My Boss's Boss: A Steamy Older Man Younger Woman Romance Read online

  My Boss’s Boss

  A Steamy Older Man / Younger Woman Romance

  Mia Madison

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Mia Madison

  Copyright © 2016 by Mia Madison

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events, locations, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  1

  “Watch out!”

  The sudden call and the movement in my peripheral vision made me whirl around. A trio of boys were flying up the aisle, causing shoppers to step hastily out of their way. They weren’t running, but they were moving quickly. As they got closer, I recognized the two in front—the Dawson twins. They were only ten years old, but they were already known as terrors around our small town.

  There was another boy behind them. I didn’t know who he was, but he was the one causing the fuss. He was balanced on a skateboard, holding onto the hoods of the Dawson twins’ coats as they pulled him along at a fast clip. An older woman shrieked, and a man in an expensive-looking silver suit jumped aside with a muttered oath.

  “On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, and Nixon,” shouted the dimwit being towed on the skateboard.

  Grimly, I put down my pricing gun and planted myself in front of the trio. “Stop,” I said loudly and firmly. If they didn’t, I was in trouble. I was only five foot three, so I wan’t all that much taller than they were.

  Bracing myself, I held firm as the twins approached. At the last second, they split to either side, going around me. And leaving the kid on the skateboard coming right at me. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  Holding my hands out in front of me, I closed my eyes. The sounds of rapid footfalls reached my ears and the skateboard hit my ankle—ouch! But nothing else crashed into me.

  Cautiously, I opened my eyes. The third boy was dangling in midair, held firm by the man in the silver suit I’d seen before. He was tall, and had an arm wrapped around the boy’s chest, holding him a foot off the ground. His blue eyes locked with mine as he lowered the boy to the ground.

  Shakily, I reached down and picked up the skateboard, testing the pain in my ankle as I did so. I didn’t think it was broken or fractured. It had just been a sudden pain like stubbing my toe.

  Finally, I found my voice. “Thank you,” I said to the man. He looked to be in his late thirties—his dark brown hair was edged with silver that matched his suit. I had to crane my neck to see his face. It was rather tempting just to stare at the broad shoulders that were more at my eye-level.

  But first, I had some kids to murder.

  “You could have gotten hurt,” I said to the boy who’d just been plucked off the skateboard and the brothers who’d been pulling him. “You could have hurt other people.”

  “We were just playing,” one of the Dawson twins said.

  “I could see that. But you can’t play that way here.”

  The little one who’d almost crashed into me looked defiant. “What are you going to do, tell on us?”

  “Yep,” I said. Despite my awareness of the handsome man who was watching me, I had the urge to stick out my tongue. I was twenty-three, but these brats were making me feel like I was in elementary school again.

  “Our mom won’t care,” the other Dawson boy said.

  “Mine neither,” said the skateboard savant.

  “Oh, I’m not going to tell your parents.”

  “You’re not?”

  “I’m going to tell Santa.”

  The boys’ eyes widened, and one of the Dawson twins looked around. “Is he here today?”

  “He sure is. Shall we go talk to him?”

  “No. Uh, sorry,” the other twin said. He grabbed his brother’s arm and they hurried down the aisle. The smaller boy quickly followed before I could tell him that “Nixon” was decidedly not a reindeer.

  A smattering of applause made me look up. “Way to go, Emma.” A woman who’d been my neighbor when I was a kid winked at me. A few other people smiled and then resumed their shopping.

  After they were gone, I turned back to the man in front of me, and for some inexplicable reason, I felt a little tongue-tied. Which was ridiculous. It was part of my job to deal with customers. And he was a customer. But instead of looking up into his handsome face, I examined the skateboard in my hands. It was from our toy section, and the wheels were all scratched up. No way we could sell it like that. Which was a shame, because our department store wasn’t in the best financial shape at the moment.

  “Aren’t they a little old to believe in Santa?” The deep voice made me look up. And up. He had to be at least six-two. He seemed completely unruffled after lunging forward to stop a random kid on a skateboard. Relaxed. Confident. All the things I currently didn’t feel at the moment.

  “I wasn’t talking about the real Santa,” I said and then stopped. That hadn’t come out right, and now I felt like an idiot. “I mean, I know Santa’s not real.”

  He wore an amused expression now, one corner of his mouth upturned. Crap, he was hot. But I wasn’t the type to start babbling and saying stupid things just because a hot guy was around. Until today, apparently.

  “I mean, Mr. Miller, the store owner, dresses up as Santa every year. It’s a Fayetteville tradition. I guess you’re not from around here, are you?” Everyone here knew Mr. Miller.

  “What gave it away?” he said with a raised eyebrow that was somehow sexy as hell.

