by Timms, Lexy
This job had been everything that I wanted so far. I wasn’t about to let Matt’s worries push me to find something different already.
“Honestly, Daniel’s not a bad guy,” I told Matt. “He’s a good man, and an even better businessman. And he’s smart as hell. Sure, he might like to go out and have a little too much fun sometimes. But where’s the harm in that, as long as he gets his work done?” Matt still didn’t look so sure. “You should see the way the other employees treat him,” I continued. “They all love him. He’s good to them.”
Matt frowned at me. “I want to believe that you’re right,” he said. “But just remember, you’ve only known the guy for a week now.” He paused. “I hate to say it, but from a dude’s perspective, based on everything that I’ve read about him? I have my doubts. I don’t think the guy is as good as you seem to believe he is.”
I shook my head. “You know the media is just trying to sensationalize him. That’s what sells papers. But that doesn’t mean that’s what Daniel is really like.” I could tell that Matt was still worried, though. “Look, if things start to go south, if there’s any kind of impropriety around the office, I promise I’ll bail. I’m not committed to this job forever.”
Matt nodded at me. “Good,” he said. “I just don’t want to see you getting hurt or ruining your future. That’s all.”
“Thanks,” I said to him, but inwardly I was wishing he were a little less protective of me. I was old enough to look out for myself. And not only that, but it wasn’t like Matt really knew the business world. He didn’t really understand what he was talking about. Daniel was just like any other boss. What he did in his private time was none of my business.
Leanne slipped downstairs, miming wiping her brow, and we all laughed. She dropped down on the couch next to me and accepted the glass of wine that Matt handed her. Then, she cocked her head to the side, looking back and forth between me and her husband. “Did you guys talk about Daniel?” she asked quietly.
“Yes,” I said, rolling my eyes. So both of them were worried about me. I would have expected better from Leanne, though. She knew that just because a guy was attractive, it didn’t mean that anything was going to happen between me and him. And not only that, but she had been the one pushing me to apply for the job in the first place. Even though she knew full well all of the rumors about Daniel, even better than I did.
“I’m a big girl,” I reminded both of them. “And I know what I’m doing.”
“We know,” Leanne said. “It just seems like you’re spending a lot of late nights at the office with him. And, well, we all know how one thing can lead to another. Especially with someone who’s basically a god, as far as looks are concerned.”
I snorted. “I’d have to be stupid to sleep with Daniel,” I told her. “Sure, there are a lot of late nights. And it’s comfortable with him, I won’t deny that. I like working with him. But at the same time, I am just working with him. He’s never made a single move, and I’m not going to make one, either. Now, will the two of you get off my case about him? I swear, nothing is going to happen with him.”
“Okay,” Leanne said, holding up both hands in a placating gesture. “Sorry, I just wanted to talk to you about it. Because like Matt said, we really just don’t want to see you get hurt. That’s all.”
“I’m not going to let the past repeat itself,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not going to let some asshole play with my feelings again. Now, can we please talk about something else?”
Leanne and Matt exchanged a glance, but fortunately, they finally let the awkward subject drop. Matt started telling us all about his trip, and I tried to forget about what the two of them had said. Of course I didn’t have any plans to sleep with Daniel. The man would never even be interested in me for something like that. He might like to sleep around with random women, but I felt sure, based on what I had seen, that he had never slept with one of his employees before.
And like I had said to Matt and Leanne, I wasn’t going to let Daniel play with my feelings. As long as I didn’t think of him as anything more than my boss, I wouldn’t invite him to play any sort of games with me. I was safe, as long as I kept him at arm’s distance.
There would be nothing for any of the other businessmen to remark upon, and there would definitely be nothing for the media to report on.
I wouldn’t let him get close to me. So there was no point worrying about his reputation. His relationships and indiscretions were none of my business.
Chapter 13
Daniel
WHEN I GOT TO WORK on Monday morning, I was surprised and pleased to see that Abby was already there. She had really proved herself as an advisor already. Oh, it would take some time to see if her advice was any good. But she was definitely driven, and I liked that about her. Not only that, but she brought something different to the table. I was always interested to hear her reasons to advocate for certain ideas. Often, she and I came to similar conclusions, but she arrived at those conclusions in a totally different way.
It intrigued me. She intrigued me.
I had decided to lay low over the weekend after last week’s unflattering tabloid reports had shown me grinding with a couple of girls at a new club in the city. It wasn’t even like I had gone home with anyone; there was no reason why my dancing should have gotten so much press coverage. It drove me crazy that I couldn’t even have one night of fun without photos of it being splashed all over Chicago and the internet.
I could have gone out anyway. Everyone knew my reputation by now, and it had yet to affect my business dealings. But seeing Abby in the office the morning the story broke, noticing how she carefully avoided looking at me, made me feel strangely guilty.
That was stupid. I knew that Abby wasn’t interested in me. She was probably embarrassed for me; that was why she couldn’t meet my eyes. But all the same, I didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable around me. So I had a quiet weekend, spending hours working out until I was exhausted and sore. All so that I could quit thinking about green eyes and long blonde hair.
