Cole tapped his pencil against his desk. He couldn’t help but wonder how Shaun’s meeting had gone, how his designs had fared in the eyes of the client, although he felt a glimmer of confidence his work would stack up just fine to Myles’s specific taste.
He glanced at the clock on his phone and started to dial the number Violet had given him for a Chinese restaurant, with special instructions to order the lo mein. She had messaged him earlier asking if he wanted to grab a bite to eat at quitting time, but Cole had turned her down, claiming he had a file he couldn’t abandon. Partly true. Partly a big fat lie. She had then proceeded to send him a list of nearby spots that were good and delivered in case he got hungry, which made him feel a bit guilty for not saying yes to her in the first place.
On the quick trip to pick up the delivery at the reception desk, Cole recognized the familiar surge of electricity when he glanced in the direction of Shaun’s office. The same surge he’d felt that night at the bar. She was sitting at her desk, her chair turned to face away from the door. He started to walk in to offer her something to eat, but then overheard her on the phone.
“Mother, I’m at work. I don’t have time for this.”
Yeah, better not interrupt that conversation, he thought.
When he returned a few minutes later, he paused at her door and knocked, not wanting to startle her again. “Everything okay?” he asked, motioning to her phone.
She glanced down before answering. “Oh, yeah. Just my mother. I prefer she not call me at the office, but…” She shrugged. “Did you need something?”
“Oh. Uh.” Cole stuttered in search of the words that all too often moved out of his mind’s reach in her presence. “I saw you were still here. I ordered Chinese and thought you might want some.” He lifted the paper bag. “A peace offering.”
She smiled, and Cole felt a shudder in the pit of his stomach, placing the blame solely on hunger.
“Only if you have enough.”
“Yep.” Cole continued inside, closing the door with his ankle and not giving her a chance to have second thoughts. Shaun stood, and he took in the complete sight of her. She wore black dress slacks with a burgundy button-down that twisted around her slender midsection before disappearing beneath the high waist of her pants. His eyes never left her backside as she walked over to a glass table in the opposite corner of her office, clearing off the stacks of folders on top and dropping them onto two of the four chairs.
When she turned to pull out a chair for him, they nearly collided with one another. Her jaw dropped open, and Cole found himself overwhelmed by the urge to kiss her, run his tongue over the soft curve of her plump lower lip. Her gaze moved to his mouth as if they shared the same thought bubble, and the air around them crackled with the intense magnetism.
Shaun took a quick step backward. “I’m going to grab water from the break room. Want anything?”
“Yeah. Water would be great,” he replied, pulling the containers from the bag and arranging them on the table. He took the time while Shaun was gone to collect himself, collapsing onto the chair. She’s just a girl, dude. A girl that made him twelve again and nursing a major crush.
Shaun returned from the break room, and Cole observed that she left the office door open. “Thanks for this.” She heaped some noodles onto her plate. “I haven’t eaten since my lunch meeting, and I usually don’t eat much at those.”
Cole grabbed one of the two egg rolls and took a bite. He felt her eyes study him as he chewed, but when he looked in her direction, her gaze darted down to her plate. Much like the way Violet’s had in the elevator that morning. Maybe she wasn’t as uninterested as he’d thought.
“So how’d we do?” he asked, trying to hide any hint of bravado.
“Very good, actually.” She guided a small tangle of noodles into her mouth with her chopsticks. Figures she would be deft with those skinny suckers. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and abandoned her food to walk over to her desk, then returned with the Ciao Belleza file. “Just like I suspected, he loved this one.” She leafed through his sketches and placed the one of his bar design on top. Constructed solely from reclaimed oak, the curving lines were reminiscent of a Venetian gondola. “He asked to meet with you. I figured we could sit down together after tomorrow’s staff meeting.”
“Staff meeting?” he asked, taking a sip of his water. He remembered Violet mentioning one in the elevator, but she hadn’t elaborated much beyond the fact that his uncle had used it as an opportunity to fire her.
“Yeah, it’s on your Google calendar. Robert and I scheduled it earlier.”
“Oh yeah, the calendar.” He grimaced, partly because she had met with his uncle to discuss God only knows what and partly because he had no clue what the hell she was talking about.
She started to scoop up more noodles into her mouth and stopped. “Something wrong?”
Cole wondered if he should be honest. Violet had left for the day, so he couldn’t ask her until the next morning, but that might be too late and he didn’t want to chance it. With a nervous sigh, he chose to go with honesty. “I don’t know what a Google calendar is.”
“You’re kidding, right?” She rested her chopsticks on her plate.
Cole shook his head, eyeing the empty lo mein container and wondering if there was enough room in there to climb inside.
Shaun reached out an open palm. “Give me your phone.” She wasn’t smiling. In fact, she seemed frustrated, like maybe her new employee wasn’t so great after all.
Cole fought off a frown and fished his BlackBerry out of his front pants pocket, setting the device in her hand. She pulled away before their fingers could touch.
“A BlackBerry?” She stared down at the device as if it possessed a communicable disease.
“Uh, yeah. It was the only phone that had a keyboard.” He didn’t dare tell her that he had used a flip phone up until moving to Mason.
