Possessive Boss

“Darin,” she says, meeting my eye.

I nod a little. “He’s the recruiter.”

“Right.” She hesitates. “Look, I should…” She trails off.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“We kissed the other night,” she blurts out.

I laugh a little. “Yeah, we did. I liked it.”

She blushes. “I liked it too.”

I lean toward her. “So what? You want to come around this desk and kiss me again?”

“Yes,” she says. “I mean, I do, but you shouldn’t.”

“Why not?” I raise an eyebrow. “Let me guess. There’s a boyfriend.”

She leans back. “What? No, of course not. You think I’d cheat on a boyfriend?”

I shrug a little. “I don’t know. I don’t think you’d cheat on a man like me… but you can’t help yourself with me, can you?”

She rolls her eyes. “God, you’re the worst. You’re making me rethink this.”

“Rethink what?”

“Look, all weekend I’ve been… I’ve been thinking, okay? I’ve been thinking about what I’m doing here.”

“I assume you’re here to be a junior trader.”

“No,” she says, meeting my eyes. “No, I’m not.”

“Okay,” I say, smiling. “I’ll play this game. What are you doing here? Were you sent to seduce me?”

She winces. “No. I mean, yes. In a way.”

“Now I’m lost.”

“Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “I want to come clean because I like you.”

“I like you too,” I say. “I want more of you. But I’m not sure I like where this is going.”

“You don’t. I mean, you’re not going to.” She looks away again. “Can you promise that you won’t hate me after I tell you this?”

“I can promise you that I’ll listen and try to take you at your word,” I say slowly, feeling my body tense. “But I can’t promise anything else.”

“That’s fair. That’s… yeah, that’s fair.” She closes her eyes and breathes. “I really didn’t want to tell you. But I think I have to. I think you’re going to want to help.”

“Valerie. Tell me. Stop delaying.”

She opens her eyes. “I work for the SEC.”

I stare at her, bewildered. “The Securities and Exchange Commission? You’re a fed?”

She winces again. “Yes. I’m… a fed, I guess.”

“What the hell is going on here?”

“We’ve been… no, they’ve been investigating your partner, Darin Ficino, for years He has ties with organized crime and—”

“What the fuck?” I lean back in my chair, staring at her. She’s practically trembling. I can tell she’s upset and this is hard for her, but my head’s reeling. “Organized crime? Like the fucking mob?”

She nods. “You mentioned the mob the other night. Those men you had a meeting with…”

I gape. “I was fucking joking around.” I shake my head and push back from my desk. “This is insane. This is illegal. How can the SEC send someone into my company?”

“They’ve been trying for years. I’m the first one you hired. I didn’t even want to do this, it wasn’t why they hired me originally, but then they sprang it on me and said I’d be perfect for the job and…” She trails off. I can see the emotion clear in her face.

This hurts her. This really hurts her.

But it hurts me too.

“Why are they investigating Darin?” I ask. I have to try and separate her from the feds if I want to have any chance of tasting her again.

“He has ties to organized crime. His family… they work for the mafia. One of the mafias, at least, one of the families. It’s how his father made all their money. And we believe Ficino has been using FLFM to launder money for years.”

“Jesus fucking shit.” I stare at her for a long moment. Neither of us speak. She’s so pretty, so fucking gorgeous, and that kiss comes back to me. The way she tasted, the way she fell into it… “Was any of it real?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says. “All of it was real. That’s… why I’m telling you. You weren’t supposed to find out about me until I had time to investigate, but I’m telling you because it was real. I didn’t mean for this to happen, it just… happened.”

I rub my eyes and loosen my tie. I take a remote from my top desk drawer and hit a button.

Blinds slowly roll down my windows. The door locks. We’re separated from the rest of the office.

Val looks over her shoulder then back to me. I can see the fear in her eyes.

“So you’re saying that you didn’t mean for this to happen,” I say, standing. “You didn’t mean to come into my company intent on investigating my partner… my friend? You didn’t mean to seduce me?”

“Jacob,” she says, eyes wide. “I didn’t mean to seduce you. I wasn’t supposed to get involved. It just… it happened.”

“It did happen.” I walk around the desk toward her. I stare down at her, heart racing, body trembling with both anger and fear. “So what do we do now?”