Hate Notes: A Grumpy Boss Romantic Comedy, page 24
“Who the hell are you?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter who I am. You, though? You’re an insecure, egotistical asshole. I just thought you should know that.”
“Next time you want to play hero, wear a cape.”
I opened my mouth in disbelief. “You’re-”
Thunderbolt Cheeks stuck his forefinger out faster than I could react, pressing it against my lips. If I’d been less worked up, I might’ve bit him to teach him what happens when you assume you can put your hands on a stranger. Instead, I just stood there dumbfounded as I stared into those blazing blue pits of dream juice he called eyes.
“This is my world,” he said with a voice that probably could slice stones in two. “Make something of yourself if you want that opinion of yours to mean anything.”
I realized the entire room was staring at us with slack jaws. Even the guy who had been getting verbally reamed looked like he wished I would just stop talking. Why did they put up with this?
“You know what?” I asked, trying not to take a deep rapturous breath of whatever scent he was wearing. Sex God? Naked on a horse? Black and white lumberjack? Whatever it was, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I needed to create distance while I still could. “I don’t have time for this. I have a meeting with him.” I pointed to the door to Mr. White’s office, where I saw the silhouette of someone moving around inside. “I bet he’ll love to hear how you’re treating people out here.”
I walked with as much confidence as I could, following my memory of the map to Mr. White’s office.
I was going to do my job and get the hell out of there. That egotistical asshole might make an ill-advised appearance in my fantasies going forward, but he wasn’t going to be allowed to talk there.
I reached Mr. White’s door and knocked twice. A man in a janitor’s uniform answered, nodded his head, and then walked out of the office.
I almost glanced over my shoulder, but the puzzle pieces had already clicked together. Mr. Ego wasn’t just some uppity manager. He was...
Oh, shit.
47
THE BOSS(HOLE) SNEAK PEAK, CHAPTER 2 - ADRIAN
Ihadn’t moved from Walker’s desk yet. Everyone was still as fossils, except the little firecracker who had come out of nowhere. She looked like she’d escaped from a Disney Princess parade float, ditched her outfit, and somehow wandered into my office.
She was wearing a blue dress that should’ve been conservative, but there was nothing conservative about those curves. There was no hiding that ass. Her body may have demanded attention, but her face commanded it. She had ridiculously big, slightly upturned eyes that were shaped like almonds. Her nose was pert and dusted with freckles, and her lips were full enough to immediately drag my thoughts to a very dark place.
Focus, Adrian. Remember why you’re here.
But all I did was focus on the rest of her. The blonde hair worn in a braid on one side and straight on the other. She had miles of curves, and I wondered how long I would’ve kept staring in complete silence if the sound of her knocking on my office door hadn’t brought me to the present.
This was too perfect. The meeting she so self-importantly announced was with me. I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she realized.
I pulled the knot on my tie, rolled my neck, which was still a little stiff from the shit night of sleep I’d gotten, and strode across the room.
My employees finally started resuming their work once I was moving, as if they had been too worried I might notice them and annihilate them right along with Walker if they so much as clicked a mouse.
“Excuse me,” I said, reaching past the escaped Disney Princess to pull my door open. “I have a meeting.”
She stared at me with those huge blue eyes. I knew it had been far too long since I’d given my body what it needed. Looking at this woman was making me hum with molten heat.
I walked inside my office, then pulled the door closed, even though I knew damn well she was here to see me.
I went behind my desk, folded my ankle over my knee, and waited patiently.
It was nearly a full minute before a hesitant knock sounded at my door.
“Come in,” I said.
The woman walked in. I expected her head to be hanging and her to look like she was ready to lick my boots clean for the bullshit she’d pulled out there. Instead, she looked defiant.
“I didn’t realize you were the one I was meeting,” she said.
“Clearly.” I gestured for her to sit in the chair across from my desk. I found an odd beat of satisfaction when she moved to obey without question. She wasn’t entirely hopeless, at least. “What’s your name?”
“Juliette. Er, just Jules. Jules Adams.”
“I’m Adrian White,” I said. It was the first time I’d used my real first name at a company. But Coleton was the grand prize, the final destination. Some part of me had always wanted Russ Coleton himself to hear that Adrian was the one who destroyed his empire from the inside out. But if I was going to get there, I needed to keep it together. I’d only just begun the journey, and Coleton was by far the biggest corporation my team and I had ever set out to bring down.
