“Come with me to my office, Cope,” Mac said.
Ian nodded as he gathered his laptop and meeting book, then followed his boss.
“What’s up?”
“Shut the door and take a seat.”
Ian suppressed a sigh. He had work to do, and that included figuring out how to woo his new coworker. But he followed the orders and waited for Mac to speak his mind.
“There’s a reason why we’ve pulled the south regional office in on this project.”
“Yeah, I know they’ve already built a similar project and I’ve already started looking at it. It’s really close to what we need for our new client.”
“Cope, the game is changing. Corporate wants us to make a move into the security industry. If we can generalize this software and promote it to that sector, we could push our company to the forefront of our competitors and corner the market.”
“And you want to do this with the application they’ve already built.”
Mac chuckled. “Not exactly. See, I know you could’ve built a customizable application that’d fit our client’s needs and the bigwigs’ desire to initiate their strategy. The deal is that they also want to cut costs. We are looking at closing the south regional office.”
Ian stared at Mac, not sure what to say. Why would corporate want to do that?
“Someone has to go. We just got that major contract, so we’re in the clear. That office is the smartest choice to be cut. The fact this project came up gave us an in.”
Ian felt his blood boiling. “An in to what?” he asked.
“I need you to prepare a consolidation plan on their outstanding projects, showing how their work can be absorbed by other associates within the company at other locations. Cassandra Tucker is high enough up in the company that you should be able to get all the information you need from her under the guise of this project.”
Ian shot to his feet. “You want me to lie to her?” he asked incredulously.
Mac’s face turned venomous. “Well, now. You’ve been champing at the bit to work with little Miss Tucker. So here’s your chance. Get to know her. Get to know everything about that office. And do it without her finding out why. As of now, she’s already out of a job. Don’t lose yours too.”
Chapter Two
Cassie ate lunch at her desk so she could read over the coding on the application her office had built for the local home security company in preparation for her meeting with Ian. She hardly ate, though. She dug herself into her work because she wanted to make a good impression. She’d never worked with him in the past, so she felt as if she had something to prove. Her track record was impeccable, but it wasn’t as if she could pull out all her old projects and gloat about what she was capable of. She had to show him on this project.
But why did her thoughts wander to inappropriate things? Things like how his touch would feel when he caressed her cheek with his barely calloused hands. He wouldn’t have rough hands since he didn’t do manual labor, but they wouldn’t be really soft either. He was the type of man who didn’t mind getting his hands dirty doing his own work around the house. And because his hands would show signs of work, so would his chest, his biceps. He’d be able to hold her down, keep her still while she tried to writhe as her orgasm built from him licking her pussy.
Cassie felt flush just thinking about what he could do with his tongue, hands, body. God, she needed to get laid something fierce! She was a professional, for crying out loud.
Her company cell phone buzzed, startling her with the signal she had a new text message.
Stuck in another meeting. Need to push ours back thirty minutes.
Ian. If he only knew what she’d been thinking about. Her heart raced, which was silly. It wasn’t as if he were some guy sending her a personal text. This was business. She should use that extra half-hour reprieve to screw her head back on straight.
No problem, she responded.
Really sorry if this messes up your schedule.
Hmm. She didn’t think he’d respond again. What should she say? It’s okay. Just let me know when you’re ready. There. That was professional enough. Now he could get back to his meeting and she could try to keep her mind out of the gutter.
I’m ready now but can’t get away from these goons.
Cassie smiled. Ian was texting her, chatting with her. Her palms started sweating. She knew this was business, but she could pretend for a minute he was just a hot guy texting her.
Shame on you, not paying attention to your meeting. She chuckled as she sent that message to him.
LOL! Didn’t take you long to use my words against me.
What can I say? I’m good.
After a couple of minutes with no response, Cassie shook her head with a smile as she tossed her phone onto her desk. Time to get back to work. She logged back into her laptop as her phone buzzed again.
I intend to find out.
Was she on a roller coaster? Because her stomach just dropped. Surely he was just talking about finding out how good she was at her job. That was what he had to have meant.
We’re finishing up now. I’ll be online in ten minutes.
God, she was an idiot. Of course that was all he had meant. She quickly typed a confirmation and gathered her notes for their meeting. When she logged into the webinar, he was already there.
Time to put her game face on. They had a job to do and she wanted him to be impressed by her. Fantasies would have to wait for after-hours.
