Feverish (Bullet #3) by Jade C. Jamison

case she had to
go to the restroom or something. That reaction was just thinking of
the worst case scenario. So she wound up covering her head with her
pillow to drown out the noise.
    Again, though, it wasn’t that she had a
problem with it necessarily. It was that she had to then picture Clay watching the video. She had to wonder what he was
thinking, what he might possibly be doing. It was too much.
    She just hoped this wasn’t going to be the
most difficult year of her life.
    * * *
    It had been a great first week. Not only was
Emily quite easy on the eyes, she was more than he’d ever dreamed
of in terms of a Personal Assistant. All the things he’d hoped to
gradually give to someone else (basically, all responsibility
except his job and the money that came with it) she’d taken over in
a matter of hours. And then she put together a list of things she
thought she could do in addition. It got him to thinking of all the
other bullshit his bandmates had told him he needed to do in order
to keep their fan base interested and engaged.
    She was smart. That should have intimidated
him, and it might have, but underneath her cool, professional
exterior, he saw something else. One thing he noticed that he liked
was she seemed to be sweet. In a way, she reminded him of Valerie—a
little naïve and way too trusting. That made the Clay part of him
want to protect her, much like he’d tried to protect Valerie. But
there was a problem…Emily seemed to be attached. He should probably
ask about it, get it all out on the table right now.
    The other thing he’d observed when her armor
was down was something smoldering just underneath the coolness.
Once or twice he’d looked up or turned around and he have been
shocked if she’d said she hadn’t been checking him out or thinking
about him in a way that wasn’t completely professional. Again,
though, he didn’t plan to push it. Not only did he want to keep her
as an employee (a job she was already amazing at), he didn’t need a
sexual harassment lawsuit, and Mary had convinced him it would
happen if he wasn’t careful.
    He’d definitely have to be cautious.
    So, week two, they were in the kitchen. Yeah,
he was actually up before ten AM thanks to this woman. He hadn’t
showered yet, but he was gradually working into being up earlier
day by day. He wondered if she even knew she’d had that influence
on him. The office was clear on the other side of the house, so
even when she was on the phone, her voice didn’t bother him much.
And he liked hearing it on those occasions when she was a little
louder.
    He’d also caught her playing music on the
computer more than once. It was quiet, but he heard it. Most of the
time, she’d be playing a band he liked (and that was what convinced
him once and for all she was the real deal), like Alice in Chains,
Stone Sour, or New Medicine, but a couple of times, he heard her
playing the latest Last Five Seconds album. Maybe she hadn’t been a
fan before and was trying to acclimate herself, or maybe she really
liked his stuff. She’d said so, but he wasn’t sure. Clay wasn’t
always as confident as he should be.
    That too was a problem. Clay was letting
himself become comfortable with this young woman when Jet should
have been present at all times, protecting himself. Having her live
there had made that impossible, though, especially since she was
dealing with all his personal stuff. Still, Jet made the occasional
appearance, the last time playing a porno in the DVD player one
night, just so she couldn’t claim later on that she had no idea he
liked watching it sometimes.
    That morning, though, they were in the
kitchen, both drinking vanilla-flavored coffee, and she had a
yellow lined tablet in front of her, black ballpoint pen in hand.
“I’ll do all the grocery shopping on Monday. I do not want
to go back to the store until the following Monday unless we’ve had
some sort of emergency.” Clay looked up from his coffee, but Jet
raised