Engaging the Boss

Sarah Stratford had learned eavesdropping was dangerous when she overheard a neighbor say she was an unattractive child.

At age eleven, she’d been a little chubby with bushy red hair and dead-white skin. Instead of resenting her neighbor for the unkind words, Sarah had cried because she’d known they were true.

Seventeen years later, she knew she shouldn’t eavesdrop on her boss’s phone conversation. He hadn’t closed the door to his office, however, and the only way not to hear was to cover her ears or leave the laboratory.

Sarah did neither. She tried to focus the DNA sequence projected on one of the lab’s high-end monitors, but she couldn’t help but listen.

Her boss, Jonathan Damon, was on the phone with his corporate-mogul uncle, and she could hear a tense note in his voice. He’d never said a word to her about his notorious family, but she knew he wasn’t close to them. She also knew this conversation wasn’t a good one.

“I understand the Damon name is important to you. I know you want us to settle down and have kids. But I have plenty of time for that. I’m only thirty-five.” Jonathan’s tone was overly patient, as if he were reining in his temper. In the three years she’d worked for him, she’d never seen Jonathan express anger. That patient tone was as close as he came.

Sarah didn’t like to think of herself as a nosy person, at least not in general. With Jonathan, however, it was different.

If she were ever in the position to give advice to other women, the first thing she would tell them was never fall in love with your boss. It was a hopeless, never-ending form of torture—to have the object of your affection always right there in front of you but never actually be able to claim him.

It also made you want to eavesdrop on his private conversations.

“That was ages ago. I dated her in grad school,” Jonathan was saying now. “We haven’t talked in years, and there was never any future in that relationship.”

Her curiosity piqued again, Sarah glanced toward the office door, but it was half-closed and Jonathan was out of sight.

One of the problems with loving her boss was that even the possibility of a relationship would jeopardize her position. She was proud of the career she’d built for herself so far. She’d completed a PhD in genetics at Stanford and gotten an enviable position in Jonathan’s private lab in Iceland, researching the genetics behind multiple sclerosis. She could honestly say she had her dream job, rather than dealing with the commercialization and politics of a pharmaceutical company, which was probably what she’d be doing if she weren’t doing this.

And she could lose this dream job if she ever acted on her feelings for Jonathan. His work was everything to him—his entire world—and he wouldn’t put up with anything that threatened it, including an assistant who was too distracted by feelings to do her job well.

“That’s ridiculous,” Jonathan said in that same patient tone. “We’re doing really important work here. You can’t be threatening to cut us off just because—”

His uncle obviously had interrupted him since he stopped midsentence. Then, “Okay. I understand. I understand. To tell you the truth, there is someone. I’ve been trying to keep it private, but, well, we’re actually engaged.”

Another pause.

“Yes, engaged to be married.”

Another pause.

“Probably in a few months. We haven’t set a date.”

During the longer silence as Cyrus Damon responded on the other end of the line, Sarah felt like she’d been crushed under a falling weight. The shocked pain at what she’d heard was so powerful she literally couldn’t stand up. She found a stool and lowered herself onto it, trying to force her feelings back down where she could control them.

After all, she had no legitimate cause to be upset, even though she’d never known Jonathan was even in a relationship. She’d always known she could never have him for herself. He was her boss, and he was off-limits in every way.

Plus even if she hadn’t worked for him, he would never want her.