She was sexy as hell and he could feel himself trembling with the need to stay in control.
“Why?” he whispered.
Sophie swallowed hard. “We’re going to be working together, Christian. This isn’t appropriate, and…” She scrambled off his lap and sat beside him. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
He felt completely gobsmacked and had no idea how to respond to what she was saying.
“You have to understand,” she said. “It would look really bad for me to be messing around with you as soon as I start this job. People will look at me like that was how I got the position.”
Raking a hand through his hair, Christian let out a frustrated breath. “Sophie, no one is going to think that. And what happened here had nothing whatsoever to do with work or your job or…any of that.” There was no way not to say what came next. “The truth is, I’ve sort of been…aware of you for a while now.”
Putting a little more space between them, she looked at him nervously. “Um, what?”
“I’ve seen you out surfing,” he clarified.
“You mean—that night when you thought I was drowning,” she stated slowly.
But Christian shook his head. “Before that.” Sighing loudly, he stood. “Every morning I have a cup of coffee out on my deck. I started doing it a while ago and I found it was a nice way to start my day.” He looked straight at her. “It wasn’t like I was purposely looking for you, but…you kind of stand out.”
“Stand out?”
Carefully, he touched a strand of her fiery hair. “A redhead in a sea of blonds,” he said, almost mesmerized by the feel of her. “Every morning, if you were out there in the ocean, I saw you. I didn’t stay out there the entire time and it wasn’t like seeing you was the only reason I was out there,” he quickly explained. “But it was normally while I finished my coffee. So many times I tried to convince myself to go down to the beach and introduce myself.”
“Then why didn’t you?” she asked, her voice softer and a little less nervous now.
He shrugged. “Cowardice, I guess. There never seemed to be the right time to go about doing it.”
“Until you thought I was drowning?” she asked with amusement, and Christian saw the first hint of a smile playing at her lips.
He returned the smile and felt his cheeks heat. “Um, yeah. Like I said, cowardice.”
Sophie reached up and captured the hand the was still playing with her hair and squeezed it. “I don’t think it’s cowardice at all. I think in the same position I would have felt the same way.”
“Really?”
“This move has forced me out of my comfort zone. Back in Kansas, I knew everyone in town, so I never experienced the awkwardness of meeting someone new. Even when I went to college, it was local, and I knew so many of my classmates that even when I met someone new, we had friends in common.” She paused. “Moving here sight-unseen meant everyone was a stranger. I had to get over my insecurities and break out of my comfort zone and force myself to talk to people.”
“It’s the opposite for me. I’ve always been at ease meeting new people, and I’ve never hesitated to introduce myself to a beautiful woman,” he said with a lopsided grin. “You were the first woman who made me pause.”
“Why?”
Hesitating because the admission was a little embarrassing, Christian took a minute to consider his words. “My life is a mess—you know, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Besides being a workaholic, I have…well, I have trust issues. Pretty much with everyone, but particularly with women.”
“Someone hurt you,” she said softly, squeezing his hand she held.
It was pointless to deny it. Other than his sister, Megan, no one knew the extent of why he was so uptight about the way he currently ran his life. But for some reason, he felt that it was important for him to share with Sophie, because he had a feeling she could help him change—to break out of this rut he was in and maybe start living again.
“I used to be the head of the Montgomerys office in London,” he began, looking at their hands rather than directly at her. “It was a dream come true, because it got me away from everyone. I’d been working for my father since I was a teen and I was thrilled to be far enough away that I could start making a name for myself. About two years after I’d started, my father started taking trips over to see how things were going.”
“Just for the sake of checking, or because he thought something was wrong?” she asked, and Christian was thankful that she wasn’t going to let him get too deep into his own head on this.
“The first time was to oversee a deal that we had been working on together remotely. I felt good about all of it and it was important to me for him to see me as an equal.”
“That makes sense.”
“Anyway, businesswise, I was fine. He couldn’t find anything wrong with the way I was running the office.” He paused and let out a long breath. “I was involved with someone—she was my assistant, actually—and he got all over me about how unprofessional I was and how I was jeopardizing the company reputation.”
He immediately noticed the look of unease on her face. Essentially, he was proving her earlier comments correct. “Did he leave, or did you end the relationship?”
“At first, it was little comments to me on his daily phone calls, but I kept telling him I had everything under control.” Then he shook his head. “Anyway, he started coming around more and more and staying for longer periods of time and things became strained with Poppy.”
“Poppy?” she asked with a small smile. “That’s a very English name.”
“It’s a ridiculous name,” he murmured. “Anyway, things were getting tense between us and Dad was always there, and then he went and hired a new assistant for me and transferred Poppy to work with my VP, Greyson.”
“How was that his place?” she asked with disbelief. “It was your office!”
