up with her.
‘I’m sure you could handle anything, Mr…?’
Maybe flattery would get her somewhere? She’d try anything to stop him gobbling her up with his eyes.
In response, he closed the door with a resounding thud and she wished the lid on her fertile imagination could be closed as convincingly. Languid warmth stole through her body as she watched him cross the room. He didn’t walk, his long legs stalked. Funny, considering she’d imagined them encased in blue Lycra and flying rather than walking.
So much for shutting down her imagination; it was still working a treat.
‘As much as I’m enjoying our witty repartee, let’s get down to business. Where do you think we should start?’
You can start by unbuttoning my jacket, unzipping my skirt and getting downright dirty.
By the amused look on his face as he sat behind the desk she had a horrifying feeling she’d spoken aloud. It was just like one of those dreams where she walked naked into a roomful of men and they all stared at her. Yeah, this guy had the same look on his face, though rather than making her feel uncomfortable it turned her on.
While she wrestled with her hormones he just sat there and waited for her to speak, looking like God’s gift to women. He hadn’t answered her question about his identity, so she took his perverse game to the next level.
‘Tell me about your boss.’
There. She’d thrown down the gauntlet. No boss would tolerate a prospective employee trying to get a job by such underhanded tactics. Surely he would divulge his identity now and cut to the chase?
‘He can be a tyrant—demanding, cranky, uncompromising. He lives for his work and expects nothing less from his employees.’ He pronounced it like the company’s mission statement.
A test. This bizarre charade had to be some sort of test. If so, she would beat him at his own game and then some.
‘Sounds like a real charmer,’ she muttered. ‘By the way, what’s with the secrecy act? What’s your name?’
He leaned forward, creating an immediate intimacy. ‘Are names important?’
Her traitorous heart beat a staccato rhythm; she didn’t know where he was heading with all this and she really wanted to tell him to shove it, but she needed this job. Desperately. Didn’t mean she had to kowtow to him.
‘You’re very confident.’
‘It’s an integral part of my job,’ he said, his gaze twinkling with enjoyment at their sparring, at odds with the steepled fingers resting on his chest, as if he knew something she didn’t but held all the power.
She admired his boldness, the way he challenged her with his eyes even if she didn’t have a clue what he expected from her or why he was playing some warped game only he knew the rules of.
‘As is fraternising with staff.’
Fraternising? What the hell did that mean? If he thought she’d sleep with him to get this job, he could think again.
‘I doubt the boss would approve of his employees fraternising,’ she said, swallowing to ease her tight throat.
If this job weren’t so important she would’ve gladly told Superman what he could do with his fraternising.
‘What about with the boss himself?’
His stare trapped her and she knew exactly how the Penguin felt, though it only took her a second to realise she’d mixed up her analogies. Wasn’t that Batman? Personally, she’d always been a Superman type of girl and this guy wasn’t letting her forget it.
‘Jade, I asked you a question.’
He leaned forward and once again that muscular chest strained against the confines of his shirt, threatening to burst out all over the place. She stifled a sigh, thinking it had been ages since she’d seen any seam-ripping action. Like never.
‘A pointless question. I’m here to work, not fraternise. Besides, arrogant men can be tiresome and Mr Cartwright sounds like he’s right up there with the best of them. He’ll be my boss and I’ll respect him, but that’s about as far as it goes.’ There, perhaps her holier-than-thou speech might get a reaction out of him?
To her amazement he laughed, a rich, vibrant sound that sent appreciative thrills down her spine and all her good intentions to ignore him scuttling for cover.
‘I like a woman with strong opinions. You’re hired.’
‘Pardon?’
He leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head, overconfident, overbearing, overwhelming.
‘You heard me. Welcome to the firm.’
Jade tried to ignore her heart’s erratic reaction as his cocky grin widened. Okay, Superman was her new boss. So what if he knocked the socks off her? She just had to remind her clothes not to follow suit.
Annoyed at her physical reaction, she sat straighter. She should be ecstatic she’d got the job, though a small part of her felt cheated. She’d expected a proper interview, a chance to impress with her enthusiasm, not some odd cat-and-mouse game.
‘You certainly have an interesting interview technique. Where did you pick it up? Bosses-R-Us?’
He ignored her barb, though his smirk said it all. ‘Call me Rhys. We’re fairly informal around here.’
His confident tone rankled as much as his smug expression.
‘Does that informality extend to harassing prospective employees?’
He frowned, sat forward and placed both hands on the desk, asserting his power.
‘What I put you through was a test. Unconventional, I know, even unfair, but I’m the boss and what I say goes.’
She shook her head, resisting the urge to stab a pen through his hand. ‘I’m not some crash-test dummy you can experiment with.’
He raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. ‘No, I guess not.’
An awkward silence lingered before she blurted, ‘Look, I’m really keen to start. Do you want to ask me any questions? Check out my credentials?’
She could’ve bitten her tongue as his gaze briefly flicked over her, checking out credentials of a different kind.
For a brief moment she wanted to get the hell out of here, job or not. But she couldn’t. The memory of the last confrontation with her parents, the truth of Julian’s treachery, hadn’t waned. If anything, the truth about her family, her fiancé, motivated her to stick this out, whatever warped game her new boss was playing.
After another lengthy pause, he nodded, curt, dismissive, as he gestured to her résumé sitting on top of the desk.
‘You’ve ticked all the boxes—sense of adventure, love of nature,
