Chapter 327

The man walked out in a daze, tripped over his own feet, and collapsed onto the floor. His eyes grew even redder as tears began to stream down his face.
“Horace, are you all right?” Linda, Theodore’s assistant, rushed over to help him, but he was limp as a noodle and impossible to lift.
Seeing the man on the verge of sobbing, Linda asked hesitantly, “What did Mr. Stapleton do to you?” Realizing how that sounded, she quickly rephrased. “Did Mr. Stapleton yell at you?”
Horace shook his head. “He didn’t yell at me.”
“He didn’t… hit you, did he?”
“Of course not.”
“Then what?”
“Mr. Stapleton asked me how long I’ve been with the company. I told him twenty years. He said
“What did he say?”
“He said that if you taught a pig for twenty years, it would have learned how to make a spreadsheet by now. And me… not only can I make a spreadsheet, I can even fill it with numbers. The numbers might be wrong, he said, but at least I’m better than a pig.”
Linda was speechless. The backhanded compliment was almost worse than a direct insult.
Penelope, who had overheard, felt a sting of secondhand pain. She and Linda offered a few words of comfort to Horace before helping him to the elevator.
Returning to the office door, Penelope cautiously pushed it open a crack. Theodore was at his desk, his eyes scanning something on his computer screen with fierce intensity. His expression was placid, but he radiated the dangerous aura of a predator, ready to strike at any moment.
But to her, this predator was utterly captivating.
He was handsome when he was cold, sexy when he wore his glasses. Even just
sitting there, he was so dazzling it was hard to look directly at him.
Don’t let my son fall in love with you, Mrs. Stapleton had said. The source of this content ɪs.net
But what if she fell in love with him?
Then she would claim him as her own. To hell with the contract-that was a whole year away. A person should live in the moment.
A mischievous smile spread across her face.
“How long do you plan on spying from over there?”
He’d noticed her.
Penelope’s eyes darted playfully. “Can I come over?”
“And what if I say yes?” He tore his gaze from the screen, his cool expression
instantly warming as his eyes met hers.
“You’ll have to face the consequences,” she said with a grin.
Theodore chuckled. “Then maybe you should stay out.”
“Are you sure you want me drooling all over your doorway?”
“I haven’t done anything to provoke you.”
“Darling, you don’t have to. You just have to look at me, and I’m completely smitten, drooling and all.”
Theodore’s eyes darkened. “Get over here.”
Like a thief in the night, Penelope
glanced both ways down the hallet before slipping inside and 1.1
the door. With a playful pounce, she launched herself at him.
Theodore caught her, holding her forehead back with his hand just as she leaned in
for a kiss. “Wipe your mouth first.”
She playfully slurped, then pushed his hand away and snuggled into his arms.
“Don’t worry, this is an office. I won’t take advantage of you.”
“Is there some rule against it in here?”
“I’m just worried that from now on, whenever you’re working, your mind will be filled
with scandalous images, and you won’t be able to focus.”
Theodore leaned down and captured her lips. “Just how scandalous?”
“Do you want to find out?”
“I do.”
Penelope shifted, straddling his lap. Her kisses traced a path from his lips to his throat, lingering at the hollow of his neck before moving. lower As her fingers undid the buttons on his shirt, the scene grew heated.
Her kisses traveled down, down, and further down…
Just as she was about to reach her destination, Theodore pulled her up sharply giving her lip a playful, biting kissAny further and I might actually have to get a new office.”
Penelope grinned slyly. “What’s so bad about you thinking of me while you work?”
…