Chapter Three: In Which She Cock Blocks Her Boss

When Glory arrived at work the next morning, nursing a bit of a hangover she wasn't pleased to find a sticky noted message on her computer screen. It proclaimed that she would be conducting an interview today, not only did Glory not feel in the mood to converse with other humans but the name that had been on the neon green square had her tearing it up viciously.

This was certainly another act of punishment, what else could it be? Putting her and that man together in the same room and expecting them not to kill each other was tempting fate. She dropped her purse into her chair and quickly spun on her heels taking angry strides toward Royce's office. She was intent on giving him a piece of her mind about all this Arden Fox business, enough was enough.

Glory grabbed the handle on the door and barged into the room like a bull in a china shop. Only to let out shriek of surprise at the sight before her, "Oh my God!" Her hand flew up to her face, covering her eyes, "I'm so sorry!"

"Damn it Glory! Have you ever heard of knocking?!" Royce scrambled to put his shirt back on. The girl that he had pushed up against his desk was readjusting herself. Glory couldn't stop the smile that spread across her lips as she spread her fingers to get a peek at the train wreck. The girl didn't look familiar to her but she had a sexy secretary thing going for her. Her cheeks were rosy as she glanced over in Glory's direction, embarrassment written all over her innocent face.

"I'll—uh—talk you about those reports later." Royce tried to recover the situation. Glory rolled her eyes at his poor attempt. His little office sex kitten smiled at him before dropping her gaze to the floor, "Have a good day Mr. Jones." She didn't once look up from the floor as she left.

Once she closed the door behind her, Royce attitude changed. He sent a dirty glare in Glory's direction as he sat himself down in his chair. She only smiled at him brightly, "You are a very naughty man Royce Jones. Doing things like that at work no less—I think my opinion of you has taken a turn for the better."

He cleared his throat, " As much as it pleases me to hear that. Is there a reason you came in here? Other than to annoy me?"

"So what's her name? And how long has that been going on?" Glory questioned curiously as she took a seat in the chair in front of his desk, crossing her legs. Royce stared at her blankly before lifting a hand to run it through his thick wavy chestnut hair, "Glory..." He gives a bit of a warning in the sound of her name, clearly not in the sharing mood.

She pressed her lips into a pout, "Aw, Come on Royce. Give him something..."

"The reason you barged in here?" He demanded with a flustered expression. The sticky note flashed through her mind and her initial anger was renewed, "What was with the note that you left me this morning?" She lifted a brow as she crossed her arms over her chest.

He looked toward her with confusion, "You're going to have to be more specific..."

"You know the one about me doing an interview with Arden Fox." She narrowed her eyes defiantly, "I'm not doing it Royce."

She watched the light turn on in his eyes and he leaned back in his chair, "Oh Yes, That."

"Oh yes. That." She mimicked him bitterly.

A small silence feel between them before he responded, "Florence has come down with something. She was the one who was going to do the interview seeing as it was her piece and she had been hounding him for months to get a minute of his time. Obviously now that she is ill she cannot do it. So now you are, because you want to get back on my good side." He gives her a look as if daring her to challenge him, "And because you know I can make your life here very unpleasant."

She pressed her lips together in a tight line, feeling like her head was going to burst under building force of her anger, "You're evil."

Royce flashed her a beautiful smile, "Think of it as a way to make amends. Plus you already know a little bit about Mr. Fox, use that knowledge to help you create an angle for the interview."

"Sure. Maybe I can make the angle about how he plans to murder me. Maybe we'll have a stimulating debate over the best way to dissemble my body..." Glory replied sarcastically.

"That's cute, love the sarcasm. Now if we're done here I need to get back to work..." He looked from her to the door. A girl could tell when she was being dismissed. She pushed herself up from the chair with a heavy sigh, marching to the door. She glanced back as she grabbed the handle, "I hope that your reports treat you well." She winked at him knowingly.

"Get out!" He yelled as she scurried from his office feeling slightly vindicated by getting the last laugh.

