Free To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set by Marian Tee

Janice said loudly behind her.
     
    Misty turned around in shock.
     
    “Are you serious?” Janice started to laugh.
     
    “Wh-what do you mean?” she stammered out, even though some part of her already knew what the other woman was about to say.
     
    “You have a crush on Domenico Moretti.” Janice’s voice rose. “I can’t believe it. Our little Misty Wall has the hots for --”
     
    “Stop it!” Misty cut the other woman off shakily, tensing as she felt people around her turning to look at them speculatively. She could feel them staring and, worse, laughing at her.
     
    “Or what?” Janice challenged. Her voice dropped a notch lower, oozing feigned sympathy as she spoke. “Oh, honey, be reasonable, why don’t you? Whatever reason you were called – it won’t make the impossible possible. Domenico Moretti would never take someone like you to bed.”
     
    Janice took a step closer to her, and Misty instinctively stepped back before she could think about it. At the triumph flashing in Janice’s hard blue eyes, Misty wished she could undo what she did and stand her ground instead.
     
    “Maybe you think you can be the next Kim Kardashian with those curves,” Janice said as she dealt Misty’s figure a disparaging glance. “But trust me. You’re part of a dying breed and only losers would think you’re not fat.”
     
    Before she could stop herself, Misty shot back, “I may be fat in your eyes, but at least I don’t need to have an affair with a dirty old man to earn a living.”
     
    For a moment, Misty and Janice gaped at each other in shock. Misty had uttered the words in a soft voice, low enough for only Janice to hear, but they both knew that didn’t matter.
     
    Visibly recovering, Janice snarled, “Why, you--”
     
    Misty’s courage abruptly deserted her at the sight of murderous wrath on Janice’s face. She half-ran toward the elevators, knowing that she had just made an enemy for life.
     
    Oh, shick.
     
    This was not what she had envisioned today would bring at all.
     
     
     
    Six long, dragging hours later, Misty was counting the minutes before she could leave work and hand in her resignation letter. It was official. It was impossible for her to work for Moretti Inc. any longer. If near poverty hadn’t made her the practical sort, she would have just upped and left without looking back the moment Janice had declared war on Misty, sniping at her for everyone to hear every chance she got.
     
    Misty was the practical sort and her mind told her it would be stupid to give up her daily wages just to save her pride. As she had learned early in life, pride never gave one a full stomach or a warm and comfortable bed to enjoy at night.
     
    Quietly making her way to the photocopying machines in the corner of the office, Misty unintentionally overheard two clerks talking while enjoying a cigarette break near the windows.
     
    “No kidding? On her knees, you said?” the brunette with a mole on her cheek said.
     
    “She saw it with her own two eyes,” the blonde woman whom Misty vaguely recalled as Hannah answered feelingly with an emphatic nod. “Misty Wall was giving William Grant a blowjob and he hated it--”
     
    “What did you say?” Misty whispered, feeling herself go pale.
     
    The two women turned to her in shock and dismay, but Hannah suddenly lifted her chin and said, “I’m not saying anything that’s not true.”
     
    “But it isn’t true!” she cried out.
     
    “Of course you’d say that. But I heard it directly from Janice and William themselves.” Hannah tossed her a scornful glance. “Of all the men in this company, you’re such a jealous little slut you had to try to take William away from Janice.”
     
    “He’s married, for God’s sake!”
     
    Hannah turned her back on Misty. “Save your innocent act for someone who’s stupid enough to think it’s real.”
     
     
     
    Bingo!
     
    Domenico pressed the button that made the panel hiding the CCTV