Chapter 4

After I had changed into a new set of clothes that Lizzie had brought me, which happened to be two sizes too small, I summoned up enough courage to look into the mirror only to cringe when I saw that my bright red hair had finally escaped the tight braid it had been fighting since after my shower this morning. I had to wash off my makeup, due to the coffee I assumed, seeing as it had streaked beyond repair. I cringed at the sight of my cleavage and my black bra poking out of the deep, plunging, neckline and the poor excuse for a skirt that I had to squeeze into was so tight I prayed it hid the fact I couldn't put my underwear back on since, of course, it had become a casualty of the coffee accident. Sighing in defeat, I decided that there was nothing I could do about it right now and it was time to face the music.

I walked out of the ladies' room and straight to Mr. Jones' office praying silently that no one paid any attention to me in this slutty excuse for an outfit. I had no idea what good it was going to do to talk to Mr. Jones, nevertheless, if there was some hope, I'd take it right now. I didn't even have to knock before his door opened and there he stood. His eyes took in my outfit slowly lightening up with lecherous brightness. I found myself fidgeting feeling distinctly uncomfortable.

"Come in and sit down, Mia," he said stepping back.

My discomfort ramped up a few knots, he never called me by my first name. He was standing so close that when I walked passed him I had no other choice then to brush up against him.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Jones. It really was an accident, I was in a hurry and distracted and I promise it'll never happen again," I said rather quickly as I sat down as far away from him as I could.

I looked around noticing his desktop looked far cleaner than I had ever seen it. There was not a single paper on it and all the pens were in their holders. That image rang a bell in my head, the same one I'd heard earlier when I had been talking to Mr. Callaghan, but I didn't have a second to really look into it.

Mr. Jones came over and pulled a chair up right next to mine. Disconcerted I leaned back and folded my hands in my lap to cover my movement. As a general rule, I was not one to allow such an invasion into my personal space. Now in these tawdry clothes that I had been forced to wear, I was left feeling even more vulnerable; a feeling his extremely close proximity was not helping.

"Mia, I'm not sure if I can convince Reed to let you keep your job," he warned leaning ever closer.

I swallowed as my mouth dried and my stomach tightened.

"I understand."

"However, if I had some sort of incentive-" he slid his hand onto my knee and continued, "I might be persuaded to insist that you are invaluable to us."

My mouth dropped as my gaze flew between his disgustingly suggestive face and his revoltingly sweaty hand on my leg.

"Excuse me?" I breathed out finally.

"Mia, Mia. You are not a dumb woman. You know exactly what I want, you are a helluva lot smarter than Chrissy and she didn't hesitate to jump at my offer," he said and gave a smile that caused bile to claw at my throat.

His hand began to creep up higher on my thigh and my self-control broke, my day had been terrible yet nothing I couldn't recover from. This, however, this I was not going to allow to happen, I didn't care if I lost my job or got arrested for what I was about to do.

"You want to know what I think," I said staring at his hand.

"Yes, my dear?" he asked slyly as if he already knew my answer.

"I think, there is no way in hell I'd ever want to sleep with, much less work for a skinny, idiotic, toupee wearing, son of a bitch like you."

My voice had been weak to begin with, but as his eyes grew bigger my voice grew stronger and I shoved his hand off my leg and then shoved him so hard he fell over backward in his chair.

"You're right, I am smarter than Chrissy. I would rather work in a coal mine, then endure your pawing for even a second longer!" I cried as I walked to the door.

I paused as I opened it and turned to see that he had not moved a muscle and with a shocked expression on his face as he was staring at me. Pride and satisfaction welled up inside me because I had finally stood up for myself and I didn't care that it had cost me my job. The look on Mr. Jones' face was payment enough, although, I thought as an evil grin crossed my face, there was one more piece of hell I could give him to make his day worse.

"Oh yeah, and the company laptop got ruined. Send me a bill," I said sweetly.

Then turned to make a sweeping exit like those actresses do on TV. You know the ones, the ones that you jump up and scream 'hell yeah' about. Well, reality is totally different, because at that moment I found myself wrapped in a pair of strong arms and held tight against a chest that I knew from personal experience was solid as a rock. My gaze swept up and sure enough, it was him. I swiftly pushed out of his embrace before I gave him the wrong idea, then I took a second to smooth down my skirt, straighten my shirt, and gathered up my courage.

My gaze slowly lifted to his face, the expression on it made my heart stutter and gave me a pause. I had attributed the earlier sense of recognition to the fact that I had seen him in plenty of tabloids; although it was the expression on his face right now seemed remarkably familiar to me. Although, it was not my face, he was looking at. He was looking down and his eyes seemed to burn through my clothes. I felt my body temperature rise along with the blush on my cheeks. I knew what he was seeing. I didn't know why it would matter to me whether or not he knew that this was not a normal outfit for me.

You no longer work here after today, you'll never see him again, snap out of it. I instructed myself.

I cleared my throat, then almost jumped when his eyes snapped up to clash with mine. His gaze blazed hot, and I felt my knees threaten to buckle. God, this man was potent. I found myself wondering if he used the same focus in the bedroom nor the intense desire to find out for myself. I felt dampness appear between my legs as I began picturing exactly what he would do with his intensity.

Oh crap, NO UNDIES! I realized in horror.