  “Well, just look at you,” I said without thinking. This made his half grin turn into a full one and made me want to curl up in a ball and die. Why couldn’t I stop saying stupid things? His presence was somehow overwhelming. He oozed masculine confidence. Whereas I was shifting my weight, my free hand fidgeting at my side. I was never like this around men. Not that my job as Mr. Miller’s right-hand woman gave me much time to meet men.

  The gleam in his eyes made me think he enjoyed seeing me blush, but his words were mild. “You don’t appear to be from around here, either. Let me guess—day pass from the North Pole?”

  “Huh?” Now I was really confused. I felt my face redden even further as his gaze left my face to scan over my body, from my chest to my legs and back up again. Somehow, despite the sudden heat that flooded into my core, I realized what he meant. “All Miller’s employees wear elf costumes during the Christmas season.”

  “Christmas? Didn’t I just see leftover Halloween candy in Aisle Twelve?”

  “Yes, but…” I trailed off. I wasn’t used to getting flustered in front of customers. Then again, I wasn’t used to meeting hot older men who looked like that. And that glint in his eye... he was probably used to women falling at his feet. I needed to pull it together. I straightened my shoulders, took a deep breath, and tried to look as dignified as I could in a white shirt, red tunic, green tights, a
nd an elf cap. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  His grin widened, apparently amused by my Elf-With-An-Attitude demeanor. “I was going to ask where the frozen turkeys were, but Miller’s seems to have skipped over Thanksgiving altogether.”

  “There are plenty in the grocery section. But yes, we’ll get more in a week or two.”

  “Good to know Miller’s doesn’t entirely ignore poultry-based holidays.”

  He winked when he said it and I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Despite the fact that he was incredibly sexy—intimidatingly so—he had the kind of grin that made other people smile back.

  “Thank you for your help, Emma,” he said, and a delicious shiver stole through me when I saw him read my name tag off my chest. Had his gaze lingered there a bit longer than it needed to? Normally, that kind of thing creeped me out. But not with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Mega-Handsome.

  “Enjoy your time at Miller’s,” I said, and I turned to go.

  As I walked away, skateboard still in hand, I could feel his eyes on me, I was sure of it. On my legs covered in green tights. On my ass, barely covered by the red tunic-dress. The feeling didn’t go away until I turned at the end of the aisle, and I let out a breath of air I hadn’t known I’d been holding. Damn, that man had been handsome. Such… charisma. I don’t even think I’d ever applied that term to anyone before, but it fit him.

  In the online business classes I took in the evening—I was trying to get my MBA—they talked about making a strong first impression. Having a commanding presence. That man could have taught a class on that subject.

  Too bad he didn’t teach it, because then I’d get to see him again.

  2

  “Where is everyone?” Mr. Miller wasn’t wearing his Santa suit, but he still looked like a plain-clothes St. Nick. He had the white hair, beard, and eyebrows, as well as a belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. And he laughed often.

  He was a nice man. I’d known him since I was a kid—everyone in town had. Once I turned sixteen, I worked here during the summers and school breaks when I was in high school and college. And now I’d been a full-time employee for over a year.

  “It’s early. You said to be here at seven-thirty.” Miller’s was open from eight in the morning until ten at night, so employee meetings tended to be quite early. I’d put on an extra pot of coffee. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Fine. Good,” he said, and even as well as I knew him, I still couldn’t tell if his nervous energy was from excitement or anxiety over the financial troubles the store had been having lately. Miller’s Everything Store was just that—everything to our small town. It sold groceries, clothes, home goods, even some farm equipment since Fayetteville was surrounded by farmland.

  But the world was smaller place than it used to be. The townspeople now had the option of driving thirty miles up the highway and stocking up at Walmart or Happy Hearth & Home. And many people did just that.

  “Emma,” Mr. Miller said and then paused. He was never jittery like this. “Umm… Helen wanted to make sure you’re coming to Thanksgiving dinner.”

  “Of course,” I said. I came every year, ever since my parents had moved to Arizona after I’d finished high school.

  “Good, good.” He was straightening the folding chairs in the front row. “You know…” He paused and looked at me. “You know I never could have kept this store going without you these last few years. I mean, you’ve always been a great employee, but since you came here full-time…”

  A surge of excitement stole through me as my boss, friend, and honorary grandfather appeared to get choked up. Was there any chance that this meeting would be about the assistant manager position? It had been vacant for over a year now. Was Mr. Miller finally ready to officially name me his second-in-command?

  If so, it would mean so much to me. I’d worked so hard at helping to strengthen this place. It was the whole reason I’d majored in business. And as I fought to keep my growing hopes in place, I remembered that Mr. Miller had said that he had good news when he scheduled this meeting.

  “Thank you,” I said, struggling to keep the excitement out of my voice. “You know how much this store means to me.”

  “Yes. I’m counting on that.”

  That sounded promising. “I’ll go see if I can round people up.” I left the breakroom, nodding at a couple of cashiers who were headed in, their elf caps settled over drooping heads. Collectively, we were not much of a morning group.

