Page 21 of Defensive Hero
A boss and a subordinate who have kissed. We’ve done more than just kiss, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is my boss only. He hasn’t put a label on us, and now, I can’t help but wonder if that will change.
Do I sit still and wait for him to make our status clear, or do I ask him straightaway? I gnaw my lip, questioning if that will make me appear needy to the man. Either way, I still need to bring him his coffee. I knock on his door and wait a few seconds like I normally do before pushing open the door to walk in.
Wilson’s head seems to be buried in work, eyes shifting between the file in his hand and the computer screen. I walk over and place his coffee and the dessert box on his table. “Annie said you might like this buttercream cake.”
He nods but doesn’t look up. I don’t take his inattention to heart. I have come to learn that the man is like this when he is focused on something, so I figure I might as well leave him to it. I turn around to leave but stop before I open the door.
Wilson really looks busy and I know it’s because of an upcoming criminal case but… I have questions. Concerns that will eat at me all day if I don’t talk to anyone about it and well, he is truly the only person I can talk to about… well, us.
“Wilson,” I whisper and his eyes shoot to mine. This is the first time I have called him by his first name and I can tell I have his full attention. I don’t backtrack though. This man is the boss but he is also my lover and right now, I need to talk to the latter.
“What is it?”
I wring my fingers together. “Do you know there is a bet going on in town? On how long I will last as your assistant.”
He nods. “My brother bet a hundred dollars that you would last seven days before I make you leave Valor Springs in tears.”
I stare blankly at him. Did he just say his brother bet on me leaving? “Doesn’t it bother you?”
“That people are stupid enough to lose their money on something so ridiculous? No.”
“Well, it bothers me.” And I realize for the first time that it actually really does. How the hell can I work when everyone is already counting down the days until I am gone? I worked so darn hard to become a legal assistant and moved to this town with the intent to work hard and make a life for myself here only to learn that people are betting on my livelihood. On my life!
Even more upsetting is the fact it doesn’t bother Wilson to know people have no faith in him as a boss. Sure, he can be grumpy at times, but he sets realistic expectations. Still, everyone sees him as this devil who cannot get along with anyone. And I see that he believes that as well.
“It shouldn’t bother you,” Wilson says, and when I look up at him, it’s to find his eyes watching me intensely. The file he was reading earlier has been shut and pushed to the side. I have his full attention. “When you live in a town as small as this one with a population of less than five thousand people, life tends to be boring. They are always looking for things to excite them.”
“Well, I don’t appreciate being the ‘thing’ that excites them.”
His lips twitch in his non-smile, and he pushes back his leather seat so there is a space between him and his desk. “Come here.”
It doesn’t occur to me to defy his order.
Heck, I don’t even give it a second to think about it before my limbs are moving on their own and walking toward the man. He grabs my hand when I get close and pulls me onto his lap. I feel the hard press of his erection on my ass when I straddle his hips. I bite back a whimper when he runs his hand up and down my waist. “You worry too much,” he says.
“I just… I don’t see this monster everyone else sees in you.”
“You don’t?” he asks, his voice teasing. “Not even last night when I bent you nearly in half and fucked you until you were a trembling mess in your bed?”
My cheeks flush, but it doesn’t escape my notice that he’s changing the subject. Does it really not bother him that everyone thinks him to be the devil?
“Wilson…”
“It doesn’t bother me,” he says, reading the question in my eyes. “The people at this firm and in this town are not wrong in thinking me a difficult man to be around.”
“But—”
“You see a different man because I have a soft spot for you, Sandy,” he tells me, his hand dropping from my waist to my ass. “I can’t bring myself to get mad at you even when you make mistakes in your reports. Your eager-to-please attitude and the smiles you flash me make it impossible for me to approach you the way I do others.”
My heart trembles at his words, and I am struck mute. When he puts it like that…
“I still don’t believe you are the devil everyone else paints you to be.”
“I much rather prefer it when they do.”
I can tell he is done talking with the way his eyes darken with heat, and when he leans down for a kiss, I am all too eager to feel his lips pressed on mine.
Chapter Eight