Standing in the Shadows (McClouds & Friends #2)(80)

The shower stopped running just as the machine clicked on. The bathroom door burst open as a woman's bouncy, fake cheerful voice began to speak.

"Hi, Erin, this is Kelly, from Keystroke Temps. I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you—"

Erin burst out in a cloud of steam, naked, her hair dripping.

"—had some complaints about you from Winger, Drexler & Lowe, about your attitude, and your decision to be unavailable for work this morning was just the last straw for them. So the office manager told me to tell you just not to come in tomorrow. And, uh… Keystroke Temps is making the same decision. I'm really sorry, Erin, but the decision is definitive and final, and if you mail in your timesheet, we'll mail your last check to you, so there'll be no need for you to come in and—"

Erin lunged for the phone. "Kelly? It's me—yes, I know, but I came back early—but that's ridiculous! I was a perfect employee! My attitude was excellent! I came in early, I worked late, I did ten times as much work as—that's crazy! They can't possibly—"

She listened for another moment, and laughed bitterly. "Kelly, you know, I don't envy you having to tell me this. But let me give you a tip for the future. Don't tell someone to have a nice day after giving them news like that. Trust me, it's the wrong thing to say."

She slammed the phone down and whirled on him, naked and dripping and stupendously beautiful in her towering rage.

"That stupid cow," she snarled. "Have a nice day! As if!"

He backed away. "Uh, Erin?"

She advanced on him. "What could they possibly have complained about? I reorganized their database! I worked out all the bugs in their financial program! I rewrote every single document those idiots ever dictated and turned it into real English! I even got coffee for those bastards, and all for thirteen lousy dollars an hour!"

"I'm sure you did," he said meekly.

"It's not in my nature to make people complain about me! Except for when I work too hard and make everybody else look bad, but I didn't do that this time, I was really, really careful not to, I swear!"

She had him backed up against the wall. He was fascinated by the wild energy blazing out of her. "Of course you were," he soothed.

"I never give anybody any trouble! Ever! It's like a sickness!"

"Only to me," Connor said. "You give me no end of trouble."

She put her hands on her hips. "You, Connor McCloud, are a special case."

"I'll say," he muttered. "Just lucky, huh?"

She cocked her head to the side. Water trickled seductively over her tits. "You do bring out elements of my personality that I didn't know I had," she admitted. "But I never showed those sides of my personality at Winger, Drexler & Lowe, and I certainly—"

"You damn well better not be showing them to anybody else." The words surprised him as much as they did her. "Nobody but me. Got it?"

She blinked. "Connor. I, ah, wasn't talking about sex."

"Well, I am," he said. "I just thought I'd take this opportunity to make that point crystal clear. Since we haven't discussed it yet."

Erin glanced down, seeming to realize that she was naked and sopping wet. "Uh, what exactly do you mean by that?" she asked warily.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "What do you think I mean?" Her mouth tightened. "Don't play games with me, Connor."

"I'm not playing games. It's a valid question. I want to know how you interpret that remark."

Her eyes slid away from his. "Why does it always have to be me who goes out on the limb? It's not fair to—"

"Just answer me, goddammit."

She studied his face for a moment. "OK. Here goes," she said carefully. "I think maybe, ah, that this might be your bossy, oafish way of asking me if I'm interested in being exclusively involved with you."

He felt his face go red.

"Did I get it right?" she demanded. "Do I win the prize?"

"That's the gist of it. I would have phrased it differently."

"Oh?" Her eyebrows climbed. "And how would you phrase it?"

He thought about it. "Never mind," he muttered. "Let's stick with the way you said it. It sounds better."

"No, Connor. Your turn. Tell me exactly what you were thinking."

What an idiot. He'd boxed himself into a trap. "We already are exclusively involved, Erin. We have been since you decided to go to bed with me. It's a done deal. I know it, and you know it."

Her eyes went very big and thoughtful. "Hmm. So the key point here is that you're not asking me. You're telling me. Right?"

He shrugged. "Guess so," he mumbled.

"I see," she murmured.

Her cool tone maddened him. "I sure hope so," he snapped.

She wrung her dripping hair out over the sink. "If I have a problem with you, Connor, that's it," she said. "You don't ask me. You just tell me. But you know what? The world doesn't work like that. And more to the point, I don't work like that. I will not take orders from you."

"Goddamn it, Erin—"

"If you would just stop trying so hard to control me, then maybe you'd discover that all that effort really isn't necessary."