Hypnotic Seduction (The Seduction Series) (15 page)

“No thank you. What is it you want from me?”

“Nothing too big. I just need you to hire—”

“No! You are not coming anywhere near my company.”

“Not me, silly. My cousin, Nora Hughes. She’s a research lab technician. It’s a shame she didn’t become a chemist. She’s actually quite brilliant. Anyway, with the economy in the crapper, she was laid off, and her unemployment benefits are about to run out.”

“And how is
this
my
problem?”

“Well, if you can’t do this teensy-weensy favor for me….” She let her words hang, no doubt to let him imagine the worst she could do to him. They both knew full well she had the ammunition to destroy him.

“If you swear never to call me again, your cousin can start tomorrow. Have her come to my office at nine a.m.”

ig•
no•rance
  n. The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed. Such a person is an ignoramus.

There are a few things a woman is better off not knowing—that her boss is the master of multiple orgasms is one of them. In other words, ignorance really is bliss.

“You have to be kidding.” Callie slapped her hand over her mouth and coughed, evidently choking on a bite of food. She gasped for air and then sipped her drink. “You kissed him?”

“
Shhhh
!” Hannah glanced around at the other tables in the main building’s cafeteria. “I don’t want the whole company talking about us.”

“If Chuck interrupted you, they probably already are.”

“You haven’t heard any gossip, have you? Jordan asked him to be discreet and to erase the surveillance tape.”

“No. And if he’s the only one who saw it, I wouldn’t worry too much. He knows JC will realize who leaked the news if it gets around.”

“I sure hope you’re right. To be honest, things got a little hotter than just a kiss.”

Callie drained her glass and sighed. “Do you think if I laid a wet one on Bryce—
”

“
No
. You’d probably find yourself looking for a new job. I’m lucky I’m not.”

“You’re right. Especially after what Renee pulled.”

“Yeah—let’s talk about
that
.” Hannah narrowed her gaze at Callie. “You’ve been holding out on me. Why didn’t you tell me what Jordan’s date did at the Christmas party?”

“JC mentioned it?”

“Yes, and he also told me about the cartoon that was e-mailed around afterward.”

Callie stifled a sputter. “
Oh-my-gosh
. I’m sorry. If I’d said anything, I would’ve been as bad as the rest of those piranhas.” She squinted at Hannah. “Did he tell you the details?”

“Details?”

“Like that fake marketing ad included JC’s so-called
model specifications
. It listed some pretty explicit information about our illustrious CEO’s anatomy and performance in bed.”

“He mentioned something about that. The women must’ve really pumped his date.”

“Not really. I was in the
ladies
room, and believe me, April didn’t need anyone to egg her on. She was quite descriptive about his awe-inspiring equipment.”

“Just how, uhh, awe-inspiring are we talking?” Hannah asked, encouraging her friend to spill her guts. After all, if the whole rest of the company knew everything there was to know about Jordan, why shouldn’t she?

Callie surreptitiously glanced around their table and waggled eight fingers, lowering her voice to just above a whisper. “Or possibly a little more. And evidently not scrawny, either. But his date was bragging, so she may have blown his size out of proportion.”

After seeing her boss aroused in his gym shorts, Hannah doubted the woman had exaggerated his so-called
proportion
by much. “So what else did she say about him?”

“When someone asked her if she minded sharing Jordan with other women, April simply shrugged and said, ‘Why should I? He always has plenty left for me. Besides, it would be selfish to keep him all to myself.’ Then she announced to everyone in the
ladies
room—and I quote—‘
Sex with Jordan Calder is like having an entire high school football team in your bed. He has the stamina of an electric eff-ing machine
.’”

“A what?” Hannah did a double take.

“Well, April actually used the four-letter word.”

Her mind wrapped itself around the kinky notion of a motorized contraption that simulated copulation. Hannah shivered and squirmed in her seat. “Does a piece of equipment like that actually exist?”

Oh, jeez. Did she sound as eager to her friend as she did to her own ears?

“Probably.” Callie laughed. “Sounds pretty good, huh?”

