She hated him.

Mercedes had been working for Sam Evans for two weeks and she was ready to kill him. She had already worked out what she considered an almost fool-proof plan. Once she figured how to properly dispose of the body and came up with a good alibi she would be good to go.

"MERCEDES GET IN HERE NOW!"

Fuck an alibi, she was doing this shit today.

Mercedes gritted her teeth and counted backwards from 10 before slowly getting up and heading towards Mr. Evans office. Right before she got to the door she made sure to smooth down her pencil skirt and flick open the two top buttons of her blouse. After Mr. Evan's rude insistence that she change her look she found the frumpiest, dowdiest pants suit she could find and wore it on her first day. His look of smug approval pissed Mercedes off so much that she vowed that the frumpy look would only be a temporary thing. She had slowly been phasing out the dowdy look for a sexier one. Every day the shirts would be a little bit tighter, the skirts would be shorter, and the heels would be higher. She didn't think Mr. Evans had noticed because most of their interactions had consisted of her sitting at her desk while he barked orders at her from the intercom. Well, he was going to notice today. With the help of Kurt she had managed to re-vamp her entire wardrobe into what Kurt like to call her, 'Hot Assistant Bitch in Charge' look or HABIC for short. Today it was a skin tight leather pencil skirt that was borderline obscene in the way it hugged her curves and an equally tight white dress shirt. The two buttons she just popped open showed off an enticing bit of her cleavage along with the lacy edge of her red bra. Mercedes knew her outfit was a bit on the unprofessional side but she didn't really care at that moment. She had been putting up with Mr. Evans bullshit non-stop for the last two weeks and she was fed up. The money may be good but it wouldn't mean shit if it were all going to pay for all the blood pressure medicine she was going to end up needing. This man was bad for her health so she was about to be a little bit bad for his as well.

Mercedes reached Mr. Evans door and she rapped lightly on it, "May I come in?"

"Yes."

When Mercedes walked in she found Mr. Evans leaning lightly against the front of his desk. Mercedes was so busy taking in the sleek cut of his black Armani suit that she missed the sight of his eyes widening as they took in her attire.

"Um...Ms. Jones...what...why...wh-"

Mercedes tried her best to hide her smirk.

"Mr. Evans are you okay? Do you need some water?"

Before he could answer Mercedes walked over to the water cooler in the corner of his office and bent over and grabbed a cup and filled up. When she straightened she could see in her peripheral Mr. Evans staring at her ass. Actually staring would be an understatement, he was studying her ass like it was a textbook and he had college finals to take the next day. The knowledge that her normally cold and steely boss was checking her out had her strutting her stuff a little bit as she walked back across the office. She smiled smugly as she watched him desperately try to focus on some distant point on the wall instead of on her. She made a mental note to call Kurt and congratulate him on an outfit well done. He told her that it would bring her asshole boss to his knees but she didn't believe him, however, in this case she would happily eat crow. Finally having the upper hand, small though it may be, felt damn good to Mercedes.

As she handed Mr. Evans his cup of water their fingers briefly brushed one another's and it was there again, that damn electricity. Mercedes gasped softly and pulled her hand back quickly and Mr. Evans did the same causing some water to slosh over the cup and land on his hands.

"Uh, I'm...I'm sorry about that..." Mercedes cursed herself for stammering like a little schoolgirl but that spark she had felt had unnerved her.

"It's fine, it's just water." Mr. Evans said sharply. "Why don't you have a seat so we can get this over with."

Mercedes breathed a sigh of relief. Even though Mr. Evans was right back to being his asshole self, that weird moment between them was over. Asshole Evans annoyed the hell out of her but it was still something she could deal with. That spark between them that didn't seem to be going away? Not so much.

Mercedes forced herself to get into work mode as she had a seat right in front of Mr. Evans. He watched her with steely green eyes as she crossed her legs and sat her pen and pad on top of them.

"I'm ready when you are."

"Fine. Try and keep up. I have potential clients coming in tomorrow at 8 for a meeting. I need for you to make sure conference room B is spotless and that there are 12 portfolios filled with all the necessary information. I also need for you to clear my schedule for the rest of the day I have an old college friend that's visiting, he should be here any minute."

Mercedes nodded as she jotted everything down. When she got done she repeated it back to make sure she didn't miss anything.

"Will that be all?"

"That's all the notes I need you to take, yes."

Confused, Mercedes looked up at Mr. Evans, she really didn't have time to play word games with him.

"Sooo...does that mean I can go?"

Sam said nothing so Mercedes took that as a yes and stood up and started to head towards the door.

"Don't wear that outfit here again."

Mercedes turned on her heel and glared up at her boss.

"What is wrong with what I have on?"

Mercedes knew that her outfit was probably a little bit sexier than it needed to be and she knew that part of the reason she wore it was to rile him up, but now that it had happened she was pissed off about it.

"Can you even breathe in that outfit?"

"I can breathe just fine, thank you very much!"

"Whatever, I explicitly told you to dress professionally and you did the exact opposite!"

"Well, you know what Mr. Evans if it bothers you so damn much you can just fire me."

