Boss Unyielding: A Secret Baby Office Romance (The Boss Series Book 1) Read online

  Rayner thought for a moment before answering.

  “Both.”

  Farren nodded with understanding and pursed her lips.

  “Okay… Where do I begin?” she said finally, accepting the offer. She didn’t know what the pay would be, but even at the amount for the other position, she would have accepted. Either way, it was more than she was making now, having just ended her college work-study program, and having student loans she would have to start paying back soon. Gramma’s social security income only went so far.

  Rayner smiled and stood from his chair. “Follow me,” he instructed, and walked over to a door connecting his office to the one beside it.

  As she fell in line behind him, she couldn’t help but notice the muscle in the broad expanse of his back, and how the outline of a large tattoo was just barely visible through the fabric of his white, button-down shirt. Not to mention the way his butt filled out the soft, thin material of his dress pants.

  When she caught herself checking out his ass, she snapped her gaze back up to eye level and admonished herself for allowing her thoughts to travel down such an inappropriate path. Mr. Rayner was officially her boss now! She couldn’t be ogling his goods. She had to admit they were pretty good, though, even for an older man. It wasn’t like he was that old, and he could definitely fill out a pair of pants much better than any of the guys her age.

  “This will be your office. I want you to keep the blinds closed at all times. You have until the end of the week to acquaint yourself with our software programs. Beginning next Monday, if you’re still here and think you can handle the work, I’ll have you start working on a special project I’ve been asked to develop.”

  He walked behind her desk and pulled her chair out, motioning for her to sit. She crossed the short distance and sat, feeling the hair at the nape of her neck standing on end at Mr. Rayner’s proximity. He leaned over her to move the wireless mouse, and doing so brought the computer screen in front of her to life.

  “I’ll help you set up a login, and then I’ll leave you to learn the system on your own while I get back to my work for the time being. If you have any questions about anything, I want you to ask Rita, and no one else.”

  There he went again, Farren thought. She wasn’t sure why he was so concerned about her not talking to any of the other people there in the office. She couldn’t even open her blinds to see out into the hallway? She knew he didn’t want her to be a distraction, but good grief, what did he think she was going to do?

  Once he got her set up, he left back to his own office, and Farren got right to it, getting acquainted with the software on their system. She made some notes of questions she would ask Rita later on that day if she ran into her.

  By lunch time, she could feel her stomach growling, so she got up and went to the door that connected her office with Mr. Rayner’s. She rapped lightly on it and twisted the knob to enter. Once it was open about half way, she noticed a woman in Mr. Rayner’s office.

  The woman had fiery waves of red hair, and she wore a form-fitting, black jump-suit with layers of fine jewelry on her neck, wrists, and fingers. She was standing in front of Mr. Rayner behind his desk, in front of him where he sat in his chair. She had her derriere leaned against the top of his desk as she leaned slightly forward, and though they weren’t in a compromising position right in that moment, it was obvious they either had been or were about to be.

  Embarrassed, Farren started pulling the door closed when both Mr. Rayner’s and the woman’s head turned to see her in the doorway. Farren’s face flushed with heat, and she gave them an apologetic wave. “So sorry,” she said, and pulled the door closed.

  She took the other exit from her office that led into the hallway, and when she opened the door, she saw two men in dress shirts and slacks rather than the black polos the other employees wore. She thought they must be some type of management, and Mr. Rayner’s unspoken warning about the management he had on staff had her on alert. Was he protecting them from her, or was he protecting her from them?

  Their heads had turned in her direction when she opened the door, and their conversation halted as she emerged. She gave them a timid, polite smile and a nod, but didn’t speak to them. The way that Mr. Rayner had said she would answer to him and no one else made her wonder what kinds of things they might ask her to do.

  She imagined herself being buried under mountains of paper they wanted her to file, alphabetize, or shred for them. Then her thoughts turned in another direction, and she imagined herself having to hack into their ex-wives’ bank accounts or their girlfriends’ bedroom security cameras.

  She wondered what it said about her that she’d have preferred the hacking over the filing, and decided it didn’t matter anyway since Rayner had made it clear they would have no authority over her. That and they could probably hack their own stuff if they wanted, she guessed.

  She went out to the parking lot and sat in her car. She had brought a sack lunch that Gramma had packed for her that morning, but she wasn’t about to bring it inside with her. She wanted to be taken seriously, and what self-respecting twenty-two year old had their grandmothers packing their lunches for them?

  She supposed it could also be said that no self-respecting twenty-two year old would be living with their grandmother in the first place, but moving her Gramma in with her a couple years ago had proved to be an advantageous arrangement for both of them. After her grandpa had died, Gramma needed someone to look after her and take her to appointments now and then.

  Farren’s roommate had just moved out at the time, and she had been pretty desperate to find another one if she was going to make her rent, so the timing had been perfect. So what if it was her grandma? It wasn’t like she lived a wild, party lifestyle or brought a bunch of guys home.