Judging from the way Hannah’s insides had throbbed and wept at the mental image, one part of her evidently wondered if a machine like that might do it for her. Since her hypnosis, she’d turned into an absolute pervert.

Callie sipped her drink. “With all the deviants in this world, I’m sure someone has invented one by now and is making a fortune on the Internet.”

“So that’s what inspired the Calder Love Machine cartoon?”

“Exactly.” Callie continued in a whisper, “And then April told everyone that, in addition to keeping it up half the night, Jordan was the most gifted lover she’d ever been with. Little did she know she’d already ruined things for herself when she opened her big yap and told the whole world what a stud he
is.
”

As someone who had never experienced an orgasm, Hannah would’ve been much better off not knowing about her boss’s gift for pleasing his partners.

Shaking her head, she stabbed her fork into her salad. “No wonder every woman in this company wants a turn in his bed. And they say
men
are crude and interested in only one thing. He must’ve been mortified.”

“And furious. But, hey,”—Callie spread her hands—“he sort of had it coming to him. The afternoon he stormed into Bryce’s office, waving that cartoon, Bryce told JC straight out that if he was going to limit himself to sleeping with women who are only interested in sex, he had to expect to be objectified.”

“So what’d Jordan say?”

“What could he say? Bryce was right. It’s one of the things I admire most about JC. When someone calls him on his B.S., he’s not above taking a big sniff and admitting when he’s full of it. I’m just surprised he told you about it.”

So was Hannah. The fact that sparing her ego had obviously been more important to him than keeping his humiliation a secret touched something deep inside her. His sensitivity made her ashamed of pushing Callie to gossip about him and his impressive pecker.

“We really shouldn’t be talking about this.” Hannah glanced at her watch. “Besides, I’d better get back upstairs. Jordan went out for a haircut.” Even though his two phone lines
were covered
by voice mail, she hated leaving his extensions unattended during office hours. “I should use what’s left of my lunch hour to study before my final exam tonight, anyway.”

“Okay. But remember, tomorrow’s payday,” Callie reminded her. “Why don’t we go to the mall and shop for some new clothes for you after work?”

“I’d like to, but I have another appointment with Diana. Then I have to pick up my grandmother. She’s having the hardwood floor in her foyer and hallway refinished so she’s staying with me tomorrow night. How about Friday? I have an appointment to get my hair trimmed, but I can reschedule it.”

“Okay.” Callie waved. “It’s a date.”

Hannah turned to go collect Jordan’s lunch from the food counter and saw Hank only a few yards away. She waved, praying he hadn’t overheard her offer to rearrange her plans. She didn’t want him to be hurt that shopping was more of a priority to her than dating him.

“We’re still on for next Thursday?” He smiled at her as she passed him.

“You bet. I can’t wait.”

Liar. She’d nearly forgotten all about it.

It was bad enough her boss’s smile could practically put her into cardiac arrest. Now Callie’s titillating disclosure had Hannah’s head busy conjuring up all sorts of provocative mental pictures of Jordan’s spectacular body entwined with hers.

On her return to her office, she found the outer doors to the executive suite unlocked, which meant her boss must have already returned.

Bryce nearly plowed into her, striding out of Jordan’s door nibbling a chocolate chip/macadamia nut cookie and smuggling out two more of another variety in his hand. “Sorry.” He glanced down at the contraband in his palm and chuckled. “Have I ever mentioned how much I love you?”

She looked pointedly at his treat-filled hand and rolled her eyes. “What you love is my
baking
.”

“That, too.” Bryce winked at her and took Jordan’s egg salad platter. “You know what they say about the way to a man’s heart.” He set the plate down on her desk and then slid an arm around her shoulder. “Why don’t you
come
work for me instead of that slave-driver in there?”

“The slave-driver heard that,” Jordan yelled out to him. “Stop trying to steal my assistant.”

“What about Callie?” Hannah asked. “She types even faster than I do.”

“I’ll keep her, too. She can file and type while you make coffee and bring me lunch.”

