Tied Up by the Boss (Office Kink #2)
Hunter Frost
Chapter One
Morgan
“Let me fire him!”
I stormed into the CEO’s office, leaving his assistant to cower at her desk. There was no time for pleasantries. I was out for blood. Parker bleeding Greenhill’s.
Trent Davis turned in his chair to face me. “Fire who?” His brow furrowed as he slid his glasses down.
I gave him an exasperated glare. “You honestly need to ask?” I thought my aversion to Parker was common knowledge by now, especially to Trent.
He bristled as if I hit some unknown nerve.
“Pardon,” I was quick to offer before he mistook my anger for insolence. “I’m just at my wit’s end.”
“What did he do now?”
What hadn’t he done, the tosser? I took a breath, still in disbelief. “He insulted Chris from CyGen during our proposal pitch and Chris walked out. No doubt we’ve lost CyGen and any business with their partners.”
The meeting with CyGen should’ve been a home run. We’d prepared for it tirelessly. Parker had done a great job heading the team, wrangling everyone to do their part, even working with the new analyst we’d added to the group despite Parker’s obvious annoyance. But at the meeting, Parker lost his bloody mind, calling out Chris for shady business practices and loose morals, ripping apart the carefully constructed relationship we’d forged with CyGen in one ugly explosion of insults and attacks. I’d been VP of Revenue Optimization for NetSmash for ten years now, and nothing had ever come close to this. For good reason. We were a marketing research firm, not an episode of The Real Housewives.
“Shit,” Trent finally replied, sitting back on his desk. He noticeably cringed, and I gave him a questioning glance.
He pressed his lips together as if in pain. “I’m fine,” he grunted. “I went at it pretty hard at the gym this morning.”
I nodded, unconvinced. But we had bigger problems at the moment.
“You know Chris pretty well,” Trent said quickly. “Is there any way you can repair this?”
I shook my head. “He’s as livid as I am. He told me he won’t work with Parker ever again and additionally refuses to do business with us for employing such a wanker.”
Trent crossed his arms. “Should I reach out to Chris? Try to smooth things over myself?”
“I doubt it would do any good. He was pretty adamant when he told me to fuck off on his way out of the building.”
“Christ.” Trent blew out a breath. “That bad . . . ?”
“Of epic proportions.” I bit my lip, holding back my own curses.
Parker had never done anything this antagonistic before, but he had a consistently snarky attitude that made him extremely unpopular with his coworkers. The consensus centered on arrogant and selfish in feedback surveys. Surely, those were the ones that went easy on him. I could think of ten more descriptive adjectives off the top of my head. Not a humble bone in that lad’s body. And unfortunately, Parker was blessed with a fit one. If you asked me, those perfect boy-next-door good looks only enabled him to get away with more bullshite.
What killed me was, when Parker wanted, he could dazzle. He was smart, hardworking, and ambitious to a fault. If he reined in that massive ego and concentrated on the quality of his work and building valuable relationships rather than attempting to impress everyone with his knowledge and charm, he’d get some respect. He had the potential to make a real name for himself at NetSmash. Once he grew the hell up.
“I don’t have the patience for this rubbish anymore. Losing clients over something so absurd is unacceptable. I want him gone.”
“Did you talk to him? Maybe find out what triggered this? I know his typical MO, but this is odd even for him.” Lately Trent had become such a bleeding heart. Spare me.
“I’m not a therapist. If I can successfully leave my personal issues out of the office, I expect the people who work for me to do the same.”
Trent shook his head. “I’m not asking you to counsel him or anything. But would it hurt to have a touch more empathy? Parker could know something about Chris you don’t. Could there be some truth to his accusations?”
“Impossible. Chris runs a tight ship. Always has. I don’t know where Parker got his information. But that’s not the point. During a pitch proposal is not the time nor place to bring it up!”
Trent nodded. “I would think that’s common sense.”
“Precisely.”
“It’s just strange.” Trent gazed out his window in contemplation.
Strange was putting it much too nicely. It was ridiculous and uncouth.
Trent turned back to me, his eyes suddenly bright. “Why don’t you mentor him on the Axion proposal coming up? You know, take him under your wing. Teach him instead of having me sign off on firing him.”
I blinked, blindsided. “I mean no disrespect, Trent. But are you mad? We’d murder one another!”
“You know how to control yourself and act like a professional. I trust you can show Parker.” His gaze shot downward, finding something fascinating on the floor. “And well, this would be a perfect opportunity for you to work on your interpersonal skills.”
I groaned. “My what?”