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understand that the topic was closed. “Selena is downstairs.”
    “Probably wants her paycheck.”
    Alex chuckled, “I think she wants more compensation than that.”
    There was an unmistakable smirk on his face when Alex left the doorway. Connor made certain his pants were fastened before following Alex. Encounters that often seemed a wonderful way to start the day had a habit of reaching around to bite you in the ass when you least expected it.
     
    * * *
     
    “Come to get your last check, Selena?” Connor rumbled as he eased into his desk chair.
    From the corner of his eye, Connor could see her prop one of her svelte legs on the edge of his desk. In the not-so-distant past, he would’ve considered the leg a welcome invitation. But at that moment it was more annoyance than anything else.
    Connor chalked it up to his being annoyed that Selena would walk off the job with no notice. He refused to admit that Jessa’s sudden, earth-shattering appearance in his life had anything to do with this phenomenon.
    “Have you missed me, Connor?”
    “No. We already hired someone else.”
    There was a brief silence in which Connor tried to gauge whether or not Selena was going to take offense to his admission. But she smiled instead. “I can’t imagine she’d replace me in…everything.”
    Connor ground his teeth together to keep from giving her the satisfaction of a response.
    The long leg disappeared and was replaced by Selena’s rounded ass. She settled herself on the cluttered desktop, legs propped on the filing cabinet. Selena wore one of her trademark sinfully short skirts with no pantyhose. Connor could’ve seen up her skirt all the way to her slit by shifting his gaze an inch to the left. But he didn’t. And the ramifications of that hit him harder than anything else. Any other day, he would’ve reached over and run a hand up the inside of her thigh until his fingers brushed the dewy curls surrounding her cunt. He’d have finger fucked her until she begged him for his cock. Then Connor would’ve spread her wide on his desk and given her exactly what she asked for.
    Her mannerism, the way she was dressed, and the sultry look in her eyes all tagged her a highly fuckable woman, begging like a bitch in heat. It was a wide-open invitation to a man like Connor, to any man. He couldn’t take the bait. He couldn’t even muster the urge. A pair of wide hazel eyes haunted him.
    “Here’s your check, Selena. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.”
    Connor stood, setting his jaw in an aggressive jut before stalking out of his office. Behind him, Selena’s mouth opened in astonishment.
    Connor didn’t look back, couldn’t look back. He kept going straight past the walk-in freezer and the cases of liquor stacked to the ceiling. When he reached the bar, he opened the cash register and began to count.
    Seconds later, Selena appeared and walked out the front door. She didn’t look back, either. Apparently, she understood his message all too clearly. Connor only wished it were half as clear to him.
    “That was different.” Alex commented when the front door shut with a muffled thump.
    “Don’t start.”
    “Oh, I wasn’t going to.”
    Connor grunted.
    “But you’d have been a helluva lot more pleasant company if you’d have let off some steam in her pussy.”
    “Not interested.”
    “Since when?”
    Connor didn’t miss a beat, “Since now.”
    Alex remained silent for an entire five-minute span of time. “If you’d have given Selena a quick fuck, you’d be able to charm your way under Jessa’s skirt, Connor. With this attitude you’re going to have to use a caveman club to get between her thighs.”
    “What makes you think I’m interested in the new waitress?” Connor deliberately avoided using her name.
    “You can’t even say her name, mate.”
    Connor shoved the fives back in the drawer and pulled out a huge wad of ones. He started to count. But he couldn’t even remember what