Free The Temp by A. K Cates

worse than normal, as if it had never happened. Maybe it was better this way, having things end before they even began, she’d go back to Trigger as his temp and things would return back to normal. Blackmail normal. She hadn’t been called upon; she was beginning to think they wouldn’t need her after all.
    “Eve, can you come into my office?” Roman said over the phone.
    “Yes,” this was it. Her heart thumped wildly as she got up. She wore a tight fitted silver pencil skirt and satin grey blouse, her dull grey blazer hung over the back of the chair. Melinda, Roman’s permanent secretary was coming back tomorrow, so it was truly her last day. These last two weeks she’d worked hard and enjoyed the way Roman was around her. He’d turned over a new leaf in staring at her in his way. There was intrigue there and Eve couldn’t help fantasize at night what it might be like to throw everything down the line for him. Her palm squeezed over the door handle.
    Roman always phrased his words in polite questions without ever an inflection at the end, he was never truly asking, simply telling her politely. Her body shivered feeling his eyes skim over her, finally resting on her face. 
    Eve had waited so long for this talk; so long.
    The electricity was hot and static in the air between them. Naturally she would either go back to Trigger or not have a job. Naturally. Though having an underlying mission meant she’d probably go back to Trigger. She didn’t know how she could work for him knowing she’d always be thinking of Roman Pierce, the man one floor above her, if not right above her.
    The idea of permanence flitted through her mind again, of Jack and Trisha, of a future she wasn’t entitled to. There was no way she could ask. The timing didn’t feel right. So she took her time sauntering into his office.
    If this was it, it would be the best and last of everything. Her hips swayed, her daring smile met his and his face was shadowed, hooded. She moved slowly into the room never straying from his gaze. It was bold, completely beyond what she was capable of. It was her last day. So she could be bold. She could be out of her comfort zone. She could be more than she’d been before. More. A fleeting hope.
    Eve stood before him.
    Roman motioned to the opposite seat with a flick of his hand. Her smile tugged. She sat, folded her legs at an angle so as to show him the full length of them. Oh, how it was daring. She’d imagined this day for so long she knew everything she would do down to the very last intimate detail. In her dreams she was always brave, braver. Her heart raced all the while, the adrenaline surging, making it so much more delicious. This was her brazen self, the part of her she’d always kept hidden, almost non-existent.
    “How have you been doing these last few weeks?” he opened up with. 
    Eve frowned and recovered quickly tugging it back into a sweet smile. It was such a guarded question she didn’t know how to respond. Was he testing her? “You’re a good boss. The work is interesting”-Eve trailed off.
    “As you know, Melinda originally took a three week holiday,” Roman began and even if they’d had the talk about her not wanting his attention in his way , his eyes still trailed up her legs. He wetted his lips. Her spine shivered. Eve was barely listening as her face lit up and set on him and her hand travelled down her thigh resting there, waiting.
    “Eve?”
    “What?” she blinked, she hadn’t been listening.
    “I said are you ok to stay on another week?”
    “What?” Eve straightened up as if a bucket of iced water had been thrown on her. What? He wasn’t going to send her back to Trigger or have her packing? And if he didn’t do that, then they couldn’t…couldn’t…be together. Did he even want her in that way? Oh, god. She’d been so stupid, so naïve. 
    “Can you stay another week?” he said again.
    No, it really was all in her head, all this time. The kiss…