  Moving past the loading docs, the shelves of surplus merchandize, and the refrigerated areas, I talked to my fellow employees and sent them back to Mr. Miller. Then I headed back to the breakroom myself but veered off at the last minute. I hadn’t checked Storeroom C where we kept the higher priced items, everything from high-end electronics to the priciest wine and liquors we sold.

  The strong wooden door was closed, but I grabbed the handle and pulled hard. With twin groans, one from me and one from the door, it opened.

  “Oh thank god,” a female voice said.

  “Nancy, you know you have to use the doorstop.”

  “Sorry Emma” she said sheepishly, turning out the light and sliding past me. “I just forgot. It’s so early.”

  When she was clear, I pushed the heavy door shut again. That storeroom had been giving us trouble for years. Employees knew that it sometimes locked from the inside. We’d tried to get it repaired several times, but it had a mind of its own. Glenn from grocery claimed that it was haunted by a spirit of a young boy who coveted all the video game consoles contained within.

  Everyone was seated when I arrived. Mr. Miller beamed and gestured toward a seat in the front row. That seemed like a good omen. He began with a welcome and a run down of some store announcements. Most of them concerned the holiday season. Miller’s hosted an annual Christmas Festival in December and Mr. Miller went all out. The elf costumes everyone wore were just the tip of the iceberg.

  “And now, it’s time for me to tell you about a very big change to our store.” Mr. Miller smiled at the rows of employees, but there was a kind of bittersweet quality to his smile. But that didn’t make any sense. Surely he couldn’t be upset about appointing me to be the assistant manager when I’d been acting in that role unofficially for months?

  “Miller’s Everything Store is the center of our community. The heart of Fayetteville. But for a heart to continue beating, it needs blood to flow through it. For a store to survive, it needs income. From sales. From its reserves. From its loans. Right now, Miller’s is not making enough of a profit to stay open.”

  My own heart thudded once and then began beating less enthusiastically. Was it possible Miller’s was closing? Had it succumbed to the big box stores up the highway?

  “It hasn’t been for some time now,” he continued with a sigh. “I knew something had to be done. Miller’s is the heart and soul of this town. And I couldn’t stand the thought of any of you losing your jobs. I just couldn’t let that happen. That’s why I agreed to meet with them when they approached me—the people from the Happy Hearth & Home corporate office.”

  Gasps issued from all corners of the room. Not from me, though. I was frozen with surprise. This place was Mr. Miller’s life’s work. His father had started the store. Was it really to becoming a generic superstore like Happy Hearth & Home? You could go to one of those stores in Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado, or anyplace, and it would look exactly the same. No personality whatsoever. Miller’s may not have cashflow, but it had plenty of personality. A store like this could only exist in a small town like Fayetteville.

  “I’ve been working with them, and they’re really great,” Mr. Miller was saying. “The corporate office has sent down one of their top executives to help with this transition. He’ll be with us for three months. And so, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Mr. Aiden Donovan.”

  My coworkers began clapping, but all I could do was to stare at the man who’d just walked in. His suit was black this time, but it was him
all right. The man from the other day. The tall, gorgeous man with the sexy salt-and pepper hair at his temples. The man with the easy confidence as his gaze traveled the room, seemingly unfazed by the sea of red and green.

  Nancy elbowed me. “Why aren’t you clapping?”

  Oh yeah. With numb fingers, I joined the applause, trying to figure out what this all meant. Clearly it meant that I wasn’t getting the assistant manager position. That was a loss I’d have to work out later when my mind was functioning again. And clearly, it meant changes to Miller’s. It did need some changes, but somehow I didn’t think a big faceless corporation was going to know what was best for a small town store like ours.

  But my increased heart-rate and the ache between my legs reminded me of another thing this change meant. It meant seeing more of him.

  And now I knew his name: Aiden Donovan.

  So at least there was one upside of Happy Hearth & Homes taking over.

  3

  “Good morning,” he said. His voice was as rich and deep as I remembered it. Rumbly in a husky way. A sexy way. Or maybe it was just me hearing that? A quick glance around the room showed that most of the female employees looked to be just as dazed by his presence as I was.

  “I must say, I’m not used to addressing such a brightly-colored crowd.” Behind him, I saw Mr. Miller beaming, but I wasn’t at all sure Aiden meant it as a compliment.

  “I’m sure you have many questions, but I can assure you that Miller’s will still be the excellent store you grew up with. The name’s not even changing, at least not much. Starting next week, this store will be Miller’s Hearth & Home. But I think you’ll find that that’s about the biggest change you’ll see. Which makes my job pretty easy. I’ll be here pitching in for three months. You can think of me as the assistant manger, since your store doesn’t have one of those.”

  My eyes flicked to Mr. Miller after that statement, but he was pointedly looking in a different direction. So that’s why I was never offered the job. Mr. Corporate was coming to fill the role. And that sucked. There was no other word for it.