She shoved him out the door into the hallway, laughing. “How about I just share my cookie recipes with her?”

Bryce staggered and clutched his chest, calling back over his shoulder in a bad Humphrey Bogart impression, “I’m wounded, sweetheart. You talk as if you think I’m just after your goodies.”

What a charmer. No wonder Callie was crazy about him. Shaking her head, Hannah closed the door and found a glossy brochure on her desk from an ultra-luxury, all-suite cruise line. Clipped to the cover was a booking receipt in excess of thirty grand for two passengers on an eleven-night cruise to Alaska—in one of the Royal suites, no less.

All sorts of possibilities flitted through her imagination, kicking her pulse up to a gallop. There was only one way to find out why Jordan had left it there. She scooped up his lunch plate and marched into his office, waving the sales magazine. “What’s this?”

“It’s a brochure.”

“I can see that.” She tossed the magazine onto his blotter. “Why was it on my desk and why is there a receipt attached to it?”

“I booked a cruise for you and your grandmother.”

There went her fantasy of him taking her on a romantic vacation and having his way with her.

“You’ll have to call the travel agent and let her know what sailing date you prefer and give her all the vital information on the two of you.”

“Why on earth would you do something so extravagant?” She laid his plastic wrapped salad platter on his desk.

“I have an even better question. What would possess you to pay for my lunch for an entire month?”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“Then why did you?”

“I told you. Once I started bringing the food to you, I couldn’t think of a graceful way to ask for the money. I figured you’d eventually realize I’d laid out the cash, and you’d pay me back. So that was a
loan
. It’s not the same thing.”

“No, you’re right, it’s not. I can easily afford that cruise and ten more like it. By your own admission, you’ve been scrimping just to get by.”

Her mouth hung open as she searched for the words to counter his statement.

“Besides,” he said, smiling, “I had to do something to shake my
moneygrubber image
as CEO of a big drug company.”

“You know I don’t think that about—”

“Hannah, I’m teasing. I just wanted to do something nice for you. You were incredible at the meeting yesterday.”

“But the raise was more than—”

“You earn that every day. Your work is flawless. The cruise is an apology for assuming those were typos in the quarterly report and a thank you for all the extra things you do for me.” He swept his hand around his office. “The cookies, the plants, my lunch. Since you started working here, I haven’t had to sharpen a pencil, wash a coffee mug, or refill my stapler. I just wanted you to know I’ve noticed and appreciate the way you look after me. And I’d like you to be able to spend the raise I gave you on something for yourself—maybe a new car.”

“So then this cruise wasn’t meant as—” She bit her lip.

“As what?” He picked up the brochure, his gaze narrowing. “You think this is some sort of consolation because I slammed on the brakes Friday?”

That was exactly what she’d thought.

The roll of his eyes made it clear her suspicions
were written
all over her face. “My tactical retreat was not a rejection, so I have no reason to console you.”

It had sure felt like one.

Until two minutes ago, Hannah had been determined to keep their relationship strictly professional. But that was before her imagination had run off, chasing romantic fantasies of gazing up at the moon with Jordan on a luxury cruise ship while he used his
studly
body to show her what she’d been missing.

Good Lord. Was she as bad as all those other women who objectified him? Was she really ready to chuck all her principals to have a man as dynamic and gorgeous as him make love to her just once in her life?

Maybe.

In her own defense, she genuinely liked and respected Jordan. If he showed even the slightest interest in having a real relationship with her, she wouldn’t care if he was a complete dud in bed.

And what if she were destined to end up married to another
guy
like Kevin who had the sensuality of a bookend? Before she settled down with
Mr. Humdrum
, didn’t she owe it to herself to discover the other side of the peak she’d started to climb so many times without ever getting close to the top?

Knowing Callie’s firm belief in following life’s road signs, her friend would undoubtedly insist it was no coincidence that Hannah, the poster-child for the sexually frustrated, should end up working for a man who allegedly could win an Olympic gold medal in copulating—
if there were such an event
. Callie would argue that Hannah was clearly
destined
to go to bed with her talented boss.