It’s official. I’m fired.
A wave of embarrassment and shame washes over me like a tidal wave, consuming me. What the hell did I do? The one time I’m frazzled and I send a career-ending come-on to my freaking boss.
“Oh, god,” I mutter, looking to Mr. Knight’s office doors. Maybe he hasn’t seen the email. He doesn’t always read his inbox right away. If I could distract him just long enough, I might be able to delete it off his computer when he isn’t looking.
It’s a stretch, but I have to try. I mentally prepare like it’sMission Impossible. Maybe if I pretend I have no idea what he’s talking about, he won’t say anything. God, this is a nightmare.
“Don’t panic, Kiera. Panicking will only make it worse.”
When I open the doors, he looks up from his computer. His stare zeroes in on me, unblinking, dissecting. Burning.
Shit, he’s already read the email. Kill me now.
My stomach plummets to my toes. A long moment of silence stretches between us. What should I say? WhatcanI? I want to crawl into a dark hole and never come out.
“T-that email wasn’t meant for you,” I stammer. “I’m so terribly sorry, sir. It was unprofessional and inappropriate.”
One thing I have learned in the corporate world is the value of a poker face. I don’t have one. Jonathan could clearly teach the master class.
“It was just a joke. A bad one,” I babble as he stands and regards me with more of his unwavering stare. “If there’s anything I can do or say to keep my job, I’ll—”
“I’ll do it.”
Chapter Three
Jonathan
After I remind Kiera to send me the meeting minutes, I march back into my office and shut the door, shaking my head. I’m not actually in a rush for the report. I just wanted to steal another glance. I can’t seem to play it cool when I’m around her.
Goddamn it. I could have made small talk and acted like this is any other Monday. But no. I stared like an idiot who doesn’t know the first thing about women.
“You can charm the pants off most any female—literally. But you can’t talk to this one? Jesus, J…” I criticize under my breath.
I plop back in my chair and tell myself to focus on business. Maybe getting some work done will take my mind off her.
As I launch my email, my inbox appears. Predictably, it’s full of messages. Business is growing fast. It’s everything I wanted since deciding to walk out of my father’s shadow and cofound KH Industries. I need to keep my eye on the prize.
Instead, I ignore the slew of emails and move my cursor to the newest from Kiera, despite the fact it’s probably just the meeting minutes. I’ll skim them and file them. If she asks why they were critical…I’ll make something up.
Before I click on the message, I notice the subject line:A Dirty AF Proposition.
Weird, I’ve never thought of meeting minutes as a proposition, let alone a dirty one. I chuckle. Is she trying to be cheeky or something?
But when I open the email and read it, I almost don’t believe the words on my screen. It takes a lot to shock me, yet Kiera Young has managed to do that in a single paragraph. Surely, I read that wrong…
But the second time through, the words don’t change.
Kiera is joking, right? She must be. As her boss, I obviously can’t accept. But as a man? I’m intrigued by her proposal.And so fucking tempted. It’s hard not to imagine all the blissfully filthy things I could do to her in a night. But her email starts withDear [guy I have selected]. Why? Her request is deeply personal, but her approach isn’t. It doesn’t make sense.
“Why wouldn’t she use my name?” I wonder aloud.
Unless this message wasn’t meant for me. If that’s true, was she planning to send it to another guy? Has she already sent it? That possibility makes me want to crush whoever her first choice was to a pulp.
Honestly, why in the hell would she send this to anyone? As beautiful as she is, there’s no way her dating life sucks this bad.
Still, I feel as if I’ve learned more about my brunette bombshell of an assistant in the last few minutes than I have in the few weeks since I hired her. My curiosity about her is growing as fast as my list of questions—and the inches behind my zipper.
What changed her mind about romance? What has her so discouraged? What the hell is going on?