The woman opened a little folder with a Maxi Designs logo on the front. “I was thinking we could start with colors, if you have a pref-”
“Oh, no,” I said, chuckling. “I only wanted you to know who was going to be making sure you never worked in this city again. We’re done. That stunt you pulled out there in front of my staff? I’ll be sure to tell Maxi exactly why she just lost her biggest client and is about to have to hire a publicist to salvage her reputation.”
I expected tears. I was used to tears. I didn’t enjoy being a ruthless prick, but I’d never been one to shy away from the most effective methods. I got what I set out to get because I never compromised. I never took the easy road. I did exactly what it took, no matter how many “feelings” got hurt along the way.
But Jules clenched her jaw and her eyes flashed with rage. “You’re a coward.”
I actually laughed in surprise. Definitely didn’t see that coming.
“You can’t handle being questioned, can you?” she asked. “Did I give your precious ego a boo boo when I stood up to you out there? Do you feel like you have to make an example of me so you can still stroke that swollen pride of yours when you go to bed tonight? Well, go ahead, asshole. Ruin my life if you want. I started over once. I’ll do it again if I have to.”
To tell the truth, she was making me think about something else that was in danger of becoming swollen. I liked her backbone, even if it pissed me off. I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my chin as she got up and reached for the door. “Or,” I said. “My secretary put in her notice a few days back. You could work for me.”
“What?” she asked. “One minute you want to make sure I never work again and the next you’re offering me a job? So you’re a narcissist and insane?”
The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with her. Yes, it was complete insanity to hire this woman. It was true that I valued backbone and grit. I could use someone who wasn’t afraid of confrontation. Coleton Publishing was just the first stop on a long journey to the head of the snake, and I needed to collect every capable body I could along the way.
Except part of me knew that was bullshit. Part of me was very much aware that I was already finding this woman distracting. She pulled me out of the illusion in dangerous ways. She made me feel like Adrian Terranova, the man who set out to do something completely insane ten years ago—the man who had been neglecting his personal life and desperately needed a good fuck.
A few minutes ago, I was completely willing to keep putting that off. But one look at the rogue princess here and it had all gone out the window. My body was practically humming with need and hiring her was the last thing I should’ve been considering. It wasn’t just a bad idea. It was a potentially disastrous one.
“Why would I work for you?” she asked. “All you’ve done since I walked in this room was show me how horrible a boss you are.”
“Take the job and I’ll go tell Walker out there he’s un-fired. And if you care so much about protecting those people out there from me, what better way than to stick around?”
She shook her head, eyes searching the floor. Her hand was still on the doorknob. “What happens if I say ‘no?’”
I folded my hands in front of my mouth, leaning forward. I’ll keep thinking about you until it drives me crazy. “Then you get to go back to your boss and tell her how you fucked up the contract at Coleton.”
That same rage rose up in her face again. It was adorable. The woman had absolutely no control when it came to hiding her emotions. She was an open book, and one I had a feeling I’d enjoy diving into regularly.
“So you’re blackmailing me? Join you or you ruin me. Is that it?”
“No. You lost my business as a client. If your boss chooses to keep you employed, good for you. I’ll leave it at that. But if you’re looking for work, I’ll hold the position for three days. It’s not blackmail. It’s an opportunity.”
“It’s an opportunity that smells a hell of a lot like blackmail.”
I shrugged. “It’s your choice, Miss Adams. You know where to find me.”
“What about Walker?” I asked.
“What about him? If you take the job, I’ll call him up and tell him to come back.”
She scrunched those pretty lips up, giving me a glare that I thought might ignite the papers on my desk. “You’re a horrible person.” She pulled the door open and slammed it behind her.
Maybe, I thought. But in real life, you don’t get to take down the villain by being a hero. Heroes can’t afford to get their hands dirty. They can’t do what it really takes. They can’t cut the corners and make the sacrifices to get the power they need.
Maybe I was a horrible person, but I was going to use every fucking ounce of that power it had earned me to burn what Russ Coleton cared about to the ground. That was a promise.
48
THE BOSS(HOLE) SNEAK PEAK, CHAPTER 3 - JULIETTE
Ihadn’t even made it out the front door of the bosshole from hell’s branch of Coleton Enterprises when my phone rang. I braced myself. It was Maxi, the other bosshole from hell.
“Hi,” I said, trying to force a cheery disposition I didn’t feel.
“Let me guess,” Maxi said in her deep, no bullshit voice. “The meeting with Mr. White went horribly wrong?”
There were about a dozen things I could’ve done to figuratively get on my knees and beg forgiveness. I could’ve made excuses, tried to explain he was a prick, or even made the most obvious point about how she’d sent me to do something I was completely unqualified for.
But it really had been one of those days.
