Chapter 2 #2
“Yeah, that’s me.” I walk over to her desk, and she stands. And I swear to God with every step she takes in my direction, the air between us crackles with electricity.
“So, how’s the first day treating you?” I shrug, trying to make small talk.
“This place is a fucking mess,” her response is all sass.
“Yeah, sorry about that.” I ease in close enough that I can smell her perfume—something caramel and intoxicating.
“From what I understand, you’re the longest employee here, so you worked with my uncle?
” Tilting my head, I try to gauge where she’s going with this conversation.
All the while, my fingers itch to reach out and fist a handful of her thick, flaming hair and tug her into me, but I hold back.
Her eyes rake over me before they land back on my face, and I can see her pulse quickening at her throat. “I did. Is it going to be an issue?”
“No. No issue at all. Though I gather you know we don’t speak?”
“Don’t know the full story, and it’s none of my business. Doc doesn’t come here often, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
She lets out a satisfied sigh. “Thanks for confirming.”
“No problem, darl.”
She doesn’t flinch, but her gaze does dart down at my arm. “Is that a noose tattoo on your hand?” She bites her lip, and I can’t help wondering what that’s about. Did she see it that night at Grumpy’s, and it’s bringing back the way my palm felt around her throat?
“Yeah, I went through a phase when I was younger. Stupid teenage me decided it would be a good idea to get a noose tattoo on my hand because ‘hang in there’ was probably a little too cliché.”
She softly giggles—this sweet sound—but then her brows pinch as she looks at my hand again, and my fingers twitch. It was the same hand that was wrapped around her neck while my fingers were buried deep in her pussy, and she moaned into my mouth as I made her come for me.
I’ve got to stop thinking about that night. I’ve got to stop thinking about what she’d look like on her knees with that pretty little mouth wrapped around my cock.
Thing is, I’m drawn to this woman like a magnet.
“What are you doing?” she whispers, placing her hand on my chest and pushing me back. An electric current shoots through me at her touch.
“Nothing,” I smirk playfully, as if to tell her I’m giving her shit. As much as I don’t want to back out of her personal space, I do it anyway.
“I know what you’re trying to do here, Jake.
You’re trying to rattle me, so I’ll quit.
I’m not going to let you get to me. Now get the fuck out of my office.
” Ouch. Okay, that’s how she wants to play it.
“I don’t have time for this shit. I’ve got so much paperwork to go through, and it’s going to take me weeks to get this all sorted.
Also, you need to give me the parts list for the Porsche that’s coming in next week so I can get them all ordered, so you can actually do the job you’re paid to do,” she stops her rant, spins on her heels, and storms around to the other side of her desk, then sits in her chair.
She picks up the coffee I brought her and takes a tentative sip, then makes a face and immediately spits it out. “That is fucking horrible.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me. It’s the best we’ve got. Sorry, darl,” I say with a wink and walk out the door.
I try to avoid Stella for the rest of the afternoon, but fate would have it that it doesn’t work out for me.
She whips out of the office like a hurricane—fury in her stride.
“Turn the music off! Oi, everybody gather around here now!” she demands and crosses her arms.
We all stop what we’re doing and follow her orders because I suspect Stella isn’t the type of girl you want to fuck with.
“Okay, so I’ve had a couple of hours to look over some of the shitstorm in that office, and we desperately need some changes here. Here’s what’s going to happen.”
Stella starts listing her demands, and Chase all but nods and says, “Yes, boss.”
“I need hours logged correctly,” she eyes José. We all know he’s a slacker when it comes to documenting his work.
“The diaries need to be updated regularly so I can send out customer updates.” That one lands on Asher. He’s notorious for not taking photos or updating his work progress.
Her gaze falls on me, and I feel like she’s looking right through me.
“And you need to start preparing better. You need to do a full inventory of everything you’re going to need for each job so it can all be invoiced and ordered, because we all know that ordering some of these parts doesn’t take a day—we can’t get them overnight express from Japan; this isn’t Fast and the Furious.
They need to be ordered in advance, and you’re delaying jobs by not doing it correctly from the beginning. ”
Well, I’ll be damned. By the sounds of it, Stella already has this workshop nailed down. I know I could be doing a better job at what I do, but you know what? I haven’t had someone here who can help me with that, because every other woman who’s walked through those doors has been fucking useless.
My gut tells me things are about to change around here.
And if I’m right, hopefully for the better.
This shop was prestigious, and it still is.
People wait years to get their cars worked on here.
But Doc started slacking, and it was sad to see all those years of his hard work begin to go down the drain.
The way she’s standing there, hands on her hips, authority in her voice, yet completely in control. The way she’s not backing down from any of us, the fire in her eyes when she’s laying down the law—it’s doing things to me that I shouldn’t be thinking about at work.
Fuck me, this woman is going to be the death of me if I don’t figure out soon what to do regarding me and her.