3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Desmond

I was undecided if Amelia Hendry was top of the list of the world's most helpless people who ever had to work with a computer.I mean, my mum was pretty bad, but this woman took the cake.

Listening with one ear, I pondered why on earth she had gone and gotten herself a position in an office when she needed the service desk to figure out her printer wasn't broken; it was just out of paper .

This had made it to the top of my most useless and time wasting jobs ever.

She'd started to keep a tin of butter shortbread in her desk drawer for me, though, which softened the blow of having to solve her issues with any piece of office equipment with a plug. And, I had to give it to her, she tried, which was more than I could say about most of our other colleagues, especially the ones over fifty who seemed to take my suggestions to remember the solution to recurring problems as a personal offence.

It wasn't her fault it was always me dealing with her. Both of my team members had been working remotely for the last few months. They were in the Netherlands because Ro's dad had been diagnosed with dementia and she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. This left all on-site jobs to me. We had an ad running for more staff but so far nothing had come of it. Damn, I was still cranky that Hector had found a new job at the beginning of the year and liked it.

So rude.

My cousin would have been perfect for the job. We had always liked each other but had gotten even closer once he'd finally moved out of his parents' place.

They said blood was thicker than water, but in all honesty? My aunt and uncle and most of their kids were assholes. I'd rather have no pack at all than these wankers. So we stuck together—Hec, his brother Luc, and I, the odd nerds. My parents had all but adopted the two littermates, and as far as I was concerned they were as good as my brothers.

No need to get sentimental, Des .

We would find someone to boost our ranks, I was sure of it and until then I'd manage. Especially if it meant I got delicious shortbread in return.

Making a mental note to call Ro later and see how things were, I turned my focus back on Amelia.

I had to admit she was quite endearing.

Well, sort of.

Her bubbly personality and the giddiness she had in spades could be overwhelming, especially when she talked at a hundred miles an hour about her life and her family, her side hustle as a cat sitter—I only just managed to suppress a smile when I remembered how she pronounced the word ‘hustle' thanks to the gap between her front teeth. It gave her a little lisp; it was rather darling.

It took me two minutes to figure out what had happened to her printer.

"It's not your fault," I interrupted her nervous rambling. "The driver needs to be updated."

"The what?" She looked baffled, the big brown eyes wide open, giving her the impression of a pretty deer in the headlights.

"It's a tiny program that helps your computer communicate with your printer, and sometimes they release new software. Our system should have updated it automatically. I don't know why that failed to happen," I muttered more to myself, my eyes flitting between her and the screen.

"Okay?"

I met her eyes, now darkened with fear and whatever frustration I still harboured over the job at hand our understaffed team evaporated.

Her expression spoke volumes. She wasn't being stupid on purpose to taunt me. Besides, she couldn't have solved this on her own.

She remembered the self help tips you gave her.

Maybe not all hope was lost when it came to Amelia Hendry.

"It'll take me a few minutes to fix this. How about I send this job to the MFU in the storeroom, so you can get everything ready for Mr Carson's meeting?"

It was almost worth dealing with this if it meant getting her to smile at me like this.

I wasn't exactly vain, but Amelia looking at me as if I had invented the computer instead of only updating the printer driver did boost my ego.

And I could tell she was proud of herself for remembering what I meant with MFU, a multi-function unit with a printer, scanner and—why ever we still needed those—a fax machine built in.

"That would be so lovely of you, Desmond." She beamed some more, showing the cute little gap in her teeth. "Can I get you something when I'm back? A cappuccino? Some shortbread? I have the one you liked so much the other day."

"Nah, it's okay. It's my job." I shrugged, and felt my ears heat.

"Oh, come on. You're saving my bum from getting fired. Getting you a nice cup of coffee and a few biscuits is the least I can do." She fluttered her eyelashes briefly at me in a cheeky way, clearly teasing me a bit.

Bending over with her back to me, she pulled out a patterned cookie tin, cracked open the lid and placed it beside me on the desk .

But my filthy brain went places I hadn't expected it to go. Not when it came to Amelia ‘bane of my existence' Hendry.

For a moment I saw Amelia on her knees at my feet, her slim skirt travelling up her thighs.

How did I never notice her thighs before?

Maybe being annoyed with her glossed over them?

Or maybe you don't need to sexualise every woman you meet, odd concept, I know , my inner voice quipped in a perfect imitation of Luc ‘Let's Smash Patriarchy' Atkins.

But good God! They were gorgeous, so thick and complementing her round ass perfectly.

Surely it was okay if I noticed? I'd never behave inappropriately towards her, no matter how much I wanted to bite her delicious thighs.

"Yeah, okay," I croaked, and then switched to my admin account and got the task manager running so I could update the driver.

Get your mind out from between her thighs, asshole.