“Navy?” He called.

  “Hazel,” I said, slowly turning around to face him My skin begun to crawl with irritation. He purposely was getting my name wrong just to show how much he didn’t care about me.

  “Sure. I’ll get it eventually. Be a doll and take that rubbish out for me, won’t you?” He pointed to the trash can next to the door. I looked down to see that there was one single napkin in the bottom of the bag.

  “There’s nothing in it,” I said.

  “Oh, well, it probably needs to be taken out, anyway. I think there’s a dumpster around the back of the building.”

  The smirk on his face told me that he knew I was upset, but he didn’t care. His eyes quickly looked me up and down. I stared at him for a moment longer, my lips parted in disbelief. I crouched down and gathered the top of the trash bag and pulled it out. His eyes lingered on me as I bent over. I felt my cheeks turning red, whether out of rage or embarrassment, I wasn’t sure. I stood up and started to leave, but not before Mr. Hyde made another request.

  “Make sure to put another bag in there. Thanks,” he said, taking a long sip of his tea.

  I grabbed a fresh bag from the bottom of the trash can and stretched it over the edges of the bin.

  “Will that be all, Mr. Hyde?” I asked, not even trying to hide the frustration in my voice.

  “For now.” He shooed me with his hand. “Thank you, Amber.”

  “It’s Hazel.”

  I lingered in the doorway for a moment, expecting a response, but when I didn’t get one, I turned and headed to the elevator. Erin was back at her desk, and she noticed the nearly empty trash bag in my hand.

  “I don’t know why he likes making people take out the trash so much,” she said. “That’s what I was just doing.”

  I let out an exasperated sigh and shook my head.

  “Good luck up here,” I said to her as I stepped into the elevator.

  Chapter four

  Noah

  “Don’t forget the charity banquet this evening, Mr. Hyde,” Marisa said when I sat down in my office. I had made it through my first week of work. I hadn’t pissed too many people off, and many of the lower employees had already learned not to waste my time.

  “Charity banquet?” I asked, absolutely certain that I had never heard about this event. My second week looked like it would be just as busy as the first.

  “Yes. The team hosts it every year. It’s a charity that raises money to help public school kids in Chicago,” she told me.

  “Alright. What kind of banquet is this?” I asked.

  “It’s a black-tie event. All of the highest-ranking members of the company will be there, as well as all of the players. You’ll need to give a short speech. Do you want me to prepare something for you?” Marisa asked.

  “Yes, that would be great. Thank you, Marisa,” I said. That was usually her signal to leave, and she knew that. For some reason, however, she lingered.

  “Is there something else?” I asked, a bit irritated. Having this banquet sprung on me didn’t set the tone for the morning.

  “Well, I, uh,” she stammered.

  “Whatever you’re going to say, please just say it,” I said. She knew I hated beating around the bush. I don’t know what was overcoming her now.

  “I overheard Erin talking to someone yesterday. She wants to quit… because of you,” Marisa said.

  “I have had many people quit when they can’t handle working with me. We’ll just find someone else to take her place,” I said, feeling exasperated by the fact that I had to explain this, especially to her.

  “I just think that maybe you should try to be a bit nicer to her. She’s young, and she’s still figuring things out. She’s really trying her best,” Marisa said.

  “Sometimes people’s best isn’t good enough,” I explained.

  “Yes, I know, but just give her a chance. I think she’ll prove her worth,” she said. Marisa had never been one to tell me that she thought I was wrong. She was just about the most loyal and agreeable person I had ever met.

  When Marisa turned and left the room, I paused for just a moment to think about my interactions with Erin over the past week. Perhaps I had been a bit hard on her. But you don’t gain the kind of success that I had without being hard on people once in a while. Marisa must have thought that I was really in the wrong if she felt the need to say something. I valued her opinion very highly, and she knew that. Maybe I should be a little bit easier on Erin. Everyone was working through this transition including Erin.

  I put on one of my best tuxedos and let my driver know that I was ready to go to the banquet. When he opened the door to usher me into the car, Marisa was already there waiting for me. She was dressed in a formal black suit with a strand of pearls around her neck. Even for a black-tie event, she was never one to go all out in terms of her appearance. We approached the hotel where the banquet was being held, and I noticed the flashes of cameras from quite a distance.

  “I didn’t realize this was a red-carpet event,” I said, turning to Marisa with an accusing look on my face.

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you that?” she asked, looking a bit guilty.

  “No, you conveniently left out that bit of information.”

  “My apologies,” she said, but I knew she didn’t mean it. Marisa knew how much I hated posing for photos of any kind, but especially on a red carpet in front of huge crowds of people. I suppose I would just have to put on my most charming smile for one evening.

  When I stepped out of the car and onto the red carpet, Marisa slipped back behind the scenes without being noticed, as she always did. I had only stood for a few photos before something caught my eye. There was a long line of cars waiting to deposit their occupants onto the red carpet. Five cars from the front of the line, I saw a woman stepping out onto the sidewalk, much earlier than she should have been. She was wearing a long, silver dress with a huge slit down the front. When she stepped out of the car, her entire leg was exposed, leaving little to the imagination. She stood and turned her back towards me, her long, blonde hair cascading over her shoulders and down her exposed back. The way she moved was enchanting, like she was floating on the air. I wanted to keep watching her, but I was being ushered down the carpet and further away from her. When I reached the end of the carpet, I turned around to see if I could catch another glimpse of her, but as my eyes scanned the crowd, Marisa grabbed my arm and stared moving me towards the entrance of the hotel.

