All She Wants for New Year's -- A Contemporary Erotic Holiday Romance (All She Wants #2) by Nathan Stratton Read Free Book Online Page A

gotten passed up to corporate, but without further evidence of wrongdoing they couldn’t do anything besides give him a warning. Peter was a total slimeball, but for the time being Jessica was stuck with him. At least he knew she wasn’t afraid to stand up to him.
     
    “Whatever,” she sighed, and tried to forget about their conversation. It was her first day back after a long weekend, and she wasn’t about to let that creep Peter start it off on the wrong foot. She switched on her computer, and it flickered to life. But as soon as she logged in, she saw an error message: “SYSTEM ERROR. CODE #3756c. MEMORY CORRUPTED.”
     
    “Oh, great,” she said, and tried the old Control-Alt-Delete method. Nothing happened. She turned the computer off and then on again, and the same error came up – only this time, her desktop wallpaper had disappeared, and the background had turned completely black. This didn’t look good.
     
    It appeared that this day was going to start off on the wrong foot, after all.
     
    Groaning, Jessica grabbed her computer. “Why do you hate me?!?” she asked it. “After all we’ve been through together.”
     
    Shaking her head, she flipped through her directory for the I.T. helpdesk phone number. She picked up her handset and heard a dial tone; at least the phones still work, she thought scornfully. She punched in the number for the help desk and took a swig of coffee. After just one ring, a man’s voice picked up.
    “I.T. Helpdesk,” the voice said impassively. “This is Brandon, how may I help you?”

Chapter 2: Trouble Ticket
     
    She hadn’t expected the I.T. person to pick up so quickly, and she still had a mouthful of coffee to swallow. She gulped it down as fast as she could. The line was silent for a second. “…Hello?” the voice asked.
     
    “Hi!” she said abruptly, as soon as she could speak. She was still a bit flustered, and spoke too loudly into the phone. Easy, tiger , she thought mockingly to herself, shaking her head. “Uh, hi, Brandon,” she repeated, much more calmly this time. “How are you doing this morning?”
     
    “Just fine, thank you,” he said politely, a business-like tone in his voice. “And who am I speaking with, please?”
     
    “Oh, right,” she said. “Sorry. Um, this is Jessica Bradley… from HR?”
     
    Brandon’s tone brightened considerably. “Oh, Jessica!” he said. “Of course! I should have recognized your voice. Hey, it’s been a while – how are you doing these days?”
     
    Crap , thought Jessica. This happened a lot to her. When new hires came in to the company, she was typically the one to walk them through their orientation training on their first day. As a result, they all knew her , but she had trouble remembering them. She racked her brain now, trying to remember a Brandon from IT, but she was drawing a blank. She went into what she called “fake-smile mode,” an essential skill for people working in Human Resources.
     
    “Oh, I’ve been great!” she replied cheerfully, a smile plastered on her face. “Just super. And how was your Christmas, Brandon? Spend some time with the family?”
     
    There was no answer for a second; suddenly, Brandon burst out laughing. “…You have no idea who I am, do you?” he asked.
     
    Jessica’s false smile relaxed into a real one, as she couldn’t help but laugh herself. “…You got me,” she said finally. “I’m sorry, I just – there’s so many people coming in, it’s hard to keep track of you all. When did you start here?”
     
    He chuckled some more. His laugh had a nice ring to it. “I’m pretty new,” he said. “Just started in September. But don’t worry, I completely understand. This place is huge, it must be hard for you guys.”
     
    “You’ve got that right. But am I really that transparent?” asked Jessica. She was surprised he’d picked up so easily on her insincere banter. No one had ever said anything to her about it before.
     
    “My ex