“My father isn’t big on boundaries. In his mind, any office of mine was an office of his.” Thinking back, it still made him mad. “Unfortunately, I was working on a major deal—one of the biggest financial deals of my career. I knew if I could stay focused on contract negotiations and making the client happy, it would be the ultimate victory for me. The deal I had worked for my entire life. And I thought if I could prove to him I could handle an account of this magnitude, he’d back off. And to be honest, moving Poppy took one distraction off my plate.”
“She…she was keeping you from your work?”
Christian shook his head. “No, but the constant badgering from my father was.”
“What happened next?”
“I closed the deal and made a lot of money for Montgomerys,” he said, his voice void of emotion.
“Oh. Well, that’s a good thing, right? That should have made your father happy.”
“You would think.”
“Christian. We don’t have to talk about this. Although… I don’t understand why you’re telling me all of this.”
“I’m getting to the reason,” he said, and knew he had to finish the story so she would understand him a little better. That maybe she’d see why he was so stressed out and maybe she’d be able to help him.
With a steadying breath, he continued. “I closed the deal on a Friday. Dad called and asked me to meet him at the office on Saturday morning. I thought it was odd, because we had planned on meeting for lunch, but he insisted I come to the office first.” He shook his head at the memory. “I arrived first. I thought no one was in the office at first—but Poppy and Greyson were.”
She looked at him oddly.
“And they certainly weren’t working,” he said with a mirthless laugh.
Gasping, she said, “I’m so sorry. How horrible for you to find out like that!”
“Turns out the two of them had
been carrying on for a while. Long before my father moved her over to work for Grey,” he said. “Somehow, Dad found out about it. As I was standing there screaming at the two of them and demanding to know how they could do this to me, in strolls dear old Dad to say ‘I told you so.’”
Her eyes went wide. “No!”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“But…how could he know when you didn’t?”
Christian shrugged. “Apparently he’s very observant. Claims he noticed some lingering looks and caught them whispering with one another a few times in a way that seemed more than a little cozy, so he hired a private investigator. When he knew he had the proof…well, there we all were.”
“That’s awful! He didn’t think there was another way to break the news to you?” she asked with a hint of disgust. “I swear, some men have no right to be fathers.”
“What?”
Her eyes went wide. “Nothing,” she said quickly. “It’s nothing. So what did you do?”
“I fired them both, told Dad to leave, and then spent the better part of a month getting the company in order because I wanted out. Luckily, that was around the time my cousin Ryder—who owns this house and used to run the office here—was looking for someone to take over temporarily so he could take a break. It just worked out that he was happier elsewhere and I had no place else to go.”
“Wow, Christian. Just…wow. I can see why you struggle with stress, but don’t you see you’d be courting the same kind of trouble if we were to get involved? I don’t want to be the cause of stress in your life.”
But he shook his head as she spoke. “You’re the reason I feel like I’m ready to stop this destructive pattern of behavior,” he explained. “I want to get to know you, Sophie. When I’m around you, I feel better—lighter, happier. I’m done letting other people dictate my life to me.”
“I don’t know what to say to that,” she said carefully. “I think it’s great that you want to make this change, Christian, but…are you sure it’s me you’re looking to spend time with, or am I someone you want to use to get back at your father?”
That thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, but now that it was out there, it was all he could think about.
As if sensing his thoughts, she said, “Besides, I think you need to focus on getting better first.”
“Oh,” he said, feeling completely dejected. It was probably for the best, but he couldn’t help but want to argue. This wasn’t about his father. This was about her—them—and he wasn’t sure how to go about convincing Sophie of that.
“I really would like to get to know you better, too,” she said, sounding optimistic. When he looked at her face, her smile was sincere and beautiful. It gave him hope. “I’d like it if we could maybe… If we could be friends. Or is that weird? I mean, are you friends with your employees?”
“You’re not my employee, Sophie. You’re like—a subcontractor or something. And besides, I don’t interact with any of my employees any more than I have to,” he said, hating not only the way that sounded but the look of disappointment on her face.
“Oh.”
“But”—he did his best to sound lighter and as optimistic as she had—“I think, with your help, that it’s time for that to change.”
Chapter 5
Being friends was a good thing.
In theory.
But a week later, Sophie had her doubts.
A knock on her makeshift office door made her look up to see the main reason for her doubts standing in the doorway.
“Hey,” he said, a sexy grin on his face. “I promised my doctor I’d come in for a blood pressure check before my meeting with the staff today and after.”
Nodding, Sophie motioned for him to have a seat. Patricia had set up space for her to use as a medical room. She had her own desk, a couple of chairs for the employees to use while they were with her, and an assortment of equipment for her to use—a scale, an electronic blood pressure machine, a laptop, and a supply cabinet for her to stock the basics like Band-Aids, gauze, tongue depressors, and the like.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, going for casual. With every other Montgomery employee she’d met with this week, she’d been a completely pleasant professional. One glance at Christian, however, and she felt like a giddy schoolgirl.
