My Boss’s Secret by Taryn Quinn

Eleven

I wouldn’t sayI crept off the elevator at Shaw, Shaw, and Shaw, LLC on Monday morning approximately twenty-two minutes before my scheduled work time, but—okay, yes, I would.

And I did.

I freaking hugged the damn elevator wall and peered around the corner, looking both ways before I stepped out. Then peered again in both directions.

Twice.

A little much? Yes. Probably. No, definitely. Even if Preston’s best friend had decided to visit him in the office—which he certainly never had before, or I would have met him—I didn’t have to fear his presence like I would the bogeyman.

I hoped.

To be fair, I didn’t know how he reacted when he was angry. My gut feeling was that he would be explosive. It only stood to reason, since he was that way at…other times.

Hello, inner prude. I missed you last week. You really didn’t have to return though. It’s not you, it’s me.

Maybe he wasn’t angry. Maybe he’d shrugged off my absence.

Fling, right? Stuff happened.

Even if he had spent a small fortune on me, including that large wrapped object I hadn’t gotten to see and really wished I had.

No one had ever bought me such expensive gifts. Especially not a man.

One who probably either hated my very memory or moved on without a backward glance. There didn’t seem to be any in-between in my head.

“April? You’re back.” Dexter Shaw, Preston’s younger brother, emerged from the hallway that led to the conference room and hive of offices. “Baby, you told me you’d text, and what did you send me? Absolutely nothing. Not even a digital postcard or some eye candy of you in your bikini.” He waggled his brows.

The steel stick up my spine—and possibly up my posterior too—softened enough for me to smile. Only Dex could get me to relax so fast. He wasn’t hard on the eyes either, but the sexual chemistry between us ranked about minus one hundred. He was like a slightly older, pain-in-the-ass brother, not a potential screw buddy.

Not to mention, he was indirectly my boss. I could never contemplate contaminating the sanctity of my calm workplace with sexual relations with my employer.

My job was my oasis in the center of a chaotic world. Before getting the job with Preston, I’d worked at the law firm of a sweet elderly couple. They were in the first slate of interviews I’d had after completing my Associate’s degree, and I’d stayed with them for almost five years until Mr. Seville passed on. His wife lost the will to practice law after his death, and it had been hard for me to search for another position because they were all I’d ever known.

A go-getter, I was not.

Ry and Lu had pushed me to spread my wings and to lose the guilt that I was abandoning Mrs. Seville, even though she’d made the choice not to continue working. We stayed in touch even now, and she’d helped me find the position with Preston. Her glowing recommendation had been what had set me apart when it came to nailing this job.

It had helped that Preston and I had similar work ethics. We both put work above all else, including meals most days—Preston even more so than me. His clients came before everything.

I frowned. My boss was always here before me. Here before Dex. Here before the cardinal that always greeted me with a song as I hurried in each day.

Yet his glass-walled office was dark.

Dex hadn’t let my silence deter him from talking. Nothing ever did. I cut him off mid-sentence and blurted, “Where’s Preston?”

He reached up and stroked his clean-shaven jaw. “Did you hear a word I said?”

“No,” I admitted, moving to my desk outside Preston’s office and placing my purse in the bottom drawer as I always did. “Sorry, I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

Dex eased a hip on the edge of my desk and flicked open the button on his suit jacket. Beneath it, he wore a Marvel Universe graphic T-shirt. Only Dex. Must not have any court appearances today. “You literally just got back from vacation. How can your mind be cluttered with anything but sun, sand, and se—fun?” He grinned at my arched brow. “Almost forgot who I was talking to for a minute.”

“I do have…things like that.”

“Good to know. It’s healthy.”

I made a noncommittal noise in my throat. “Trust you to think so, since you’re the healthiest guy in this building then.”

He laughed. “Oh, I have a feeling my brother might be threatening my record there. Way to go on that score, by the way. If you had to go on vacation on short notice, you certainly thought ahead on how to soften the blow.”

I reached for my locket. I’d left it home on purpose while I traveled to Fiji, not wanting to bring my security blanket with me on my wild vacation. “You mean giving Ryan the heads up on bribing him with coffee?”

His laughter turned sly. “Oh, she bribed him with something, and it didn’t come in a cup. Well, two cups, maybe.”

When my frown grew, he sobered. “You really did not hear a word I said.”

“No.” I dropped into my chair with a thud, certain I would not like what was coming one bit. “Tell me. Please. Don’t draw it out.”

