“Come on, cut out of here early,” Miller demanded, leaning on the edge of her desk. “It’s been a long ass week. I don’t think any of us have been able to leave this place for more than an hour or two at a time. I am suffocating on the testosterone. You must be too. Let’s head out, get some drinks, talk about girl things.” She paused there, looking off over Jules’ shoulder, brows drawn together. “What are girls things again? I vaguely remember things like nail polish and waxing horror stories.”
“I have a mountain of work to do,” Jules told her, waving a hand at the files that needed scanning, the loose leaf paper that needed transcribing.
“You always have a mountain of paperwork to do. Besides, it will still be there for you in the morning if you go out for a drink with me now.”
“Miller… I…”
She fumbled for the words, to explain the borderline compulsive need she had to prove herself, to deserve everything she had gotten, everything Quin had offered to her.
She’d been green as could be when she walked into the office and all but insisted on the job.
He had given it to her.
Then he had paid her handsomely.
So handsomely, in fact, that people had things to say about it. About how normal secretaries and personal assistants didn’t get paid half or even a third of what she was paid, about how there was no way she got the salary she got simply because she came in early and stayed late.
The implication had always been there.
You’re clearly sleeping with your boss.
It was insulting, obviously. Even if Quin was great looking and successful. She never would sleep her way to the top of anything.
She would never sleep around at work, period.
It never worked out.
And, without fail, if things went down in flames – as they invariably were sure to do – it was always the lowest man – or, let’s face it, woman – on the totem pole who paid for it, who found herself out on her ass for it, without a good reference, without a solid way to get another well-paying job.
She wouldn’t risk that.
Even the rumors of it.
Not for anything.
So she kept everyone at a distance.
She worked herself into exhaustion to feel like she’d earned every penny of her income.
Cutting out early was out of the question.
Even if she had been pulling nearly eighteen-hour days all week like everyone else.
Leaving things to be dealt with in the morning was inexcusable unless she was sick.
“I appreciate the offer, but I am going to catch up. I don’t want anything else to pile up on top of this mountain.”
“Fiiiine. Suit yourself, workaholic. I hear lack of fun ages you, though. Worry lines and all that.”
“I’ve invested in a good eye cream,” Jules informed her, smile pulling at her lips. “See, there was some girl talk.”
“I guess it will have to do. Maybe Lincoln will go with me. Even if I know he will ditch me for some short skirt at the bar.”
“Lincoln headed out already. I think only Kai is left.”
“Psh, I’d have better luck convincing a preacher to go out and get trashed with me. Alright. Solo date it is. But if I end up dead in a ditch because I had no one out with me, I expect you to feel guilty as hell.”
“It’s a deal,” Jules agreed, lips twitching as Miller made her way out the door, locking her back in.
An hour later, she was finally finishing up the transcriptions of the ridiculously bad handwriting of none other than Gunner, who she had a sneaking suspicion just wrote so badly to vex her.
She’d just lifted her head from where it had been tucked down near her chest to see her screen, feeling a blindingly sharp pain shoot from between her shoulder blades and up the back of her neck, making an audible hiss escape her as she automatically reached back toward it, trying to ease the scissor-sharp sensation that simply kept rolling instead of easing.
“Got a knot?” Kai’s voice asked, soft like it so often was, making her gaze shoot to where he was moving out of the hallway of offices, head dipped to the side as he approached.
“I think someone snuck up and stabbed me in the back,” she told him dramatically, smile a little wobbly even as he started to move behind her.
“May I?” he asked, pressing his fingers to her hand that was doing absolutely nothing.
Since her useless hands could do nothing and the pain was starting to make her wonder if maybe she should go and get a scan or something, she figured there was nothing to lose, and moved her hand away, curling both of them into each other on her lap as Kai’s hands came down on her shoulders, one staying as an anchor on the side not bothering her, the other searching, searching, intent on a destination she knew nothing about until he found it, making her whole body lurch, trying to get away from the pressure.