  She tended to be more of a loner, anyway. She preferred to game online or build computers from scratch than to hit up a kegger. Not that Shea hadn’t drug her to plenty of those over the years, too.

  As she took a bite of the Italian sub, a movement at the entrance of Rayner Technologies caught her attention. She watched as the fiery red-head she had just walked in on in Rayner’s office came strutting out.

  This woman had the longest legs she thought she had ever seen, and there was a creamy glow about her skin that looked like someone had added the Photoshop oil-painting filter to her in the flesh.

  Mr. Rayner seemed to have quite the harem of women, she thought, remembering the gorgeous blond she’d seen him with at the restaurant next to Charlie’s last week.

  He seemed so at ease around women. He had certainly seemed attentive to both of the ones she had seen so far, and she wondered if he was some sort of ladies-man. She had experienced first-hand how the guys her age would lay it on thick and say just about anything a girl wanted to hear to get in her pants. She wondered if that was something guys ever grew out of and if Mr. Rayner was that way, too.

  Though, he probably didn’t have to be. Hell, he was so good-looking and all-around attractive, she wondered if he even had to say anything at all. She had to rein her thoughts in once again when she started wondering what it would be like to be one of the women on the receiving end of his charms.

  When she finished her lunch, she dusted the crumbs off her lap and headed back inside to resume her software explorations. At this rate, she was in for a long week, because she knew it wouldn’t take her that long to figure everything out. This was her world. Getting acquainted with software was a piece of cake, since she could basically write those types of programs in her sleep. She was in her element here, and couldn’t wait to get into the good stuff.

  After about an hour, the hallway door clicked open and her back straightened to attention. She watched as one of the men she remembered standing out in the hall earlier came strolling in, closing her door behind him.

  “Hello. I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Dallas Evans. I run the Marketing Department,” he said as he approached her with an outstretched
arm for a handshake.

  He had a look about him that made Farren think he was probably a little, or a lot, full of himself. An errant thought crossed her mind that she doubted he would be able to hack his own stuff after all, like she had been thinking earlier.

  “Hello. I’m Farren,” she said, taking his hand.

  “And what do you do, Farren? I don’t believe I heard about any other new hires other than the one for the Tech Support opening. You have me intrigued.”

  She cringed internally at her title before she spoke it aloud, but it was what it was. “I’m Mr. Rayner’s new… assistant.” She managed to choke the word out.

  She watched as his eyebrows lifted, not trying in the least to hide his surprise.

  “Oh, really? Isn’t that surprising?” he said.

  “It is? Why?”

  He shrugged. “It’s been a while since Rogan’s had an assistant. For one thing, he’s too much of a control freak to let anyone do anything for him. Then there’s the ordeal with the last assistant he had.”

  He played it off like it was no big deal, but this had Farren’s interest piqued. She should have known it was a little strange for this nice office right next to Mr. Rayner’s to be vacant when they hadn’t been hiring for anything other than what she had tried to interview for last week. What was the story with this assistant situation, she wondered.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance to find out, because the door to Rayner’s office swung open in a whir, and Rayner came stalking in.

  “Evans, is there something I can help you with?” he asked, but his voice sounded anything but helpful.

  “Rogan,” Dallas nodded in a casual, unhurried greeting. “I was just introducing myself to your new assistant here.”

  “My new assistant is busy at the moment and can do without the intrusions. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

  And the Insensitive Ass-hole was back.

  Dallas stood in his place as though contemplating a rebuttal, but ultimately backed down from the challenge.

  “Farren, it was a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to seeing you around.”

  He didn’t spare a backward glance as he walked out of the office and closed the door behind him once more, leaving Farren alone with an intimidating Mr. Rayner.

  She stood from her desk, facing her boss and feeling a flush warming her cheeks again as she recalled what she had walked in on earlier in his office.

  “Mr. Rayner, I’m really sorry about my intrusion earlier. It was thoughtless of me, and it won’t happen again,” she promised as her hands fidgeted together in front of her.

  He paused as though thinking about it, then shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. How are you doing so far? Do you have any questions about the software?”

  She was a little jarred by the mercurial mood swings, but was glad the angry one wasn’t directed toward her at the moment.

  “No, so far I’m getting it. The main program is put together really well. It’s complex, but at the same time, the interface is very intuitive and easy to follow.”

  She noticed the corners of his eyes crinkle as he displayed a look of… pride? He must have written the program himself, she thought. Amazing.

  “Very good. I’m going to have Rita come in and walk you through a few things in the next hour or so, as well as have you sign your I-9 forms and so forth. She’ll be at the front if you need anything else today.”

  And then he was gone once more. Her head was nearly spinning, she was so confused by the display she had just witnessed. She was a quick study when it came to computers and electronics, but she was finding it hard to figure out Mr. Rayner. The trouble was, now she was intrigued, and that meant she had to get to the bottom of it.

  SIX

  The first week flew by at Rayner Technologies. Apparently, word had spread that Farren was hands-off to the other employees, except for Rita. According to Rita, the other new girl had been a novelty to the men in the building, but that quickly wore off when they realized she was just another computer nerd like the rest of them.

