Free Starting Over (A Motorcycle Club BDSM Dark Romance) by Olivia Kobblestone Page B

He was in great physical shape, if just a little haggard around the edges. Grey coming in at his temples. Maybe he was fifteen years older than her 23, or so, but he looked good.
    Really damn good.
    “Sorry, I didn’t mean…”
    “To be late, or to come in here and take a job that could have gone to someone more deserving? Look this shit is serious. Working in a shop means you need to be aware and around all the time.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “ Just last fucking week I had to lift a damn bike off a kid who wasn’t careful. We need someone here to call 911”. Look, I’m trying you out as a favor to Cynthia, I made a promise, but I don’t like someone who I didn’t interview coming into my building, and acting like a damn blonde. You know your way around files? You know anything about secretarial duties?”
    She did, in fact she worked as a secretary all through college part-time at a small family run legal firm. And she was good at it.
    Tessa nodded, “Yes sir, I have experience.”
    “Good, Lucy’s been gone for month and a half and I can’t get a damn secretary that knows what the hell she is going. I need someone who does. So get your ass in here and get to work. I’ve got invoices com in’ out of my ears to deal with, and so many papers are lost that Cynthia is going to skin me alive. Shit, plus I’ve got my own shit to run outside of this damn business .” He relented, putting his coffee down. “Not to mention I have to deal with all these shit heads who don’t know their ass from their damn elbow. Fucking prospects.”
    Prospects?
    “You ever tried trainin’ total idiots ones who have nothing more than a slip of paper from a high school vetch? It is like they’re actively trying ’ to get hurt. I don’t got the damn time to deal with all this shit. Now I have the bullshit of being told who my assistant is going to be, no offense. I need to get the hell out of here.”  He ruffled his thick shoulder length hair and walked over to the door.
    Ryker grabbed his hat from the hook on the wall and put it on his head. “I’ll be out in the shop, got an important bike I’m meant tone working on. Do you think you could handle the invoices on my desk? And take any calls that might come in. If it’s Cynthia, tell her to go fuck herself, politely, and if it ain’t, don’t be polite. I like her.”
    He was gone, leaving her all alone in the middle of the office with piles and piles of papers, and no idea how to organize them.
    Yeah, this wasn’t a recipe for disaster. She blew out a breath and got to work, the only way this was going to fix it was if  she had a magic wand, and that wasn’t going to happen. Instead she dug in deep and looked through the entire filing system. It was mostly intact. Knowing that, she got to work quickly, trying to organize and sort just about everything she could.
    It helped to have a job. It helped not to think about Damon, about all the things he did to her, and most importantly, it helped to be thousands of miles from him. To a place where he couldn’t touch her.
    Hours must have gone by, just her, files, and her desire to forget him, before Ryker came back in, slamming the door.
    “What the hell?” His voice echoed out. She shot up from being bent down, the open drawer above her catching her head with a loud bang.
    “Dammit, ow.” She held her head and pulled it out, standing while fingering her soon to be goose egg gingerly.
    “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so… clean… in here.” Was that sheepishness she detected?
    “I reorganized everything, then I went ahead and cleaned the office, it was a stye.”
    Ryker crossed the room and grabbed her, checking her head over. It felt a little intrusive, but sweet. He was seriously concerned. “It looks like you’ll have a bit of a lump, but nothing serious. You okay?”
    “Yeah, I should have been more careful. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, and this is nothing.” It really as nothing to her,