Mercedes waited with bated breath. Even though she thought about killing her boss on an almost hourly basis she still loved her job and she would hate to lose it. However, at the same time she refused to be bullied by Mr. Evans over her choice of attire, especially when she knew it wasn't that bad.

"Don't tempt me, Miss Jones."

Mercedes scoffed at his empty threat and turned to head towards the door again but was stopped by the electric current that shot up her arm. She looked down to see Mr. Evans' strong, slightly tanned hand wrapped around her forearm. She knew that should probably be upset that her boss was grabbing her and she was almost positive that she had just won a lawsuit but both of those thoughts took a backseat to the feelings coursing through her body.

The man was just grabbing her arm and he wasn't even touching skin but she still felt like he was touching some intimate place on her body. She looked up at his face to see him staring down at his hand like he was confused at how it got there. Mercedes wanted him to look at her but the second he did it she wished he hadn't. Mercedes literally felt her insides turn to jelly under Mr. Evans' hot gaze and she wanted to get away from all of these feelings she wasn't prepared for and didn't want but she couldn't seem to make her legs move. Even as she felt him leaning closer and closer into her space she couldn't back away, in fact, if anything she was slowly inching towards him as well. When their bodies were finally touching it felt as if they were both ensnared in a net that they couldn't get free from. Mercedes held her breath as his face tipped closer and closer to hers...she didn't want this! But at the same time if she didn't feel his lips on hers soon she felt as if she would die. She was going to regret it, she knew she was but at that moment none of that mattered. As his pink lips descended towards hers Mercedes could feel his warm, sweet breath on her face. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back and she could feel just the slightest pressure of his lips on hers. She opened her mouth and-

"Mr. Evans? A Mr. Matt Rutherford is on his way up to see you."

Mercedes stumbled backwards as Mr. Evans jerked away from her suddenly. She barely had time to catch herself when there was a loud knocking on the door. She spun around to look at it before turning back around to look at Mr. Evans. He had his back to her and he was hunched over and clenching the edge of his desk. She wanted to say something but she couldn't find any words. How in the hell had this happened? How could she go from hating him one minute to practically melting into him in the next? Sure the man was attractive but he was also a Grade A asshole and Mercedes never thought of herself as someone who would just drop her panties at a pretty smile. Hell, she couldn't even blame it on a pretty smile because she could count on one hand the amount of times he had smiled at her. Was she a glutton for punishment? Or was the leather skirt to blame? Maybe she really couldn't breathe in it and she wasn't getting enough oxygen to her brain. Before Mercedes could ponder any further about her lack of shame when it came to her boss there came three more sharp raps at the door.

"Hey Sam, are you in there? It's me, Matt. Uh...the receptionist downstairs said that your assistant would let me in your office but I don't see Emma anywhere around."

Mercedes felt her face grow hot when she realized how her current situation would look like to someone else. She was supposed to be at her desk doing work but instead she was holed up with the boss in his office and ignoring visitors. She suddenly felt ashamed of her actions even though nothing had even happened. Although she knew it was highly unlikely Mercedes prayed that she didn't look like she got bent over the desk and fucked by her boss. On a basic common sense level she knew she looked fine but on a sub-conscious level she thought she looked as guilty as sin.

When Mercedes finally got to the door and pulled it open she was surprised with what she found. Matt Rutherford was quite the sight to behold. He had on a dark blue Gucci suit that complemented his milky brown skin very well. When he saw Mercedes for the first time his whistled low and raked his eyes up and down her body appreciatively. Mercedes knew she should probably be offended but the guy didn't come off as a creep and after getting such a hard time for Mr. Evans it was nice to get a compliment.

"Mr. Rutherford, I presume?"

"Yes, and you're not Emma."

Mercedes laughed, "No, I'm most definitely not her."

"Well, Not Emma are you going to tell me your name?"

"It's Mercedes Jones."

"Well, Ms. Jones...may I call you Mercedes?"

"Yes."

"Well, Mercedes it seems that my friend Sam over here has been holding out of me. Emma was a doll but you...you're a revelation."

Mercedes felt her face getting hot as Mr. Rutherford heaped on the praise. She had had her fair share of compliments in her day but this man was going above and beyond what was necessary. She still hadn't reached the point where she was uncomfortable so she just decided to accept the compliments for what they were and leave it at that.

"Thank you very much Mr. Rutherford for the compliment. Is there anything I can get for you?"

"Well first, you can stop calling me Mr. Rutherford, my name's Matt."

"She'll call you Mr. Rutherford."

Mercedes jumped slightly when she heard Sam's voice, she had almost forgotten about him being there. Matt merely raised his eyebrows at him and turned his attention back to Mercedes.

"Please, I insist that you call me Matt, Emma always did."

Hearing that Emma called him by his first name made it seem a bit ridiculous for her to keep calling him by his whole name, especially since he requested that she didn't. Surely Mr. Evans couldn't argue with that logic?

"Alright then...Matt. If there isn't anything else then I'm going to head back to my desk to start preparing for tomorrow's meeting."

