“I did not hear that. Do you understand?”
“Yes, okay, yes. I fucking understand. So are you firing me or what?”
The question and her spark of fire stuns me. No one has ever answered me back the way she has before. Why the hell do I like it? “Why would you think I’m going to fire you?”
“Ah okay, so you’re just always going to be this much of an asshole all the time.”
Her eyes go wide and she slaps a hand over her mouth. It is hard not to laugh, very damn hard.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just—I didn’t get much sleep. I am sorry. I’ll um...go pack and just—”
“Sit down.”
She hesitates but does not move.
“Sit. Down.”
Crossing her arms protectively across her chest, she complies.
“I have never proclaimed to be nice, kind, or any other myriad of soft traits. I am demanding. I am impatient. I am blunt. I want what I want and I want it now. If those things make me an asshole, so be it. I will not apologize for who I am.
“If you have a problem with working for me then you are free to leave at any time. I am not terminating your employment. After reviewing your acquisition proposals and seeing how you work today, you are far too valuable to my company to end your employment.”
When I ran the numbers I could hardly believe it: the proposals she submitted have made me over two hundred and sixty million dollars in the last three years. None of my other acquisition managers come close to her performance. She could name her price and I would pay double. I am not above chaining her to a damn desk rather than losing her. “I have plans for you. The decision, of course, is yours.”
“You have plans for me?” It is clear she is unsure how she feels about my statement.
“Yes.”
Her throat works. Such smooth, soft skin; the desire to mark it with my teeth explodes.
Shaking my head does not help to clear it. “However, if you want to know what they are, you have to stay.”
Fighting back a groan, I cannot take my eyes off the way she is torturing her bottom lip with her teeth. Longing to suck on that bottom lip, to taste her mouth, has me flexing my hands to keep from reaching for her.
Green eyes sparkle up at me. “I would hate to disrupt your plans. And there is still the matter of the mortgage to pay off.”
Is she teasing me? A ghost of a smile plays on her pouting, swollen lips. Fuck, she is teasing me.
“When would you share your plans with me?”
I rip my eyes off her to focus on getting my traitorous body under control. “When I think you are ready. After I have found a replacement for Rebecca, giving you the freedom to focus on those plans. What is the balance remaining on your mortgage?”
She hesitates, then sighs. “Eighty thousand on the principal, but the interest rate is ridiculous. If he had taken less money the rate would have been lower. Abuelo was grasping at straws. There was experimental treatment available for Abuela’s cancer that the insurance didn’t cover.”
There is defiance in her shoulders, daring me to judge her grandfather for what he did.
“When I took over paying on the loan, I increased it to double the regular monthly payment. It’s helped. It would have been at least another nine years.”
“Once you have it paid off, will you put in your two weeks’ notice and disappear on me?”
Her eyes fall from mine. It is all the answer I need. She will be out the door like a shot.
“Or is there an inducement enough for you to stay?”
A blush runs all the way down her neck; her breasts sway with her deep breath and the erotic dreams from last night rush straight back to my cock.
Her chin comes up. “Money is not the be all and end all. I don’t want to spend ten hours a day in the office. I don’t want to take work home. I want to come in and do my job and go home.”