Page 13 of No Small Sin

“You’re so funny. Well. I guess I’ll see you later then. I have a new employee to train this week. She’s so cute. I’m really looking forward to getting to know her.”

My steps faltered and I looked back at her. She blinked up at me almost as if there was really a single coherent thought behind those dopey eyes of hers — almost as if she knew I cared.

Did I?

“Looking forward to getting to know herhow?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “As coworkers, duh. Friends,” she hesitated before throwing in at the end, “we’ll see what else.”

The number of times and ways I’d imagined ending this squeaky little noisemaker was countless.

Many people lack self-awareness, but not to the extent that Andrea does.

To the extent that she thinks she’s chummy with a man who’d rather slit her throat simply to watch her bleed out rather than endure hearing the next word fall from her overfilled lips.

“And you mean what exactly by ‘what else’?” My already mounting annoyance spiked immensely at the thought of Andrea pursuing TK in any way outside of showing her how to do her job here and moving the fuck on.

“She’s fucking hot. Have you seen her?”

“You’re straight? You’ve slept with every single man on the payroll here.”

“First of all, I’m bi. Second of all, no I haven’t. I haven’t slept with you. Or Ijah.”

“That’s two people.”

She rolled her eyes.

I stepped toward her, considering how I might stab her in the neck with the ballpoint ink pen peeking out of the top of her breast pocket. The thought made my fingers twitch, but I tamped down the urge.

Before I could say what I intended on saying, she opened her mouth again.

And what came out confirmed everything I’d ever thought or felt about this exceedingly irritating girl.

“You have seen her, haven’t you? I know how we could remedy both our problems. Two birds with one stone or some shit,” She paused and batted her fake eyelashes up at me. “We could totally share her.”

The only problem I would be remedying would be Andrea or anyone else thinking that I would ever share anything that belonged to me.

I grabbed her wrist and yanked her into me roughly, close enough to scare her but not so close that our bodies would have any actual contact. “Yeah. I’ve seen her. More importantly, she’s seen me. And if you so much as even think of her as anything aside from a person you are working alongside, I’ll fucking rip your spine out your throat.”

I thrust her away from me, hoping that was that, but of course, it wasn’t because this was Andrea and Andrea didn’t know the definition of a fucking boundary.

She stumbled and quickly righted herself before drawling, “Kinky.”

I ran my hand over my face, steeling myself because, for some obscure reason, Ijah was adamant that she had to stay — both in the land of the living and employed by LC.

I was pretty certain she knew this too, or else she wouldn’t constantly push my buttons. She was an idiot sandwich, yeah. But she wasn’t stupid enough to be completely oblivious as to what goes on behind closed LC doors.

“I’m not even remotely fucking kidding, Andrea.”

“Beck. Do you have a crush on the new girl?” I eyed the ink pen again. It was a BIC. Cheap. I wasn’t sure if the flimsy plastic would hold up against an attempt at perforating neck flesh, but I was willing to find out.

“I don’t get crushes.” I really didn’t, but I wasn’t so sure that was still true at this point. Was someone like me even capable of that?

Regardless, I felt something for TK.

And I wasn’t about to let the likes of this little girl get in the way of it.

“You do have a crush. This is so exciting.” She clapped her hands together like a fucking toddler.

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