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“Son of a bitch,” I muttered, reluctantly amused by my reaction.

She was a hot piece of tail. There was no denying that. But she couldn’t have made it more obvious she hated me. And she was an employee. Usually, either of those would be the end of it for me. Why bother wasting time on disinterested women, beautiful or not, when so many others were clearly willing? Why risk pursuing an employee who clearly didn’t want me?

But that glint in her eye as she all but dared me to fire her on the spot?

Standing up for her friend, furious over her family…hell, other than my sister and maybe my mother, I couldn’t imagine getting worked up like that over anybody.

Or anyone being that way about me.

I picked up my phone and called Drew. “You got a minute?”

“Can it wait? Gotta finish up a zoom call.”

“Yeah, just come over after.” I hung up and tried to concentrate on work, but it was nearly impossible.

After a couple minutes, I gave up even trying and opened the company directory on my computer, pulling up her profile. She looked like a consummate professional, with just the right amount of make-up and the perfectly appropriate shade of lipstick. No amount of bland color, however, would stop me from envisioning those flawless Cupid’s bow lips wrapped around my cock. My balls started feeling heavy, and I groaned, tearing my attention from her picture to read the bio and try to glean what precious little I could from it. There wasn’t much, although there was a link to her Facebook page, so I clicked on it.

It was the typical shit of a New York City editor, the sort of profile I’d expect from an employee. Only things I wassupposedto see. Instead of being satisfied that she wasn’t doing anything that could embarrass the company, I was irritated because nothing told me anything real about her.

Frustrated, I closed the page just as Drew knocked and then entered, not waiting for a response.

He caught sight of my face and frowned. “Don’t tell me you fired another one of our outstanding employees.”

“Shut up,” I snapped.

He settled in his usual chair and hooked an ankle over his knee. “If this is about the Danbridge book, I’m not stepping in to help. You fired Ms. Griffin. You fix the mess.”

“It’s not.” I picked up a pen and tapped it against the surface of my desk. “What do you know about Jessica Ellis?”

“Other than the fact that she’s friends with Jami Griffin?” Drew cocked an eyebrow.

“That’s irrelevant.” I couldn’t keep from snarling this time, which seemed to amuse my friend.

His smile widened, and he linked his hands over his stomach. “Anamaria mentioned that Ms. Ellis came here earlier today. Want to tell me why?”

My irritation grew, and I told him why she’d come. He started laughing.

“I’m so glad this amuses you,” I said dryly as I stood and crossed to the minibar before realizing that it wasn’t even ten o’clock.

“Well, you’re clearly intrigued by her, and she all but told you to kiss her excellent ass.”

He grinned when I glared at him for that last comment.

He shrugged. “I’ve got eyes, man.”

“What do you know about her?” I grabbed a bottle of water and paced while I drank it, wishing it was something much stronger.

“Well, she’s got her finger on the pulse of the book world.” Drew settled into business mode. “She’s had excellent suggestions for book launches and revamped how we do promo, incorporating book bloggers and TikTok in a way none of us ever thought to do.”

“I figured she was good at her job. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been hired.” Returning to my chair, I pressed, “Do you have anything else?”

He raised his eyebrow again in that annoying way of his. “What do you want to know?”

“Whatever you can find out.”

“Okay.” He looked even more amused as he stood. “I’ll get right on her—I mean, right on finding out more about her.”

I didn’t like how he kept making sexual comments about her, but I let it go. He was only doing it to piss me off. Besides, I had other, more interesting things on my mind.