“Can you type?” the man asked.
Marni squirmed on the uncomfortable, wooden chair. “I can type,” she replied, looking pointedly around at the antiques. “On a computer. I don’t know how to use a typewriter.”
The man smiled and, darn it, that smile did funny things to her stomach. She’d meant to insult the man, not amuse him! The guy was like a giant frat boy – too good looking and too freakishly tall. He was everything she hated in a man.
Except…there was just something about him that…Marni didn’t understand her reaction. He wasn’t her type, so why was she struggling to keep her eyes off his broad shoulders and clean-shaven jawline? A nice, hard, square jawline. Firm lips. Incredibly broad…!
“And you’re attending law school?”
Marni snapped back to the present, pushing her red hair behind her ears and reminding herself to pay attention. This was a job interview, not a…what did one call an event where the woman lusted after the guy?
She looked at the man’s caramel eyes, startled to realize that he was waiting on an answer. What was the question? Oh, right! Law school!
She nodded jerkily, folding her hands on her lap. “Next fall, yes. I’m enrolled at Penn State, but I got here too late to enroll for the spring semester.” “Spring” was such a misnomer since it was still freaking cold here in Pennsylvania. A recent snowfall had dropped about eight inches of snow, making everything look magical and pristine – for a few hours.
He paused to write something on her resume and Marni clenched her teeth, trying to stop herself from speaking. If there were any other job around, she would tell this too-good-looking jerk to go to hell. But since there weren’t, she was stuck.
He was sitting behind a big, wooden desk, so Marni couldn’t be sure how tall he was. He had broad shoulders and a lean waist, dark, almost black hair, and a firm jawline.
Some people might call him handsome. Marni might have even assigned that adjective to him when she’d first met him. But after having been in his office for…she glanced at her watch…twenty-two minutes now, answering the stupidest questions she’d ever heard, she no longer appreciated his charms. He was just a big, annoying jerk.
Unfortunately, he was a jerk that paid well. She’d done her research and the guy was a good lawyer. Why he was stuck here in dinky, little Punxsutawney, instead of in a big city, like Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, or even Harrisburg, the state capital, Marni didn’t know. Nor did she care. The guy was a decent paycheck until she could start classes again. Nothing more.
“What kind of law do you hope to specialize in?”
Ah, finally something she could answer easily. She sat up straighter in the torturous chair. “Right now, I’m leaning towards family law. But that could change as I learn more.”
He glanced at her over the paper. “That’s a nice answer, since this is a family law firm.”
Excellent point, she thought. Had her reply sounded like she was sucking up? She brightened her smile, reminding herself of the hourly salary. “Serendipitous, isn’t it?” she replied, adding a cheerful shrug just to annoy him.
It worked and she had to stop herself from laughing. Not a good idea to laugh at one’s hopeful employer.
The guy sighed, scratching the side of his head with the hand still holding the red pen. “What kinds of hours can you work?”
Ooh! Another easy question! “Right now, I can work full time through the summer months.”
Those blue eyes peered at her again. “You’re not going to participate in the festival?”
Participate in the festival? She could participate? Leaning forward slightly, she asked, “Is that a possibility?”
Josh refrained from rolling his eyes. Barely.
He made a checkmark on the resume. “If you’re working here, then no. It’s not possible. I need a full time assistant. I need someone who can answer the phones, work on legal briefs, and greet clients.”
He asked questions for another half hour, then sighed. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he accepted that he didn’t have a choice. He had to hire her. He hadn’t been able to find a single issue that would allow him to disqualify Marni Kline from the job.
Other than her stunning red hair and soft, full lips. Those emerald eyes were distracting, but he knew that any mediocre labor law lawyer could successfully sue him if he disqualified her due to the color of her eyes.
Damn it!
It didn’t help that there were no other candidates and he truly needed the help. His previous assistant had left suddenly, so Josh was quite desperate now.
Tossing the resume onto his desk, he laced his fingers together, glaring at the too-beautiful woman with irrational resentment. “When can you start?”
The beauty sat up straighter in her chair and he swallowed a groan. The movement pressed her full breasts against the material of her cheap suit, drawing his eyes towards those tempting mounds.
“I got the job?” she asked, eyes shining with joyous relief.
He stared at her mouth. Full lips. He wondered what they would feel like when he kissed her.
“When” he kissed her? What the hell? There would be no kissing! Law office, Josh reminded himself firmly. No kissing! Not a chance!
Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. She really was quite enticing. She’d be a distraction. Marni Kline was far too tempting!
Still, he glanced at the pile of cases that needed to be filed, the transcription that needed to be typed up, and the mail he hadn’t bothered to sort in two weeks. He was exhausted, having just finished an eighty hour week, and he was ready for someone else to step in and take over the administrative tasks that he simply didn’t have the time to accomplish. His last assistant had barely survived a heart attack last month. She’d immediately retired. Not because of him. Josh acknowledged that he was a difficult taskmaster, but Betty ate sausage and eggs with butter-browned hashbrowns every morning for breakfast and some sort of meat for dinner. Again, with butter for browning. She preferred whipping cream in her coffee, with about ten scoops of sugar. Due to her diet, Betty was about a hundred pounds overweight. So her heart condition had more to do with her lifestyle than the pressure from this job.
He looked at the woman in front of him. She was beautiful, smart, and looked to be a good worker. She had excellent references and…there was absolutely no reason not to hire her other than the fact that he wanted to bed her rather than have her file contracts.
Another forehead rub, then he nodded. “Yes. You have the job, depending on when you can start working.”
“Tomorrow?”
He glanced at the large stack of files again, files that he sifted through every time he needed to review something for a client, then lifted an eyebrow in her direction. “What are you doing right now?”
