudly, the moment the front door swung open. “What the fuck was that? Do you realize that I had to lie to your dad, just to stop me from getting fired? Don’t you care about anyone other than yourself? Do you understand how much of a nightmare it is to find you missing on my very first day?”

I couldn’t believe it, Hannah had the audacity to roll her eyes at me as if she couldn’t feel the rage rolling off of me at all. “Will you give it a rest? I cannot deal with your bullshit until I’ve at least had some caffeine, and a shower too. And if you don’t want to be here anymore, if you don’t want to risk getting fired, then why don’t you just leave?”

“Are you for real? Do you know how much the cost of living is?” A red mist descended over my eyes. This woman had no idea what real life was, and it felt like it was time for a reality check. “Not all of us can have everything paid for us. Some of us have to work.”

“This isn’t your job though, is it? You’re in the army, or something...”

“Oh God, I would much rather be back there than here. You’re going to be much harder to deal with than war.”

She stepped closer to me, right into my personal space, I could feel her breath tickling my cheek as she spoke. “I haven’t even gotten started yet,” she warned, before she brushed past me, leaving me stewing in an electrical, hot bubble of... well, I wasn’t totally sure what.

I watched in amazement and disbelief as she made her way up the stairs, swinging her hips as she went. I had a terrible feeling that her final statement had an ominous quality to it, one that I needed to pay attention to. If running off was just the starting point for her, then what else could she have in store for me? I knew that she didn’t want me around, but to actively go out of her way to get me fired was something else. I had to admit, it stung a little. Maybe her feelings didn’t have anything to do with me, but I certainly wasn’t enjoying being on the receiving end of it.

‘Is Hannah feeling better? Joe.’

I sighed deeply and tapped out a rapid response, hating myself for lying to my boss. I tried to convince myself that it was all about self-preservation, but I wasn’t totally convinced that was the full truth of it. ‘She’s up and about, so all looks good. Parker.’

I just had to hope that things would get easier...

“What the...?” I spat my drink out in shock, unable to believe what I was seeing in front of me. I blinked a few times, trying to make the image disappear, but nope... she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Oh... is there something wrong?” Hannah’s tone was innocent, but there was a wickedness in her gaze. She knew exactly what she was doing, this was all to torment me. Was this what she meant by having not gotten started yet? If so, then I was nowhere near prepared. “Have I got something on my face... or leg...”

She spun around showing me every inch of her very naked body. Okay so she had a tiny towel covering a small part of her torso, but her breasts were poking out from the top so much that I could basically see her nipples. If she bent over, even the tiniest bit, I could see her entire butt. She might as well have been fully nude.

“Erm, no nothing...” my heart was thundering, my body shuddering and trembling, there was a stirring inside my underwear that I really needed to ignore if I had any hope of getting through this with any dignity intact. “What are you... what are you doing?”

“Well, I told you that I need caffeine. That’s what I’m here for. I didn’t think that you would be in here too, which is probably silly of me since you don’t ever seem to be anywhere else but the kitchen.”

“In my defense, this is the only room you’ve shown me, and since it’s bigger than my entire apartment, I truly don’t care.” If I kept my back to Hannah, it wasn’t so difficult to talk to her. I just had to get the image of her long, luscious legs out of my mind.

No! Not luscious, just normal legs.

God, this was impossible.

“Oh, well I can correct that right now, if you like? Let me take you around the house.”

I slid my eyes shut in utter annoyance at myself, I walked right into that one. If I said no to that I would be backing down. I could tell that Hannah wanted weakness, and I couldn’t give in. Not if I wanted to continue working here, which for some reason other than the money, I did.

“Okay, sure. Let’s do this.”

Hannah waltzed from the room, and I forced my legs to follow despite the fact everything within me was screaming at me not to. How the hell was I going to keep control of myself when all I had to look at was her? Her long, blonde hair was wet and dripping, splashing adorable drops of water down her back. I watched one of them trail right down towards her butt...

“So, this is my dad’s study,” she spoke joyfully, knowing that I was falling apart. “And here is the library. Oh, and this is my room.”

She spun around to stare at me, biting down bemusedly on her plump bottom lip, which made my stomach flip and churn, and my heart dance. As she pointed towards the room she was showing me, and my eyes followed exactly where she wanted me to look, I passed out.

Panties... her panties were everywhere, hanging up all over the room. Lace and silk greeted me as far as the eye could see, and all I could do was imagine Hannah’s stunning body in each and every pair. She was hot, her body was incredible, and now despite my best intentions all I could think about was her pressing every inch of her gorgeousness up against me. Touching, licking, kissing...

“So, is there anything else you want to see?”

“I... erm... I...” Shit, why couldn’t I think of any words? What the hell was wrong with me? My mouth was literally watering, my whole body pulsated with need, my brain was on the verge of shutting right down.

“Is that enough of the house? Or... is there something else?”

I could feel her, her whole body was humming next to me, she was vibrating right through my system. I’ve never been so aware of myself, or anyone else, in my entire life. I wanted to move, to drag myself out of the situation before anything stupid happened, but I couldn’t. Everything about me was frozen.

She’s winning, she’s destroying me, I thought to myself, but still I couldn’t do anything about it. In an act of defiance, I moved my eyes to meet hers, and as they connected I felt a bolt of shock jolting right through my system. On our first meeting I noticed that they were very blue, but now on a closer look I spotted adorable flecks of gold in there. They were as interesting as her, one thing on the surface, but something entirely different underneath. Hannah was intriguing, intoxicating even. It would only take one more inch of movement and we could be kissing...

“No? Nothing? I guess that’s it then.”

As she moved backward with an extremely pleased expression on her face, my heart cracked painfully in my chest. I wasn’t sure why it was good, there was no way we should be kissing. This was my boss’s daughter, the one I was supposed to be watching, not someone I should even consider hooking up with.

It was just her teasing, confusing my brain. That was all. This was all a game, and I was losing. I’d be back on top soon enough.

“Erm, nope, that’s it. I’m gonna go... let you get dressed...”

My legs were shaking as I wandered back down the stairs, my feet barely touching the ground as I went. I was usually so good at switching off my emotions, I had to, to survive in the military, yet with Hannah it felt like they were constantly on the brink of spilling out. She infuriated me, drove me mad, confused me, turned me on...

Oh God, what the hell was I going to do? As I slumped back into my chair, my head fell into my hands and a groan inadvertently fell out of my mouth. Much as I knew it was incredibly wrong, I couldn’t help my feelings. I was very attracted to Hannah, I found her sexier than I ever had anyone else before, and I wasn’t sure how to overcome that. Sure, her personality was generally awful, I didn’t think the truthful side of her would ever become all of her, but that didn’t mean I didn’t fancy her like mad. At least before I didn’t have any images of her body to fantasize about, but now I had everything.

How the hell would I ever look at her again? Sarcasm was going to be the only way out of this. She seemed to despise my cruel wit, and it would work well to cover up my real feelings... whatever they were.