Page 23 of Handling the Boss

My heart pinched for him as I read through the lines. “Because you’d never had a home of your own?” I guessed.

He looked at me in surprise. “Yeah. I got my house and I threw myself into fixing it up, and between that and working, I was perfectly content with my life. But then a few years ago, my friends started falling in love. I saw George fall for Cassie, and then Lillian met Martin and they got married, and I started thinking I wanted that someday too. I wanted someone to come home to, someone to share the house I worked so hard to renovate. I had a lot of first dates, and a few second dates, but no one seemed right.”

He stopped on the sidewalk and pinned me with an intense look. “Until I met you.”

My heart started pounding in my chest so hard I wondered if Jim could hear it.

“Tell me you’ll give me a chance to prove that I’m your soulmate, Jordan.”

Jim had been open and honest with me, and I couldn’t do anything different.

“I already believe that I’m your soulmate, Jim, as impossible as it seems. And it’s a good thing too because I’m pretty sure that you’re mine too.”

He gave me a big smile. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“In that case there’s one more thing I need to tell you,” he said, his face breaking out in a huge smile.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“You’re no longer my boss. I transferred back to my old job this morning.”

“What? Why?”

“So there’d be nothing else keeping us apart, even for one more day.”

Jim

“Who’s going to drive my forklift then?”

I couldn’t decipher Jordan’s expression.

“Leo’s going to fill in for me the last two weeks,” I said. “I already got it approved by David, talked to them both this morning.”

“What did you tell David?” she asked, looking a little nervous.

“I told him the truth. That I had feelings for you and wanted to ask you out, but I didn’t want to show disrespect by asking you while you were my supervisor.”

“What did he say about that?” she asked curiously.

“He laughed and said, ‘give it your best shot, kid’. I’m sure he figures you’re going to shoot me down. The joke’s going to be on him when he gets an invitation to our wedding.”

“Our wedding?” she squeaked. “Let’s dial this back a bit, okay? We haven’t even slept together yet.”

“There’s no time like the present.” I took her hand, lacing her fingers with mine, and led her back to my house. “I mean, if you’re ready.”

She squeezed my fingers. “I’m more than ready. I’ve been burning out my vibrator since the first day I met you.”

Her eyes widened and she let out a little gasp, as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“Let’s just take our time, okay?” I suggested. “We don’t have to do anything today if you need more time to adjust to the idea.”

I was nervous that she might find new reasons to push me away if we moved too fast. But as soon as we walked into my house, she started dragging me towards my bedroom.

“Fuck taking time,” she said firmly. “I want you. Now.”

When we crossed the threshold to the bedroom, Jordan shocked the hell out of me by pulling her dress over her head and tossing it onto a chair. She stood in front of me in plain blue panties and a lighter blue bra that barely contained her generous breasts. With her long red hair flowing down her shoulders, she looked like a pagan goddess.