He thought he heard her laugh, but she hid the sound with a cough muffled by her free hand. “First off, we need to get rid of this.”
He watched her peel off the plastic stuck to said keyboard. She glanced up at him, and he shrugged with a sheepish smile, feeling heat engulf his neck. “I’m not a technology kind of guy.”
“I couldn’t tell.” She smirked, shaking her head. “Did you move here directly from 1999, or was there time to stop for snacks?”
Cole feigned a dramatic chuckle. “No, from Sweetwater, actually. It’s a small town, but we do have cable when the earth is at just the right angle on its axis.”
Her smirk turned down at the corners. “I’m sorry. That was very rude of me. I just assumed that with Robert being so well connected–”
“No,” was the only word Cole managed to reply with, feeling inadequate and slightly out of his league once again. An all too familiar feeling he had around his uncle most of the time but hadn’t cared much about until now.
Without another word, Shaun returned her attention to his phone and started to thumb the buttons. “I have a tech genius on my team. If you want, I can have her run through a few things with you. Get you acclimated.”
“Violet, right? We met already.”
“Really?” Shaun looked up, appearing rather curious.
“Yeah. She was the one who suggested the restaurant I ordered the food from.”
“Oh, yes, Violet is wonderful when it comes to tech and food. A serious foodie. She’s in charge of ordering for our late-night meetings. She’s the reason I go to Cask.”
“Cask?”
“Yeah, the bar from the other night.”
“Oh, right,” he remarked, feeling abashed, and then stuck recalling the inappropriate fantasies that had followed.
She simpered, appearing to enjoy his discomfort. “I don’t usually frequent places that use peanut shells as floor covering, but their tapas chef is a genius and he personally selects an impressive wine menu to complement his specials.”
“Pork belly pinchos?” he asked, remembering her su
ggestion.
“Exactly.” As if just realizing she’d exposed a side of herself she chose not show at the office, Shaun cleared her throat and started in on his phone again. “So what else did you and Violet talk about?”
As her gaze remained fixed on the tiny screen in her hand, Cole sat back in his chair, finding her interest in him and Violet quaint. “Not much. Just boring office employee stuff.” He decided holding back a bit might benefit him, for now at least.
She continued to press numerous keys on his phone a few silent minutes longer, and he wondered what she was really thinking.
“That should be it.”
Cole shifted his chair toward her, leaning in to look at his phone in her hands. He could hear her breathing and closed his eyes, tamping down the ache he felt from the scent he came to identify as all her own. Floral. Clean. Fucking hypnotic.
“What did you do?”
He thought he noticed a slight shake to her fingers as she demonstrated a few thumb strokes. Was it possible that she felt the same nerves he did when he was so near to her?
“I linked your Google calendar to your phone and had the office emails pushed to this inbox.” She shoved the phone into his hand. “Here, you try.” She returned her attention to her plate and finished eating, scooting her chair an inch away.
Cole sat back and tried the few things she’d showed him with success. “Thanks,” he said with a grin.
“No problem.” She wiped her mouth and dropped the balled-up napkin onto her empty plate.
“So, should I be worried?”
Her brows furrowed, a slight crease formed between the slender arches. “What about?”
“The staff meeting. I mean, after yesterday and you talking with my uncle. I might’ve heard a particular story regarding one meeting from my new friend here at the office.”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head, looking slightly disconcerted by his knowledge of the incident. “I think we took care of that, right?” She pushed her plate away and pulled out her own phone, tapping the large screen with quick, expert precision. Back to business mode. “We have a scheduled staff meeting every two weeks. It will be a chance for you to meet everyone and get up to speed on the division of responsibilities.” She smiled at him and stood. “I’m going to keep you on Ciao Belleza and the B&B for now. Start you out slow. Speaking of the B&B, any progress? Did you understand all of my suggestions?”
Cole adjusted to the quick change in gears. Technically he was off the clock, and the last thing he wanted to talk about was business. So he took the chance and selected a topic he found more interesting.
“That woman the other night – she was your girlfriend, right?”
Cole could feel the tension in the air shift, and he smirked before eating another mound of noodles. He knew this was a dangerous road to go down, considering he had just waved the peace flag via Post-It and lo mein, but the discussion he’d had with his uncle the previous evening was still screwed with his head.
If he did consider taking that dick up on his disguised ultimatum, he needed a course of action. One question remained, though: was he asshole enough to do it? Sure, Shaun was beautiful and seemed to actually care about the company, but he couldn’t deny how much he wanted to get back home and off this fucked-up version of The Apprentice. If the stiletto was on the other foot and Shaun had the choice to make, he had no doubt she would do the same. Or would she?
“Yes.” The answer finally came, but to which question? Cole looked up in Shaun’s direction, studying her rigid posture.
He wiped his lips with his napkin and stood. “Please don’t glare. I swear it’s just a friendly question. You mentioned Cask and I wondered.” He started toward her slowly so as to not spook what he could only liken to a deer in headlights.
