Worst Boss Ever: Enemies to lovers boss romance (A Time For Love Book 2) Read online

  Worst Boss Ever

  J. S. Cooper

  Copyright © 2021 by J. S. Cooper

  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.

  Created with Vellum

  To Charmaine, never stop fighting the good fight.

  Contents

  About This Book

  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

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Acknowledgments

  Also by J. S. Cooper

  About This Book

  During the day, I work for Dylan McAllister, the hunky billionaire who became CEO of his own company at thirty. He may be one of the hottest men I’ve ever met in my life, but he’s also the boss from hell. He has dazzling blue eyes that pierce your soul and freeze your heart. And he’s a known womanizer.

  I call him AB to my friends—Asshole Boss. He’s grumpy, demanding, and rude. And that’s on a good day. He’s definitely the worst boss ever.

  The only reason I’m still his secretary is because I have debt up to my eyeballs thanks to student loans and an ex that conned me into letting him use my credit cards. I’m counting down the days until I can quit and tell him to get his own coffee and lobster rolls. My calendar says that between both my jobs, I only need to work for him for three more months.

  You see, Mr. McAllister has no idea that his “mousey little secretary” has a night job just so I can quit as soon as possible.

  That is, until I end up at a bachelor party for his brother.

  And then the real drama begins … because Mr. McAllister can’t seem to get over the fact that his boring secretary also pops out of cakes.

  Chapter 1

  Abby

  * * *

  The stack of bills sat on the edge of my bed like a mountain that I didn’t have the energy to climb. By my calculations, I owed more than a hundred thousand dollars. Thanks for nothing, school loans and David Adams.

  David Adams was my con artist of an ex-boyfriend. We’d only gone on three dates before he’d convinced me to buy him materials for his flooring business. “I’ll pay you back after I finish the job,” he’d said. I hadn’t heard from him since. That was an awful way to lose $5000, but as my best friends said, at least it was only $5000, and at least I hadn’t slept with him. I would have felt even more betrayed then.

  “Hey, Abby.” Emma knocked on my door before poking her head inside my room. “Isabella is going to come over with a pizza. She wants to know what kind you want?”

  “Tell her to surprise us.” I jumped off of the bed. The stack of bills didn’t even move. It was solid and going nowhere. I gave it a glare before turning my attention to Emma. “Is Jack coming, or is it just her?”

  “I’m pretty sure she said she wanted a ladies' night.” Emma glanced down at her phone. “So it will just be us girls.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Jack was Isabella’s new boyfriend. He was great, but now that she had moved out of the apartment we shared, I was happy to have some alone time with her and without him. “Will Chloe be joining us?”

  “No, I’m actually not sure what she’s up to tonight.” Emma typed rapidly into her phone. “Okay, I’m going to have a quick shower before she gets here.” She wrinkled her nose and sniffed herself. “I went for a run this afternoon and I’m stinky.”

  “You’re not stinky.” I laughed. “Next time let me know when you’re going on a run and I’ll join you.”

  “Of course you will.”

  We both knew that I had no intentions of running with her. I hated running. I’d tried running through Central Park once and ran out of breath after five minutes. I’d collapsed onto the ground after ten minutes, and I still hadn’t gotten over the shame. My body was not made for running. Not at all.

  “Hey, Isabella!” I jumped up as soon as my best friend entered the living room. She was wearing a summery yellow dress and white wedges, and she looked beautiful and happy. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages!”

  “You haven’t seen me in two days, Abby.” She grinned and gave me a hug. She smelled like peonies, and I wondered if her new scent was a gift from her new boyfriend.

  “Well, it feels like ages.”

  “I know. I missed you too.” She stepped back, and I noticed that she had a glow to her that I’d never seen before. I guess that’s what happened when you found love.

  “So how’s it going with you and Jack?”

  She bit her lip. “Would you hate me if I said it was going absolutely fantastic?”

  “Of course not!”

  It was the truth, of course, but I was slightly envious. Her boyfriend was absolutely gorgeous. He was a famous NFL player. He was a billionaire. He was handsome. He was hot. And he loved her. I mean, what more could you wish for than that? And, to top it off, I was the one who’d set them up. If it hadn’t been for me, they wouldn’t be together, which, I have to say, made me very proud of myself. In a different life, I could have been a matchmaker.

  “So, are you excited about the new job?” Isabella asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, tomorrow’s the big day. I can’t believe I’m finally starting.”

  “You must be absolutely excited,” Emma said with a tinge of jealousy in her voice. “You’re going to be making so much money.”

