He smelled incredible, as always, and I didn’t want it to end. But he pulled back, looking like he felt a little awkward. “I think this calls for a celebration.”
“How does Adrian White celebrate, exactly? Do you schedule extra meetings for your evening? Fire an intern? Or maybe you sacrifice a virgin?”
“Are you volunteering?” he asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
My breath caught. I wasn’t sure how to answer, especially considering that, to my deep shame, I was a virgin. Being in the Coleton bubble for my whole childhood hardly lent itself to canoodling. As gross as it was, I was fairly sure my father was keeping a close lock on my virginity so he could toss it in for whoever he married me off to like a wedding gift.
“I’m sorry,” Adrian said. “That was inappropriate. I didn’t think about how that would come across.”
“Are you sorry enough to buy me lunch?” I asked. “It already feels like breakfast at the hotel was forever ago.”
“It’s a deal,” he said.
“And are you sorry enough to promise not to talk about work at lunch?”
“Don’t push your luck,” he said.
I’d nearly forgotten I was in a new and exciting city until Adrian asked the driver to take us to find some food trucks.
“Food trucks?” I asked.
“I can only tolerate one to two fancy meals per day.”
I grinned. The man was finally speaking my language.
The driver dropped us off on a busy street where several food trucks were parked, and large crowds of people were walking and waiting for their orders. I followed Adrian, who left his suit jacket and tie in the car. He looked uncharacteristically casual with his shirtsleeves rolled up to reveal tan, deliciously strong forearms.
We ordered from a barbecue truck and walked for a little before we ate, following the sound of music. We eventually found a man in a straw hat playing guitar and singing. There was a large crowd, so Adrian looked around for a place to get a better view.
“Here,” he said, motioning for me to follow him. He climbed on the hood of a parked van and stuck his free hand out for me.
“You don’t think they’ll mind us eating on top of their van?”
“Live a little, Miss Adams,” he said, grinning boyishly.
I wondered what had gotten into him but wasn’t going to complain if my usually stuck up bosshole wanted to be in a good mood for once. I let him pull me up, then scurried up the windshield to sit on the top of the large white van beside Adrian.
I was reminded of how intense he’d been when he talked about this presentation and getting to Coleton Central. I guessed this really was a celebration for him. Even better, I was the reason it had worked. His uncharacteristically good mood suddenly made a lot more sense.
He took a pinch of the pulled pork on his tray and popped it into his mouth, patting the space beside him. “Come on. I won’t bite this time.”
I slid next to him. I’d ordered a barbecue taco fusion. My first bite was delicious, and I could taste pineapple in the sauce. I made a happy sound, then smiled. “This is so good. Is yours?”
He nodded. Except he was hardly eating. He’d already set his tray aside and was leaning back with his long legs splayed out, watching the musician.
“You said you can only tolerate a couple fancy meals a day,” I said while the musician stopped to tune up his guitar after a song. “I have to admit, I kind of pictured you as the kind of guy who grew up with money and loved everything about the lifestyle.”
He shook his head. God, he looked amazing. There was a warm breeze and a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. His dark hair was rippling in the wind and getting caught against his forehead in thick locks that clung to his skin. I found myself staring at his full lips while he seemed to mull over the right words. “My parents never had much,” he finally said.
“What? Really? How’d you wind up at Coleton?”
“My dad actually worked for Coleton. For most of his life.”
“Is he still…”
“Alive?” Adrian asked. “No, he died ten years back.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It was a long time ago,” he said. He sounded dismissive. “What about you? What do your parents do?”
I swallowed. From the moment I met Adrian, I’d almost assumed I would never have to answer a direct question about myself. All he cared about was work. “Well,” I said, struggling for the right answer. I still hadn’t lied to him. Not directly. I’d omitted the truth, yes, but I hadn’t lied. “My dad is in business.”
“Anywhere I’ve heard of?”
I cringed. “Probably.” I tried to sound casual, hoping I’d stop him from asking more. “But he always acted like business was a man’s world. You know? Like I couldn’t possibly understand it or succeed if I tried. I think I’ve always wanted to prove him wrong.”
Adrian chuckled. “That’s good. I respect that.”
I took another bite of my taco. It really was good. The music was, too. It was honestly the perfect afternoon, and I couldn’t even complain that I had to share it with my asshole boss because, well… he wasn’t being an asshole. Not today, at least.
“I’ve been hard on you,” he said. “But I’m hard on everyone. So I don’t want you to take it too personally.”
“Yeah. You were really hard on me back in the airplane bathroom,” I blurted. I clapped my hand to my mouth, cheeks burning. Please tell me I did not just say that out loud.
Adrian looked like he was trying and failing not to smile. “Yeah,” was all he managed.
I licked my lips. Shit. There was no avoiding the awkwardness that was about to come. Might as well dive in headfirst. “I have to admit I don’t get it. You seem so serious and strict. Like flirting with an employee would be the last thing you’d ever consider. So I don’t get why you were, well…”
“You see, when a man finds a woman sexually attractive, blood starts to flow to his-”
I held up my hand, laughing. Adrian smiled back. “I mean I didn’t get why the boss who acted like I was a plague upon his life would react to me… like that.”