Damn the man and his incredibly good look.
And let’s not forget that kiss.
Yeah, she’d been trying to pretend that kissing Christian wasn’t a big deal, but it totally was. If anything, she’d been playing the scene over and over in her mind since it happened. She probably could have made herself think of something else, but ever since he had proclaimed that he was looking for her help in learning to be friends with people again, they’d been spending time together.
A lot of time together.
Like seeing each other every day time.
“You know,” he said, interrupting her thoughts, “I’m feeling pretty good. I was glad to go to work on Monday, and making it a short day wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be.”
Sophie had encouraged him to work only a half day that day and was surprised that he listened.
He sat and made himself comfortable, slouching a little in the chair and loosening his shirt cuffs. “Yesterday was a little bit longer of a day but—as I mentioned—I was more than ready to leave at four.”
She nodded, because they had talked about that while they’d jogged on the beach.
Yes, she’d skipped her evening surf in exchange for jogging.
Hopefully, today she’d get her courage to tell him she wasn’t enjoying jogging the way she enjoyed surfing.
“But how are you feeling about this meeting today? Are you anxious? Stressed? Any overall negative feelings that are causing you distress?” she asked, reaching for his wrist to take his pulse.
“Nope,” he responded, still smiling. “I met with Erin this morning about how I planned on delegating the workload around here and I feel good about it. And if everyone’s as on board with taking on more work as she claims, then I have to believe they’ll be able to handle it.”
She smiled at him. “Good for you! So what are you going to do with all of your free time?”
Closing his eyes, Christian chuckled. “I haven’t given it much thought. I’m not even sure how much time we’re talking about. All I know is that I am determined to try to make these changes by cutting my hours.”
Sliding the pressure cuff up his arm, she teased, “Oh, come on. You sounded a lot more confident last night while we were jogging. You mentioned taking a vacation and going to spend some time with your brother in New Orleans. What happened to that?” With her stethoscope in place, she added, “I need you to be still and relax for a moment.” Then she hit the button on the electronic machine and listened to his heartbeat.
When the machine beeped a minute later, she removed her stethoscope before taking the cuff from his arm. Turning, she made a note in his chart. “That’s much better than the last time I checked it for you.”
“The last time you checked my blood pressure, we thought I was having a heart attack, so…”
With a light laugh, she leaned against her desk and faced him. “I’m glad it wasn’t that.”
“You and me both.” He was still seated, looking at Sophie with mild amusement.
“What are you thinking right now?” It was a question she’d was asking him more and more. In her mind, she was making sure he wasn’t thinking about work—something she knew stressed him out. But right now, she was honestly curious about what was on his mind.
“Have you ever been to New Orleans?” he asked, his gaze steady on hers.
“Me? No. Up until I moved here, I’d never been anywhere but Kansas.” Shrugging, she crossed her arms over her middle. Never traveling wasn’t something that had ever bothered her before, but for som
e reason, admitting it to Christian now had her feeling a little self-conscious.
“I’ve only been there once myself,” he said conversationally. “It was for Carter’s restaurant opening. I flew in, ate, and pretty much flew home.” He paused. “I hadn’t given it much thought until he and I spoke last week. Now I think I should go.”
“But…?” She could tell there was more to what he was saying.
“I don’t know. I think Carter’s as much of a workaholic as I am, except in a different environment. I know the restaurant keeps him busy, he’s looking at opening in other locations, and I hate the thought of being in the way.”
“He invited you, didn’t he?”
“He did, but maybe he was trying to be nice.”
“Maybe he wants to see you,” she countered.
He laughed again. “So you think I should go.”
“Absolutely! The chance to hang out with your brother, eat some amazing food, and get away for a few days? Um, yes, Christian. This is kind of a no-brainer.”
“Maybe for you,” he murmured.
“For most people,” she said, doing her best to sound at least a little firm.
He came to his feet and straightened his sleeves, refastened his cuffs. “Enough about me, how’s your day going?”
“Can’t complain, Boss,” she said with a sassy grin. Actually, calling him boss was nothing more than a reminder to herself to keep things professional. Touching Christian—even in a professional way for medical reasons—had her own pulse skittering all over the place. That was something that had never happened to her before—and certainly never with a patient.
“You know I’m not really your boss, right?” he asked, stepping in closer. The grin on his face told her he knew exactly what he was doing. He was teasing her—something he seemed to enjoy doing. And she had to admit, she enjoyed it just a little bit too.
“Are you the head of this company?” she asked, trying to keep a straight face.
“I am.” He took another step closer.
“Well, then…”
Christian was right behind her when she turned again. Her soft gasp of surprise seemed to please him.
One More Moment Page 38
