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"Why would you do that?"

"Because you seeht be caffeine deprivation It is 7:30 arin as his brow furrowed "Then again, " Biting his upper lip, Mr Asshole Matt Jones had the balls to hide a laugh As if she were supposed to be eht As if she were Anastasia Steele As if –

"Let s up for you, Matt," she announced Finally There she was The real Lydia, the one who didn’t take shit like this Attagirl "First of all, I don’t care what HR did with the parking situation I won’t take your word for it, because for all I know you’re soet out ofout hole and lower lotion to me in a bucket, and three months from now you’ll mail dehydrated parts of my body to my mother"

She took a deep breath and continued "Second, if you really are the Director of Social Media, kicking your direct report out of her parking spot when you haven’t even started your first day of work shows such extraordinarily terrible business instinct that I suspect you won’t be around long enough to qualify for the h your precious head office"

Eyebrows arched, now he did lean away And cross his ar too hard to control her breath, trying not to let hi Anderson Cooper But straight

Oh please let hiht, then mentally slapped herself Where did that come from?

He leaned in theand reached for a strand of her hair "Sorry, babe Chianti and fava beans aren’t on theedible, I wouldn’t choose a dehydrator as my electronic item of choice" His eyes surveyed her body, not anton lust or the gaudy need of a co his ti of the world As if he owned her

As if he owned his ti to docuht skirt that stretched across her knees in her seat, shoes kicked off and hose covering her pedicured toes She could feel him note the seam of her panties, like a collector of fine wines, or of horses, as if she were a specis filled with the scent of his skin, as if eager to inhale his dust, the lines between his eyes, the light freckles on his cheeks, the intelligence in his irises

He was cataloging her Taking inventory

Until her own, defiant gaze caught his and she realized he wasn’t objectifying her She was letting herself think that, but what this guy, this Matt Jones, this interloper and usurper of jobs, was really doing was appreciating her

And that aydeet to wash your hands when you’re done with that" He let go of her lock and pointed at the book Turning on one heel, he sauntered off, his tight ass evoking a swoon in her that nearly e and lust

The day was not going well at all as she stewed in her Red Car of Pain And then she scrambled out as soon as the doors closed on Mr Job Stealer, because she needed to get upstairs and see what his next move was

No one ever came into work as early as Lydia Her daily 7 a that helped preserve her sanity Just having that extra hour, hour and a half, before people trickled in et her work done, could browse the web, take care of her personal issues like bills or ordering things online and generally carve out a tiny little piece of ti it cool, she stood in front of the fleet of elevators, pressing the button for the one that covered her floor, and wondered where he was By the tiot to her cubicle she realized he wasn’t there yet, probably in Huance He carried it like a stick, poking people with it

Stockinged feet propped up on her desk, leaning back on her ergono it improperly, with the first volume of Fifty Shades of Grey opened wide in her hands, she let herself sink into the plot Uh, yeah – the plot It’s not that the book was particularly co, or that it was particularly ritten, it was the hottest trigger in publishing in ages, and she needed to practicallyon – one that et her prouy’s job

Damn it

A muffled tap tap tap announced his presence as he pseudo-knocked on the cloth-covered wall of her cubicle He was theasshole she’d seen in the past two years And the only reason she knew it had been two years was because two years ago, right after she’d been hired, she had actually met the CEO of the company, Michael Bournham