When Glory reached the safety of her cubicle she took a seat in her chair. Opening up the google search engine on her computer and typed in Arden Fox. If she was going to interview the man, she should make sure she knows some things about his life to not look like an idiot. Thousands of pictures and articles popped up. Most of the information bored her and she found herself more interested in staring at his handsome face. After a while Glory began to notice that there was a woman who made continued appearance with him. She was beautiful in a regal kind of way. She looked like she could be the next miss universe or something. She probably spent her free time kissing babies and saving animals. Upon closer inspection of the pictures she noticed a huge rock on her finger. The dread that shivered up her spine had her quickly exiting the box. That was his fiancé—correction his ex-fiance. No wonder he had wanted to murder her.

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Glory approached the woman at the fancy front desk hesitantly, still wearing her sunglasses. The woman looked up from her papers and eyeing her suspiciously, "Can I help you?"

She looked around the room, cataloging possible escape routes, "I have an appointment with Mr. Fox." The woman continued to stare at her probably thinking her to be a crazed fan of Arden Fox, "Of course you do. Name?"

Glory felt slightly offended by the woman's response to her, "Florence." She said sliding the sunglasses of her face and giving her a sweet smile. The stuffy blonde looked away from her, pulling out an appointment book and scanning over the page, "Oh yes. There you are—and it looks like you're late." She says in a disapproving manner, "Mr. Fox doesn't approve of tardiness."

Glory had to give the woman a tight lipped smile to suppress the plethora of snarky comments that wished to fall from her lips, "Yes, well there was traffic. I'm sure he can understand how that can happen living and working in the city."

The woman returned the tight lipped smile, "I doubt it." She reached over and picked up the phone on her desk, punching in a set of numbers, "Mr. Fox. Your two o'clock is here." There was a pause and Glory knew he must be telling her something, "Yes I reminded her about that sir." She paused again. Did he really just ask her if she had reprimanded her? Talk about control issues. She had hit that nail straight on the head.

"Yes I'll send her right in." She hung up the phone and smiled up at Glory with a renewed friendliness, "Mr. Fox will see you now."

Glory smiled back as she leaned into the desk to get a closer look at her name plate, "Thank you, Jackie. You've been so helpful." She stated with a bit of sarcasm before turning and walking toward the white frosted glass doors at the end of the hall. She adjusted her top and fluffed her raven waves before walking through the door.

Arden was sitting at his desk scribbling furiously on piece of paper, "When I agreed to this interview Mrs. Graham I thought I made myself clear on the fact that my time was very important to me and that having people waste it was not something I appreciated." He looked up searing her with his bright baby blue orbs. Heat spread through her body and her inner goddess screamed for her to lay herself out on his desk like an all you can eat buffet.

"Do you scold everyone you meet?" Glory questioned as she watched the surprise of having her in his office hit him.

"You are not Mrs. Graham." He says dryly as he recovered from his surprise, remaining seated at his desk. She shook her head, smiling, "No, unfortunately for both of us she's sick and I'm here as her replacement."

Arden eyed her as he motioned for her to take a seat in one of the plush seats before him, "That is unfortunate."

Slowly she crossed the room and took a seat. Now that she was closer to him she was once again take in by his beauty. No man should be able to look so delicious even while wearing such a fierce scowl, it was unfair. To distract herself from the inappropriate thoughts rushing through her mind she looked to the big windows behind him, "Nice view."

"Did you come here to admire the view Miss Novacek or to interview me?" The way he had asked the question made it seem like he had known she was checking him out. That had her remembering how awful he was and that no matter his outward appearance she would rather eat a cactus then be stuck in a room with him. She forced a smile to her lips, "I'll remember to include how charming you were in the article."

"Your sarcasm is unprofessional and unnecessary." He stated cooly.

"Oh I'm pretty sure its very necessary." She replied watching as his nostrils flared in annoyance. Feeling vindicated she looked away from him smiling as she pulled her notepad from her purse, "Shall we? I would hate to waste anymore of your precious time..." He nodded his head but said nothing.