Matt was still in the doorway and made no effort to move so Mercedes was forced to squeeze past him as he looked down at her with a small grin. She could have sworn she heard Mr. Evans make a weird strangled noise in the back of his throat and she wondered briefly if she should offer to get him more water. Deciding that escape was more important than his dry throat Mercedes ignored the need to ask if he needed anything and quickly scurried to her desk. Once she sat down she breathed a huge sigh of relief, being in that office was intense and she didn't realize how much until she was out of it. She could still feel the slight tingles from her encounter with Mr. Evans but she desperately tried to ignore them. What happened in that office was a mistake and it was mistake that could never, ever happen again. The attraction was there, she could feel it and she knew he could too but there was nothing they could do about it. She could barely stand Mr. Evans 99% of the time and that 1% when she wanted to rip his clothes off wasn't worth it. He wasn't good for her and she needed to pull her head out of her ass and realize that. She had heard gossip around the office about all the women that have come and gone out of the building. Women that came in with high hopes of a great career and gone out heartbroken because they were foolish enough to fall for Sam Evans. She wasn't going to be one of those women. She had an itch that needed to be scratched and she had no doubt that Sam Evans could scratch it like no other but she wasn't going to fall down that rabbit hole. She wasn't going to let lust and a little bit of electricity direct her path. That moment that they had in his office would be their last because Mercedes refused to lose a good opportunity such as this one for a quick roll in the hay.

Once Mercedes had made her mini vow to herself it freed her mind up to go back to work. She was just finishing up with a local bakery that would be delivering breakfast the next morning when Mr. Evans and Matt walked out of the office. Mercedes cursed the fact that she had just hung up the phone and couldn't pretend to look busy until the two men had left. She was in the process of shuffling some papers around when Matt said,

"Hey, Mercedes were headed out to lunch, would you like to come?"

It was hard to resist the bright smile Matt was giving her but she knew she would die from the tension if she went to lunch with these two men. She was just forming her mouth to give him a polite refusal when she heard,

"No, she can't come."

Matt looked surprised at Mr. Evans' tone which surprised Mercedes as well. She had seen him gruff, she had seen him curt, and she had seen him plain mean but she had never really seen him mad. She couldn't believe that Mr. Evans was that worked up about her joining them for lunch. Mercedes knew it shouldn't bother her but it did. She didn't want to go to lunch with them but knowing that he did want her to go either hurt her feelings.

"Uh, man it's not a big deal, besides she has to eat sometime right?"

"She can eat whenever she wants, just not with us."

Matt gave Mr. Evans a slightly disgusted look before turning back to Mercedes and saying,

"Well, I hate that you won't be joining us today but how about I take you out to lunch tomorrow instead? Just you and me?"

Mercedes initial reaction was to say no. Going on lunch dates with her boss' friend just seemed like one of those things that was going to end badly for everyone. Just as she was getting ready to let Matt down gently Mercedes happened to look over at Mr. Evans and she was shocked at what she saw. If she thought he looked angry before he looked downright murderous now and it was all directed towards her. A part of her wanted to crawl under her desk and hideaway but she was stronger than that. She didn't know what the hell was going on up in that pretty blonde head of his but she was done worrying about it. The idea of spending some time with someone of the opposite sex who wasn't Kurt and who seemed to be genuinely interested in her was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So what if he were her boss' friend? He was only going to be in town for a few days so she figured that not much damage could be done in that amount of time. They would just have a couple of lunch dates and maybe some dinner, and leave it at that. Mr. Evans would just have to pull the proverbial stick out his ass because he wasn't her daddy, boyfriend, or anything else that would give him the right to dictate who she spent her time with outside the workplace. Even as Mercedes recited this little 'you go girl' speech in her head there was still a small niggling part in the back of her mind that kept whispering, "you're just doing this to make him jealous..." Mercedes ignored that little annoying bitch and gave Matt a bright smile and said,

"I would love to."

Matt smiled back at her and told her he would call later to make arrangements. By this time Mr. Evans had stalked off and was at the elevators violently jabbing the buttons.

"Dude, are you trying to break it? Where's your card you know the elevator won't work without it."

Mercedes muffled her laughter as Mr. Evans glared daggers at Matt for pointing out the obvious. He pulled the keycard from his pocket and shoved it in the slot before violently stabbing the down button again. The doors swung open and both men climbed inside. Mercedes gave Matt a small wave but she stopped abruptly when she saw Mr. Evans' steely green eyes boring holes into her. After what seemed like forever the doors finally started to close and they quickly hid Matt from view but it almost seemed like they slowed down so that Mercedes could feel the heat from Mr. Evans gaze for a second longer. Even after the door was shut and the two men were long gone she could still feel his eyes on her. She rubbed her arms up and down as if that would help to make the tingles go away but she knew only time and distance would do that. Mercedes was so damn confused about what had just happened to her. She hated the way he made her feel. She hated that she could be so attracted to someone that treated her the way he did. She hated the fact that part of the reason she agreed to a lunch date with Matt was to make him jealous. She hated that she was losing control and she couldn't stop it. She hated him. Of course she hated him. How could she not hate him? A sharp tingle shot up her arm and she sighed and lowered her head to her desk.

She didn't hate him. Her body wouldn't let her.

What in the hell was she going to do?