Personal Trainer

by Mia Carson

  Belle turned when the guys let out a boo as one of them dropped the hacky sack. She was really going to love working here. Everyone had their own space, and Kelly pointed out the section of the floor designated for the designers. Hammocks hung from the ceiling, couches were placed around the room, giant pillows on the floor, and pictures and models of designs everywhere. She spotted Tim chatting with someone, and he waved at Belle as they passed. Kelly told her the conference rooms were all on the next floor up and she didn’t even know why they had them.

  “Greyson enjoys calling meetings in the middle of the floor and letting everyone do a free-for-all. There’s a projector hanging from the ceiling over there,” she said, nodding her head. “I hope you weren’t looking for a typical work environment.”

  Belle’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and her heart fluttered. Finally, she’d found a place she’d be able to fit in and be herself. “No,” she said, “no, this is perfect.”

  She’d always been a little odd, seeing things in ways others couldn’t, imagining new worlds and picturing them in her mind. Sketching helped her make it through all the foster homes she’d bounced around in until she was eighteen. When she discovered graphic design and knew she had found what she was meant to do, the competition for jobs was fierce. This was her first real chance to show the world what she could do. Her professors had faith in her. She hoped she wouldn’t lose her nerve and fail. This was her last semester in college, and she needed the internship.

  “Right, here’s Greyson’s office,” Kelly said.

  Belle glanced past her and nodded in approval. “I like his style.”

  The desk was large and black with detailing around the sides of runes and other images from the first game his company created. The walls, like Kelly’s, were covered in posters and pictures of game launches and patches they had released, awards they had won, and too many pictures to even count.

  “He takes care of his employees,” Kelly told her. “That’s one good quality about him.”

  “Does he have any bad ones?” Belle asked.

  Kelly’s hands rested on her hips, and she tilted her head. “Depends on what you consider bad. Looks like he’s running a little behind or he’s downstairs. Here’s your desk, at least. You can get settled in and when he gets here, I’ll fill him in.”

  “What should I do until then?” she asked as she set her bag on the sleek wooden desk that was now hers. Two monitors sat on it along with a keyboard and mouse designed by the company. A printer and fax machine were behind it, as well as several small filing cabinets. There was a phone, in and out paper trays, and a few figurines of the latest characters from the dragon slayer MMO she had played nearly every night for a month when it came out.

  “Get your stuff settled in, and if you have any work you need to do for yourself, have at it,” Kelly said and checked the watch on her wrist. “I’ll see where he is. Sit tight until then.”

  She opened her bag after Kelly walked off and pulled out her laptop. It was the most expensive thing she owned and her prized possession. All of her work was on it, and she quickly hooked it up to the two monitors on the desk to have a go at some of her latest designs, images of a 3D models of scenarios for a game that would probably never see the light of day. If she wanted to catch the eye of a gaming CEO, she needed to show what she could potentially do on her own to prove her value to the company.

  Belle got to work, her hand moving swiftly with the mouse as she became lost in her designs when a deep, growling voice reached her ears. She glanced up, and her mouth fell open before she quickly clamped it shut. Greyson Taylor stalked towards his office with three men trailing behind him, talking furiously and gesticulating wildly with their hands about something. From the stormy look on his face, it wasn’t good.

  “I don’t care what they told you. They’re late, and we need those figures now so we can push forward,” he sighed heavily, his hands on hips hugged by dark denim. His button-down, southwest, black and white patterned shirt left little to the imagination. His broad shoulders and muscled chest were on display.

  Belle lifted a hand to her mouth to check for drool then kicked herself mentally. Now was not the time to lose her cool simply because her new boss was an attractive bear of a man.

  “What should I tell them?” one of the guys asked as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

  “Tell them if I don’t have an answer by the end of this week, I’m going to terminate their contract.”

  All three—who Belle now recognized from the legal team—sucked in an audible gasp. “Are you sure, Grey?”

  “Yes, I’m sure. Go send them the offer again and tell them they have a time limit. We can afford not to take the deal, but they can’t.” The men walked away, muttering to themselves, and Greyson turned. He started when he saw Belle, and his eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

  Belle held out her hand, and he waited a beat before taking it. His swallowed hers, and the warmth sent a shiver down her spine. “Belle Hall, your new personal assistant,” she told him brightly. “Kelly was going to explain, but I guess you missed her.”

