Excerpt from ROCK HARD
Technical note: Some email programs may clip this newsletter, making it appear it ends in the middle of a sentence. If that happens, click this link and you'll be able to read it without problems in your browser.
Excerpt from ROCK HARD
by Nalini Singh
Also available on the website
Charlie-mouse vs T-Rex: Round 1
Gabriel watched Charlotte's slender fingers tighten around the takeout cup so hard that she dented it.
Her cheeks had gone pale, but she kept her shoulders up and she found her voice. “Yes, sir?”
Good, he thought. The fact she was shy and uncomfortable around him was a distinct negative when it came to the position he was about to offer her, but she had guts and she had brains. He could work with that. “I need a new PA.”
She blinked, her fingers easing their death grip on the takeout cup. “Do you want me to help HR screen applicants?” The faintest hint of a relieved smile. “I have a good idea of what Anya’s job entailed.”
“No,” he said, taking a seat since he could tell his size intimidated her. Not that he was much smaller sitting down. “There won’t be any applicants. You are going to be my new PA.”
She just stared at him, her soft pink lips parted in a silent gasp. Bitable lips. That, he told himself, was a highly inappropriate thought, but for some reason, he couldn’t wipe it from his brain. When she wasn’t quivering in terror, Ms. Baird with her agile mind and her sparkling eyes was very, very intriguing. As for the rest of her—her shapeless clothes couldn’t hide the fact she was built like a pocket Venus. Undo her ponytail, take off the glasses—or maybe he’d leave them on—and she’d be a petite, curvy, bitable package.
Of course, his attraction to this pretty mouse wouldn’t have saved her position if she’d been incompetent. Though had the latter been true, he wouldn’t have found her anywhere near as intriguing. Smart women were his catnip.
Too bad he was her boss. “You’ll take over Anya’s role, effective immediately.”
Eyes going wide, she squeaked out a protest. “I can’t do Anya’s job!”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Really? Strange, since it appears you have been doing it for the past three years.” There was nothing he hated more in the business world than people who took credit for the hard work of others. “Anya couldn’t answer the majority of the questions I posed to you yesterday.”
Worse, unlike Charlotte, the other woman hadn’t known where to go or which files to access to get the information. She’d just smiled serenely and said she’d have the research on his desk first thing in the morning, then had no doubt gone out and e-mailed Charlotte the work requests.
Gabriel’s suspicions had been roused Monday—by the fact his PA was always available and smiling and put together in spite of the fact he’d thrown an avalanche of work at her. Any other man or woman in her position would’ve snapped at him at least once, and never, never would she have been able to leave the office at a reasonable hour. It had taken him less than five minutes to access the file records of the memos hitting his desk.
The last access code was always Anya’s—when she’d printed out the document. Everything below that linked back to Charlotte’s workstation. It was to make dead certain of his suspicions that he’d put both women through the same interview yesterday. He didn’t need a polished liar by his side; he needed Charlotte with her intelligence and her deep knowledge of the staff and their skills. Without her, it might’ve taken him weeks to discover Sinclair.
Anya hadn’t known the Sinclair proposal even existed.
“But,” Charlotte began on a rush of breath, as if she’d built herself up to get it all out, “I don’t know how to deal with suppliers and management and—”
“You’ll learn.” Gabriel couldn’t figure out why a woman so damn good at her job was so diffident about her abilities. “There’s really no choice. You accept this position or you pack up and go,” he said, testing how far he could push her. “You’ve done too good a job in your current role—there’s no longer any need for a full-time employee there.” An absolute truth. “It’s be my PA or hand in your access card to the building.”
She put her coffee on the desk he’d moved in on Sunday, her fingers curling into fists and hot spots of color on her cheeks. So, there was a temper there. Good. She’d need it to deal with him—Gabriel knew full well that he wasn’t the easiest of bosses. When she swallowed without unleashing the temper however, he wanted to growl at her.
Throttling back an impulse that would only terrify her, he said, “Yes or no?”
A long, indrawn breath. “Yes,” she said on the exhale.
