Teaching The Boss

Chapter Five

Sam dug through the pile of pink message slips on his desk. Where the hell did all these come from? There was one from ten thirty in the morning. He ripped the phone off the hook and hit one of the speed dial buttons. "Eric, why is there a message here from five hours ago that I didn't know about?"

"Umm, well, sir, you were busy all morning and I only, um, just had a chance to drop it off."

Sam rolled his eyes. April could strut into his office in the midst of even the most intense discussions and he wouldn't notice until he went to take another sip of coffee to find his glass had magically been refilled. Eric couldn't even sneak in to hand him a damn phone message?

"Try to be quicker next time. This could be important."

"Umm, yes, sir. No problem, sir."

He dropped the phone into place while he shook his head. After a three-week search, Eric had really seemed as if he'd be perfect. Finance major like April, so he could do more than pour coffee. He came from a good business family, so he should've been used to the high pressures of being at the beck and call of a CEO.

Sam's own father had sure as hell put him through the ringer. As a teen, he spent more time at the office or going to meetings with his dad than sneaking out to party with friends.

Eric had been with HuntCorp for a full week, and he hadn't managed to fit in any better with Sam or the other staff. If anything, his stutter got worse.

Sam picked up his phone and scrolled through his contacts list until he found the number for April's cell. It had been two weeks since he'd tried to call her last. She'd dropped off the face of the planet after that night. None of his calls were ever answered or returned. She didn't respond to any of his emails. At one point, he'd borrowed a cab driver's cell to verify it wasn't just HuntCorp numbers she was avoiding.

He'd told his driver to take the hour-long detour to her apartment a few times since their blowout but had never been able to actually walk to the door.

It somehow seemed a bit too stalkerish. Too unprofessional.

Hell, the kiss had already overstepped all lines of propriety. He rubbed a hand over his eyes and replayed the scene in the elevator. Her hands pulling him closer. His fingers riding along the delicate skin of her thighs. He tried like hell to regret it, but all he could think about was getting the chance to do it again.

She obviously had other ideas. But it wasn't as if she pushed him away! He'd been so desperate to get her to listen to him, to believe him when he said he didn't want to get rid of her. To understand that he cared too much about her for her to work so closely with him.

The kiss was purely instinctive. A way to get her to pay attention to him and stop yelling. He never expected it to explode like it did. Her to pull him closer and him to follow her lead, as if he were back to being a fifteen-year-old virgin.

His sweet, utterly professional admin had burned beneath his hands, had put more passion into that kiss than he could've anticipated possible. How had he been so close to her for six years and never imagined it could be like that between them?

Sure, she was an attractive woman, but he never thought that them being together could blow his mind. He'd been with women who made millions off their appearances but had never felt the driving need to be with someone like he had for those few short minutes with April.

The door to his office creaked open as the Bs walked in. He put a smile on his face, not letting his confusion show. As far as he knew, he wasn't meeting with the Bs until Thursday. "Afternoon, Jackson. Matthew."