The open heat from his gaze warmed her from the pit of her stomach all the way through her body, curling her toes. She shouldn’t be having feelings like this for her boss. No matter who he was, she shouldn’t be this affected by him.
“Is that all, Sir?” she asked.
“Yes. For now.”
She left him and made sure to close the door quietly. Without thought, she went about her duties at work. The pounding of her heart made her question her sensibilities.
Chapter Two
Richard watched her leave. His c**k was hard and throbbed against the tight, confined trousers he wore. Would he be able to f**k his fist before anyone interrupted him? Shaking his head at the uselessness of his thoughts, he moved a few bits around on his desk. Opal had gone to get some breakfast and a fizzy drink while he dealt with his morning calls.
A click of a button and his computer fired up. His inbox was packed with queries from clients and other colleagues. He hated being a lawyer at times. Most of his cases dealt with married couples or marital disputes, but occasionally he did other styles of law, mainly within family law.
Scarlet was a distraction he could no longer risk. While she had stood in front of his desk and mentioned the father of her child, he had wanted to reach out and take her in his arms.
He had visualised f**king her over or on every surface in his office. She’d look f**king beautiful laid across his desk with her thighs splayed open. He wondered what her juicy cunt would taste like. Did she wax? Or was she a full, real woman with a neatly trimmed bush?
He ran a hand over his face. The lustful thoughts did nothing to compose him in starting his day.
Harry, the kid, put a spanner in the works. The contract he’d planned to use to get her in his bed would be null and void with a kid. Before today he could imagine she didn’t have a child. Richard had thought of her as a single woman with no responsibilities and no one waiting at home. Harry was her son, and Richard saw in her eyes the devotion and love she felt for the small boy.
He slammed his fist against the desk.
“Damn it.”
Lost, that’s what I am. Fucking lost. Women came to him begging. If not for his good looks then certainly for his money. Richard Shaw came from a billionaire family. His grandfather had started up in the boating business, and when his father took over the boats turned to hotel chains until everything with a Shaw label or copyright stamp was paying money.
The small boy had struck a chord inside Richard. The boy had sandy hair so like his mother’s with a small button nose, and he had smiled. The little boy had smiled at him. So much trust in an infant. He remembered what it was like to put his trust in another person. A woman, he had a distant memory of a woman in his childhood who’d been more like a mother to him than his real one. Like all the other nannies and people he knew, she eventually had left.
He pulled the contract out of his briefcase and thought of Harry and Scarlet. Without giving himself time to process his thoughts, he brought up her employment details. The need inside him was getting harder to ignore. He couldn’t just invite her on a date. She was an employee, after all.
The details on her form were not great. Female, never been married. No current next of kin. Scarlet, according to the minute information, was alone in this world. An emergency note lay at the bottom. Richard recognised the doctor. An old friend from high school. While Wayne, Tony and he had kept in touch from their circle of friends, a few others had gone off and formed their own paths. John Barnes had been much older than them but still one of their friends. A pediatrician.
He picked up the phone and dialled the number on the form. Adrenaline was running through his veins.
“John Barnes, pediatrician, how may I help?” The man picked up on the first ring.
“John, buddy, how are you doing?”
“Well I’ll be damned. This can only be one of three people I know, Richard, Wayne or Tony.”
“Richard,” he said with a laugh.
“How are you doing?”
He enjoyed catching up with a very old friend. They talked about the intervening years and what they’d gotten up to. Richard learned his friend was married with a few kids of his own.
“I take it this isn’t a social call,” John finally said.
“I’ve got a new employee, and it lists your name as an emergency contact for her son. From an old friend to an old friend, what’s wrong with her son?” he asked.
“Richard, I can’t discuss a client with you.”
“The name of Scarlet Hughes.”
“For f**k’s sake. Leave that poor girl alone. She has enough to contend with. If I know you then I know you’ve got some f**king plan in mind.”
“I take it the boy is bad?”
His friend cut him off and eventually hung up. It didn’t matter because after doing some investigating of his own on the internet from the medical words in her employee file Richard discovered her son suffered with asthma.
The medications would cost through the roof.
Richard hated his plan, but he had just thought of the perfect way to make his contract work.
As the day progressed, Richard got through his work with Opal appearing every now and again. He noted she spent a lot of time at Scarlet’s desk. A spark of jealousy struck him when he saw Scarlet laughing at something Opal said.
His parents’ driver arrived around five in the afternoon to take her home. He waited while she hugged Scarlet and then him before going with the driver.
Other colleagues were beginning to leave.
A knock sounded at his door, distracting him. Scarlet stood with several files in hand.
“Hey,” he said, sitting up and stretching out the muscles in his back.
“I’ve got the files on the Temple divorce.”
“Come and put them on my desk,” he said to her. Richard got up, intent on working out the kinks in his exhausted body. “I’m sorry about my sister and earlier today.”
“No problems. Opal is a lovely young woman, and in all fairness people who see me with a child get quite a shock.” She bowed her head and made to move away.
He panicked. Richard didn’t want her leaving so soon.
“Why?”
“Sorry?”
“Why did you have a child so early?” he asked. He was not sure why he was taking such an interest when he intended to have this woman anyway.
“Let’s just say I got it handed to me and had no other way out.” A red blush stained her cheeks, and he could read how uncomfortable she’d become.
“Well, Opal sure likes you. She could use a role model right now.” He thought of his sister’s earlier comment about a diet. Scarlet was a full, gorgeous woman. She wouldn’t need to diet.