“I’m fine. I’ll just check his references and call him with the good news.” I would rather swallow five very large and venomous spiders than call Lucas and tell him he’d gotten the job. I could ask Mrs. Andrews to do it for me, but that would have made me look like a coward. I had to do this for the good of the company. My company.
Mr. Craig, one of the other Vice Presidents who also had a billion other titles, was waiting for me when I got back to my office. I wasn’t in the best mood, and I just gave him a terse nod as I walked back into my office. Of course he followed me in.
“Can I help you?”
“Oh, no. I was just wondering how the meeting went.” He had been curiously absent, but Mr. Craig wasn’t a big fan of meetings. He liked to spend as much company time on the golf course wooing clients as he could. He wasn’t a bad guy, just lazy.
“We went with the fancy pens. Anything else is in the minutes they send around.” Somehow, files had started multiplying on my desk like rabbits.
“Oh well. I just wanted to check in.” Why was he checking in WITH ME? He snapped his fingers as if he had just remembered something.
“Could you let Walter know I need to leave early today? I have an appointment with my acupuncturist. My sciatica’s been acting up,” he said, holding his back and cringing in a comical way. Yeah, maybe you should stop playing so much f**king golf.
I was in rare form due to the Lucas Blaine situation. I might have also been PMS-ing. And, it wasn’t my freaking job to tell my dad that he had to leave early. Grow a pair and do it yourself. But I didn’t tell him to do that. Instead, I said, “sure, I’ll tell him.” Mr. Craig gave me the thumbs up and strolled back to his office, whistling as I banged my head on my desk.
Lucas Blaine had quite a fan club. All of his references ranted and raved and sang his praises and I was beginning to wonder if they had also slept with him.
I hung up with the last one, a woman who praised him like the second coming, and then it was time.
Of course I had to organize my drawers, arrange my pens, get more coffee and reapply my makeup before I did it. I put it off as long as I could, but I was really drowning under my work here. I had been completely avoiding my voicemail box.
Taking one deep breath, I picked up the phone and willed my voice to be steady, and my brain to provide me with the appropriate words.
“Hello?”
Mmm, that voice. I paused for a second and forgot what I was supposed to be doing, so I cleared my throat.
“Hello, may I please speak to Lucas Blaine?” I knew it was him, but I didn’t want him to know I recognized his voice from just the hello.
“This is he.” Swoon.
“Hi, Mr. Blaine, this is Aurora Clarke from Clarke Enterprises. I was just calling to tell you that you got the assistant job.”
“Hello again, Aurora Clarke.” Oh, the way his voice caressed my name made me quiver.
Stop that.
“That is very good news to hear. I have been sitting here and waiting for your call.” There were sounds in the background and I could tell he wasn’t at home.
“I’m sure you were,” I said sarcastically, dropping all pretense of being professional.
He laughed and I wanted to strangle him through the phone.
“So, when do I start?”
I gritted my teeth before I answered.
“How about tomorrow? We can get you set up on the company software and Mrs. Andrews can show the ropes. Be here at eight.”
“I’ll be there. How do you take your . . . coffee?” Oh, he was going to make this a miserable experience, wasn’t he?
“Look, whatever happened, happened and I think we’re both grown-up enough to put it behind us. Besides,” I said with a smirk I hoped he would hear in my voice, “if it’s a choice between he said, she said, I win. Cream and sugar. Eight o’clock.”
Before he could say anything else, I hung up on him, slamming the phone into the receiver, but I swear I could still hear him laughing.
8
As fate would have it, I was running late the next morning. Traffic was horrendous due to some construction and I skidded into the lobby, nearly wiping out on the smooth floor. A hand reached out and prevented my face-plant.
“Good morning, Miss Clarke.” I peered into those blue/gray eyes and they were smiling and laughing at me.
Damn, he looked good in the morning. I stood up and adjusted myself, trying to gain composure.
“Coffee?” he said, holding out a tray with two cups on it. “The one with the happy face is yours.”
I give him a look and took the happy face cup. I hadn’t had a chance to have my fix yet, and I was jonesing.
“Shall we?” he said after I took a sip. He turned and didn’t wait before striding toward the elevator and hitting the Up button. I sighed to myself and followed him. This time he was dressed in a perfect gray suit and sapphire tie, and the diamond stud was back in his ear.
“I never wear my nipple ring to the office, if that’s what you’re wondering,” he said when he caught me staring at his chest and wondering that very thing. My face flamed red and I tried to glare at him.
“I wasn’t thinking that.”
Yes I was.
“Yes you were.”
“Shut up.” Wow, brilliant response, Rory. You sound exactly sixteen years old.
He just grinned and handed me a bag.
“Cheese Danish, cherry Danish, croissant and donut with strawberry frosting and sprinkles. I wasn’t sure what you liked.” His face was smug and I wanted to smack it and then smack a kiss on it.
He seemed to read my thoughts again and turned his head to the side and moved his face closer to mine. I was captivated by his eyes and the enclosed space of the elevator and his smell and . . .
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, cutting off the moment. Lucas pulled back and shook his head and tried to hand me the bag again. I snatched it from him.
I was going to eat every single pastry in that bag. I was an equal opportunity pastry eater, but the strawberry donut was my first choice, though I wasn’t going to tell Lucas that.
He said hello to Mrs. Andrews as he walked past her desk and she gave him a genuine smile, as if she was happy to see him. God, not her, too.
I showed him around the office again, the break room, bathrooms, copier, etc., and he was too close for comfort, even though he was almost completely silent.
He followed me all the way to my desk and I was about to snap at him to stop following me, but then I realized I hadn’t showed him to his desk.