More Than Hate You (More Than Words)

“The org charts don’t indicate there’s anyone else you can take this to. Well, unless you think the comptroller has balls.”

“Our comptroller is a woman, so she doesn’t.”

“I don’t mean that literally. You’re a woman, and you have balls.”

“You think so?” She sounds touched by my opinion.

“Hell yeah.” In fact, I’m hard-pressed to think of many women with as much moxie as Sloan. Nia comes to mind. Evan’s sisters, Harlow and Bethany, for sure. I admire them all.

On Sloan, drive and guts are sexy in a way that has nothing to do with physical beauty. I barely know what she looks like, but I’d absolutely take her to bed with a smile on my face.

“Thanks. That means a lot to me. Unfortunately, Anna doesn’t have metaphorical balls, either. So I don’t know what to do. Besides, she reports to Brenda Keller.”

Who would probably tell her not to talk. Sloan is in a bad spot, and I need to help her so she can help me. The key to understanding how to keep Reservoir from pitching to Wynam is to understand what the fuck is going on with the company financially.

Then inspiration strikes, mostly because I’ve used this tactic a time or two. “Have you tried approaching the VPs’ assistants? Not the directors or managers who report to them but their admins?”

“No, but that’s brilliant. I know Perez’s assistant, Carissa, is getting married, but her girl squad is out east in Kilgore, so she’s feeling alone and stressed in the big city. I could invite her for a girls’ night and see what she knows.”

“Exactly. The worst that can happen is you find out she’s clueless, but at least you’ll have had a good time and maybe made a connection.” At least that was always my philosophy when I used to schmooze girls in college for help with tests and term papers. We’d study together while hooking up, so they were happy to help me. When the project or class was over, we would be, too. None of them ever seemed butt-hurt, and I always did my best to leave them with a smile.

“I like it. If I strike out there, I’ll try someone else. Smith’s admin is his sister, so I don’t think I’ll get anywhere with her, but Roop’s is this guy named Ryan, who just moved to town.”

Instantly, I picture her with some handsy player, and I scowl. “You don’t have to compromise your ethics.”

“By doing what, sleeping with him?” She laughs. “First, I wouldn’t. Second, I’m pretty sure he’s gay. He keeps a Henry Cavill calendar in his office, tucked discreetly where no one walking by can see it, but it’s there.”

That makes me breathe a sigh of relief. Then I tell myself to stop being ridiculous. I shouldn’t care if this woman I’ve never even met spends her downtime getting horizontal with some guy.

But I do.

If Sloan didn’t work for Reservoir, and if I wasn’t the swaggering asshole-ish sidekick of Satan gainfully employed by their competitor…and deceiving her for purely business reasons, I think we’d get along. Hell, we have chemistry. I bet we’d have amazing sex.

Down that mental path leads nowhere helpful.

“You’re probably right about Ryan,” I tell her.

“Sadly, but at least he has good taste in men.”

“Does he?” I can’t resist poking fun. “You think Henry Cavill is hot?”

“Um…yeah. If you don’t, you’re blind.”

I snort. “I don’t think at all about whether a guy is hot.”

Sloan pauses. “But you think about whether a guy isn’t hot?”

“I have to. All those guys are my competition.”

“They are not. When I mentioned to Smith this morning that you and I had talked Friday night about the report, he told me that if I was flirting, I was barking up the wrong tree because you have a girlfriend. So you don’t have to worry about other guys anymore.”

Shit. I’d almost forgotten that I’m Jeremy.

“But I do. Aria and I split up.” I’m purposely vague because I don’t have the details, and I’m pretty sure Jeremy only told me the ugly truth because we’re buddies. So I change the subject. “But even if we hadn’t, every guy is potential competition. Our egos need to be fed, after all.”

“Oh, right. Of course…” She sighs. “And people wonder why I’m not attached. I always thought it was because I found beings with a penis to be needy, self-absorbed wastes of my time. But maybe I just don’t understand them as well as I should.”

I have to laugh. “Clearly, you don’t. I’ll school you after we solve your organizational problems.”