“It’s not as bad as that face you’re making. Actually, some think it’s pretty damn awesome, me included. My brother’s never been this happy. But you’re not happy at all.” He gripped my chin and tilted it upward. “You have a sunburn too. Fair Irish beauty.”

“Yeah, I didn’t have sunscreen—”

At that moment, several things happened at once. The elevator stopped and the doors slid open as slowly as they would in a box office smash. Unnaturally slowly. So slowly that I had an instant to take in every nuance of my boss in just his shirtsleeves with his arms around a woman who’d pressed herself against him as if she feared being blown away in an unexpected windstorm—and had decided to anchor herself to him with her lips.

That woman was my best friend Ryan, amazingly gorgeous hussy that she was.

Apparently having just realized they’d arrived on their floor—of their office building, not Adult World’s private cinema level—they detangled their lips long enough to step off and notice they had an audience.

Me, staring at them as if my worst nightmare had just embodied a physical shape, and Dex, who was still cupping my jaw while he gave his brother a thumbs-up for scoring the winning touchdown in the sex championship.

I was fairly certain that had happened a time or seventeen in the week I’d been gone.

Just a week.

My bestie was looking at me apologetically and mouthing words that could’ve been “I’m sorry” but read to me like “I stabbed you in the back, oopsie!”

If that wasn’t enough, I noted through my shock that my heretofore nearly chaste boss was looking between his brother and I as if he’d caught us screwing on the floor under my desk.

Part of me wished I was there right now, but that part of me was not my lady trampoline.

“Guess I didn’t need to fill you in with the deets, anyway, huh, April? I didn’t have a clue we’d have a porno reenactment right in the reception area. But then again, Dad said he practically caught them in the buff in the records room, so who’s surprised? Not I. Cleanup in aisle three, if you know what I mean.” Dex finally turned his grin my way and belatedly seemed to realize a bomb had gone off in the center of my world. And my best friend was directly responsible.

Not entirely responsible. It took two. But before a week ago, my boss had been as repressed as I am.

As I was. Oh, God, vacations were the actual devil.

“Hey, you all right?” Dex’s voice dropped as he reached up to clasp my shoulder in what I assumed was a gesture of support. Or solidarity in the face of so much sex. I didn’t know, but Preston certainly grasped an intent behind the gesture I did not.

“You are not doing this shit with my assistant. I don’t care what you’ve obviously done in the past. Nor does what’s going on with me give you any right to bring your wickedness out into the open.”

I gasped. “What are you insinuating, you—you office fornicator?”

Ryan’s lips twitched, but she wisely crossed her arms and remained silent.

Preston, however, was too fixated on his sibling to care about my protests.

“And if you think my good mood precludes you from having to hide your illicit activities, I haven’t had that much sex, Dexter Benedict Shaw.”

Dexter didn’t have a chance to respond before Ryan resoundingly punched Preston in the arm. “Watch it, pal, because you can have even less.”

Instantly, my previously sexless employer reached out to stroke Ryan’s long dark hair in a way that was only appropriate in an office setting on Boss Me, Daddy on Pay-Per-View. Did Pay-Per-View even still exist? I didn’t know. “A metaphor, Miss Moon. Just a metaphor.”

“Miss Moon? Is that some roleplay thing you guys do?” Dex circled his finger before tucking his tongue in his cheek and glancing at me over his shoulder. “Maybe the next time I flip up your skirt, I’ll call you Miss Finley.”

“Dexter,” Preston barked, finally removing the hand that I was practically certain had immediately detoured to my best friend’s ass. And she was not complaining one bit. “My office.”

“You’re not the boss of me.” But Dex’s singsong response didn’t stop him from easing off my desk. He strolled toward Preston’s office before he gave me a cheeky wink. “We’ll chat more about this later. Thanks for wearing a dress, though. You know how much I love seeing your—”

“Dexter.” Preston’s jaw ticked as he strode toward his door. “Now.”

Dex just grinned at me and followed his brother into his office, The door slammed hard enough to rattle the pretty vase I usually filled with fresh flowers.

It was empty now. Like my cold, barren heart.

Ryan examined her manicure. “So, wanna take bets which one blows his stack first? I’m going to say it’ll be Dexter. Because he’s actually had plenty of sex, thank you very much.”

My bestie’s deep, husky voice was usually one of my favorites on this planet. Right now, she might as well have been Freddy Krueger using all ten knives to carve his name into the chalkboard in my skull. “Dex’s had plenty of sex?”