“Hiring you was a mistake,” he said suddenly.
The words hit me like a punch to the stomach. “We can talk about something else. I’m sorry.”
“No,” he said. “I mean it was a mistake because I knew I was attracted to you. I swore I wouldn’t let anything get in the way of my goals, and I knew hiring you was a risk. But I thought I had enough self-control to stop it from mattering. Clearly, I don’t. I can’t stop thinking about you, Jules. You’re on my fucking mind every minute. Every meeting I have. Every email I read. You’re right there, dragging me away from what I need to be focusing on.”
I felt a warm fist clutch around my heart, filling my body with heat. “I don’t know what to say.”
The musician, as if he was trying to make things more awkward, started a slow song. He rasped out romantic lyrics about love in the city and following your underpants—whatever that last part meant.
Adrian met my eyes with enough gravity that I could barely look back. “Tell me how you feel. And if you feel the same way, tell me we could find a way to make it possible without it getting in the way of work.”
“I feel like I’m about to have a heart attack every time I’m around you,” I said. “And I don’t know if that’s because I’m terrified of screwing up or because I think you’re annoyingly hot.”
He grinned. “I don’t date employees.”
“Except…”
“Except this time, I’d be willing to make an exception if my employee wanted me to. And if she agreed the relationship would be entirely separate from work. She could dump my ass and keep her job. And I could fire her ass and keep my relationship. Both would be as separate as they possibly could be.”
“You don’t seriously think that would work, do you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. But if we don’t try, I’m goin
g to have to update the company dress code. Only full body coverings for you. Multiple layers.”
I chewed the corner of my lip. I’d been trying not to fully accept anything he was saying because I honestly wasn’t sure how I felt. I could do better, couldn’t I? I didn’t have to date someone who could be such a relentless hardass just because he was hot. Except this sort of thing never felt like it took logic into account.
If I listened to my heart, I wanted to try. I wanted to let him kiss me and I wanted to live in this moment. This was exactly the reason I’d left New York and sought out a new life, wasn’t it? To find adventure? To make risky decisions?
I’d need to find a way to tell him who I really was, though. It was different if we were dating. I wouldn’t always be able to tell myself it wasn’t his business, and I dreaded figuring out how to cross that bridge.
“I’ll do it, but only if you give me tomorrow off to explore the city,” I said.
Adrian glared. “That’s exactly what I just said this can’t be.”
I flicked his nose. “That was a test. You passed.”
He made a low, sexy noise in his throat and put his hand beside my hip, leaning in close.
“I have taco breath,” I warned.
“You could’ve just finished chewing on garlic and I wouldn’t care. I’ve been waiting to do this all fucking week.”
He planted a kiss on me that made me feel like melting into the top of the van.
The music and sound of people below the van all faded until it was just us. Just Adrian with one hand buried in my hair on the back of my head and mouth on mine. His lips were soft pillows of warmth, and his tongue was a delicious dart of heat as it teased mine. He kissed me tenderly at first, then his hand cupped my cheek and he kissed me deeper. I moaned into his mouth, forgetting we were in public until a few scattered cheers rang out from the crowd of people below the van.
“Check her tonsils while you’re in there!” Somebody yelled from below.
We broke the kiss off, grinning with our foreheads touching.
My heart was pounding and there was a delicious warmth flowing through me that had nothing to do with the warm New Orleans air. I felt alive. Really alive. Maybe for the first time in my life. It almost broke my heart to feel how happy I was, because in that explosive moment I thought I could see I’d never really been happy before. Not like this. I’d nearly lived my whole life sheltered from this kind of feeling, and I would’ve never known what I was missing.
“You know,” I said. “I’m going to be a little sad if this means you’re going to be nice from now on. The grumpy thing was sorta hot.”
“Right. Well this lunch break has gone entirely too long. I need you to clear my inbox.”
“As my new boyfriend, shouldn’t you be the one clearing my inbox? Ugh,” I said, slapping my palm to my forehead. “Too soon. Sorry. Just couldn’t resist.”
Adrian smiled, but jerked his head to the side. “Come on. Work is calling.”
And just like that, we climbed down from the van and went into what I supposed was the new normal. I rode in the back of the SUV and checked his emails, just like before. The only difference was I could still taste him on my mouth. That, and the occasional smoldering look he lobbed my way over the top of his phone.
This was doable. I’d just tell him I was really Juliette Coleton today. Or maybe tomorrow. Or maybe when we got back to North Carolina. Once that was off the table, we could get to the completely normal madness of trying to manage a work relationship, because those never blew up in anyone’s faces.
I sighed. What the hell was I doing?
17
Adrian
Noah Galladay and Travis Longwood sat across from me in the hotel lobby. Of course, they were currently using different last names, but I hardly used those. The three of us had gone to high school together and been thick as thieves ever since. We’d all played on the same baseball team, but only Travis and I kept it up through our college days. Noah pursued other interests, like starting up a tech company that made him one of the youngest billionaires in the country.
