Page 110 of By A Thread

I flipped to Section J.

“The employee will not pursue outside employment during the term of the contract.”

That sneaky motherfucker.

I had a brief but entertaining fantasy of taking these papers and shoving them up Charming’s ass, making sure he got paper cuts. But then I started thinking about his ass. Fortunately for all involved, the compensation section of the contract caught my eye and convinced me that my dignity could indeed be purchased.

I signed the papers, my hand gripping the pen so hard it cramped, and then forced a cheery smile as HR Lady gave me directions I didn’t need to my new personal hell. I already knew the way.

My first instinct was to go in blazing hot. But that would give him the satisfaction of knowing he got under my skin. If mystery bothered him so much, this son of a bitch—wait, no. His mother was a lovely human being. Thisalphaholewas going to suffer. I’d make sure of it.

Mr. Alphahole was not currently in residence.

But just looking through the open door into his domain had me feeling a little lightheaded. I guessed it was a combination of righteousness and lack of cheese.

I stood there, glaring at Greta’s empty desk for a long minute. I would be mere feet from the man I wanted to avoid for the rest of my life. All day, every day, for two months. One of us was bound to crack, and I really,reallydidn’t want it to be me.

“Admin Ally moving up in the world.” Linus appeared, slapping a stack of red-inked proofs against his palm.

I resisted the urge to grab Greta’s trash can and vomit into it.

“It appears so. I didn’t know Greta was planning a trip.”

He shrugged personal trainer-sculpted shoulders. “Sounds like it was a surprise anniversary trip,” he said.

“Some anniversary.”

“Are you all right?” He peered at me through his tortoiseshell glasses. “You look even pastier than usual.”

“Fine,” I croaked. “Everything is fine.”

And then it wasn’t. Because Dominic Russo was striding toward me in a goddamn vest with his shirt sleeves rolled up, looking like he owned half the world. I might need that trash can after all.

“Ally,” he said gruffly.

I just stared dumbly and cursed my lady parts for bursting into an angels’ chorus as they recalled Friday night in vivid detail. The feel of his fingers as they dug mercilessly into my hip. The sound he made, that long, drawn-out groan when he came. The warm, wet spread of his orgasm under me. The sandalwood scent of his body wash.

“Linus,” Dominic said, nodding at the man next to me.

Record scratch.

“Good morning?” I said. It came out like a question because Linus was looking back and forth between us as if there was an invisible tennis match going on. If tennis were played with a ball of loathing that was slapped by rackets of angst, then we were in the middle of Wimbledon.

“These are for you from on high,” Linus said, handing over the proofs.

Dominic dragged his evil, alpha, stupid, blue-eyed gaze away from me and glanced down at the papers.

“Much fewer red marks this time. Consider it a win,” Linus said.

Dominic nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Well, I’ll just let you two get back to… whatever hot mess this is,” Linus said before hurrying away.

We were back to staring at each other. The air between us vibrated with all the things we weren’t saying. I had so many conflicting feelings that I wondered if I could actually implode from it. Then I spent an obscene amount of time pondering how long it would take to clean imploded body parts out of the carpet.

It would probably be easier to just redo the entire floor, I guessed.

“Come inside, Ally,” Dom said, leading the way into his office.