“Well, I can’t verify for certain there, but probably. I meant PMS.”

“PMS?”

She laughed as if this was all fun and games, and hey, too bad that my entire life was now dangling off a cliff. “Oh, sorry, forgot you never heard me call him that. Preston. You know, for Preston Michael—”

“Shaw. Yeah, I get it. How funny. Har-de-har-har.” I jerked to my feet and pointed at my face. “See me laughing? Don’t I look like I’m having a grand time?”

“No, you do not.” She frowned. “What’s up, Ape?”

“You took advantage of a situation I invited you into, then you defiled the records room that I spend half my time in?” I shook my head. “I mean, seriously, Ry? Could you be any more filthy?”

Ryan looked momentarily taken aback, but it didn’t take her long to recover. No, my best friend happened to not only be drop-dead beautiful, she was also whip-smart along with being the hussiest hussy who had ever hussied. “I have to assume you’re exaggerating. If you spend so much time in there, maybe get off your phone and, I don’t know, organize it properly, maybe? Those files are a wreck.”

My head snapped back as if I’d been physically struck. “How dare you.”

“Oh, I dare. I dare so hard.” Ryan marched forward and slapped her hands on my desk, knocking back my blotter. Which had a big tea stain—no coffee for clean living Moon—on one corner of the green felt.

I did not even want to know how or why she’d spilled her drink. Nope. Did not.

If that wasn’t enough, there was a hunk of shimmering rock beside my notes cube, one more sign she’d just moved in and taken over my spot as if she owned it.

Temporary assistant, my burned buns.

I grabbed the blue crystal and thrust it up between us, getting right in her face. “And this. This. You couldn’t just pretend to be a normal, semi-competent assistant for one freaking week to help out your best friend?”

A flash of pure pain crossed through Ryan’s blue gaze. “You don’t sound very much like my best friend right now.”

Immediately, I wished I could snatch the words back. All my words. I didn’t want to hurt her. She was my family. Deep down, I knew I was being ridiculous. She hadn’t planned for any of this to happen any more than I’d planned on—

“Oh, God.” I sank into my chair and buried my face in my hands. “I’m so sorry, Ry.”

She didn’t yell at me or refuse my apology, two things she had every right to do. But that wasn’t my intuitive, understanding bestie’s way. Instead, she came around the desk to crouch beside my chair before she drew me into a quick, hard hug.

“It’s going to be okay, I promise.” Her voice was gentle against my hair as I closed my eyes tightly, hoping I could keep the tears from spilling.

It didn’t work.

“I’m acting like a complete jerk. You didn’t ask for this to happen.”

“Uh, absolutely not.” She snorted, still not letting me go. “The last thing I ever planned on was falling for a damn lawyer. Are you kidding me? He probably starches his shorts.”

I laughed halfheartedly through my tears before easing back to wipe at my cheeks. “You said falling.”

“Hmm?”

“Falling, Ry. Not falling into bed.”

She let out a long, slow breath, rocking back on her heels. “Yeah. I love him. Don’t ask me how.”

Before Fiji, my inner pragmatist would’ve laughed and waved her off. Love that happened that quickly wasn’t real. It was shiny like fool’s gold, but not something that could last.

Despite my bitchy tirade just minutes before, a genuine smile broke through my woe. “Oh, Ry. Does he love you too?”

Normally, my tough, fearless bestie would’ve blown off the question or made a joke. Not this time. “Yeah.” She rose and rotated the ring on her thumb, a smile playing around her lips. “He said he does.”

“Then I’m happy for you. Truly.” I bit my lip as her head lifted, her eyes narrowing on mine. “I’m really sorry I acted like such a horrible person. Not even like a friend. More like an enemy. I don’t deserve such—”

“Hey, can it. You said some shit. You were shocked and scared and caught off-guard. And dealing with some stuff of your own, hey?”

When I pressed my lips together to keep from spewing all the confusion and pain inside me, she ducked her head until our eyes were level. “C’mon, Ape, share. I just admitted I’m in love with a freaking divorce lawyer, for goddess’s sake. How can it be any worse?”

I’m in love with his best friend. Also a divorce lawyer. Quite a pair we are, huh?

But I didn’t say that. Whatever had happened on vacation couldn’t be love. Not that quickly. Infatuation, lust, sure. Love was built over time from getting to know a person.

I didn’t even know his name. I absolutely could not possibly love him.

Not yet.

A bang sounded from Preston’s office.

Ryan rolled her eyes. “One who thinks he knows everything too. The awful part is he’s not always wrong.”

