Something about the way the man in the front of the room stood there shut us all up. He practically radiated command, like it was oozing off him in icy waves that sealed our throats shut and magnetized our eyes to him.
He’d set his blue suit jacket on the back of a chair at the head of the table and had his sleeves rolled up. I was surprised to see tattoos up both of his arms and even some peeking out from beneath his collar. I hadn’t taken him for the inked up type, and my stupid vagina practically began penning me an enthusiastic letter about how we’d maybe misjudged him and shouldn’t write him off as a complete irredeemable asshole just yet.
Cool it, Vag,I thought.
I folded my arms, glaring at him to remind myself to stay strong. Stupid handsome sex god. So what if he could probably rock my world behind the nearest locked door? That didn’t excuse being such a prick. Andwhy the helldid he look so familiar?
“Alright,” he said calmly. There was that voice again. It was dirty little angels serenading me directly in the ear hole. It was candy on my tongue and warmth down to my core.
I blew out a breath. I needed to get a hold of myself if I was going to survive this, and fast.
“My name is Dominic Lockwood, and I’m going to be your boss from now on.”
Oh, fuck.That’s why he looked so familiar. Dominic Lockwood. That was one of the main guys in my expose from Columbia–one of the trust fund kids whose daddies used their money to buy admission for their kids. I’d named several other kids in my piece, but Dominic’s father was the most powerful and wealthy. He’d also been the one to make sure I crashed and burned for it.
My mouth felt dry. I suddenly visualized myself letting out a barbaric scream, jumping on the table and baring my fingers like claws before charging him. I’d bite him on the neck, tackle him to the ground, mount him, and–
Jesus.I couldn’t even have a proper violent fantasy without things turning dirty.
I realized he’d been talking about some logistical stuff and I’d tuned him out for the past minute or so.
“Um,” I said, cutting him off. He turned his gaze to me and I felt that near-stroke feeling threatening to come on again. I pushed through it. “You said you’re our new boss. Jasmine was our lead editor before, but she had people above her. Are you just replacing Jasmine, or are you going to be doing the job of all those people above her as well?”
“There were two people above Jasmine, and yes,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ll be doing all the work they were doing with my team.”
“What experience do you have in editing?” I asked.
I felt a collective clenching of buttholes across the room.
Dominic tilted his head just slightly. Something about the motion felt ominous as hell. It was like those glacial blue eyes could suddenly see straight through me, all the way down to my traitorous vagina that was practically scribbling out fan mail at that very moment. “What’s your name?”
“Darcy McClain. Little ‘c’ then a big one.”
“I don’t need to know how to spell it,” he said.
I cleared my throat. “You haven’t answered me about the editing experience. I’m just curious what makes you think you’ll be more qualified than Jasmine to supervise all of us. Not to mention taking on two other jobs on top of that.”
If there were any buttholes that remained unclenched in the room, they surely didn’t survive that moment. Even the I.T. guy was breathing hard–then again, I was pretty sure he always did that.
“See me in my office after the meeting,” Dominic said. He turned his attention from me and opened his mouth to continue, but I just couldn’t help myself.
“Is that going to be Jasmine’s old office? Or are you going to build yourself a new one? It’d have to be pretty big to fit that head of yours.” I clenched my teeth.Too far, Darcy. Way too far.“I mean,” I stammered. “I just was thinking since you’ll be wearing three hats, you’d have a big head to fit them all. Not–”
“That’s enough,” Dominic snapped. “All of you, wait here. You, come with me.Now.”
Elizabeth put her hands together as if in prayer. I knew she definitely wasn’t on good terms with any deities, so I couldn’t count on that prayer saving my ass from the hole I’d dug with the new boss.
I stood and followed after Dominic, who was waiting with one big, stupidly sexy hand holding the door open for me. His eyes were blazing. I was about to walk past him as if my own butthole hadn’t joined the puckered club when he stopped me with a hard hand on my stomach. I looked down at it and considered slapping it away, but the feeling of his big hand practically swallowing my abdomen in its spread had me feeling like pure jelly.
“We’re going to talk,” he hissed in a low tone full of gravel that was low enough for me and me alone.
“Good,” I said, meeting his eyes. They were even more intense up close like this. “Because with your hand on me like that, I was starting to worry you had other ideas.”
I clapped a hand to my mouth, eyes widening.I didn’t just say that. Fuck!
His eyebrows drew together and he made a low sound in his throat, but I noticed his hand jerked away from my stomach like he’d been stung. He gestured and slammed the door behind us, marching me straight to Jasmine’s office, which was still scattered with the remnants of what she’d left behind. He slammedthatdoor behind me too, then locked it.
For some reason, the sight of him locking the door activated the horny teenager that lived deep inside me–okay, fine, you didn’t have to dig that deep to find her, more like get me seven minutes intoThe Notebook.I quivered and said a silent prayer of mourning for my favorite pair of pink panties that would forever bear the memory of this shameful, confusing ass day.