*
Charlotte decided she must've lost her mind as she set herself up at Anya’s former desk, T-Rex having given her fifteen minutes to get herself sorted. A gleeful Tuck helped her move her things.
“I knew the Bishop was the man,” he said, unadulterated hero worship in his tone as he used T-Rex’s famous on-field moniker.
The Bishop, Charlotte thought mutinously, was a bully. One who kept her on her toes the entire day. Five o’clock came and went with no sign of stopping. At six, unsure of the protocol of being a PA, she looked through his door—which he tended to keep open except when in private meetings—and saw him scowling at the screen of the sleek laptop he preferred over a desktop.
His tie was gone, the top two buttons of his shirt undone to offer a glimpse of the tanned skin at the vee of his throat. Fine as the fabric of the shirt was, she could make out a hint of his tattoos under the surface, see the flex of muscle as he worked.
Why did T-Rex have to be so big and gorgeous?
Throat dry, she nonetheless made herself knock. “Sir.”
“Do you know how to fix this?”
Walking over, she realized the problem straightaway. It was something that had happened to her a couple of times and she’d learned the trick of fixing it from their tech support team.
“I can…” She made to go around his desk.
He pushed away, thrusting both hands through his hair before he picked up a pen to sign a contract she’d handed him earlier. Relieved at not having to deal with his large, powerful body close to her, she quickly fixed the computer glitch and went back around to the other side of the desk.
He handed her the contracts. “Get that to the courier for morning delivery. And where’s Merrill? I need to see her.”
“She headed home a few minutes ago to have dinner with her family.” The CFO had stuck her head in to say good night. “She said she’d finish off the financial report once her kids are in bed, e-mail it through. Do you want me to ask her to return to the office instead?”
“No.” Scowling, he glanced at his watch, as if he’d completely missed the fact it was getting dark outside, the sweeping view of the harbor lost on a man who barely seemed to notice it. “Do you have to be anywhere?”
Charlotte had intended to meet Ernest for dinner, but that didn’t seem like something she should say to her boss right after a promotion. “No,” she said, consoling herself with the reminder of the considerable pay hike she’d received today.
“In that case, can you find me these contracts?” He rattled off a list.
Heading out to Records, she located the originals and gave them to him, then returned to her desk to make a call to Ernest. “We’ll have to reschedule,” she told the kind, gentle man with whom she had no trouble speaking or interacting. They’d been dating for a year, and never had he made her feel in any way threatened or overwhelmed.
“I’ll miss talking to you,” he said. “But congratulations on the promotion.”
“Thanks, Ernest.” Hanging up soon afterward, she felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck and glanced back to realize Gabriel had come to his office doorway. “Did you need anything further?”
Instead of answering, he raised an eyebrow. “Boyfriend?”
Her cheeks heated. “Yes.”
“Funny name.”
“What?” She frowned. “Ernest is a perfectly nice name.”
“Oh, I thought I heard you call him Ermine.” Passing her a sheaf of paper with that oh-so-offhand comment that had her eyes narrowing, he asked her to input the changes and flick the file back to him so he could finalize a contract with a London-based supplier.
After that came another task, then another. It was ten by the time she could leave. T-Rex was still in his office and showing no signs that he’d be heading out anytime soon. They’d eaten earlier, after he’d had her order in meals from a top local restaurant. Now, though, she worried he’d get hungry later. It wasn’t as if he was a small man, and his brain probably burned as much fuel per hour as most men did pumping iron.
Putting down her handbag, she went to the staff break room and hit the vending machine before returning to his office. He was standing in front of an easel on which an architect had earlier that day placed a number of design specs for the renovations of their flagship Auckland, Queenstown, and Sydney locations.
“Good night, Mr. Bishop.” She drew in a quick breath. “I got you some granola bars.” It had been the healthiest snack she could find in the machine—she’d have to speak to the stockers about filling it with more nutritional items.
“Thanks.” A frown in her direction. “A cab, Ms. Baird.”
“I called one.” That was the one company perk she’d never felt bad about using, not when she worked late. It was a matter of safety.
