Free Revenge Sex by Jasmine Haynes

notice.”
    “Just packed up his stuff and left.”
    “He said this place sucked.”
    “Are you sure he didn’t actually get
fired?”
    That’s what Jessica wanted to know. Funny
thing, Ruby had called in sick today. Did Clay have anything to do
with all this?
    In the end, Jessica couldn’t help herself;
she went straight to the horse’s mouth, Bradley’s manager, popping
into his office next door. “Is it true?”
    Greg Stevens lifted his head out of his hands
and stared at her morosely. With short blond hair, pale blue eyes,
and cherubic cheeks, he was very Scandinavian. His characteristic
smile was absent this morning.
    “I’m going to kill him,” he muttered. His
desk was a clutter of folders and binders that had begun to migrate
to the round meeting table in the corner by the window. The
computer keyboard was buried somewhere beneath the mess, his inbox
stacked twelve inches high, and three of the file drawers on his
credenza were open as if he’d recently torn through them.
    “Guess it’s true then,” she sympathized.
Finance and budgeting was a two-man department. Greg had lost fifty
percent of his workforce. “What happened?” It had to have been
Clay.
    “I swear that kid must have been in at the
crack of dawn.” Greg shook his head. “He cleaned out his cubicle
and shoved a resignation letter under my door.”
    Jessica wanted to be controller. She felt she
was more qualified. Greg was intimate with the workings of every
department, but he didn’t have the equity background, fixed asset
knowledge, or payroll expertise that she did. Still, having his
only employee quit on him was a raw deal.
    “Did he say why?”
    Greg laughed without the least bit of humor
in it. “He wrote that he was quitting due to a hostile work
environment.” He slapped both hands to his chest and jutted his
head at her. “Do I look hostile?”
    “Not in the least.” In fact, Greg had bent
over backward making excuses for Bradley’s crappy work product.
That was another strike against him as controller. Employees needed
to have expectations put on them, and there had to be consequences
if they didn’t perform.
    Greg simply continued shaking his head. “I
called him, but his phone went to voicemail. I hope he’s all
right.”
    Trust Greg to wor ry about
the guy. He’s a complete asshole, and most likely he quit
because he was afraid Clay was going to fire him. But she
commiserated. “I’m sure he’s fine. Did you fill out a requisition
for a new financial analyst?”
    He nodded. “Thank God he didn’t do this in
the middle of the budget process.”
    Greg had probably done the majority of the
work anyway. “If you need any help on the quarter-end analysis, let
me know.”
    He waved his thanks.
    She stood for a moment outside her office
door. It was chicken not to check in with Clay as well. She’d done
nothing else but think about what happened between them on
Saturday. What did it mean? How would it change things? Her worst
thought was that he’d pretend it hadn’t happened.
    But facing him? Well, that was going to take
a bit of courage, too. If she didn’t want to clean out her desk,
leave her resignation under his door, and slither away like Bradley
had done, she was going to have to suck it up.
     
     

Chapter Nine
     
     
    Leaning back in his chair, Clay was reading a
sheaf of papers. Jessica’s heart rolled over in her chest. She’d
always found him attractive, but now it made her ache to look at
him. It was good, it was bad. She almost wished she’d never seen
Ruby, never begged Clay to touch her. Fantasy was so much
easier.
    She knocked on the doorjamb. He laid down the
papers. “Jessica, come in.”
    She managed a few steps inside without
tripping or otherwise looking like a lovesick idiot. “I heard about
Bradley, and I’ve told Greg I can help out on any of the
quarter-end analysis.”
    “I’m sure Greg appreciated that. Close the
door and have a seat.”
    She could feel her blood