Chapter 4

The silence was deafening.

As Quinn sat opposite Mr. Rhett who was engorging in whatever document was in front of him, she wondered why it felt like he was ignoring her. It hadn’t been her fault that his mother had decided to invite her to their lunch date. In fact, she’d turned down the request as best as she could without risking unemployment. The woman had been more than persuasive.

Well, if he wasn’t going to say anything, she was.

“Thank you for lunch today. Your mother is really—”

“That will be Mrs. Rhett to you, Miss Faye.” He raised his head up to scowl at her. “I can assure you she’s like that most times. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it was anything special.”

Bewildered and a bit disconcerted, she nodded slowly. Had she said something wrong? She had just been trying to express her gratitude at being invited for lunch. She recognized the emotion she was feeling as anger. First, he’d harassed her and now he was being rude for no reason. It wasn’t like he would’ve let her off for a lunch break if the woman had not intervened so what was his problem? Instinctively, her mouth opened.

“You know, I don’t understand why you’re angry right now. Would you mind walking me through your thought process?”

“Excuse me?” If he’d recognized the subtle insult, she wasn’t sure. The look on his face was one of surprise.

“You’re excused, Sir.” She gave him a small smile. “Would you like me to repeat the question?”

He blinked, and then chuckled humorlessly. “Alright, Miss Faye. I think you’re under the misconstruction that—”

“No, no,” She cut him off. “I think you’re under the misconstruction that you can talk to me and act towards me however you like just because you are the boss.”

A bell went off in her head. Shut up. Shut the fuck up before you say something that will get you fired. But she was too far gone to listen.

“First, you touch me in a completely inappropriate manner which is really fucked up by the way because something tells me that you think I wanted you to and now you’re pissed because your mother invited me to lunch which you were never going to let me on? I fail to see the relation. Let’s not even talk about the fact that you’re rude and arrogant but I guess that’s understandable seeing as you’re rich and you’ve probably never had to work hard for anything in your entire life. What I don’t understand is why you take out your anger and frustration on your staff. The entire office placed bets to see how long I would last as your secretary and frankly, it’s alarming that the wager was two days. So please, Mr. Rhett,” She took a deep breath. “Walk me through your thought process.”

She was going to get fired. Fuck, he was going to fire her. Her brother always told her that the socket connecting her mouth to her brain had disconnected somewhere during her teenage years and she’d never believed him until now.

He was staring at her with wide eyes, and she began to regret flaring up. She should’ve kept her cool like she’d intended. But God, the man was infuriating.

“I admit I might’ve interpreted certain things wrongly and I wholeheartedly apologized.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I also admit that I can be a bit difficult sometimes.”

She raised a brow.

“Alright, maybe more than a bit.”

Quinn didn’t know when she chuckled, though she was acutely aware that when he let out a laugh, her heartbeat sped up.

“I will have to correct you though on your wrongful accusation of me not having to work for anything. I have been running this company for more than five years since my father died, with help from my mother of course. She’s a major shareholder in the company. The responsibilities are a bit of a chokehold so I may tend to lash out sometimes, but I assure you, I do not mean any harm.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” She responded dryly.

A side of his lips curved. “You’re not exactly a lamb either.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re opinionated, sharp-mouthed and you’re way too sexy for your own good.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to speak to me that way. It is highly unprofessional.” She leaned back in her seat, folding her arms across her chest.

His eyes darted to her chest and spent a few seconds staring until he met her eyes again. When she looked down to see what he’d been looking at, she saw that her folded arms had pushed her breasts firmly up against the plunging neckline of her dress, practically falling out.

“I swear I didn’t mean to look.” He licked his upper lip, his eyes dropping again.

Her cheeks burned and she slowly unfolded her arms, letting them rest on her laps. “This is really unprofessional.”

“I think we’ve established that.”

“Not really. You’re still staring at my breasts.”

He chuckled shamelessly, meeting her eyes. “What can I say? I am a man after all.”

The way he was staring at her made her hot and her thighs instinctively clenched together. While she may have been trying her best to sound professional, her pussy was working relentlessly to do the opposite. She’d never been able to control the damn thing. It was why she’d bought herself a pretty pink vibrator to shut it up whenever it started to whine. But she had a feeling that Mr. Rhett was going to do a whole lot more than make her pussy whine.

“What are you thinking about, Quinn?” He asked her huskily, leaning back on his big chair with his head angled low to one side and staring at her from hooded eyes.

“Nothing.” She shook her head. She couldn’t very well tell him how her pussy seemed to like him and how she hadn’t been able to think about anything else but how it would feel to sit on his face.

“I don’t believe you.”

“With all due respect, Sir,” She said. “That’s your problem.”

He smirked, pulling at the tie around his neck, loosening it. “You know, since you love using your mouth so much, I wonder what else you can do with it.”

She almost gasped. Quinn would not consider herself innocent. She knew enough to grant her quick access to hell, and she definitely understood what he’d meant.

“I don’t understand what you mean, Sir.” She murmured, too embarrassed to meet his eyes.

“You don’t? She heard his tongue click. “That’s a shame. Would you like to find out?”

She shook her head quickly, her cheeks burning hotter when she heard his laugh.

Then he was in front of her, half-sitting on the edge of his desk, hovering above her. “Look at me, Quinn.”

