Page 132 of Stay With Me

It was her constant movement. Or more specifically, the fact that he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze off her calves, set on display by both a short, black skirt and tall, black heels while they flexed as she reached up to retrieve files off the shelf. Or her back, which was accentuated beautifully by a fitted, burgundy blouse and perfect posture. Or her hands, which she swept and skittered across the files, flipping through the endless stacks of papers, and gracefully tapping at the keys of her laptop, as if she was a refined pianist.

Maybe having her share his office wasn’t the best idea. He chose to put her in there with him in an effort to show her he had no desire to hide anything behind its closed door, but he began to wonder if maybe he should’ve simply left the door open, and given her the other office that was used mostly as a spare storeroom.

She’d yet to catch him watching her. That is, up until that morning.

“Ahem,” she cleared her throat, and his gaze darted from her calves to her face. She stood perfectly erect, facing his desk, clutching a tablet and a thick stack of paper against her chest.

He cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“Do you have a moment to chat?” She smirked. “Or are you busy?”

He gestured at the chair. “Please.”

“Thank you,” she said as she sat. “First order of business.”

She handed a spiral bound book to him. “Chapman’s official employee handbook. That is if you approve it. I e-mailed a copy to you, as well as saved it under the human resources folder that I added to the main file system.”

She glanced at him. “I don’t want to bombard you with a bunch of paperwork so I’ve been trying to automate things and create electronic copies of everything.”

He smiled. “Sounds good.”

“Anyway,” she went on, reaching across the desk, flipping the book open, and using one of those elegant fingers to skim down the table of contents. “There are six sections; introduction and philosophy, which details courtesy and customer relations, ethics and conduct, payroll hours and overtime, performance—”

She paused to squint, then turned her gaze to his face. “I can’t read upside down. Do you mind if I come over there?”

“Sure,” he said, rolling the chair to the side to make room for her.

After scooting a chair not too close to him, but close enough for him to feel slightly drunk on the scent of her hair, she continued.

“Performance appraisals, and finally, serving rules and disciplinary actions.” She glanced at him and chuckled. “That’s just the introduction. Have I lost you yet?”

His gaze seemed to hold hers, and her question suddenly seemed a bit out of context.

“No, never,” he uttered, causing a smile to tug at the corners of her mouth.

Her mouth.

That could be pretty distracting too.

She fanned her face slightly and cleared her throat again. “Section two, employee benefits and privileges, which includes holidays, vacation and absence policies, parking, and break times. Section three, image guidelines, which is basically grooming and uniforms. Section four, health and safety, which includes OSHA regulations, on the job injuries, and employee sickness. Section five, general rules and prohibited conduct, which includes, well, general behavior. Section six … uh…”

She paused to give him a pointed glance. “Sexual harassment. Which includes the obvious.”

He swallowed discreetly. “Right.”

She sat up in the chair and pushed it back around to the other side of the desk. “You’ll want to read through it. It mostly contains pretty standard guidelines and policies, as well as what I’ve gathered from snooping around here this week, but there may be specific items that you want to adjust or change.”

He flipped through the pages of the book, then looked at her face again. “This is excellent. Thank you, Samantha.”

She grinned at him. “Second order of business; Chase.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Chase?”

“Yes.”

His stomach did a small turn. “What about him? He hasn’t been bothering you has he?”

She shook her head. “Not at all. He’s a delight.”