  “It’s good money for sure, but it’s going to be a lot of work. I mean, I’m working for Dylan McAllister. I’ve heard he’s absolutely crazy to work for.”

  “Those are probably just rumors,” Isabella said. “I mean, he can’t be that horrible, right?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I don’t have a lot of experience, and I don’t know if he even knows that. I don’t know how he’s going to feel about me learning on the job.” I smiled, trying to play down my anxiety. “I mean, I went through the employment agency. It’s not like I lied. I was a PA for a little while.”

  “Weren’t you a PA for your uncle?” Isabella asked. “For like a month?”

  “Yeah, but …”

  Emma said. “That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?”

  “It’s not a stretch. I was a PA for one summer, it was like three months.”

  “And you told the employment company this?”

  “Well, maybe I didn’t tell them it was just for one summer,” I admitted. “But I didn’t say that I have any skills that I don’t have. To be honest, I got the feeling that t
hey were desperate for applicants.”

  “That’s not a good sign,” Isabella said.

  “No, it’s not. I don’t want to think about why they settled for me as the secretary to a billionaire at a multi-billion-dollar company, even though I don’t have that much experience, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. I was just doing my finances, and those interest rates are killing me. I’m paying so much money each month on these loans and the balances just never seem to go down.”

  “Yup, it’s all going to interest,” Emma nodded. “You gotta make some huge payments to start getting the principal down.”

  “I know that now. I loved my time at Columbia, but man.” I made a face.

  “I feel ya,” Emma said.

  “Me too,” Isabella nodded. We all looked at her. “What? It’s true. I’ve got loans to repay as well.”

  “But you’re also dating a billionaire.”

  “It’s not like I’m going to ask him to pay off my loans!”

  “Girl, I bet you don’t even have to ask him. I bet he’d do it as a six-month anniversary gift or something.”

  “Well … maybe,” she admitted.

  “Oh my gosh, he hasn’t done it already has he?”

  “We haven’t even been together for six months yet.” She laughed. “So no, I won’t let him pay it off.”

  “But he’s already brought it up?”

  “Yeah, he’s generous, but you know I’m not going to just have him paying off my stuff. I’m not in the relationship because he’s rich.”

  “I know,” I sighed, “and that’s why he loves you. Because you truly aren’t with him because of what he can do for you.”

  “I’m truly not. I love him for who he is, and he just so happens to be rich as well.”

  “Nice work if you can get it,” I laughed. “So I have a couple of different outfits that I’m thinking about wearing tomorrow. You guys will have to tell me which one you think looks the best.”

  “Ooh, I can’t wait. And where’s the pizza, Isabella? I’m hungry.”

  “I ordered it. It should be here any minute now.”

  “What did you get?” I said, excitedly.

  “I got anchovies and pineapple.”

  “Anchovies and pineapple?” Emma made a face. “That sounds absolutely disgusting.”

  “Well, I heard it’s really good. And you know how much Abby loves trying new pizzas.”

  “That we do,” Emma agreed.

  It was well known among my friends that I was an adventurous eater. I always liked to try new things, especially on pizza. I love to try different topping combinations, even if they sounded gross.

  “I think it sounds delicious,” I said. “I’m going to try on the first outfit and you guys can tell me what you think, okay?”

  “Sounds good,” Isabella said. “And I have a bottle of wine. Actually, Jack sent it over. He sends his regards.”

  “He is too sweet.” I sighed. “Ugh, maybe I should have set him up with myself.”

  “Maybe you should have.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Do you regret it?”

  “No way.” I shook my head. “He was made for you. We all can see that.”

  “Yeah. You guys are perfect together,” Emma said. “Chloe and I were talking about it, and you’ve actually made us believe in love again.”

  “No way.” Isabella blushed, but I could tell she was happy.

  None of us had ever expected to really and truly meet the loves of our lives. Yeah, we always talked about it, but I think that secretly we’d always figured we’d just date around and continue living with each other and complaining about men. But when Isabella had met Jack and it worked out, it had given all of us hope. Even I was secretly hoping that I’d meet someone. The one good thing about Isabella moving out was that we all had our own bedrooms now. We’d been four girls in a three-bedroom apartment, but now we each had a bedroom. So now we could invite people over to hang out without it being awkward.