“I prefer to keep my personal life and business separate at all times.” She sat on the corner of her desk with her feet still on the floor, crossing her ankles. “And I am not glaring.” She folded her arms over her midsection and her blouse tightened, pulling his attention. He had never considered himself exclusively a boob or ass man. He enjoyed both equally. But he couldn’t deny that Shaun had a perfect portion of both.
“Personal and business separate, huh? So does that mean you never date anyone from the office?” Cole knew that getting out of Mason wasn’t going to be easy, but he had to make sure, just in case. Of course, he’d inadvertently posed the question to her breasts, which didn’t help. He soon recovered and met her knowing scowl.
“Yes. That’s precisely what it means.”
Keeping his eyes leveled appropriately, he studied her further. “So, she was your girlfriend, but no longer?” Sure, his alluding to her public breakup deserved a warning from the referee, but he couldn’t help himself. At least he kept the smug expression that went along with the clever jab off his face.
“Why are you so concerned?” Her confidence appeared unwavering as she posed indifference. A trait Cole admittedly found extremely sexy, in turn piquing his curiosity further. If what his uncle had said about Shaun’s personal life was true, maybe the mixture of business and pleasure was the way to achieve the desired outcome. Unnerve her controlled demeanor a bit. He guessed she wasn’t one to give over control very easily. But when she did… God, the thought alone made his head spin.
Cole shrugged, still moving closer until there remained only inches between them. He spoke low, tentative. “I guess I’m just curious.”
She reached out a hand directly in line with the center of his chest, but she didn’t touch him. Even with the small margin of distance, the heat from her palm leeched outward over the skin beneath his shirt, stoking the fire within. He’d left his suit jacket behind in the office, but it sure as shit felt like he still had the thing on. He halted his advance, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. The last thing he needed was a repeat of the day before. He had no doubt she would have him thrown out by one of the security guards this time around.
She dropped her hand quickly, apparently feeling his rise in temperature as well. “If you are done eating, I really need to get back to work.”
His proximity made her nervous. He could feel it. See it in the rise and fall of her blouse. He searched her eyes for a sign, relieved to find nothing resembling fear or disgust staring back at him. No; she had a look of pure, unadulterated lust. She wanted him, and he’d be lying if he said she didn’t awaken a little something within him as well. Okay, a lot of something that had very little to do with the bargain Robert had hung over his head.
However, no matter what her eyes and breathing betrayed, her face kept the same mask of disinterest. She maintained control. Even yesterday, when he’d acted like a complete ass, she hadn’t raised her voice or shown any outward gesture of agitation. She’d stayed neatly bundled up in that sexy little skirt number, making him wonder what exactly lurked beneath. Cotton, lace, or silk? Black, white or – God help him – red?
“Mr. Jacobson?”
Filing his inappropriate thoughts regarding her choice of lingerie under “to be continued,” Cole made a conscious decision to pull back. Robert had said she liked a challenge. On the contrary, Shaun was the challenge. A challenge that continued to gain his interest as every tight petal of her disposition began to unfurl. Too bad for her, Cole had a bit of a competitive streak that she’d managed to unknowingly fuel, among other things he’d rather not categorize.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then.” He didn’t wait for her to respond, turning on his heels and stepping through the open office door. He walked the short distance over to his own space and retrieved his jacket and satchel. As he waited for the elevator, he wondered what the hell had just happened. Genuine feelings weren’t welcome. Not now. Not with her.
CHAPTER 6
Cole walked by his laptop, cursing and then snapping it shut. After spending half the night googling his boss, he’d proceeded to give his snooze button a hand job one time too many. Now the computer mocked him while he raced aro
und his studio. He didn’t even have a chance to shave, so the stubble on his face would have to remain an impromptu accessory, he decided as he checked himself one last time in the mirror. He ran a hand through hair still damp from his quick shower and groaned. “Just perfect.”
Grabbing his satchel, jacket, and travel mug, he hurried out the front door and descended the several flights of stairs at a sprint. Lucky for him, the office was only a few blocks south. He trusted his feet to get him to his job in better time than a cab fighting rush-hour traffic.
When he finally stepped into the elevator, Cole was already twenty minutes late. He poked the close button a few times, but apparently the damn thing was in league with his alarm clock.
Shaun’s little errand boy Henry greeted Cole with a huff of annoyance. “You’re late.”
“Really?” Cole growled as he moved past the kiss-ass, making a beeline for Shaun’s office. He grimaced when he found it empty.
“The meeting is on the twelfth floor. Didn’t you read your email?”
Cole fought the urge to choke the assistant with the bright green tie around his neck. Instead of committing murder with just cause, he spun to face the bane of the sixth floor and spoke through gritted teeth. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
Henry shrugged his shoulders and inspected his manicured fingernails. “Actually, Ms. Wright sent me down to fetch you. She thought you might be lost. Okay, maybe I volunteered,” he finished with an obnoxious grin.
“Lucky me.” Cole dropped his things in his office, taking only his notebook and pen. Joining a meeting late with a cup of coffee in hand just seemed bad-mannered, even if it came from home. You couldn’t manage to make it on time, but you were still able to grab yourself a beverage. Yeah, not the message he wanted to relay at all, considering he was already skating on thin ice.
Drawn Through You Page 4
