“I can think of worse things than being on your leash,” Elizabeth breathed.
There was a silent moment between all of us, then the group seemed to agree to pretend we hadn’t heard that. Elizabeth cleared her throat, then started slowly inching away, as if she might not be noticed if she moved slow enough.
Ignoring her, I looked up to Dominic and tried not to notice the two gorgeous giants at his side. I could handle a little conflict, but it was hard to focus when my freaking lady parts were screaming like tweens who just caught sight of Justin Bieber. “I’ll be happy to go to my desk and get to work,sir.”
His eyebrows came together and he took a step closer, devouring the space between us until I could almost feel his body through the thin sheet of air separating us. “Good.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Good.”
“Great,” he said.
“Fantastic.”
Marcus and Tristan exchanged a confused look.
“You’re going to have to move if you want me to get to work,” I noted, looking down to where his feet were practically boxing me in against the counter with the coffee machine.
“Then get to it,” he said, stepping aside. “And don’t make me discipline you again today.”
Elizabeth, who had been moving away from the group so slowly that she’d only managed to create a foot or two of separation by now, paused. I could see the look in her eye before she spoke and wished I could lunge and cover her mouth before she blurted whatever it was.
“Helpful hint,” Elizabeth said. “If you want to discipline Darcy, don’t spank her. I tried that at a sleepover once when we were kids and she moaned a little then got super weird. Pretty sure she liked it.”
I clenched my teeth so hard I thought one of them might pop free. If I was lucky, it’d strike Elizabeth right between the eyes and shut her up for good. I bulged my eyes at her. I was going to kill her.
“Noted,” Dominic said, eying me in a way that made me feel naked and exposed.
I decided the best course of action was escape. I turned on my heel and rushed back to my desk, shaking my head. Elizabeth embarrassing me was mortifying, but par for the course. The part I didn’t understand wasme.Since when was I such a sassy mouthed trouble-maker? When I was around Dominic it was like my mouth just started running on its own and all I could do was sit there and watch the disaster unfold, piece of burning debris by piece. I mean, sure, I could be a pain in the ass in the right circumstances. But I was usually a champion of the people. A defender of the common good. I was practically Mother Teresa with a much less impressive resume. So why was I so far up my boss’ butt?
When I reached my desk, Stinky Steve’s entire workstation had already been dragged halfway to its destination. Steve was standing in the corner glaring daggers at Mr. Lockwood.
Unfortunately, his cloud of odor hadn’t fully faded, so I gagged a little, tried not to pay attention to it, and opened my email.
Just then, a new message appeared in my box from Dominic Lockwood. The subject line simply read “URGENT”.
I turned and saw he had his phone out and was staring right at me.
Cheeks reddening, I opened the message and read.
The zipperon the back of your skirt is down.
A joltof embarrassment and shock ran through me. Even though he’d been an ass about my clothes yesterday, I didn’t want to give him an excuse to fire me. This morning, I’d put on a knee-length skirt that I didn’t think I’d worn since a job interview right after college. It had a zipper in the back, and I could’ve sworn I’d zipped it, but when I reached back I felt it was definitely about halfway down. I tried to discreetly feel around for how much of my underwear was showing and reddened further when I felt the telltale “V” at the top of my thong against my bare skin in the exposed patch.
I pictured Dominic staring at my red thong and wondered if it was a turn on to him or if he just thought I was a total walking disaster–or maybe both. I zipped up the skirt and looked back toward him, but he was in conversation with his two friends.
I sighed and let my face fall in my hands. Part of me wanted to just give up now. I could quit and everyone would be happy. My dad would probably buy a freaking cake for me if I ever leftThe Squawker. My mom would support me because she’d think it was what I wanted. My friends would understand. Jasmine would understand more than anyone, and she’d probably be able to help me get my footing in a new career.
But damn it, I didn’twantto quit.
I didn’t want to let this man chase me out ofmyjob. This was my magazine. I’d spent two years here working for this. Why should he get to show up and chase me off just because he was a stuck up prick?
Worse, this asshole had already played a major part of fucking up my life once. I owed it to him to atleastbe a pain in his ass. So I shook out my frustration, pulled up my task list, and reminded myself of the plan.
I was going to be an absolute badass. I was going to dominate every assignment. I was going to make him stay up late at night trying and failing to think of any possible reason to fire me, because I was going to be his best employee. Maybe it was a small form of payback, but it was what I had.
I stiffened when a big figure passed my desk and left a wave of amazing scent in its wake. It was Dominic, of course. He was walking up to the window of his office and peering in. The cute guy in overalls had moved inside the office and was doing something loud in there.
I was watching Dominic from the back when he turned and caught me looking. I expected him to glare, but there was something else in his expression. He looked almost…frustrated.He peeled his eyes from mine and stormed back through the office toward the elevator with anger radiating from every step.