  I jumped up. “Hold on, guys. Let me go and try on my first outfit.” I ran to my bedroom excitedly. I liked to look good. I liked to wear clothes that flattered me. At five foot five, I wasn’t very tall, and at 160 pounds, I was a little bit, shall we say, curvy. I loved my body, but I couldn’t get away with the sort of outfits that really skinny girls could get away with. I had boobs and a waist and I had hips for days, and I had long legs but thicker thighs. So I wasn’t comfortable wearing really tight clothes because they emphasized my large butt too much, and I wasn’t really comfortable wearing short skirts because, well, I didn’t want to show too much leg. Anyway, I was going to be working at a Fortune 500 corporation, and I was pretty sure that HR would frown upon me dressing too skimpily.

  I put on the first suit that I’d gotten at Nordstrom’s and smiled at myself in the mirror. It was a tailored power suit that showed off my curves without showing too much skin. I looked professional but still sexy.

  My phone beeped as I put on the outfit and I grabbed it as I walked back into the living room. “So what do you guys think of this one?”

  Isabella whistled as I walked into the living room. “Girl, are you going to the catwalk or what?”

  “Just wait till Chloe sees you,” Emma added. “You look amazing.”

  “You don’t think I look professional?”

  “I mean, it’s sexy, but it’s not too sexy,” Isabella said quickly. “I think it’s perfect for the office.”

  “Me too, girl,” Emma agreed. “You look like a hot young executive.”

  “Hold on.” I glanced at my phone. “I’ve got a text message from the HR department. They said to check my email.”

  “Uh oh.” Isabella frowned. “I hope that’s not something bad.”

  “Me too. I hope they haven’t delayed my start date again. It’s so annoying.”

  “Why did they delay it the first time again?” Emma said.

  “I don’t know, something about him being on a business trip, and he didn’t want his new secretary to start while he wasn’t in the office. I’m not really sure. It didn’t make sense to me, but I’m gathering by the way everything is run that he’s super OCD and type A.”

  “Oh, I can’t stand type-A bosses,” Emma said.

  “Me neither, but for this amount of money, I guess I can put up with it.”

  “True that,” Isabella laughed.

  I opened the email and read it quickly. “Okay, so they sent me an attachment of files. There’s some tips and pointers from the previous secretaries that worked for him, I guess to help me.”

  “Oh, that’s weird,” Emma said. “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “I think it’s pretty standard,” Isabella said. “So that she knows what projects they were working on and that sort of thing.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Emma said. “So what do they have to say?”

  I opened it and frowned. “Okay, guys, this is a little bit weird.”

  “Why?” Isabella said, and they all came and huddled around me.

  “So the first attachment is things to be wary of when working for Dylan McAllister.”

  Isabella’s eyebrows rose. “Okay, so maybe that doesn’t sound so good. What does it say?”

  “First thing first it says, Dress like a mousy librarian. Trust me, you do not want him to be on you about your attire. What the hell does that mean?”

  “I think it means you’re not going to be able to wear that outfit,” Emma said, shaking her head. “Because you don’t look anything like a mousy librarian in that get-up.”

  “What else does it say?” Isabella said.

  “Okay.” I read quickly. “It says, ‘Never be late. Make sure to do everything that he asks of you the first time. Always take his calls, even if it’s the middle of the night.’ Why would he be calling me in the middle of the night? I thought this was a nine to five.”

  “Uh oh,” Emma said.

  “What?”

  “He sounds like he might be one of those bosses that expects yo
u to be on the clock all the time.”

  “Yeah,” Isabella grimaced. “I bet you that’s why he’s paying you so much. Aren’t you making like ten grand a month?”

  “Yeah …” Dang. This already sounded a bit nerve-wracking. Some of my excitement was starting to fade.

  “What else does it say?”

  “It says the names of some coffee shops where he likes to get his coffee. A bakery where to pick up his croissants. To pick up his croissants? What?” I looked up at my friends. “Is this a joke?”

  “It doesn’t sound like it, girl. You have heard he’s difficult to work for, right?”

  “Yeah, but I’m a secretary, not his girl Friday.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Isabella shook her head. “But just think, you’ll be able to pay off your student loans faster, right?”

  “Yeah. And I mean, I guess I can live with these rules as long as he’s nice and he’s friendly and we get on well. Plus I’ve seen photos of him online, and he looks gorgeous. So he can’t be that bad, right?”

  “Hopefully,” Isabella said but she didn’t look convinced. “Good luck, girl.”

  “Thanks.” I bit my lip. “I think I’m going to need it.” I quickly closed my email and then looked down at my too-sexy power suit. “Okay, back to the drawing board,” I said. “I need to figure out an outfit that is going to fit the mousy librarian description because this sure isn’t it.”

  “You can do it, girl. And why don’t you wear your glasses as well?” Emma interjected. “I mean, I know you prefer to wear your contacts, but nothing says mousy librarian like glasses.”