Page 47 of Christmas Candy

“I-I’m afraid you have. I’m getting married in two days to the man I love.” I finally met his eye. “I have no interest in you other than professionally speaking.”

He frowned and stepped closer. My gorge rose but I swallowed hard.

“That’s a shame. I suppose I’ll have to give the Frost case to Emilia.” He placed his finger under my chin. “Unless you’ll reconsider your position?”

My skin crawled. “No, I won’t. I’m not here to be your mistress or to fuck my way up the ladder.” Anger rose inside me and spilled into my words. “Don’t give me the assignment. I don’t want it with itsextra duties.” I was burning my bridge with this firm, possibly getting myself blackballed, but I would never agree to what he was suggesting.

Before I had a chance to back away, he kissed me. I shoved at his chest but he wrapped his arms around me, pressing me against him. He tried to stick his tongue in my mouth, but when I tried to bite him, he let me go.

“Jess?”

I whirled. Michael stood in the doorway behind me, an inscrutable look on his face.

Fuck.

“Michael. It’s not what it looks like.” This was bad. Why would I say the thing that the guilty party always says?

Michael strode into the room, his presence filling the room to bursting with what I realized was rage. Mr. Avery cleared his throat.

“Really? Because what it looks like to me is a dirty old man threatening a young female associate to try and get her to sleep with him. Sound accurate?” He held his hand out to me.

I ran to him and took it. He pulled me around behind him and placed a hand on my hip.

“That’s actually … Perfectly accurate.” I whispered as relief coursed through me. He squeezed my hip.

I stood on my tiptoes and peeked over Michael’s shoulder. His tattoos swirled out of the neckline of his shirt, the ink seemingly alive as his veins pumped double time underneath. He was like a furnace ready to blow.

“She has come onto me time and time again.” Mr. Avery’s voice quavered. “I was simply informing her that I wasn’t the sort of man to cheat on my wife with an associate. That’s all this was.”

“You’re going to lie about my girl to my face?” Michael dropped his hand from my hip and advanced on Mr. Avery.

Mr. Avery stumbled backwards and landed heavily on his couch. Michael kept walking until he loomed over the other man.

“Michael, don’t hurt him.” I had never seen him so angry, every muscle in his body drawn so tight he practically vibrated with malice.

He stopped and stretched his fingers before balling them into fists. Mr. Avery cowered beneath him.

“If you ever treat Jess like anything less than a lawyer deserving of respect, I’ll come back here. Understand? For that matter, if I hear you’ve treatedanyassociate the way you’ve treated my girl, I’ll be back.” He leaned down and stabbed his index finger in Mr. Avery’s face. “I asked you a question.”

“Y-yes, I understand.” Mr. Avery squeaked.

“Now, apologize to Jess.” Michael straightened and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I’ll wait.”

Mr. Avery glanced to me and then dropped his gaze to the floor. “I’m sorry, Jess.”

“Good. Jess won’t be working for you any more, but I expect a stellar recommendation letter. If I hear any different, I’ll give you three guesses of what will happen.” Michael bored into Mr. Avery with his eyes. “Go on, guess.”

“You’ll be back.” The quaver in his voice had turned into a shudder. I wondered if he might piss himself. Mr. Avery likely wasn’t used to large, tattooed, pierced men with fauxhawks threatening him over his dirty deeds.

“That’s right.” Michael slapped Mr. Avery on the shoulder. The man jumped and paled. “You’re a quick study,Mr. Avery.”

Michael turned back to me, not giving another glance to my ghostly white boss.

“Come on. Let’s get your stuff and get the hell out of here.” He took my hand. It was only then I realized I’d been shaking. Was it with anger or fear? I couldn’t tell.

He pulled me into the hallway and stopped. “Which way to your office?”

He’d never visited me at work before, no matter how many times I’d begged him to come see me. He was too worried the stuffy attorneys would judge his appearance and hold it against me. Why had he chanced it tonight?

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