  “Do you have a guest list of everyone who is here tonight?” I asked her, trying to sound casual.

  “No, but I’m sure I can get one from the event planner,” she said, looking at me a bit suspiciously. When I didn’t respond, she went on, “Why do you need one?”

  “There was someone back there that I didn’t recognize, and I’d like to make sure I know everyone who is here,” I said, hoping that my lie was convincing enough.

  “Well, the only people who are left to walk the carpet are the players and their dates, so maybe it was one of them,” she said.

  “Right. It must have been one of their dates,” I said, feeling a bit disappointed. Even without seeing her face, I knew how stunning she must have been.

  The rest of the night, my thoughts continuously thought of the woman out front. Even standing on the stage when I gave my speech, I looked around the room and tried to find the woman in the silver dress, but I couldn’t see her amongst the crowd.

  The conversation with the VIPs was rather dull, so I excused myself to go get a drink from the bar. I walked out of the event room and into the bar next door. The universe must have been smiling down on me because sitting on a stool at the far end of the bar was the woman in the silver dress.

  I could only see the back side of her, but that was all I needed. Her dress had a small clasp behind her neck, and it wouldn’t take me long to unclip it to unveil what looks like an amazingly hot body and have her completely naked. Even at a crowded event, where I needed to be on point, I couldn’t stop the desire to know more about her. She had me distracted. I wanted to push her up against the wall and worship her with my lips all over her body. I wanted to feel her soft skin beneath my hands. I wanted to feel her getting wet as I teased her. I wanted her to moan my name.

  Before she had the chance to disappear on me once again,, I approached her to ask if I could take the open seat next to her. She brushed her hair back behind her shoulders and turned to look at me.

  “Mr. Hyde?” she asked.

  Her face was so familiar, but I couldn’t figure out from where.

  “Have we met?” I asked.

  She nodded and did not look amused. She looked up at me, and her blue eyes suddenly made me remember.

  “You’re the beautiful young woman who was out all alone the other night,” I crooned, inching my way closer to her.

  She backed up just a bit, confused and even a little upset.

  “I came to introduce myself to you the other day. I work for the marketing department,” she snapped.

  “You work for the Bees?” I asked, trying to hide my surprise. Shit. I really needed to get better at knowing the employees. I never thought it would bite me in the ass like it did just now.

  She nodded again but didn’t say anything.

  “I’m sorry, you just look so different from the last time I saw you.: I ransacked my brain for her name. I knew it was a color of some sorts. Amber. No. She had said it was… Hazel! So Hazel was the person I saw outside the bar the day before I started at the Bees? I hadn’t even put those two together, but I often didn’t remember a woman’s face that rejected me. There was no point in it. I shook my head, realizing I was distracted. “But what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I uh—I was invited by someone,” she said, looking around the room.

  “Is that so?” I asked, raising a brow.

  “Yes. I am here as someone’s plus one,” she said, but I wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince me or herself.

  “Hm. Who is your date?” I asked, not sure if I pried because I wanted to know if she was single or because she seemed to be hiding something..

  “I’d rather not talk to you about it,” she said. She stood up from the stool and grabbed her drink. Before I had a chance to respond, she was gone.

  I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t recognized her right away, but she really did look quite different. The Hazel that I met last week was dressed professionally in a suit and sensible shoes with her hair pulled back. This Hazel was completely different. This Hazel had gorgeous, blonde hair, stunning, long legs, and a body that I would love to see without that silver dress on. When I met her outside the bar, it was dark, and we were both a little tipsy. I definitely didn’t expect to see someone I had tried to take home with me at a work function.

  I had walked the dangerous path of sleeping with an employee before, and it never ended well. The last time had ended up being the worst, more because of how she had left me rather than where we had worked.

  No matter how aggravatingly sexy Hazel was, I couldn’t let anything happen between us. Well, maybe I could make an exception for just one night. Technically, we had met before either of us started working for the Bees. No. I couldn’t.

  But the truth of the matter was that she wasn’t supposed to be here. I knew she wasn’t invited, because this was meant for the team and the VIPs, not lower employees like herself. She may have come as someone’s date. I ordered my drink from the bartender and strolled back into the event room that buzzed with conversation and light music. I scanned the room and noticed Hazel sitting at one of the tables closest to the front. She was sitting next to Harry, and they were talking and laughing with everyone else at the table. I couldn’t believe that Harry would bring a date half his age to an event like this. They conversed so naturally, like they had known each other for a while or knew each other outside of work. How had they even met? They worked in completely different departments on opposite sides of the building. I walked over to the table and worked up my best smile.

  “Good evening, everyone, I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves,” I said, looking at each of the people sitting around the table. Hazel didn’t look at me, as she was quite enthralled with moving a piece of salmon around on her plate.