“I’ll walk you down.” Stretching his shoulders, he came over.
Charlotte wanted to say there was no need but decided it wasn’t worth using up her small store of courage. She kept herself from hyperventilating during the elevator ride down by silently doing the exercise her therapist had taught her. That was the only useful thing she’d gotten out of therapy.
Almost tumbling out on the ground floor, the warm, intrinsically male scent of Gabriel Bishop in her every inhalation, she released a relieved breath when she spotted the cab through the glass of the main doors, the bearded and grandfatherly Indian cab driver familiar. Gabriel Bishop walked her down the steps and opened the back door to the sedan.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” her boss said and shut the door.
As the cab pulled away, she saw him stride down toward the waterfront, hands in his pockets, tall and strong and a relentless force.
*
Gabriel rarely second-guessed himself, but he was doing so tonight. Charlotte Baird was highly competent, to the point that he’d blasted through far more work than he’d expected to complete today, so he’d made no mistake there. She was also petrified of him, had once again almost hyperventilated herself into a faint in the elevator. Logically, he should transfer her to a less frontline position within the company, but he hated the idea of all that talent being buried away or taken advantage of by another Anya.
Striding across the flat paving stones of Auckland’s central public-transport hub, he crossed the street to the ferry terminal and stood watching the evening water traffic as he considered the problem. Not only was Charlotte spectacularly easy to work with, anticipating his requests even after only a single day working together, she had an excellent sense of what was important and what wasn’t. He’d had far fewer interruptions from other staff today as a result.
Quite aside from that, and even disregarding his physical attraction to her when she wasn’t being a mouse, he liked Ms. Baird. He’d heard her talking on the phone with a woman called Molly for a few minutes late this afternoon, caught a glimpse of a dry wit that had made him grin. Yeah, he liked the woman behind the mouse.
However, that woman tended to go into hiding around him.
Tapping his fingers on the metal railing, he turned and almost ran into a statuesque blonde in a sparkly dress. “Hi,” she said, the look in her eyes making it clear she’d recognized him, two women who were obviously her friends standing a short distance away. “My friends dared me to ask you out, but I was planning to do it anyway.” Her smile deepened. “Join us for a drink.”
“Appreciate the offer,” Gabriel said, “but I’ve got to return to the office.”
“If you change your mind, we’ll be in there.” She pointed out a waterfront bar. “We’re all huge rugby fans, would love to watch tonight’s Argentina-England game with you.” Biting down on her lower lip, she leaned in a little closer. “If you’d rather watch in private, my apartment’s not far.”
Gabriel could tell from her tone and smile that watching sports wasn’t the only thing on the menu. “Thanks.”
It wasn’t until he was back in the office that he realized he hadn’t even been tempted by the stranger’s offer… because he had another blonde on his mind. That could prove problematic, but it had nothing to do with Charlotte’s suitability for her position. He’d give her a week, see if she stopped quivering in terror. Any longer and he’d probably give in to the urge to snarl.
That thought in mind, he went over to the design specs again, was trying to figure out why the second-floor design wasn’t working for him, when Charlotte’s office phone rang. Guessing that an international contact who’d e-mailed him earlier to ask if he’d be in had called the wrong line, he walked out to his PA’s desk and picked it up. “Bishop.”
“Son?”
His entire body went rigid at that single word, the gravelly voice one he hadn’t heard in over a year, since the last time Gabriel had told him to get lost. “I have a father,” he said, “and it’s not you.”
Hanging up, he returned to work, shoving aside unwanted reminders of his origins with the habit of long practice. The boy he’d been was long gone. In his place stood a man who knew who he was—and what he wanted. Hauling a certain mouse out of her burrow was high on that list.
To read another full chapter, swing by the website!
And if you haven't yet read the Rock Kiss series, the first book is Rock Addiction. Click here to read an excerpt.
© Copyright 2015 by Nalini Singh
Pre-order links (more to follow)
Ebook: iBooks, Kindle, Kobo, NOOK
Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.com.au
Print: Keep an eye on the blog for updates as the print order link goes live in various places