She didn’t move, didn’t say a word. He intimidated her, she realized. He made her feel small and weak and she didn’t like it. And she had the feeling that he knew it and he enjoyed it. She felt like a prey in one of those Nat Geo Wild channels her father used to watch when she was younger, trying to hide from a predator but failing miserably.

“Look at me, Quinn. I don’t like to repeat myself.”

She lifted her head slowly to stare up at him and his blue eyes held her to a spot.

“I find you attractive, Quinn. Really attractive.”

She stared at him. What was she supposed to say to that? Thanks? You too? He was her boss, for goodness sakes. She didn’t want problems, nor did she want to jeopardize her chances of keeping a real job and saving up some money. She certainly didn’t had no desire to end up like the woman she’d seen spread out on his desk that day like butter on a piece of bread. She still remembered the look on his face as he’d thrown her out.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to say things like that.” She let out weakly.

Hell, she found him attractive too. Save for his attitude, he was the splitting image of her Prince Charming, the one she’d dreamt about as a child. It didn’t mean she was about to run and jump into his arms because he was whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

“But I am. And I am the boss. Who’s going to fire me? Me?”

“Of course you think that makes you untouchable.”

“It makes me whatever I say it makes me. That’s why I’m the boss.”

“I know you’ve probably heard this a million times, but you have a very inflated sense of importance.”

His laughed echoed throughout the room and she realized that he actually did have a very high opinion of himself. The exact opposite of herself, who literally had no sense of importance.

“Doesn’t everyone?” He asked, crossing his legs.

“Not really. And even if it were so, you’re on a whole different level.”

He shrugged, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I have a proposal for you.”

Her heart sped up. She had a vague idea of how horrifying what he was about to propose would be, yet she knew hearing it out loud would be way worse.

“I’m not in the habit of beating around the bush, Quinn.” He bent his upper body downward, inching closer to her. “I want to fuck you. Hard.”

The words blew the breath away from her lungs. “What?”

“You’re looking at me like I have purple horns. You do know what that means , don’t you?” He raised a brow.

“Yeah, I think.” She almost whispered.

She tore her eyes away. This was the weirdest job she’d ever had. None of her previous bosses had look her in the eyes and asked her to fuck. What was worst, looking back at those blue eyes and pink plumb lips that seemed to beg her for attention, it didn’t seem half as bad as she thought it would.

“But…why?”

He shrugged. “Why does anyone do what they do? Because they want to.”

She definitely wanted to, if she said so herself. There were just a couple of things to consider.

“You’re thinking too hard. Just look at it as a business proposal where instead of money, we offer each other sexual services.”

“If only it were that easy.” She murmured under her breath.

“No strings attached.” He added, cocking his head to one side.

“Of course.” Quinn was perplexed. This was everything she was trying to avoid yet something she wanted. She imagined him pounding into her like he she’d seen him do to that other woman and her clit pulsed. It would be something to look forward to everything. Didn’t mean the entire idea wasn’t ridiculous.

“Mr. Rhett—”

“Call me Michael.”

“Michael,” She said. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want any problems with my job. A lot could go wrong.”

“Only if we allow it to.” He replied, abruptly standing straight and walking around the desk to his chair and plopping down into it. “Now, why would we do that?”

She had more to say but no idea how to say them. Michael Rhett was easy to get lost in. She looked into those eyes again and looked away, wondering why she wasn’t of the mind to reject his proposal. She was a slut, was why. A fucking shameless slut who had been harboring shameless thoughts about her boss.

“I would be the girl who’s fucking the boss. I would be the office slut. I would pro—”

“Jesus Christ, stop that.”

There was genuine concern on his face as he held out a hand to halt her.

“Who the hell says ‘office slut’ anymore?” He asked.

“Everyone.” She rolled her eyes at his confused expression.

“Listen, if it means that much to you, we’ll keep it a secret. I don’t care much for gossip myself.”

“Really?” She gave him a disbelieving look. “Could’ve really fooled me.”

He rolled his eyes. “I would even increase your sal—”

“No,” She stopped him. “It’s bad enough that I feel like a whore already, but I refuse to be paid for sex.”

He nodded, holding a hand up. “Fair enough.”

Quinn paused. At least it didn’t feel like she was being forced. She could reject this as easily as she could accept it. But the thought of Michael touching her skin and kissing her lips—both of them—was permanently stuck on her mind. Still, she refused to make any decision based on lust. This is a sure case of self-sabotage. Everything could go wrong.

But he had said things would only go wrong if they let it. It was just a lot to think about. Sleeping with her boss didn’t seem like a reasonable thing to do.

“What say you, Quinn?”

She dragged her gaze to his. “I’ll have to think about it.”

Not a yes, but not a no either.

“Alright.”

It was then that Quinn suddenly remembered that she had a date. Trish had hooked her up with one of her friends and made her agree to go out on one date with the dude. According to Trish, he was supposed to come pick her up by 4:35.

She glanced at her watch, 4:30. She’d closed for the day, though she was aware that she’d spent the last two hours in Michael’s office.

“I have to go,” she said. “There’s somewhere I have to be.”

He nodded with a raised brow. “Alright. I’ll be expecting an answer tomorrow.”

She hesitated, then nodded. “Sure.”

She made to leave when he called out her name.

“Quinn.”

She turned to face him. “Yeah?”

He stared at her with dark eyes that prickled at her skin. “I hope it’s a yes.”