IN BED WITH THE BOSS

He didn’t even smile at her. In fact, he had that look on his face that suggested that he was very unhappy about something, and Vivian had this weird feeling that it was about her.

“I trust you had a good weekend,” he said. It sounded more like a statement than a question, and he seemed to get angrier as he spoke.

“Yes, sir. I did” replied Vivian. “How was your weekend?”

Scott’s frown deepened. He had had an unpleasant week. His sister was getting better thankfully, but this whole thing with Bruce and Jennifer Bennet was getting to him. To make it worse, Vivian was out, attending parties with other men in the sexiest outfit he’d ever seen on her and it pissed him off. The fact that he was feeling this way about his Assistant only made it worse.

And yet she stood there, in a sky blue office suit, looking so professional and innocent, that it was almost impossible to believe that she was the same person he’d seen in those damn boots and jumpsuit that looked like sin and he’d found it difficult to stop thinking about.

He stood from his chair, carrying his laptop and headed for the sofa. “My weekend was fine. I’ve arranged a meeting of the shareholders,” He announced as he sat down on it and glared at her. “Come over here and take a seat, Miss Sanchez” he growled.

Trying to hold it together, Vivian did as she was told. She wondered what she’d done wrong this time. Had she forgotten something again?

One delicious thigh rested uncomfortably close to his, and Scott immediately wished he didn’t invite her to sit. Surreptitiously, he shifted his leg away.

“When is the meeting?” she asked.

“Next Sunday seems to be the only time we can get everyone together at such short notice.” He said, leaning back in the chair and narrowing his eyes. “You should be present too as my assistant. Is that okay with you, Miss Sanchez?”

What could she say? That she would prefer to be at home watching a movie and eating snacks rather than having to endure a grilling between the company shareholders? She was his assistant and she really didn’t have a choice. And also, why was he glowering at her like that-hadn’t she been sweetness and light all through the previous week?

“Sunday is fine,” she replied.

“I have also come up with some points to save costs too” He yawned and opened his laptop. “I will also send you a copy so you can go through it and tell me what you think. Checks for errors and stuff you think the shareholders will be open to. I went through the report from the account manager and it’s exactly as I first suspected-we are lagging way behind the times and need to take a serious look at the overheads-and I’m not just talking about production here.”

She raised her eyebrows.”Okay?”

He glanced down at the laptop screen.

“For example, hiring a part-time designer for construction projects would be a lot more cost-effective than using expensive design agencies as we are doing at the moment.”

Vivian nodded. It made sense. Such simple sense that she wondered why the accounting department never thought of it themselves.

“But you know that will also increase the wage bill,” she said, biting her lip.

He dragged his gaze away from her lips. “Yes-but we’ve got enough work so it will be cheaper in the long run,” he said gently.

“Yes. That’s true” She looked at him steadily. Rich, handsome and smart too. Was there any quality the man didn’t possess? “It sounds really good and I’ll get to it right away”

“You know, you’ve done many good things since you started working here-”

“Thanks,” Vivian said drily.

“No, I mean it-the way you’ve kept abreast of trends, caught up very quickly-and contributed to ideas… It’s really impressive.”

His praise meant more to her than it should have done, but they weren’t sitting here with the intention of boosting her ego. They were there to work, but the fact that he’d noticed her efforts made her very happy, although she tried not to show it too much.

“I’m really glad that you feel that way, Mr McCall, and I will continue to do my best. Is there anything else you would like me to do?”

His face grew closed. “Well, yes. I also wanted to tell you, Miss Sanchez, that the way you live will really have to be curtailed if you want to continue to work here.”

“Curtailed?” She narrowed her eyes. “The way I live…. What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean that whatever you do with your personal life is your business as I said before, but I don’t want you bringing it to the office. Dating coworkers is not forbidden or anything like that, but it is frowned upon. Do make sure that it doesn’t affect your job or the company in any way.”

“I will never let my personal life affect my job, Mr McCall.” She spat the words out indignantly.

“Sure. Of course you would say that, but we all know-”

Vivian shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not just saying it, Mr McCall. Even my job at the cheesecake shop has never-”

“Let me finish,” he said coolly, ignoring the fact that she had interrupted him. “I said nothing about your second job, did I? I know how much it means to you- and I would never interfere with it.”

“So what is this about, Mr McCall?” she asked.

He ignored the squeak of horror in her voice. “I’m saying that whatever relationship you have with Michael should not be brought into the office premises and it should not interfere with your job either.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

That hurt. It hurt because he was so wrong. She wasn’t interested in Micheal at all, but she’d had eyes for him ever since she’d started working at his company and he never noticed her as anything other than his assistant. He had kissed her for God’s sake, and yet here he was preaching against inappropriate relationships. If anyone was inappropriate, it was him.

“Is that what you think?”

He shrugged. “Just letting you know. Besides, you don’t seem to be denying it.”

“That’s because there’s nothing to deny,” she retorted.

He cradled his dark head in the palms of his hands as he watched her from between narrowed eyes. When their eyes met again, he saw the color rise in her cheeks.

“If we are done here, I would like to go back to work, Mr McCall” said Vivian. She was so mad, and she feared that if she stayed any longer in his office, she would yell at him, and that was a horrible idea even if he deserved it, but she still wanted to keep her job.

“Yeah you can go,” he replied.

Vivian rose to her feet, her heart beating so hard that she wanted to scream. She walked up to his desk and gently dropped the box of cupcakes on it when she actually wanted to throw it at him.

Scott’s eyes narrowed. She was pissed. He could see that, and he knew that he was wrong. He’d acted out of nothing but pure jealousy, and he deserved the reaction he was getting, but he wasn’t even upset. In fact he was intrigued. He loved women who were challenging. Women who could speak their minds. Women who couldn’t be intimidated. And Vivian Sanchez was all that…A whole package. Fiery, intelligent, dangerous, beautiful and goddamn sexy.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“The slice of cake you asked for” she replied without sparing a glance in his direction. “You know, from the party I attended with the coworker I’m in an inappropriate relationship with.”

Without waiting for his reply, she walked out of the office. She intended to slam the door behind her too, but it was airtight, so it simply closed softly behind her.

Scott almost laughed.

Sarcastic comments too, he thought. There was no point denying it. He liked this woman…. He could admit that to himself now.

——

Vivian dutifully did her job, and tried as hard as she could to put Scott out of her mind, but it was hard. The man sure had a lot of nerve. She guessed that was what happened when you had a lot of money and lots of people at your beck and call to boss around. She hissed, and she wasn’t even sure how many times she’d done it since she left his office.

When someone knocked on her office door and opened it, she almost groaned when she saw that it was him. What the hell did he want now? Should she be expecting more false accusations from him? She almost blurted out the question, but decided to hold her tongue instead.

He slapped something on her table. “Here, open this. It’s for you.”

Vivian stared at him for a few seconds before she grabbed the white envelope and withdrew the card inside. It was an invitation to a fundraising party. She frowned and looked up at him, clearly confused.

“Wednesday evening,” Scott said-no, commanded. “You’ll be attending the party with me.”