“Hannah, you will be supervising Justin,” my father continued. “He will be your personal assistant, your secretary, and most of all, he will be in charge of all basic administrative tasks. He’s never had a job before, and I trust that you will manage him with grace and respect.”
Hannah’s mouth opened slightly but she nodded her head. “Yes, sir,” Hannah said. “I will.”
“Well then,” my father said. “You two get going. I’m going out for lunch.”
With our jaws hanging slack, Hannah and I watched as my father grabbed a blazer from the back of his chair, picked up a pair of sunglasses, and waltzed out of the room, whistling jauntily under his breath.
As soon as we were alone, I turned to Hannah and sneered.
“I don’t know what you’re planning,” I told her nastily. “But I’m not going to listen to you.”
Hannah raised her eyebrows. “I haven’t even told you anything yet,” she said. “Is working for me really going to be that bad?”
I eyed her unkempt appearance, her messy hair, her bright green innocent eyes. She must be a virgin, I thought. There’s no way an experienced woman would be standing there gawking like that.
“Well?” Hannah cocked her head to the side. “Is it?”
“Yes,” I said sarcastically. “It’s going to be more fun than shooting myself in the foot.”
Hannah
I couldn’t believe it. The most gorgeous man I’d ever seen in real life was now going to be my employee.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
After William left his office, I felt a wave of nervousness wash over me. Justin was staring at me with his lips twisted in a cruel smirk. His dark brown hair tumbled carelessly over his brown, and his sapphire-blue eyes were glowing with a visceral hatred.
“Well, come with me,” I managed to say. “I’ll get you set up behind my desk.”
“Well, come with me,” Justin repeated in a high mimicry of my voice. “God, you’re pathetic.”
I glared at him. “Excuse me,” I said snippily. “But this is my first job – not to mention, my first time managing someone. You’re going to have to cut me a little slack.”
Justin breezed past me. His hand sliced through the air and landed on my ass with a loud smack. Crying out, I leapt into the air and my cheeks burned bright red with embarrassment.
“Sure, honey,” Justin said with a smirk. “I’ll cut you all the slack you want. Sound good?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever,” I mumbled. Internally, I was screaming. But I knew I was going to have to find a way to make this work – with or without Justin’s cooperation.
The rest of the day was awful. I couldn’t believe my bad luck. I’d been so excited to start at Creovation all weekend, but now, working with Justin was turning my dream job into a real nightmare.
Every time I turned around, Justin was smirking or leering or making a face. I felt invaded and ignored all at once – like he was scorning me, but also purposefully letting me know that he really didn’t give a fuck about how I interacted with him.
It was enough to drive me crazy.
At the end of the day, I felt like I hadn’t accomplished very much. I’d set out to write two five-hundred-word blog posts, and I’d asked Justin to go through the files in the filing cabinet and make sure all of the receipts matched up with the expense reports. He’d sulked about it, but when I’d threatened to call William, Justin had snatched the paperwork out of my hand.
It was enough to make me want to break out in hives, just so I’d have an excuse to stay home.
“You can go,” I said wearily. “It’s after five.”
Justin leapt up from his makeshift desk – a card table with an executive chair borrowed from the conference room – and grinned. He blew me a kiss, then walked over to my desk. Every time I was nearer than five feet to Justin, I couldn’t concentrate. He radiated sex like a male model, and I felt like a blushing schoolgirl every time his sapphire eyes flicked over my body.
“Any plans?” Justin asked suggestively. He leaned over my desk until he was inches away from my face. Suddenly, I clamped my lips shut, worried that the tuna sandwich I’d eaten for lunch was still clinging to my tastebuds.
I shook my head.
Justin’s lips curled into a smirk. “Cat got your tongue, Hannah?”