MY BOSS IS A LION (4 page)

“My taste may be a little lavish for my line of work,” he confessed, not guilty in the slightest, “but I’m a man who enjoys creature comforts.”

“So let me guess,” she said, taking a breath as she set her purse down at the desk and took a seat, “I’m about to face years and years of organized chaos in backlogs, right?”

Joe laughed quietly as he typed a few things into the computer, looming over her as she sat down. “Lucky for you, I’ve only been in this city a year or so. Here,” he said, and before she could react, he took her hand in his. Color came to her face again, and her eyes moved up to him. He gave her a smile, but nodded down to the screen that read “Ready for new User thumbprint recognition.”

“Oh, right,” she said, flustered, and Joe guided her thumb to a pad that scanned her print in a moment.

“There, the system should recognize you now,” he said, standing up. “You now have access to my files with almost as much free reign as I would. Certainly enough to do your job, at least. Besides answering phone calls, I’d appreciate having these case files organized by client, then by date. That should give you a grasp of what kind of information you’re going to be dealing with.”

She nodded absently, but Joe could tell her eyes were becoming transfixed on the files she was moving through, giving everything a once-over.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at her increasingly perturbed expression.

“Yes, sir, it’s just—”

“Please, just ‘Joe.’ ”

“Joe. It’s just that, this client list—I recognize some of the names here. I... didn’t realize you had such a high-profile operation.” She seemed put off by something, and Joe wasn't certain what.

“Is that going to be a problem for you, Rose?”

“Well, no, not at all,” she said, scratching her head before looking up to meet his eyes. A mistake for any human trying to speak clearly to him, Joe knew, but to his surprise, she was able to keep a rather steady tone while talking to him.

“I don’t mean to insult what you’re offering me here, I’m more than grateful, but… More than a few of your clients are
high profile names and organizations.
You just met me yesterday, and I never even got a formal interview. You could have admins with
years
more experience clawing at each other’s throats to get where I am. Why me? How do you know you can trust me?”

“I can’t,” Joe said simply, and that answer alone seemed to put Rose a little on edge. Exactly the way he wanted it. Joe took a seat on the desk, looming over Rose with a smile as he spoke in his soft, deep voice. “Rose, in this line of work, you trust your instincts. And me, I’m the best at this line of work this city has seen in a long, long time, and I can damn well assure you my instincts are correct. When you helped me out of that alley—very possibly saved my life—I knew I saw in you something unique, just as I continue to see it now,” he added, his gaze roving up and down her body. “Whether I can trust you is, I suppose you’re right, yet to be seen, but what can I say?” He smiled. “I have a good feeling about you at heart, and that has yet to fail me.

“That said,” he added on a more serious note as he stood up, heading for the door to his private office, “my clients expect the utmost confidentiality. The information you’re going to be handling is highly sensitive, as the nature of my work should tell you. I expect you to treat it as delicately as the job demands. Is that clear?”

Rose nodded, staring at Joe with awe in her eyes before giving her head a little shake and saying, “Absolutely—yes.”

“You understand that there
will
be consequences if you do otherwise?” he added, and this time his eyes were deadly serious. Rose seemed to hesitate a moment, looking into his eyes and starting to lose her nerve for just an instant before she marshaled her will.

“I understand,” she said resolutely. Joe looked at her long and hard before he allowed a smile to crack through his stony gaze.

“I’m sure you’ll flourish. I look forward to watching your progress, Rose. I will have you sign some employment paperwork and a confidentiality release in a little while. I’ll be in my office if you need anything..”

She gave him a final smile before he disappeared into his office.

***

As Joe settled into his office, the next hour or so passed about as he imagined. Always one to keep an eye on his business, Joe had taken the liberty of establishing a connection between a side-monitor and Rose’s new computer. He could monitor everything she did—every file she moved or so much as looked at. He thought it better that he didn’t mention it to his new hire; as much as he fully intended to keep her around, he always liked to see what people did when they thought themselves alone.

He went about his daily routine, sending emails and studying a few of his case files before thinking about heading home. He’d planned to hang around until about lunchtime—he couldn’t let himself get too drowsy on the job, after all.

Admittedly, Joe felt guilty for turning Rose loose as early as he did. Most of his files were heavily encrypted. They had to be—they were all far too sensitive to leave unprotected. Without much introduction to any of the work she’d be organizing, she’d be flying relatively blind as far as organizing them all went.

Joe didn’t mind that, he thought as he watched her work on the side-monitor. It would let her figure out her own way of handling things, which he thought was always best for administrators, and it would let him see how she handled such independent work. The more of it she was able to take over entirely, he figured, the more time he could spend in the field--just the way he wanted it.

But as the minutes passed and Joe glanced over to the screen periodically, he paused, noting some unusual activity. One of his old case files was open on her screen, and she seemed to be reading over the contents.

I thought I encrypted that file…

Turning his full attention to the monitor, he watched her finish perusing the documents and close it and sort it away into the filing system she was apparently developing. He started to dismiss the peculiarity and look away when he noticed her drag out another encrypted file. His eyes widened as he realized what she was doing after a moment of strange activity on her end.

My God, she’s decrypting the files...and quickly.

In a matter of minutes, Joe had watched his new secretary crack his own security codes in half and start reading over the contents.

Who the hell did I just hire?
He was starting to become truly concerned. What else had she seen? What was she doing with all that information? His face paled at the thought of what he’d have to do if she started poking her nose too far down his various rabbit holes.

