Bargaining with the Boss (Honeybrook Love, Inc. 2)

"Unfortunately."

Brooks laughed, and then fingered one of the flowers in her bouquet. "Who are these from? Husband number...how many did you have? Four?"

She grit her teeth and ignored the question. "Would you believe me if I told you they're from your brother? Sympathy for having to work with you?"

"Then he should have given them to Eliza." He turned that shockingly white grin on his new secretary, and she practically melted in front of him. Which was, in fact, the very worst thing that could have happened.

"Maybe he should have sent them to your last secretary. Nasty break-up, wasn't it? I saw page six the other week and—"

He waved her off, and for some reason she allowed him to silence her.

"That's in the past," he said. "She could never figure out the copier—"

"Or how to send an e-mail." Natalie added.

Brooks smiled, though now it had an edge of strain to it.

Gotcha.

"Be that as it may, I have every confidence in Eliza."

"Because your brother picked her out?" Natalie cocked an eyebrow.

"Because she comes from a lovely family with a lovely sister and I'm sure she'll do a lovely job." He made to leave, but then stopped in his tracks and turned again. "Oh, Eliza? Don't let Natalie poison you against me too much."

And just like that, he disappeared into his office.

Natalie pulled some papers from her drawer and slammed them onto her desk. What was it about Brooks Adams that filled her with so much...aggression?

Oh, that's right, it was the fact that he was impossible.

He made her job a million times harder just by virtue of his existence. Even if she'd tried to hire the secretaries herself, she knew she couldn't have done a better job than he did. That was, unless the w

oman was blind. And deaf. And possibly lacked all sense of smell.

She wanted to blame it on the girls, she really did, but she knew that even an MIT grad would have melted into a puddle of drooling goo around a guy like Brooks. Hell, if she hadn't already learned her lesson the hard way, she might have too.

He was exactly the kind of guy she used to go for. That thick head of dark hair, those icy, commanding blue eyes. And the way his jaw ticked before he shot her one of his mocking smiles?

If he were Christian Grey, every girl in Honeybrook would have lined up to try out his Red Room.

And what was worse, he knew it.

Even if he didn't use it to his advantage all the time, there was an air about him—like a celebrity who was too polite to mention their own fame, but still gave you a minute to collect yourself when you met them. Because, you know, you'd probably need to.

And that, of course was the most infuriating thing of all.

The secretaries and assistants all ate it up, even if it was pure pipe-cleaning fluid that would rot them from the inside out. They didn't care. They didn't think about all the pages of scandals he'd graced in the newspapers.

All they cared about was being with him.

Which, without exception, led to Natalie wiping up their entrails and finding the newest fodder for his lion's den.

She looked up to find Eliza still leaning on the corner of her desk, her mouth slightly ajar and her huge brown eyes unfocused, gazing in the direction of Brooks' office.

Perfect. Another lamb for the slaughter.

That was exactly what he wanted, no doubt. Eliza was pretty and perky and, according to Eliza’s sister Rachael, had a history of flitting around almost as scandalously as Brooks himself, but if Natalie had any control over this at all, she was going to make sure Eliza's heart wasn't the next one he'd beat against the rocks.