“Tell me how it happened. You and Preston.”

She waggled her finger. “No get out of jail free cards to avoid telling your tale, missy.”

“How do you know I have one?”

“I know you, crumb cake.” She glanced at the closed door and the low hum of voices coming from the other side. At least they didn’t sound murderous, unexpected bangs aside. “Gotta say I never expected…that from you.”

“What that?”

She inclined her chin toward the door. “You’ve worked here long enough to know Dex isn’t exactly the faithful sort. I know that and I only worked here for like half a minute.”

A laugh rolled out of me and just kept on coming. I banded my arms around my waist and tipped forward in my chair. “He hit on you.”

She placed a consoling hand on my back. “Kind of, but I think it was more to make PMS mad.”

“That nickname is the best. How come I never thought of it?”

“Since half the time you call him Mr. Shaw—probably even in your own head—I have to assume PMS is too disrespectful for you.”

“Well, I called him an office fornicator, so I guess the gloves are off.”

We laughed together for a minute before Ryan tapped her lips. “Was it just a fling? He’s hot as hell.”

“Don’t let Preston hear that.”

“He’s not my particular catnip, trust me. But I have eyes and an extremely functional libido.” Delicately, she cleared her throat. “Is he good in the sack?”

I was already flushing, and I wasn’t even sleeping with the dude. That dude, anyway. I had slept with someone, and good didn’t even touch him or his masterful member.

Call it a dick, dammit. You are not retreating into prudishness just because you’re not on island time anymore.

“Dick.” I raised my voice. “Dick!”

Surprising no one, my boss opened his door at that very moment and stopped on the threshold, obviously hearing my battle cry. He cleared his throat as Dex chuckled behind him. “Miss Finley, my office, please.”

“Oh, stuff it, PMS. She has a first name. And apparently, she also really likes dick, to which I say hooray. Dick for everyone!”

“Hear, hear,” Dex said heartily. “Let me know if I can help either of you with your celebration.”

Ignoring him, my bestie dragged me to my feet as my face, neck, and entire upper torso area burst into flames. “C’mon, Ape. Have your meeting so we can go to lunch with Lu and talk trash about these clowns.”

“Excuse me, lunch?” My boss consulted his heavy gold watch. “It’s not even ten o’clock.”

“So? You wore me out this morning, and you didn’t feed me, so I’m hungry.” Ryan gave him a look that dared him to challenged her.

He wisely remained silent, merely stepping aside as Dexter moved past him and headed down the hall to his own office, whistling a jaunty tune.

Me? I needed a cold shower and a dark room, in that order.

Definitely not dick. I needed a dick diet. I’d developed an unhealthy fixation.

“If you want to go to lunch, that’s fine.” Preston only sounded moderately stiff, a minor feat for my typically tighter than a drum boss. “But I need to speak Miss—” He cleared his throat. “April first.”

“Miss April? I suppose that’s an improvement over Miss Finley, but seriously, pal, loosen your tie.”

His aristocratic brow lifted. “Yet I call you Miss Moon and you don’t have a problem with such.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a kinky bish, what can I tell you?” She marched over to him and grabbed his aforementioned tie to haul him in for yet another porno-worthy kiss.

I should’ve looked away, but this whole thing was fascinating to me. If someone like Preston could loosen up enough to fall this quickly, maybe it wasn’t so improbable or impossible.

Then again, who wouldn’t fall in instant love with Ryan? She was amazing. Especially since she didn’t seem to hate me, when she had every right to.

Ugh, I was never going to forget my meltdown this morning. My chaotic emotions were no excuse.

As Ryan and Preston quietly laughed together, I smiled. She was right. Everything was going to be just fine. Nothing had to change at work. I’d just overreacted.

As usual.

I kept telling myself that until Ryan said she’d be back to get me in an hour, and Preston gestured for me to come into his office.

Life as I knew it ended again at that moment. It had already ended once a few minutes ago, but I’d had a momentary reprieve.

I should’ve known it was too good to last.

“Please sit,” he said as I lingered awkwardly in the doorway, smoothing down the sides of my navy pencil skirt.

I wanted to comply, but I had to clear the air first. My need to get things between us back on even footing was practically making me twitch.

“Mr. Shaw—”

“Preston, please.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure why we didn’t dispense with the formalities a long time ago.”

“We did sometimes. Just sometimes formalities are easier. Boundaries are easier.” I reached for my locket. The metal seemed to warm under my fingers, steadying me. “I want to apologize for calling you an office fornicator. That was uncalled for.”