Had he been too sloppy in hiring Rose? Had his instincts betrayed him for once? Maybe he was just acting on his lust after all, hiring her for those gorgeous looks that made him want to pull up the security camera on the front office as well. He let out a quiet sigh as he reached for his pistol, laying a hand on it and holding it there for a long time as he considered how to approach this security breach.

Then he found himself surprised for the second time that day.

As he watched Rose hack through his encryption as though they were child’s play, he started to notice what, exactly, she was doing with all the information on the files.

She wasn’t randomly picking out files and reading them. Each time Rose would crack into a file and read the case information in it, the next file she would pick out had something to do with the investigation Joe had conducted. First she’d crack into the email logs between him and a client, and her next move would be to the leads he followed, going so far as to browse the personal notes he had made. She’d peruse each one, and there would be a brief pause before she moved to the next step he had made in the case.

She was following Joe’s every step, yet there was no indication that the files were correlated in the information she was pulling up—she was connecting the dots on her own. And after she’d essentially re-solved one of his past cases, she would sort the files from the same cases into the same folders.

Joe nearly laughed aloud as he realized what was happening.

She’s hacking through my codes and reading incredibly valuable information... all just to sort them by case file. She isn’t even downloading them.

Joe hadn’t hired a rival spy; he’d hired someone who could be a world-class security analyst as a personal secretary.

Joe put his gun away, folding his hands behind his head and wondering what he was to make of this remarkable woman.

What an agile mind she has
, he mused. It seems that
I’ve made the terrible mistake of underestimating her.

A smile spread across his face as he reflected on her. In all his years, he had never encountered someone who was so easily able to follow his own thoughts in investigations—not even his former...  associates. To meet someone who was able to keep pace with him was, well, refreshing.

In a very exciting way.

It didn’t take much dwelling on that for his thoughts to drift to her body. He’d never seen a person whose looks had that effect on him, either. That full, curvy body was exactly his type. And that strawberry-blonde hair...the thought of having a handful of that in his grasp while feeling up those curves didn’t sound bad at all.

And her scent…

Stop it. What you’re fantasizing about is grounds for a sexual harassment suit
, he thought with a shake of his head.

Seeing where Rose’s current path of files was taking her, Joe opened the file he predicted she’d be cracking into next. In it, above everything else in the file, he wrote a short message:

You’re more talented than I thought, Rose.

He re-sealed the file and smiled, waiting for her to reach it. As she started to crack into the file, he stood up and strode towards the door, sliding it open just in time to see Rose’s face blanching at the sight of the note he left her.

“Oh!” she gasped, turning around. “Joe, I-I’m not snooping, I was just—”

“I’ll see you in the morning, Rose,” he said cheerfully. As he headed out the door, he turned to add, “I believe I’m rather glad to have you here. More so than I thought I would be.”

With a wink, he disappeared out the doorway, leaving Rose dumbfounded at her desk.

Chapter Three

It had been three weeks since Rose began working for Sandford Private Investigation and each morning, she found herself looking forward to go to office and to see her boss. Having an extremely hot boss was a nice motivation to go to work every day, she thought with a smile. Because of Joe, she also found herself paying more attention to her appearance than she normally did. It had been years since she had felt this, she had a crush on Joe. Then again, any woman would too if they were in her shoes. Joe was quick with his smile, he always complimented her and her work, and was also very attentive. He listened with genuine interest when Rose bragged about her girls. He was kind of rare … for a single guy.

Yeah, single. Rose had “thoroughly investigated” that too.

He lived alone. No girlfriend at present. And didn’t date either. But he was evasive when the conversation steered towards his family. Rose thought perhaps he wasn’t on good terms with his parents or something. A lot of people were like that.

Her mom, of course, noticed the subtle changes in her. “So, do you like working for Joe, Rose?” asked her mom at the breakfast table with a knowing tone.

At the mention of her boss, Rose’s face promptly colored. “He’s a nice man, Mom. He never gives me a rough time.”

“Mom said Joe is hot,” quipped her youngest, the notorious tattletale.

“Cassidy!” Rose shocked. “Where did you hear that?”

Cassidy pouted innocently. She waved her spoon dripping with milk from her cereal bowl. “When you talked to Aunt Linda, remember? You said your boss is a hot guy. You did, Mommy, you did!”

Good lord. This is embarrassing.
Rose massaged her temple. “Sweetie, please stop that. Don’t repeat what Mommy said to other people. It’s not polite.” There was no doubt Cassidy paid attention when she talked to her best friend Linda in San Francisco. Her youngest was playing with her dolls when they chatted. Linda had called her asking how Rose was settling in in Cleveland and she couldn’t resist telling Linda about Joe. About how handsome and how sweet he was. How the temperature seemed to rise a few degrees when Joe stood too close to her. She knew it was silly, but she hadn’t experienced these feelings in years. For the first time in many long years, she felt alive.

Emma, her oldest, also quipped, “Is Joe going to be our new dad?”

Rose startled. Her seven-year old daughter was starved for fatherly affection. After Emma was born and Rose’s career took off, Brent started to change. He was pretty much absent from their daughters’ lives during their marriage, and because of that Emma seemed to adore any man close to Rose as a replacement father figure: Linda’s husband, Rose’s assistant at work, and lately, the school homeroom teacher because Emma kept having problems in class and Rose had to sit through many parent-teacher meetings.