I leaned against Erin’s desk, smiling at the two women, who were chatting easily with each other. “Good morning,” I greeted them.
“Good morning,” Erin said.
“Morning, boss,” Abby chirped.
“How was your weekend?” I asked, wondering suddenly what Abby got up to when she wasn’t here in the office. She had to have some sort of hobbies, but we had never talked about anything like that, not in all the hours we had worked together already.
And there had been a lot of hours together already. I knew I was working her hard. I didn’t expect her to keep the same long hours as I did; I knew she probably had a life away from work. Unlike me. But she didn’t seem to mind the work, and whenever I tried to send her home early, she just shrugged and settled in on the couch in my office, studying whatever business deal we were currently considering.
To be honest, it made me want to leave early more often, just so she wouldn’t feel obligated to stay there with me. She was salaried, so it wasn’t like she was even getting paid overtime. The trouble was, I hated those long, lonely evenings by myself, and so leaving early never seemed like an appealing option to me.
Maybe I needed to find some hobbies of my own.
“My weekend was good,” Abby said. “Didn’t do much, just a little bit of housework, and then I went over to my brother’s place yesterday. He was on a business trip last week, so he wanted to tell me all about it.” She paused and then grinned. “He also wanted to tell me to be careful around you.”
Erin giggled. “My parents told me the same thing when I started working at McGregor Enterprises,” she confessed, looking amused.
I frowned at both of them, not sure what to say in response to that. I didn’t like that their families felt they should be concerned about their working here. What did they think I was going to do, take advantage of my position of power? Make them do things they didn’t want to do?
Probably. I k
new my reputation was against me here. I had never forced a woman in my life, but the paparazzi liked to go on and on about what a player I was, about how I had “spoiled” half the women in Chicago. And I supposed there was more to it than that. Their families were probably worried that these young ladies would fall prey to my charm and spread their legs willingly. And then I would fire them or whatever.
Wouldn’t that be an HR nightmare? Anyway, Abby’s brother definitely didn’t have to worry about her. As far as I could tell, she was 100 percent impervious to my charms.
“Sorry,” Erin said, as though suddenly realizing how her words must sound to me, her boss. She was blushing, but it wasn’t as cute as when I had seen Abby blush before. “They don’t think you’re a bad guy or anything—you’re just in the news so much, and they were afraid I might end up in the news as well or something. Or that, you know, when I go back to school, people in the admissions office are going to raise their eyebrows when they find out I’ve been working with you. For the wrong reasons.”
“I think my brother just wants to make sure that I’m doing my job and not just out partying with you every night,” Abby said, grinning ruefully at me. “He’s all settled down and married, so the clubbing thing is totally foreign to him.”
I forced myself to laugh, trying not to picture Abby out at the club with me. Trying not to imagine what her body would feel like if she had been the one grinding against me. I winked at the two girls. “All that stuff in the media is just a marketing ploy anyway,” I told them. “Keeps the ladies calling and the men wondering what I’m up to. And it keeps the company’s name in the news. I don’t even have to worry about search engine optimization or anything; we’re always at the top of Google and every other search engine.”
It was a joke, an attempt to hide another bout of guilt. I shouldn’t have to worry about going out and having some fun. I shouldn’t have to justify those pictures that they’d seen of me. Were my free-time pursuits professional? No, and there had been plenty of people over the years who had told me that I should probably tone it down now that I was CEO of a multinational company.
Maybe it was time to start toning it down. I didn’t want to lose good employees because they were afraid that my reputation might somehow rub off on them.
Abby laughed, though. “That is a pretty brilliant strategy,” she said, “but I don’t know, you seem pretty enthusiastic in all the photos they post of you.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “I thought you didn’t read those types of things,” I said.
That got a small flush out of her, and I laughed and winked at her. “Always using everything to my company’s advantage.” I glanced at my watch. “But speaking of my company’s advantage, there are some documents I wanted to look over before our nine-o’clock meeting.”
“Sure thing,” Abby said, trailing after me into my office. But she gnawed at her lower lip, and I could tell she wasn’t ready to let the conversation drop just yet. “I’m sorry for my brother’s judgment of you. I shouldn’t have mentioned that.”
“It’s fine,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m used to it, honestly. It’s not like the media ever has anything good to say about me.”
“That’s not fair, though,” Abby protested. “You’re not what I expected. Not at all. If I had just gone off the stories about you, I would have been sure that you were someone different.”
“Is that a good thing?” I asked, unable to hide my amusement.
“It is,” Abby said, nodding. She paused, and for a moment, some nameless emotion flickered in her gaze. Then, she looked carefully away from me. “But you don’t need my assurances that you’re a good guy,” she said. “And I know that you aren’t trying to sleep with me. I told my brother as much. Because that’s what you have your girlfriend for, isn’t it?”
I stared blankly at her. “Girlfriend?” I asked.