“When did you call me that?”

“When you were ranting at your brother for also being an office fornicator.” Now would be the time to say that Dexter wasn’t—or if he was, he wasn’t with me.

My boss lowered into his chair and rested his forearms on the edge of his desk. Along the way, he’d rolled up his sleeves. He’d also lost his jacket at some point. Very unusual for the always business-appropriate elder Shaw brother. Well, besides their father, anyway.

Ryan had probably mauled him in the elevator. She lived a charmed, sexually free life.

Damn her.

“Okay.” He shook his head as if he didn’t quite know where he was. I understood the feeling.

Neither of us spoke. This meeting was off to a scintillating start.

“You wanted something, sir?” I asked after he made no attempt to move things along.

“April, would you please sit?”

I sat.

“I know we’ve always kept things on a certain level in the office for both of our comfort levels. I want you to know that you’re the best employee I’ve ever had.”

“More than Ryan?” I had no idea what devil had perched on my shoulder to make me ask such a question, but I didn’t try to dismiss it and change the subject.

This inexplicable office romance fascinated me. And now I was hungry for my extremely early lunch and gossip and Preston was the only conduit in sight.

He reached up to loosen his tie a fraction. “Miss Moon has many gifts, but clerical work isn’t among them. Other than her facility in the records room.”

Don’t snicker. Just do not.

“Oh, I heard all about her facility there.”

“My brother was out of line. I apologize if he embarrassed you.”

“Pretty sure I wasn’t the embarrassed one,” I said under my breath as my boss started stroking his tie up and down, up and down. A nervous tic if I’d ever seen one.

He’d never had one before. Side effect of too much sex? I hoped I didn’t develop something similar. Although my sex spate had ended with…not a bang. More like a cowardly whimper.

“Or if he’s embarrassed you in other ways. Or made you feel at all uncomfortable.” Preston didn’t comment on my statement. Just as well. “Despite…recent events, this isn’t that kind of law firm. We respect professional boundaries.”

Now would be the right time to say that Dexter had not deflowered my previously plucked petals in the records room or anywhere else. Yet I didn’t, because somehow I preferred my boss and Ryan assuming I’d slept with Dexter rather than the man I’d actually slept with, who was just as close to home to Preston.

Not because my mystery man wasn’t worthy of shouting about to the rooftops. This was just simple misdirection.

Here, look at this shiny thing, so you don’t find out about the shiniest phallus.

I didn’t know how long I could keep the ruse going, but some part of me found it titillating. And hey, if Dex didn’t care who thought we were humping like oversexed jackrabbits, why should I? It wasn’t as if Preston had any room to talk.

“I appreciate that, sir, thank you. Your concern isn’t necessary. I assure you, Dexter has always treated me with utmost…gentleness.”

Which wasn’t a lie. I mean, he didn’t exactly act gentle with me. Most of the time, he behaved more like a gnat-like sibling, but he also had never tried to grope me in the conference room.

Wonder if my bestie had enjoyed that table too? I supposed I’d find out later.

Assuming this agonizing meeting ever ended.

“I just want you to feel comfortable speaking frankly with me. Any of the changes in the office we’ll discuss today won’t alter the fact that I’m always here to listen if—”

“Changes?” I edged forward on my seat, although my knees had turned to jelly. “What changes? Are you getting rid of me?”

Of course he was. His girlfriend could do my job. Maybe she wasn’t a wizard at clerical work according to him, but she was still his lover. Plus, she apparently had some heretofore unknown skill at filing.

Unless that was just an inside joke between them about her suck-and-blow abilities.

Figured it had to be my sexual sore spot since I’d never given one. Not that I was about to hone my talents in that area to keep my job.

I rubbed the throbbing in my temple. Dear God, I was losing my mind and needed an Excedrin. Some sleep would help too, since I’d gotten, oh, none last night, and I was still vaguely jet-lagged.

Now that I was about to be joyfully jobless, I’d have plenty of time to nap. And day drink. And remember when I’d thought my place of employment was more important than anything, including multiple orgasms.

Dummy.

“No, absolutely not.” To his credit, Preston’s jaw locked as if I’d said something abhorrent. “I just told you you’re the best assistant I’ve ever had. Anyone would be thrilled to have you working for them.”

“Thank you, but then what changes are you talking about?”

He gave me a tight smile. “Actually, I’m getting rid of me. I’m hoping to bring someone in to take my place in the firm.”