I stopped in the lobby of the pristine Coleton offices, shaking my head. “Yes,” I said. “For you, it went really badly. You lost the contract because you didn’t have the balls to fire me without cause.”
There was a long pause. Despite saying the words with confidence, I felt like I was about to explode from a rapid heartbeat on the inside.
“I was going to settle for firing you,” Maxi said after a few moments of tense silence. “But I think now I’m going to destroy you.”
I couldn’t help laughing at that one. “It sounds like I really touched a nerve.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying this. I’m going to reach out to all my contacts and make sure nobody hires your petulant, insubordinate, always late ass.”
Okay, that last one was a real stretch. Not cool. I’d been late once or twice in the few months I’d worked at Maxi Designs, which I knew for a fact was far less than most of my co-workers.
“That’s great. I already got a job lined up.” What was I saying, exactly? A few minutes ago, I’d been just as amused by Chad Thundercock up there thinking he could flash his ego and get me to jump into his payroll with a squeal of delight. Now I was leveraging my future on a position when I didn’t even know what it paid. Worse, I didn’t know how long I could survive it.
“I’ll make sure that falls through, sweetie,” Maxi said.
“Okay, great talking to you. I’ll come get my stuff this weekend. Bye, Maxi.”
I hung up on her, did a little quick-stepping happy dance, then turned back toward the elevator. Now for the not-so-fun part.
If there were YouTube Masterclasses for being insufferable, Mr. White had apparently studied them well. He was waiting behind his desk back on the 82nd floor with a smug expression. From the look on his obnoxiously gorgeous face, he knew I’d be back. He even looked like he expected me to be back as quickly as I’d come.
“Don’t look so pleased with yourself,” I said.
Adrian held up a finger. “Careful. You thought you had nothing to lose before. Before you weren’t desperate. But you wouldn’t be back so soon if you hadn’t just lost your job, would you?”
“There are other jobs. I just figured I could at least find out what the salary is here. For comparison’s sake,” I added.
“One seventy-five per year. You’ll need to accompany me on trips. You’ll receive a five-thousand-dollar stipend for each trip out of the state. Your airfare, food, and lodging will be covered. The healthcare is top of the line. We have a company fitness center and childcare facility on the top floor of this building you’ll have access to at any time you wish. There are racquetball courts and an indoor pool across the street you can use as well.”
“I didn’t accept the job yet,” I said, even though it was hard to keep looking confident when my head was spinning. “Did you say… one seventy-five? Can you elaborate on that one?”
“One hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars per year. With stipends, you should be well over two fifty. Maybe three hundred on a busy year. Assuming you last long enough to collect, that is.”
I did a few quick mental calculations. The salary he was talking about was approximately… way more than enough to cover my expenses. The reality of having to think about this sort of thing was still new to me, but no less in my face. The universe didn’t care if you’d once had access to piles and piles of money. All that mattered was if your cards swiped and your checks cleared. Fail that simple test, and you could go fuck yourself, as far as anyone was concerned.
This demon in a suit was offering me a ticket out of that reality. He was offering me my first step toward being able to show my father he’d been wrong. I could do this on my own. I wasn’t completely naïve about how the world worked.
“You had three days to decide. Now you have one minute. Do you want the job or not?” he asked.
I barely knew the man, but I already wasn’t surprised. I didn’t even bother asking how that made any sense. “I’d like to see a written contract before I agree to anything.”
Mr. White had a way of not responding right away. He let the silence hang there, reminding me how damn intimidating he was. He finally reached to his side and slid a stack of papers across his desk. I picked them up, noticing they were still warm.
I assumed it was some sort of template, but I noticed my name was filled in along with the salary and stipend he’d mentioned. “When did you haveClick here>>te this up?”
“Are you going to sign or not?”
I met his eyes, fought the urge to look away from their intensity, and then shook my head. I didn’t exactly have a choice. As much as I wanted to knock him down a peg and watch that self-satisfied look melt from his face, I needed this.
I sucked up my pride and finished reading. I tried not to care that he seemed to expect me to sign without reading and wasn’t bothering to hide his impatience. I wasn’t about to sign something without reading it from this man.
But by the time I finished all three pages, there was nothing shocking in the contract. It all seemed pretty standard, except for the massively generous salary and benefits that came with the position.
When I looked up, he was holding a pen out for me. I grabbed it, then signed my name at the bottom and pushed the stack of papers toward him.
“Why do I feel like I just signed a deal with the devil?”
Adrian actually grinned at that. “Maybe because you’re more perceptive than you look.”
***
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Penelope Bloom, Hate Notes: A Grumpy Boss Romantic Comedy