  Farren thought the same would have been said for her, had Rayner not made her off-limits. Instead, it had everyone curious to know what was so special about the boss’s new assistant, the forbidden fruit.

  By the end of Farren’s second week, she had just about gotten the hang of things. She’d had some opportunities to show Rayner a little of what she was capable of, and from what she could tell, he liked what he saw.

  She got the impression that he hadn’t thought she would know what she was doing, and had been surprised to discover she was quite capable.

  “You surprise me, Miss Fields,” he told her that Friday evening as she was packing her things to leave for the night.

  “I do?” she asked, stopping what she was doing to look up at him. She noticed he had taken his glasses off, and she had an unobstructed view of his eyes, which was a rare occurrence. The scar that divided his left eyebrow caught her eye again, and she vowed someday to ask him how he’d gotten it.

  “You do. I had my doubts, but you’ve exceeded my expectations and proven yourself at every turn so far.”

  He stood in her doorway leading to the hall, waiting for her to follow so they could walk out together. They had stayed late that evening putting the finishing touches on a program design.

  “I don’t get why it’s so surprising. I’ve been studying computer technology since before I was even in high school. It’s just what I’ve always done, what I’ve always known.” My escape, she added silently.

  “Maybe. You just don’t strike me as the typical computer geek,” he admitted.

  “What does that mean?” she cried defensively. She thought she knew what, but part of her wanted to hear him say it.

  He stopped at the front exit with his hand on the door handle, but didn’t push it open yet. Instead, he angled around to face her and replied, “You’re much prettier than any computer geek I’ve ever met.”

  That shut her up for a moment. She stood, frozen in his glare, surprised by the candid response. Was he just being nice? She wasn’t sure, but the way he was looking at her wasn’t helping.

  She lowered her gaze from his eyes to his lips, and she wanted to reach up and brush her fingers across the barely noticeable scar there. She was close enough to, and something in the way he looked at her acted as a magnet, an invisible pull that called to her, beckoned her to come closer, to touch him.

  “I… guess I could say the same for you.”

  Shit! She just admitted he was much prettier than any computer geek she had ever met.

  “That you don’t strike me as the typical computer geek, I mean,” she corrected.

  He smiled. His arm lifted to touch the smooth, bare skin of her neck, and his thumb brushed the line of her jaw. His hand was so warm, it soothed her, and her instinct was to lean into it.

  Was he about to kiss her?

  She could feel the quickening of her heart at the very prospect of it. What would it be like to kiss him? Maybe the more pertinent question should have been, what would it be like after kissing him? Did she really want to?

  She knew she didn’t not want to, which admittedly scared the hell out of her. She couldn’t kiss her boss! Could she?

  She could feel her tongue dart out to moisten her lower lip, the flesh of which she scraped her top teeth across in a nervous motion. She swallowed. She was frozen in place, unable to move, unsure of what to do next.

  And then, the moment was over. Rayner’s hand was gone from her skin, and his eyes broke their connection from hers.

  “I suppose you’ve got me there,” he said. “Well, goodnight, Miss Fields. Enjoy your weekend.”

  He opened the door and allowed her to walk through it, but stayed behind to lock up.

  “Goodnight,” she said as she passed him going out the door. “See you on Monday.”

  ***

  Rogan closed the door behind Farren. His fists tightened and released at his sides b
efore he brought them up to scour his fingers through his dark hair. He blew out an unsteady breath and scraped his fingers over the stubble at his jaw. He had come so close to slipping, so close to acting on the thoughts that had been plaguing him for weeks.

  It was just one touch. One simple touch that threatened an avalanche, a snowball effect that he wasn’t sure he could stop once it got going. It was so hard to resist, but he knew he had to shut it down before it got to that, and somehow he did.

  He had been so close to taking her tight little body into his hands and doing things to her she’d be telling her friends about, comparing every other lover to that she’d ever take, for years to come. He could see the whole thing playing out in his mind as she had stood there looking longingly into his eyes. He knew she was always so careful around him, so reserved, but the way her pupils dilated every time he came near her was like a silent call, a secret wavelength pulsing hot desire straight to his cock.

  Every time she spoke of codecs, dynamic tessellation, or fucking sensoration with her hands balls deep in a motherboard, he found himself overcome with the overwhelming urge to clear the desk top of any stray objects and lean her over it, getting balls deep into her.

  He could have peeled that tight little sweater up and over her head, revealed the black lingerie he could see peeking out from the neckline at her shoulder.

  Her neck... exposed and delicate. He wanted to graze his teeth across its sensitive flesh while running his fingers beneath her bra to clamp her tight little nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, grinding his hardened length into her as he pressed her up against the wall, right here in his empty office building.

  He could imagine the sound of her whimpers and moans as he gave her all the pleasure she could withstand, imagined the look of rapture on her face as her body exploded with the intense, blissful sensations he wanted to inflict on her, over and over, until she begged him to stop.