Four years later, I started a company and brought Travis and Jordan in to help. I’d named it Terranova Holdings. Our path to money wasn’t as quick and seamless as Noah’s, but we’d made it there all the same. We started with small local businesses as consultants who helped them optimize business practices to increase profits. Once we’d earned enough, we started buying the companies, turning them around, then selling them for a hefty profit.
We’d eventually teamed up with Noah and his software systems to help supercharge the business. He’d streamlined his own business to the point that he was happy to have a side project.
Ten years ago, we’d all agreed it was time to put our talents to use elsewhere. We’d been learning to demolish companies of increasing size ever since. Of course, part of our work was investigating and figuring out which companies deserved to be demolished. Coleton was by far the largest fish we’d ever tried to fry, but I was still confident we were going to make it work. We had to make it work.
It was early morning before the sun had come up and the three of us were in a secluded corner of the hotel lobby in New Orleans. A TV across the room played local news and shitty hotel music was playing over the speakers. But we had privacy, which was all that really mattered.
Noah threaded his hands behind his head and sighed. He always looked a little like Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, to me. He had the black glasses, well-groomed hair, and smooth-shaven look. I hadn’t been blowing smoke up his ass when I told Jules he was a genius. Noah didn’t always seem human to me with how quickly he could process and solve problems. “I’m still trying to figure out how that worked,” he said. “She really met with Krause by herself and pulled it off?”
I nodded. “Somehow.”
“Suspicious, don’t you think?” Noah asked.
“Get the microchip out of your ass, dude,” Travis said. Travis had a talent for people. When he wanted, he could turn on a level of charm that was downright supernatural. He probably could’ve talked his way out of a maximum-security prison and got them to throw him a “going away” party to top it off. “The girl pulled it off. Simple as that. Krause is probably a perv and thought she was cute. But who cares? She got it done. Problem solved.”
“Careful,” I said.
Travis looked at me. The only hope of getting something past Travis was hoping he wouldn’t bother to pay attention. In that moment, I knew I’d just showed him my hand. His eyes narrowed and he grinned, showing his dimples. “Oh, fuck,” he said. “How long have the two of you been sleeping together?”
“Wait, what?” Noah asked, jerking his head between Travis and I. Noah may have been a savant with all things digital, financial, and logical, but people sometimes eluded him.
“Stop,” I said. “It’s not like that. I kissed her. And there were a few unusual encounters. But we’ve both established a very concrete boundary between work and our personal lives.”
“Does she know who you really are?” Noah asked.
Travis was ignoring him, clapping his large hands together and laughing. “Man. Of the three of us, I can’t believe it was fucking Adrian Terranova who jeopardized the mission for a little pussy first. If either of you would’ve taken my bet, I would’ve had money on me. I mean, how hard is it not to fuck around with employees, right? They’re around you all day.”
“Does she?” Noah repeated.
“No,” I said. “But I’m considering telling her. I think she could be part of the team we bring with us to Coleton Central.”
“You’re not really qualified to make that call anymore,” Noah said.
“He’s got a point,” Travis added. “I mean, it’s got to be hard to see clearly with your head between her legs.”
I glared at him. “Careful.”
“Relax, Adrian. I’m fucking with you,” Travis said. “But Noah does have a point. I say we take a vote on whether we bring he
r in, and he who lacks dick discipline forfeits his vote.”
I sighed. “Okay, well, what do you two think? I say we tell her the truth. Tell her everything and let her decide what to do. We haven’t actually done anything illegal yet. We’re all just playing the part of good little employees and waiting until we’re close enough to the kill switch to pull it. Sure, Noah has been collecting information we’ll need, but that’s part of his job at Coleton.”
Noah nodded. “If she went to the police or the press right now, she’d essentially have a story about how these guys she met said they want to destroy Coleton Industries from the inside. It’d be he said, she said. But we’ll be freshly promoted to Coleton Central at that point. A rumor like that might be more than enough to ruin us.”
Travis grunted. “He’s got a point.”
“Noah always has a point,” I said, irritation leaking into my words. He did, of course. Having Jules on the team would be a luxury, not a necessity. And jeopardizing everything we’d worked for to gain a luxury at this point was idiotic. It was the sort of thing people did when they lost sight of their real goals. “We should still talk to Jordan. Maybe she’ll have another angle on this.”
“An angle that lets you keep fucking your personal assistant?” Travis asked.
“I told you. We’ve kissed. Once.”
“Yeah,” Travis said. “And when someone sets a delicious chocolate cake down in front of me, I start with one bite.”
I hated when both of them made good points. It was one of the hazards of working with capable people. If I wanted to pretend I couldn’t see the truth staring me in the face, I knew these assholes would shove it in my eyes until I couldn’t deny it anymore.
I made a mistake when I hired Jules. I was making an even bigger mistake by taking things further. And bringing her with us to Coleton Central would be the final nail in all our coffins.
I couldn’t tell her who I was, and I couldn’t bring her with us on the final leg of this journey.
18
The Boss(hole) Page 9