"First question, What are you going to do with all the small fortune you've amounted? I mean you can't take it with you Mr. Fox." Glory crossed her legs and waited.

He coughed, "I give a good amount of my money to charities, specifically those dealing with underprivileged youth and education. I don't want anyone to be told that because they were born to certain circumstances that they can't achieve the greatest of their dreams. Perhaps becoming a doctor or a lawyer or even a mediocre advice guru." He smirked at his last comment, clearly taking a jab at her.

"Do you have any interesting hobbies? Beside color coordinating your closet and scolding random people you meet on the street?" She peered up at him from under her lashes, meeting him burn for burn.

He let out a warm laugh, as if to say good try but she would have to do better than that, "In fact I enjoy sailing very much. It's something that helps me clear my head when the stresses of my job become a little to much. I'm also a sucker for those crossword puzzles they put in the paper. Although I must say I'm not very good at them." Wonderful, now the snake was actually trying to be charming. She narrowed her eyes knowing this much be some elaborate plot to reel her in before he murdered her.

Glancing back down at her notepad, "I read somewhere that you come from a big family. What was that like growing up?"

"Obviously you must be an only child Miss Novacek or else you would already know the answer to that question." He replied vaguely as his lips turned up into an inviting smirk.

"Touche, Mr. Fox. Touche." She closed her notepad knowing that she couldn't ask any of the questions that Florence had prepared.

"Aren't you going to ask me about my love life Miss Novacek?" He leaned back in his chair like he was a king on his throne. The air of smugness around him putting a bad taste in her mouth, "I mean that's the real reason Mrs. Graham wanted this interview."

Glory clenched her hands into fists and met his gaze, "How is your fiancé doing? I mean your ex-fiance...excuse me...I guess it must be shock to find out you aren't as desirable as you think you are."

Arden pushed up from his seat and walked around to the front of his desk, closing the distance between their two bodies. The intensity on his gaze had Glory's heart rate speeding up at dangerous rate. Her chest felt tight like there wasn't enough oxygen in the room to fill them.

"My love life has taken a sudden change thanks to the help of an obnoxious and particularly mouthy woman." He bent himself forward bringing there faces closer together. This was it, Glory thought to herself. She was about to be murdered by a handsome man who looked like the devil in an Armani suit. He reached out toward her face and she flinched back which seemed to amuse him greatly.

"But I can assure you that no one can question whether I'm still desirable..." His hand came to rest firmly against her cheek. Before she could process what was happening his lips were pressed to hers in a bruising kiss. Her eyes were opened wide and Arden Fox was kissing her, the shock was too much. She forced her eyes closed and her body took over as if knowing exactly what she wanted to do. Her arms reached up and wove around his neck, pulling him closer.

His let out an approving groan letting Glory draw him in closer. Blunt teeth raked a crossed her bottom lip, nibbling and biting. This only seemed to drag her closer to the edge. Arden was the one to break away from the kiss both of them breathing heavily.

Glory opened her eyes slowly still in a lust filled haze, finding him looking down at her with an arrogant smile on his swollen lips, "Well if that's all there is. I have other appointments to get to." He turned his back to her a clear sign of his dismissing her. She felt her cheeks heat up as she realized he had given her the best kiss of her life and it had been a revenge, to prove a point. She wanted to cry for a moment but she held it back. More then that she wanted to win the game that Mr. Fox was playing with her.

She rose up from her seat, collecting what was left of her dignity and strutted toward the door with her head held high. Glory opened the door and paused in the doorway, "Arden?" She looked back at him over her shoulder as she pulled her sunglasses from her purse. He looked to towards her expectantly, still high from his small victory.

"If thats how you were kissing your fiancé that might be another one of your problems." She put on her sunglasses, "It was like kissing a dead fish." Glory kept a straight face through her lie. Enjoying the way his body tensed and his eyes narrowed into little slits. She offered him a smirk as she turned and walked away feeling satisfied with herself.