Page 4 of Boss with Benefits

Jessica tapped her foot and drank her coffee until the elevator made it to her floor. Riding up without Brady doing his straight-man routine helped her stomach muscles unclench. She was able to relax for the first time that morning.

Until...

“He wants you in his office,” Mona said the second Jessica stepped off the elevator. Standing behind the pristine counter, their receptionist looked at her through cool blue eyes. “And he is in a mood this morning.”

Mona was tall, slender, and a former model. She only had the one expression: neutral. At first glance, you would think she was as perfect as her surroundings. But if you looked closer, you could see the cracks. There was a slight quiver in her voice whenever she spoke, and she had trouble looking people in the eyes if she had to have an actual conversation with them. The woman couldn’t type or handle clients beyond directing them inside. For some reason, Mona didn’t possess the confidence that usually accompanied her sort of cool beauty.

But Brady hadn’t hired her for her skills.

He insisted the first thing people see when getting off the elevator was beauty. That was why there were fresh flowers, an immaculate, clutter free zone, and a stunning model out front. The walls had a few of his best photographs nailed to themat eye-level. Brady paid an outside cleaning service to come in every night, but it never smelled like cleaning fluids, because he also paid for clean, crisp oxygen to be pumped in through the air vents. It was slightly perfumed, smelling like crisp, clean mountain air.

And he hadn’t consulted her on any of it.

“When isn’t he in a mood?” Jessica mumbled.

She stepped through the frosted glass doors into their general work area. A symmetrical arrangement of twelve desks, bustling with activity, occupied the room, neatly divided into two rows of six. Brady, a firm believer in collaboration, preferred to have the heart of his operation—creative and business—pulsating in a shared space. The dynamic team functioned as a well-oiled machine with Brady steering the ship from a spacious office on the right and her in a more intimate workspace on the left.

Brady thrust his office door open and stuck his head out, obviously waiting for her. “Where have you been? We have a problem and you’re taking a coffee break?”

She kept her lips compressed to keep from exposing their affair by telling him off. He knew darn well they had seen each other in the lobby. If he hadn’t been such a jerk in the elevator, she would have finished the ride up with him.

He had changed clothes in the meantime. The sight of him in his expensive custom-made suit had her nerves tingling with awareness. In her opinion, the majority of men looked better in casual wear, but Brady was a striking deviation from the norm. Cloaked in the deepest shade of black, the jacket pulled over his wide shoulders provided just enough space for his muscular arms to maneuver without testing the fabric’s resilience. The trousers accentuated his hips and flawless backside.

What was wrong with her? Before hooking up with Brady two weeks ago, she hadn’t had sex since Axl was conceived, andrarely gave it a thought. Now, thanks to him, it was all she could think about. Everything Brady did was hot. How had she not seen it before?

She fanned her face with a client folder she lifted off Katherine’s desk.

While she was busy noticing what Brady was wearing, the sixty-ish secretary was noticing Jessica’s familiar attire.

“Hey,” Katherine said as she peered over the top of her red-rimmed glasses at Jessica. “Isn’t that the same outfit you were wearing yesterday?”

Jessica felt the blood drain from her face.

The secretary’s desk was covered with framed pictures of her grandchildren, too many to count. She didn’t enjoy cooking or crocheting or playing bingo like other women her age. Her main hobby was collecting and sharing gossip. Jessica did not want to become the woman’s next headline.

“My fault,” Brady said from his doorway.

They both turned to him in confusion.

He shrugged. “I messed up some paperwork and asked Jessica to pull an all-nighter to fix it. The client is coming here this morning, and I have to have everything ready for him.” He gestured to Jessica. “When I got here at six, she was asleep at her desk. So I told her to go grab a coffee and wake up.”

Katherine’s eyes narrowed on his face as if she wasn’t buying what he was selling. “Why didn’t you tell her to go home to change? Maybe take a shower or a quick nap?”

His professional face returned in a flash with stoic resolve. “We have a client meeting this morning. Didn’t you hear that part?”

Jessica and Katherine exchanged amused glances.

“Office,” he said to her. “Now.Please.”

Jessica entered his lair with pursed lips. She didn’t say a word until he shut the door behind them. There was no need togive Katherine juicy gossip to spread around the office. As soon as the door clicked, his hands were on her. They slid around her waist, and he pulled her back against him, a tortured groan parting his lips.

His hot breath warmed her ear. “How am I supposed to work when all I can think about is you?”

At least she wasn’t the only one having trouble letting go.

She moved out of his reach and glared at him. “Keep it professional. Rule number three. Remember?”

He rolled his eyes. “Stop looking so damn sexy then.”

---