Hot Water (29 page)

Well, not since I fucked his fiancée.

I’ll admit it; that was a mistake. But it was unavoidable. Men, it’s a bad idea to leave your girlfriends alone with me. That’s just who I am. After thirty years of friendship, he should have known better. And she was beyond hot. The looks she gave me were sweltering. Add the fact that she was so off-limits. Instant turn-on.

He’s gotten over it. I
think
.

Williams and Williams is the perfect place for a guy like me. We’re known for being a boy’s club. Our men are the best of the best, so the girls we hire are the hottest of the hot, and so what if they lack qualifications, as long as they suck good dick? Most of the senior associates work hard, play harder. That’s why we’re the best at what we do.

Caden may think he has it all down. He may think he’s climbed the mountain and matured and found the Meaning of Life, and the Meaning of Life doesn’t involve fucking girl after girl.

But that’s his life.

“Okay,” I say, leaning back. Maybe I’ll just play with him, see how much of the old Caden Williams I can draw out. “What’s the deal with the red-headed intern?”

He doesn’t look up from his work. “Which?”

I shake my head. “Caden, man. You’re CEO already. Nobody’s taking that away from you. It wouldn’t kill you to check out the scenery every once in a while. You know you want to.”

He sets down his pencil and looks at me over his spectacles. Shit, when he gives me that look, he might as well be my grandfather. “What for?”

I groan. “Forget it. So. Red-head. You couldn’t have missed her. Big girl. Her tits aren’t anything, but her ass . . .” I whistle.

He thinks for only a second. “You mean Alex Bliss?”

So he
had
noticed her. The leopard hasn’t totally changed his spots. And Bliss? How fucking apropos. “Yeah. Which one of the associates interviewed her, you think? Smith? Because you know how he goes for the bigger girls.”

He shakes his head. “I did.”

“You?” I stare at him. Because Caden’s always had a thing for blondes. But even bigger than that, the CEO doesn’t interview interns. The associates do that. Caden only interviews the . . . wait. “Cade, hold on a second. You’re not telling me . . .”

 He nods. “Alex Bliss is our new junior associate. She has a stellar background. Top of her class at Yale.”

What. The. Hell. This is not going to go over well with the rest of the guys. In fact, this is grounds for removing his ass. He’s fucking gone soft and insane since his father died and he started shacking up with his little teenage girlfriend. “Are you serious, man?”

He doesn’t answer.

Which means he is. Shit. It’s been an unspoken rule that women never advance past a certain level. They don’t, they
can’t
, because there are certain things at Williams and Williams are sacred. Like our Monday Morning Associates meeting. We get together and smoke cigars and trade dirty jokes (which usually involve redheads) and rip each other to shreds. No woman could survive that. Fuck, when Briggs got married, we had a stripper come in
pretending
to be a new associate. When this Alex chick comes in, they might make her take off her clothes and stuff dollar bills in her bra. She won’t last a day here. “Whatever made you think hiring a woman was a good idea?”

His voice doesn’t waver. “Two of our biggest new accounts this summer are female-owned corporations. They will prefer the female touch.”

The female touch? Fuck that, females shouldn’t be touching anything where this business is concerned. We’re sharks. We don’t play around. And we’ve thrived for over a century
without
the female touch. I can explain this to him, but it’s clear there’s nothing I can do about it. Damage, already done. “This is a mistake, man,” I mutter.

He shrugs. “If it is, it’s mine. I trust you’ll show her a good deal of consideration.”

Oh, sure I will. Consideration, my ass. The only thing I’m going to consider is how long it’ll take before she hands in her resignation.

Because I’m going to make it happen.

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