The sexual tension in my office on that day was so thick, I swore I could smell sex in the air for hours after she left. I didn’t care what she said. I could see in her eyes, in every little move she made how turned on she was.
That spark of heat in her eyes, the flush on her cheeks, the way her lips parted ever so slightly. All those telltale signs played in my mind over and over again. I even caught her clenching her thighs together once or twice. Those delicious memories made their appearance in my fantasies more than once over the last few days.
Working with her, if she accepted the offer, was going to be a bitch. But damn was I going to enjoy getting to see those little reactions every day. Neither Neil nor my father needed to know about that part of why I wanted her as my secretary so bad I was willing to give her almost a whole week to think it over.
“Most women are motivated to get men like us into bed,” my father said flippantly. Neil and I exchanged a look, but we kept our mouths shut. There was absolutely no point in interrupting him when he parted with these archaic pearls of wisdom. We’d learned from experience to let him get it out so we could move on sooner.
“It doesn’t matter that she stood out head and shoulders above the rest as a secretary. Eventually, she’s going to want to get both her head and her shoulders beneath your desk with her mouth wrapped around your cock. Never let that happen if she’s a good one. If she’s not...” he shrugged.
“Damn,” I muttered under my breath, low enough that only Neil would be able to hear me. He nodded, turning away from my dad and me to regain his composure. “Thanks for the tip, Dad.”
He really did have foul things to say about people sometimes. Completely oblivious or simply ignoring the sarcasm in my voice, he tipped his hat at me. “No problem, son. Which one of the applicants was she? I was there that day during lunch, wasn’t I? Perhaps I’ll remember her.”
“Uh, dark hair. She was wearing a skirt and jacket.” I kept my description purposefully vague, not wanting him to be able to say anything foul about her in particular. Especially not if he was in one of his “women are only after one thing” moods.
The last thing I felt like was listening to his judgmental ass prattle on about her or women in general for that matter. Neil, however, added one key part of her description I’d avoided. “She was the one running away from Jer before lunch ended. Smart girl.”
“Oh, right,” my father nodded. “The fat, poor girl.”
“What?” I sputtered, dropping the open bottle of water I was holding on the grass. “You can’t say that.”
He looked up me, genuinely puzzled. “Why not? It’s true.”
“Firstly, because she’s not fat,” I started, feeling rage and some kind of drive to defend her building in my stomach. “She’s fucking gorgeous. And secondly, her financial status has nothing to do with us. Plus, there’s no way you could know.”
Red hot shame spread through my limbs when I recalled the words I’d said to her myself that day. Neil, having gone pale at my dad’s words, had the good sense to shut up. Finally. He must’ve realized why I kept my description of her so brief.
“One learns to tell these things from nothing more than a glance, Jeremiah,” my father said dismissively. “That girl was trying to look the part, but you simply can’t fake class or style.”
“Christ.” I ran my hand through my hair, gripping it at the nape of my neck. My father was a judgmental ass, I was the first to admit it, but this was beyond foul. “You can’t go around saying stuff like that about people. She looked perfectly presentable for her interview and had way more class than most of your friends’ socialite daughters.”
The problem was that dad’s wealth went to his head a long time ago, and now he didn’t have compassion for people who weren’t family or close family friends. The rest of the world was viewed from the ivory tower he locked himself in, which he thought gave him the right to say whatever the hell he wanted.
“As for her being fucking gorgeous,” he continued, completely ignoring my objections, “I suppose if one likes the bigger boned girls, she might be attractive. But gorgeous is pushing it. Fucking gorgeous? I taught you better than that, Jer.”
He taught me better than that? I shook my head incredulously, struggling to comprehend the pure bullshit he was spewing all over me. I felt like I needed a two-hour long shower. I was about to jump in again, but Neil shut me down with a barely perceptible shake of his head.
I hated to let my father’s comments stand, but Neil was right. Trying to defend her honor was only going to encourage him to keep saying horrible things about her. Swallowing that realization down stung more than the time Tanner and I accidentally crawled through nettles.
“Let’s agree to disagree, Dad.” I set up to take my turn and turned my back to him, studying the course with more scrutiny than was necessary. We resumed our game, but Neil was quiet, and I was distracted by thoughts of Stephanie.
I didn’t give a rat’s ass what my father or men like him had to say about her. She was fucking gorgeous. Stunning. Who, in their right minds, could want skin and bones when there were women with actual bodies out there?
As skilled a businessman as my father still was, that had to be it. He wasn’t in his right mind anymore. Not about this.