Page 24 of Takeover

I slam my hands on his desk and lean down. He doesn’t so much as blink. It seems he’s doing his best to appear bored.

“Everything is about you, isn’t it?”

“Obviously not, Ms. Taylor, because I have no clue what this is about. Can you get to the point, please? I’m a busy man.”

I walk back to the couch and pull my phone out of my coat pocket, find the email, and walk back to his desk.

“What the hell is the meaning of this?”

He picks up my phone and takes his time reading the email.

“Alan - Taylor Three celebration. My paper on housing inequality got a revise and resubmit. This pretty much guarantees tenure. Woot woot. Vickie—”

I snatch the phone from him and quickly read the texts. As angry as I am in this moment, I can’t stop the smile on my face at Alan’s good news.

“You don’t look so scary now that you’re smiling,” he says. “You didn’t look that scary when you were scowling either.”

“Thisemail, Mr. Bradford. The one offering me the position of an analyst, which is basically an entry level position.”

“If you say so. I don’t run that department. Marketing is beneath my pay grade, Ms. Taylor.” He shrugs, drops his gaze, and starts to type something on his computer.

“That’s it?”

“What more do you want me to say? Please, see yourself out. Just go out the same way you came in.”

I cross my arms and wait for him to look up at me again, only he doesn’t. While he’s in the middle of typing something, I grab the keyboard, and since it’s cordless, I toss it across the room. It slams against the wall and crashes to the floor.

“Liar,” I hiss. “I bet this was your idea. You and your need to put me in my place. When did you do this? Is it after I told you no? You’ve never been told no before, have you? Especially by someone who looks like me. I should make a stink about this. You won’t have such good PR when I show the world how you treat women.”

This time he stands up and comes around the desk. I’m forced to look up at him, and even in my heels, I have to crane my neck to look into his devious eyes.

“Someone who looks like you? What word game are we playing today? Someone who looks petulant? Bratty?” He takes a step closer, and I hate myself for having to back up. His eyes roam my body, and he says, “Or like a child playing dress up? And don’t threaten me, Ms. Taylor. I promise you, I can handle some bad press. You, however, won’t survive the hell I will bring down on you.”

“You arrogant, smug, son of a—”

Before all the words leave my mouth, Hunter walks back into the office with a delicious smelling lunch. My stomach betrays me and growls loudly. He puts the lunch on the table and walks out without saying a word.

“You can see yourself out now, Ms. Taylor,” Ethan says again, dismissing me. He uncovers his food, and my stomach growls for the second time, but I don’t walk away. I step to his desk, put my hands on the surface, and lean down.

“I’ll see myself out when I’m damn good and ready to see myself out,” I hiss. “I knew those overtures of yours weren’t real. You thought you could play mind games with me, but you were wrong. I bet I have more education and experience than whoever runs that department, but because I’m a woman who didn’t bow down to your self-important ass, you decided you were going to knock me down a few pegs, is that right? Well, guess what? I never intended to come work for this company. Not even for a second, so you can shove it. This isn’t my only option, and you’re not the only one with connections.” I take my hands off his desk and straighten up. “Now, I’m ready to leave, Mr. Bradford.” I say his name with as much disdain as possible.

I spin on my heels and grab my coat and purse. I don’t bother to pick up the keyboard I tossed. Instead, I kick it across the room, and it crashes against the wall with a loud crack. Just as I reach the door, a large hand holds it shut. For one so tall and imposing, I didn’t hear him move.

“Anyone else would have been tossed on their ass the minute they stepped through these doors,” he hisses much too close to my ear. I roll my shoulders up to my ears to block the caress of his warm breath. And to keep my body from betraying me. “You have plenty to say about me, but can you handle hearing what I think about you, Ms. Taylor?” He mimics my disdain when he says my name.

I slowly turn around, jut out my chin and look him square in the eye. “I don’t care what you think about me, Ethan.”

“I told you I like the sound of my name on your lips.” He lowers his head and whispers those words so close that his lips brush my earlobes. A gasp escapes, and he takes a step closer, trapping me between the door and his body.

“Move so I can leave.” I can feel the tremor in my own voice. He’s too close. The last time he was this close was at Thanksgiving, and I’ve done everything I can to put that out of my mind.

“No,” he says.

I lift my hands to his chest and do my best to push him out of the way, but I’m met with a wall of muscle, and all I get is a condescending smile.

He reaches around me and locks the door, and the second I turn my back to him to unlock it and flee, he wraps one arm around my waist. He lifts me off the ground, walks me back to the couch, and tosses me on it like I’m a sack of dirty laundry.

“You think you can walk in here, create a scene, destroy my property, and just walk out? I don’t think so.” Defiant, I square my shoulders and start to stand, eager to make my escape. As if I weigh nothing, he puts an index finger on my shoulder and pushes me back down. If it were anyone else, I’d be scared, but Ethan Bradford makes me too angry to be afraid. “The minute I laid eyes on you, I knew you were a spoiled little brat. A daddy’s girl who bats her eyelashes and is handed everything she wants.”

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