certainly didn’t encourage it. People got skipped over for promotions when they didn’t adhere to the unwritten codes of protocol. The last thing Latonya needed to do was to give Carlton Harrington III another reason not to like her.
“Hey, boss, you came to join us?” Jeff queried, breaking the ice.
“No, that’s all right. Thanks for the invitation. I’m meeting some people here and I would hate to interrupt your cozy situation.” Carlton gave Latonya a pointed stare as he emphasized the word cozy.
What does he mean by that? What was he implying about her with those snide comments and veiled looks? She mentally counted to ten in an effort not to blast the man where he stood. How dare he!
“Well maybe next time, boss.” Juan smiled, clearly trying to diffuse the growing tension.
“Yes, maybe. Oh, and Stevens, I’ll need you to come into the office tomorrow and work with me on the Biltmore project.” Carlton’s voice sent a shiver through her in spite of the hot Miami air.
She tried to keep her tone even and polite, but she was fighting a losing battle. “It’s not my project. It’s Jeff’s,” she spat before she could catch herself.
“It’s yours now. I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early.” He nodded briefly to everyone in the booth before walking away to meet his party.
Latonya didn’t waste her time being shocked. The man’s obnoxious attitude and complete disregard for her was par for the course. If he were not rude to her then she would have been surprised.
Even though she’d come to expect Carlton’s attitude and his treatment of her had become the running joke of the department, it didn’t take away the sting. The way things appeared the younger Harrington had it in for her. She would’ve quit, but Latonya really needed her job.
Her colleagues were hell-bent on consoling her. Instead, she insisted she was okay, put on her brightest smile and let them know that she had to leave and get some rest so that she was ready for whatever Carlton Harrington III felt like dishing out in the morning.
Chapter 2
Sitting across from Carlton in the department’s conference room, Latonya found herself sweating even with the air-conditioning on full blast. Once again, she cursed her intense reaction to a man who, for all intents and purposes, thought of her as a walking, talking idiot.
So far, she’d done a halfway decent job maintaining her composure while they were in the room together. She even managed to get a lot of work done. Every once in a while she would literally feel herself getting hotter and look up to find Carlton staring at her. His perplexed expression would always turn into a glare when she caught him. She tried not to wonder about what her workdays would be like if he could stand the sight of her or if he brushed those soft thick lips across her own.
Snap out of it, Latonya silently chastised as she shook her head to clear out the visions of kissing Carlton. Getting up from her seat and picking up her laptop, she walked over to where he sat on the other side of the conference room. As she walked toward him, she wondered why he sat so far away.
“I think I found the problem here.” She pushed his laptop aside along with a stack of papers and placed her computer in front of him. Leaning over Carlton, she pointed at the spreadsheet she’d created.
She waited for him to respond, but he just sat there still and silent. He almost seemed to be holding his breath.
Latonya was tempted to check herself for body odor. She knew she’d perspired a little due to her nervousness, but she didn’t think that she stunk or anything.
Taking a deep breath, she continued, “See, there are just some small inconsistencies where someone mistakenly put in the wrong averages. It looks like they actually doubled March and skipped April. Probably just a typing error. That’s why—”
She stopped talking when Carlton hurriedly pushed away from the table and jumped out of his seat. He backed away from the table and her with such speed she swore he was running for his life.
“That’s fine. I have some things to take care of in my office. Continue to fix those errors.” He jetted out the door before she could say another word.
Latonya lifted her arm and sniffed just to be sure before picking up her laptop and going back to her seat. With each second that passed, she became more resentful.
She glanced at her watch with irritation. It was five in the evening on a Saturday and she had been in the office since seven-thirty that morning. If she didn’t need the job so badly she would have told him exactly where he could go. She didn’t expect high praise or kudos, but she felt that he could have at least managed not to bark and grunt at her. Then he had the nerve to run from the room as if she had the cooties just because she stood by him! If she didn’t already have a thick skin, she would no doubt have one by the time he was done with her.
Brushing her hair back from her face, she wished that she had pinned it up in the French twist that she normally wore to work. She’d worn it down in a silent form of rebellion, along with wearing her navy slacks and a white short-sleeve shirt that she normally would have worn under her business suit. She’d been tempted to come in jeans and a T-shirt but thought that might have been going a little too far. If the ogre wanted her to come in on a Saturday, she would at least come in her casual clothing. Letting her hair down might not have been the equivalent of burning her bra, and maybe she wouldn’t be compared to Norma Rae, but seeing him dressed in his usual perfectly styled business suit, she felt like she’d bucked the system in a small way.
Carlton came back and threw another stack of papers in front of her without saying a word. That simple act was her breaking point. Turning off her laptop, she shut it and placed the machine in its case before picking up her purse and briefcase.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Home.”
“We’re not done here.”
“I’m done. I’ll see you on Monday, Mr. Harrington,” she said as professionally as she could manage.
“We’re not done, Ms. Stevens.” His hard-edged voice matched his glare.
She couldn’t take it anymore. “What is your problem? What do you have against me? What have I done to offend you? Can you please tell me that? Because I need to decide if it’s worth it for me to remain in this department.”
“Do you think you can transfer?” His tone took on a mocking edge.
“I think you leave me no choice.”
His gaze narrowed and his lips took on a slight smirk. “I’ll block it. If you can’t withstand a little hard work, then maybe you’re not cut out to be an employee of Harrington Enterprise.”
“I don’t believe this! I have a stellar record. I always give my best and you do nothing but insult me with your little snipes and condescension.”
He walked over to her. Invading any semblance of personal space, he was close enough for her to smell his cologne, and what a cologne it was. The mixture of musk and pine along with the force of his manliness nearly took her breath away.
“Get back to work, Latonya.
