In the bathroom, I kept a watchful ear on the sounds coming from the other room while I whipped on some mascara and eyeliner. A peek out, and I found her happily chasing O’s around the plastic tray of her high chair before I dipped back into the bathroom to spin my hair up into a loose bun.
It was my default setting lately. I missed the days of being able to style my hair.
Thirty minutes later, I said goodbye at her daycare with a kiss and a promise to see her later. She waved and gave me that sweet, happy smile I loved seeing every day.
Thirty minutes after that, I was getting off the elevator and turning right. Then I was turning around and going left.
All the calm of my morning routine was knocked out of me by that one twist of my foot on the carpet. With each step, my anger at the situation increased.
It was completely absurd. There was no way Carthwright should have been able to do what he did, and I would have hoped if it hadn’t been for the Worthington takeover, Matt would have told him to go pound sand.
Then I remembered I was talking about Matt. Great guy, but men like Carthwright ate men like Matt Rolland for lunch.
My boss was a fantastic manager and great with the entire department, but he was a marketing guy. Carthwright was like James—a shark.
When I entered the area outside of his office, I received a few glances of pity from the nearby cubes. The door to his office was open and I blew out a calming breath, calling on all the positive energy I could draw in.
I would not slap him today.
Nor would I punch him.
Or kick.
Or lick.
Or fuc—
Roe! I yelled at myself.
My visions of kicking the shit out of him morphed into other ways to expel the energy buzzing below the surface every time he was close to me. I knew I was flawed—that I wasn’t the type of woman that men sought out for the long haul. I didn’t expect Thane to treat me any differently. Realistically I wasn’t even remotely interested in a relationship—but sex with Thane? That thought had merit.
“You left early yesterday. I wasn’t sure I’d see you today,” he said from behind me.
I gave a small start before turning toward him and rolling my eyes. “Do you really think you’re so scary that I’d quit? Because trust me, the whole stuck-up, cocky, asshole routine just makes me want to bite back.”
His lip quirked. “I’ll keep that under advisement. Now tell me why you left early.”
“Because I leave at four thirty every day.”
“From today on, you stay until five.”
“That’s nice if you think so,” I scoffed. “But it won’t change the fact that I will be gone at four thirty.” I held up my hand to stop his rebuttal. “It’s in my contract. Eight to four thirty with a half-hour lunch break. Trying to change that or going to Matt will only result in wasted time and energy.”
The way his eyes narrowed at me lit up every nerve. I liked telling him he couldn’t do something. It excited me to see how he’d react.
“What makes you so special?” he asked. The twitch in his jaw confirmed his annoyance.
“That’s between me and HR.”
He blew out a breath, knowing there was no way past that. My situation was cleared through Matt, and Human Resources agreed.
I wasn’t the only one who had to pick up a child from daycare, but my arrangement held some restrictions. Due to my sudden thrust into parenthood, finding an affordable daycare on short notice was difficult. We were on the waitlist for some others, but low on the list. Thanks to the area I lived in, I was competing against people who out-earned me, pushing them to the top of the list.
Stacia ran a small daycare, just a few kids, but there were restrictions, the biggest being all children had to be picked up no later than five thirty. While it was nice that she was only a few blocks from home, that meant she was half an hour from work. I tried to leave at my normal five and get there on time, but after the first week of arriving late, once as late as six, I knew I needed to alter my work schedule.
Thankfully, I worked for a company that was willing to facilitate. Hopefully it wouldn’t be needed for too much longer, but as long as I got my forty in at the office, all was good. I often spent another ten at home throughout the week.
“I sent you a file. I need fifty copies, all stapled. But before you do that, I need coffee. Black, splash of cream. Remember it. Every day when you arrive, you will get me one.”
I wanted to retort with the fact that he was perfectly capable of getting his own damn coffee but bit my tongue. It would only be a shitty start to the day.
Instead, when I entered the break room, I saw the remainder of the day before’s leftover pot sitting on the back burner. I poured some of it into a cup, topped it with some from the freshly made pot, slipped in a cream packet, and set it on his desk with a fake smile.
“Thane Carthwright’s office,” I said an hour later into the stupid headset I was wearing.
Most of my job was between me and the computer and my coworkers. Never did I ever want to be an assistant or even consider being one. I wasn’t made to be subservient in that way.
“Roe, what are you doing?” a voice called, pulling me from my dual task of working Carthwright’s schedule and organizing instructions on one of my latent projects so that I could pass it off.
I glared up at the Donovan Trading and Investment king, James Donovan, himself. “I’m being punished by the devil.”
“The devil?” His brown eyes widened and he quirked his blond brow. James Donovan was definitely a contender with Carthwright for hottest person in the office. Strong jaw, calculating gaze, and he always looked like he walked out of a fashion catalog.
Unfortunately for me, James lost points because he was a friend, and Carthwright gained points because he was so dangerously sexy.
It shocked me that Carthwright hadn’t cleared his master plan with James first. His surprise alone led me to believe he wouldn’t have approved. I could work with that.
“Roe!” Carthwright called out, and my head jerked and I pushed my jaw forward.
I snapped my head toward the opening to his office. “What do you want?”
“You really want to use that tone with me?” he asked.
“Yes,” I shot back.
“Should I come by later?” James asked as he looked from me to the open door.
I leaned forward, my eyes locked on his. “Get him to release me from this hell, and I will watch Bailey and Oliver all weekend long so you and Lizzie can have a sex-filled vacation with no interruptions.”
I could see the gears working in his head as he thought about my offer. I knew how to manipulate the man.
Why didn’t I think of it yesterday?
James walked through my door after spending more time talking to Roe than I liked. She’d probably been bad-mouthing me, but I’d been working for James longer than she had.
He shut the door and closed the distance between us. “I’ve just been made a lucrative offer, so tell me why she should stay here, waiting on you?” he said as he sat in one of the armchairs across from my desk.
Lucrative? What the hell did that mean?
Honestly, I was surprised he seemed to even care.
“Because the temp agency sends over crap assistants, and there are still two months until Crystal returns.”