Page 19 of Bossman

“It is.”

“Works both ways then. Before and after office hours, I can say whatever is on my mind as well. That’s a game you might want to rethink playing with me.” He pushed thirty-three and leaned closer. “Wanna know what’s on my mind right now? I can shut my eyes and describe the visual in detail, if you’d like.”

The elevator was suddenly very small. And hot. Very damn hot.

Just as the doors were about to close, a man in a suit stopped them and joined us. He grumbled something unintelligible and hit twenty-two.

Chase backed up a little and cleared his throat. “You’ll need to use that service door before six-thirty and after eight.”

“Okay.”

In the tiny confines of the padded service elevator, Chase stood far enough away that it seemed normal, yet close enough that I could smell him. And he smelled incredible, woodsy and clean, which had me thinking… He probably doesn’t get up and bathe just to go for a run. So that smell is how he wakes up in the morning? Damn. For some strange reason, I got a visual of Chase in the middle of the woods chopping down a tall oak. He was wearing jeans (with the top button left open, of course) and work boots, sans shirt.

Being this close to him had me losing my mind. I turned my head. “Do you have a cabin in the woods, by chance?”

He looked amused. “I don’t. Do I need one?”

“Never mind.”

Once we arrived on the floor, Chase gave me a quick tour. As we walked, I could feel the passion he had for his company while he gave me a brief overview of each department we passed. I’d lost flirty Chase and met CEO Chase Parker, and I liked him just as much.

He was so smart and fervent that I hadn’t even noticed we’d spent more than an hour in the product development lab until people started coming in to start their workday. Chase showed me each product and gave me its history. When he came to the last product, Divine Wax, he left out some of the details Sam had filled me in about—namely, how The Pampered Pussy kept him busy getting laid through most of college.

“You should take home one of every product and try them out,” he said.

“Already bought them all over the weekend and pampered myself a little. I want to use each one before attempting to do anything marketing-related with them.”

“And?”

“I think it’s interesting that such lovely products are developed by a man.”

“What can I tell you? I’m in touch with my feminine side.”

“Hmmm…I heard you utilized your products to get in touch with the feminine side in college.”

Chase raised an eyebrow. “I see I have to keep you away from Sam.”

“But she’s such a wealth of knowledge.”

His hand returned to the small of my back and guided me out of the product development lab. “That’s the problem.”

We walked to the marketing department side by side. “How long have you two known each other?”

“Middle school.”

“Wow. As far back as we go, huh?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t her I was sucking face with in that hallway outside the gym.”

A young guy walked out of the first office in the marketing department just as we passed. He was handsome, in an I-just-left-the-frat-house-and-scored-my-first-real-job type of adorable way.

Chase stopped and introduced me. “Reese, this is Travis. He’s IT for marketing—does all of our SEO and web optimization.”

He shook my hand with a goofy smile. “Please tell me she works here.”

“She does.”

“Damn, I love my job.”