Free Love in Her Dreams by Isobelle Cate Page B

person
who said I might be made redundant,” Tamsyn reasoned
as she sprawled on the bed.
    “True, it was your HR department.
But I bet she didn't do anything to stop it,” Tia said. “I've kept my mouth
shut for a long time, Tams, but I can't understand how you can put up with a
boss who is stone cold lazy and makes you do all the work while she takes all
the credit.”
    “It's a job, and it's hard not
to have one.”
    “And you deserve the raise and
awards that were rightfully yours.”
    “Where did you hear that?” Tamsyn sat up. Many of her co-workers had congratulated her
when she had been instrumental in closing a huge compensation package for their
client, garnering almost a hundred thousand pounds for the firm. But when the
senior partner had announced the coup, he had congratulated Gemma. Tamsyn remembered every moment. The feeling of blood
draining from her face because of shock and disbelief before it surged to make
her beet red. The embarrassed covert looks she had received. Then later the
anger at the unfairness of it all.
    “I've got my sources.”
    “Tia...” Tamsyn warned.
    “Okay, okay.” Tia inhaled deeply
before she muttered, “Jeff told me.”
    “Jeff? As in the firm's Jeff?” Tamsyn's eyes widened, then she squealed. Jeff Broughman was the head of HR who didn't have a funny bone
in his body. He was as staid as a plank of wood.
    “Ouch, darling. My dainty ear.”
    “I can't believe it.” Tamsyn giggled. “How did you do that?”
    “If you must know, Jeff is
pretty sexy.”
    “No kidding?” Tamsyn couldn't picture the nearly reed-thin head of HR as
being sexy. She liked men who were muscled, but not overtly so that they looked
like a walking billboard for steroids.
    She heard Tia sigh before her
friend spoke.
    “Look, instead of burning the
lines, I'm coming over.”
    “Now? You've got work.”
    “And I own the damn company.
I'll be there in an hour.”
    Before Tamsyn could protest any further, she heard the phone click.
    True to her word, Tia arrived on
the dot. Tamsyn opened the door to allow Tia to
breeze through.
    “Mwah.” Tia bussed Tamsyn's cheeks.
    “Your voice is still quite
gravelly,” Tamsyn commented.
    Tia arched an eyebrow. “These
things take time, darling.”
    “Don't I know it,” Tamsyn said as she grinned, watching her friend sashay into
the room. They had been there for each other through all the years when Tamsyn was growing up and Tia's name was Terence before he
decided to have a sex change. Tamsyn had been Tia's
only friend for a very long time after she made the decision to change. Even
when Tia found a group of transgenders who supported
each other through the difficulties of being accepted, Tia never forgot that Tamsyn had been there for her. She would do anything for Tamsyn .
    Not too tall for a man and
professing he had a woman's heart inside his body, no one would know Tia had
been a man. Already having some effeminate features before his change, it
wasn't too difficult to make him look more feminine. Tia had flawless skin the
color of the most delicious cream. Perfectly formed eyebrows, thickly lashed
eyes, a pert nose, and cupid's bow lips graced a heart-shaped face. Tamsyn envied Tia's long, straight, bluish-black hair that
fell like a silk curtain in a bob just below her shoulders. Slim legs encased
in hip-hugging denims carried a torso of a narrow waist, a flat stomach, and
pert, beautifully-shaped breasts the size of apples that bounced firmly when
she walked. A fringe that softened her face covered a prominent forehead.
    “Nice smell,” Tia commented
inhaling as she waited for Tamsyn .
    Tamsyn stalled a moment before she
closed the door. She could feel the heat rising up her neck and cheeks.
    “I don't smell anything,” she
said, her back still to her best friend. “Probably the shampoo and shower gel
from the bathroom.”
    “You don't smell that really
sexy Hugo Boss cologne you like on men?” Tia raised a mock brow. She