Chapter 6
Eva
Listening to a CEO dress me down about tech support seemed typical.
However, watching the millionaire—scratch that, billionaire—CEO of a massive holdings company losing his mind over me was not in the books.
Finding out the man who fingered me to completion in a club bathroom was now my big boss, wasn’t on my bingo card.
Now I knew why I found him so familiar. He was Daphne’s older brother!
Instead, Davey—David Delphine—dropped the laptop. The poorly built brick’s case shattered. The bottom panel flew across the room and exposed the battery with a loud crack, releasing it. I helped Davey pick the thing up and he sat, unsettled and annoyed with me.
“Sit, please, Miss...” He looked at his briefing, realizing neither of us shared our surnames. “Miss Pav-lack?”
“Pavlak,” I corrected. “It’s Polish. You say it like ‘pauv-lock’.”
Davey nodded. “Okay. I will remember that Miss—”
“Actually,” I corrected Davey, “it’s Ms.”
He rubbed his temples, annoyed. “Ah. Alright, Ms. Pav-lak. And what brings you to our fine place of business?”
Confused, I furrowed my brow. “I’m your new BISO. Daphne said—”
“Oh, shit, yes.”
This man was an epic disaster! Why wasn’t Daphne in charge? He barely held it together!
“Sorry, sorry. I’m… well, you’ve put me in a weird predicament.”
“Me?” I gasped. “You came on to me!”
He set his jaw, looking handsome as hell. The man was gorgeous, and I hated him for it. I feasted on the visual as much as I marveled at how big of an ass he was. Daphne and Claire said he needed me. Yet, he acted like a hot mess dickhead.
Davey closed the door to muffle our conversation.
“I believe the feeling was mutual and all left fully satisfied.”
“Speak for yourself, Davey,” I growled. “You dressed me down and—”
“I told you that you were pretty! So fucking sue me, Eva!”
“You laid it on thick. And I was right. Someone like you doesn’t end up dating a girl like me.”
“Correct,” he said. “You’re not a girl. So, I’d not date a girl, right? But you aren’t one.”
“Don’t lay into me with semantics!”
“Yes, I forgot you were an Oxford-educated attorney. If so, why did you tell me that you were doing admin work when I was complimenting your karaoke stylings? You lied, Eva!”
There was a knock. I saw a woman at the door.
“David, Leighton Donaldson is here in the lobby for your ten. Should I get her a coffee?”
“Yes, but I think this will be a short meeting,” David snarled at me.
“Alright…” the woman said awkwardly. “I apologize for being out when Ms. Pavlak arrived. Ma’am can I get you a drink?”
Before I opened my mouth, Davey flatly said, “No. She will not be staying long. Please close the door as you leave. Thanks.”
She followed his orders, leaving fast.
“I was honest with you,” I continued our conversation.
“Then why did you oh-so-clearly lie?”
I groaned. “Because men—men like you—are intimidated by educated women in technical fields. If I told you, your eyes would have glazed over all because your little peabrain couldn’t handle a woman with a better education or math skills.”
Davey’s nostrils flared in anger. I braced, afraid he’d yell as I talked back in the most insubordinate way. I’d forgotten myself in a fit of rage directed at a man who could fire me in an instant. What happened to the giving man I met at that bar?
“I am glad you think I am so narrow-minded that—”
“I didn’t say that,” I sighed, done with this conversation.
There was no winning with men like this.
“Look, obviously we must co-exist,” Davey said. “And no one needs to know—”
“Yes, that’s for the best,” I said. “Specifically, for you. Because you wouldn’t want anyone to know you bothered so much as look at me, right?”
It felt like a dirty little secret.
“I texted you several times to let you know I felt bad about how it ended,” Davey said. “You never responded. So, don’t give me this pity-party about how I was some sort of liar who didn’t care.”
I didn’t know how to respond.
“You could have at least given me a ‘no thanks’, Eva.”
“Yeah, well, I did. In the…” I lowered my voice, “the hotel room. But you didn’t want to hear me.”
Davey
Eva’s harsh words led our conversation, but her face signaled they were a brave front.
While I wanted to lash out for hurting me and being completely insubordinate, I knew that was a legal liability.
She was a younger woman I’d not only slept with but put at risk with a broken condom.
This woman—one I would now oversee—was, unfortunately, the one I’d thirsted over.
This was the woman whose body I’d put to memory, even if I wished to forget her.
And while I could be angry, I still wanted her.
Why did she singularly make me act like a buffoon?
“Uh-huh,” I sat back in my chair and looked at my broken laptop. “So, I’m guessing you can’t help fix my broken PC?”
“You really are an asshole!” Eva scoffed, standing. “Let’s see as little of each other as possible, okay?”
“Sounds great!” I called.
As she left my office, the sway of her hips tortured me. Why in the hell did she think I wasn’t interested? What hadn’t I done to show I cared? I was one of the good guys, right? She acted as though I treated her like shit from the beginning. Bewildered, I called in my ten o’clock.
As I discussed legal matters, I couldn’t give a flying fuck. I cursed my sister for sending Eva to us. Maybe the woman was competent—she seemed whip-smart—but she was a thorn in my side. She was also a legal liability. So, with the head of general counsel in my office, I changed the subject.
“I have a hypothetical for you, Leighton,” I said. “Just purely fiction.”
“Uh-huh.” Her face suggested she heard this not-hypothetical totally hypothetical at least once today already.
“So, if an officer in the company was to date an employee, what would you say was the legal concern.”
“Is he her direct supervisor?” Leighton asked.
“Well, let’s assume it is a woman who has dated a man. And she’s two lines above him in the org chart.”
“When did this relationship start?”
“Say it was before the company employed him.”
“Did she sign off on his hiring information?”
I thought about the document I’d signed with Daphne’s approval. I also had to approve that level of appointment.
“Technically, yes… for budget purposes… but she wasn’t even in the interview.”
“So, they signed off but didn’t know the person?”
“What if it was like a hookup—something casual?”
Leighton rubbed her temples.
“What, it’s bad?”
“David, you aren’t giving me much good news here, are you?”
“I mean… he… or she… they didn’t do anything wrong?”
“That’s first an HR question, but I suspect they would tell her that she should probably end the relationship or at least make it clear she is recusing herself of any personnel or disciplinary matters with this hire—and do so to the direct supervisor immediately.
But from a legal perspective, if there is no disparate treatment or retaliation with separation of employment or promotion, this officer should be fine. ”
“Good to know… in this hypothetical situation,” I said, a bit relieved.
“But I strongly would urge this person—if they report to you—to notify the direct supervisor of this hire. It might be helpful to involve HR in that conversation just to CYA, too.”
“Sure.”
Oh, great, a meeting to confess my sins to my sister with HR in the room!
That would not be happening, but I probably did need to come clean.
Of course, my sister was a pregnant, hormonal disaster.
Yes, it would be just one more Davey fuck-up for my sister to judge me about. She was the golden child, after all.