Abby looked back at me, and I wondered if I was imagining how unhappy she looked. “That’s what all the tabloids have been saying about you,” she said quietly. “That you have this new girlfriend that you were at the club with. And that you took her for dinner last week too.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Grace is probably the one they mean,” I said. “Grace Kellinger. Daughter of Hugo Kellinger, who you might remember from our meeting with Aurora Industries. He asked me to show her around Chicago; she’s never joined him on a trip here before.”
Abby’s mouth opened on a silent oh of comprehension. I couldn’t help pressing my advantage. “Did it really bother you, thinking I had a girlfriend?”
This time, Abby’s face went as scarlet as a tomato. “No,” she muttered, picking at a loose thread on her sleeve. “I shouldn’t have said anything. What you do in your own time is your own business.”
“It is,” I agreed, but my mind was whirling with this new information. So maybe Abby wasn’t quite as uninterested in me as I had thought she was. Was she attracted to me? Or just attracted to the idea of me, that picture that the tabloids created?
She didn’t seem to put much stock in what the paparazzi said about me, though. Maybe, somehow, she liked me for the guy I really was? And maybe all her cool disinterest in me was nothing more than an attempt to stay strictly professional.
Which was something that I, too, should be doing. I couldn’t touch her. She was my employee, and not only that, but she was a damned good advisor. I didn’t want to risk losing her. Especially not over something like that.
Still, I couldn’t help but smile at her. “Thank you,” I said gently, reaching out to brush my fingertips lightly across the back of her wrist.
She looked up at me in surprise. “For what?” she asked.
“For not thinking that I was just an arrogant playboy,” I said, shrugging at her. “For sticking with me even in spite of your brother and everyone else cautioning you that you should find a better boss than me.”
Abby shook her head, and that same emotion was back in her eyes for another brief instant. What was she thinking? If only I knew. Abruptly, though, she cleared her throat, looking meaningfully toward my desk. “I guess we should start looking at those documents if we’re going to be ready by nine,” she reminded me.
“Right,” I said, taking a step away from her as I realized how close we were standing, alone there in my office. I walked quickly toward my desk, putting the piece of furniture between us so that my body couldn’t betray my real feelings.
She had defended me to her brother. She had told him that I wasn’t just some playboy who had hired her because I wanted to sleep with her. I’d better start acting like it.
Chapter 14
Abby
I WATCHED AS DANIEL moved across his office as though he couldn’t get enough space between us. He awkwardly shuffled some of his papers, carefully not making eye contact with me. But it was as though with that simple, light touch on the back of my wrist, the sexual tension between the two of us had reached a crescendo. I slowly walked around toward him, noticing how dark his eyes got.
It should have made me uncomfortable. I shouldn’t be trying to sleep with Daniel of all people. He was my boss. Not only that, but as Matt and Leanne had cautioned me, he had a reputation for being a total player. A one-night stand with him was nothing I wanted to get involved with.
And yet.
That light touch on the back of my wrist hadn’t made me feel uncomfortable. Instead, it had only left me wanting more. Once, I would have thought that maybe he didn’t find me attractive enough to kiss. But now, from the uncomfortable look on his face, I could tell that it was just the opposite. Oh, he definitely found me attractive. He was just as nervous about this as I was.
Wasn’t that interesting, for someone with as much experience as he had with women? But then again, I was pretty sure I was right, that he had never slept with one of his employees before. Surely that would have made the tabloids. Surely I would have heard about it if so.
Not because I followed the tabloids that closely. Bu
t it would have shown up when Matt and Leanne were looking into the guy, and they would have had something to say to me about it. Right?
As I walked closer to Daniel, I could see his hands twitch at his sides, like he wanted to reach for me but was trying to hold himself back. I gave him time to back away, though, and he didn’t. It was like we were hanging there, caught in some strange suspense, each wondering what the other person was thinking, what they were planning on doing.
I wanted him to kiss me, I realized. I wanted him to pull me close to him, so that my body was pressed against his. I wanted him to bend down and press his lips against mine.
Why, though? Why was I so desperate for him to take this further? I knew, logically, that it was a terrible idea. That the last thing I needed was to start something like that with my boss. I just wasn’t the type of woman to have one-night stands, and I definitely wasn’t about to screw up my future over a guy like Daniel. I didn’t need to compromise my professionality.
And yet, I still couldn’t seem to pull away from him. I was well inside his personal space, my eyes locked on his lips for a long moment. I hadn’t felt desire this intense in ages. Maybe ever.
My eyes flickered up to meet Daniel’s, and I saw he was staring at my lips in turn. I bit my lower lip uncertainly, and I could hear his sharp intake of breath. Everything froze for just a second. Then, he made a quiet noise of determination and stepped closer to me, bending down and kissing me hard.
That first kiss was over almost as quickly as it had started, just a quick press of his lips against mine. Then, he pulled back, looking down into my face, as though he wasn’t sure whether I really wanted this. Whatever he saw in my eyes, though, must have convinced him otherwise.