  “Harry, do you mind if I have a word with you?” I asked.

  Harry dabbed his napkin to his mouth and rose from his chair.

  “Sure thing, boss,” he said.

  “Excuse us. Please enjoy the rest of the night,” I said to the table before placing my hand on Harry’s back and ushering him away.

  Harry and I stepped out into the cool darkness behind the hotel, and I still wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say to him.

  “What’s up, Noah?” he asked as we both took a seat in the patio chairs nearest to the outdoor heaters that were scattered around.

  “I noticed you have quite a young date tonight,” I said.

  “Oh, well she’s not really my date,” he said.

  “But she came here with you, didn’t she?”

  “Well, yeah. I invited her, but I wouldn’t call it a ‘date’ necessarily.”

  “Then what would you call it?” I asked. He was clearly hiding something that he didn’t want me to know.

  “I just wanted some company tonight. I don’t know,” he said.

  “Is that all you’re going to tell me?” I asked.

  “I just wanted someone to sit with at dinner, and she needed something to do tonight,” he said.

  “I see. How do you even know her?”

  “Oh, you know. I’ve just seen her around the building.”

  “Hm. Well, you know that tonight’s event was only for VIPs. You shouldn’t have invited someone without any standing in the company without my approval,” I said.

  “Did you approve everyone’s dates?” he challenged.

  I hadn’t expected him to argue with me on the matter.

  “Well, no, but she’s one of my employees, and she wasn’t invited,” I said.

  “She was invited by me,” he argued.

  “If you’re not dating her, why would you have invited her, anyway?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. She needs some friends, I guess,” He glanced back at her, as if she were a lost puppy.

  “Why do you care so much?” I asked, starting to feel a bit frustrated. There had to be a good reason why he wouldn’t tell me, why he was putting up such a fight not to tell me. The fact he just didn’t out right tell me, made me want to know even more what Hazel meant to him.

  “I don’t think I can tell you that,” he said slowly.

  “What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t you be able to tell me?” I asked, my frustration now audible in my voice.

  “I just—” he started.

  “What?” I asked, getting impatient with his vague answers that gave me little to nothing.

  “Okay, I will tell you, but you absolutely cannot let this get back to her,” he said, leaning in as if she could hear us over all the noise.

  “Um, okay,” I agreed.

  “Hazel is my daughter. I know that the two of you got off to a bit of a rocky start, so I wanted to bring her here tonight, so you could get to know her outside of work. She is an amazing person, and I want you to see her potential. But she made me promise not to tell you that we are related,” he said, the words spilling out of his mouth.

  I was absolutely shocked by this news. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting him to say. I had remembered him having a daughter, but I felt like she should have been a young girl, not some beautiful twenty something that wore dresses like that to banquets. Or had a figure that made me want to undress to see every curve and crevice.

  When I didn’t say anything, Harry went on. “Maybe the two of you can start fresh. I think you’ll really like her once you give her a chance.”

  “Yeah, sure. I will go talk to her,” I said, standing from my seat and heading back inside.

  Chapter five

  Hazel

  “Hazel, would you go refresh my drink for me?” My dad asked as he rejoined us at our table.

  “Oh, um, sure,” I said, uncertain about why he couldn’t walk over to the bar himself.

  I stepped into the room where the bar was located, and I immediately knew why my dad had sent me in here. Noah sat in the stool closest to me, and he was turned to face the door rather than the bar. When I approached the bar, I made sure to avoid eye contact with him, but he stood from his stool and stepped in front of me before I made it.

  “Hazel,” he said, his voice low and deep.

  Goosebumps rose on my arms. “What do you want?” I asked, the words coming out a bit sharper than I had intended.

  “I want us to start over. I think I was a bit harsh with you the other day, and I wanted to make it up to you,” he said. Immediately, I knew that my dad must have told him who I was.

  “Did Harry put you up to this?” I asked.

  “Harry? What? No, of course not,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes and tried to step around him, but he moved quickly and blocked my route once again.

  “Fine, Harry and I spoke about you. But I really did want to reintroduce myself. I am sure you have some great ideas, and I would love to discuss them with you sometime.” I stared at him, watched as he looked a little nervous, almost different. This had to be an act or something. He had been playing with me all night, first not recognizing me and now this. Did he just enjoy torturing his employees? “I would hate to know that my employees feel like their voices aren’t being heard,” he said.

  Yep. This had to be another moment of him trying to mess with me. Without saying a word, I turned around and walked out of the room. I strode back into the event room and approached my dad.

  “I can’t believe you told him. You promised,” I said.

  “Hazel—I—” he started to say.

  I raised my hand to cut him off before he could apologize. I didn’t want to hear any of his excuses. “Don’t say anything. I can’t believe you would do that. Of all people you had to tell, why did it have to be him?” I asked. I could feel tears welling in my eyes, but I held them back. I knew Noah would be using this later to torture me, if it wasn’t bad enough that he already toyed with me as my boss. My mind wandered to so many ways he could use this as a weapon. But most of all, I was hurt that my dad would go behind my back and tell the one person I didn’t want to know that I was his daughter.