  His eyes shot to the monitors, and Belle held her breath when his gaze narrowed. He tilted his head, released her hand, and leaned on the desk to look closer. “Hmm, guess I must’ve,” he muttered and scratched his beard. “Well, do me a favor and grab me a coffee from the break room. When you get back, I’ll have a list of tasks I need completed by the end of the day.”

  Without another word, he stalked into his office and closed the door behind him, leaving Belle to stare at his back. She tapped her fingers on her desk for a second, then set off to find the break room and get him his damn cup of coffee. The break room was on the same floor, at least, with a sign lit up in neon over the door. She walked to the single serve and popped in one of the coffees, set a mug under it, and leaned back against the counter to wait.

  Two women and one man she hadn’t seen yet walked in laughing and headed to the fridge. “Did you hear Stacey left?” the redhead asked with a smirk.

  “What is that? Three this month,” the guy said and shook his head. “If he keeps going through assistants this fast, there’s going to be no one left in Phoenix.”

  Belle turned to grab the coffee mug, eavesdropping as she moved. Three assistants in one month? What’s wrong with the man?

  “Stacey left in the middle of the day, too. Didn’t tell anyone,” the other woman said.

  “I don’t blame her,” the guy said. “I hear a new one started today.”

  “Should we take bets on how long she’ll last?”

  Belle plastered a smile on her face and turned to see them. “I’ll put a hundred on her,” she said confidently. “I say she’ll last longer than a week.”

  The three stared at her then broke out in smiles. “You’re her, aren’t you?” the redhead asked.

  Belle nodded. “I say a month at least. I’ll outlast the others.”

  “Well, alright then,” the guy said. “I feel a pool coming on.”

  Belle gripped the coffee mug tightly in her hand and grinned wider. “I’ll win,” she said and left the break room. The second she was out of sight, she leaned against the closest wall and frowned. She thought this job was going to be her step in the right direction, but if what they said was true, no one lasted with Greyson. “I’ll just have to change that,” she whispered to herself and walked back to his office.

  Wednesday morning, Greyson walked into his office and saw a cup of coffee steaming on his desk, a stack of papers stacked neatly with a post-it on them saying they needed his signature, and another three on his calendar for the day. He set his bag down on the floor and read them all, grinning. Belle was much more organized than the last three women had been, and for the last two days, he had managed to make all his phone calls on time, responded to every e-mail waiting in his inbox, and hadn’t missed a meal.

  He picked up his mug and sipped the coffee as he sifted through the papers on his desk before looking ou
t his door for Belle. The first day they met, she had caught him off-guard with her bright, eager blue eyes and smile that lit up more than just her face. He worried she wouldn’t be tough enough for this job, but so far, she’d held up nicely. And as he spied her walking back across the open office floor, his lips twitched. She was damn nice to watch in her tight jeans, black boots, and clingy sweater. It hung off one shoulder today, and the view of such smooth skin made his hand curl tightly around his mug. Maybe this assistant would be up for a little extra. No woman could resist his charm for long.

  “Belle,” he called out his door. She set a stack of files on her desk and entered his office.

  “Morning, Greyson,” she said with the smile that he realized he wanted to see every morning.

  “What are all these for?” he asked brusquely and tapped the stack. “They just say to sign.”

  “Legal sent them over last night,” she told him and walked over. She leaned over his desk, as he inhaled, the apples and cinnamon scent filling his nose. “Looks like they’re for a deal you made with another company for rights to the new programs you bought from them.”

  He frowned and stared at the papers in her hands. “Right, of course,” he said and cleared his throat.

  She handed them back. “Anything else?”

  “This phone call at ten… Can you push it back for me ‘til noon? I have to talk to the design team, and this one I can’t do until Friday,” he said, pointing to the last post-it on his calendar for the day. “If you have a chance, draft a new proposal for marketing to look over. We need to slow down our releases for news about the new MMO.”

  Her brow furrowed before her smile returned and she nodded. “Problems?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” he said as he sat down with a sigh. “That’s all for now.”

  Again, her brow furrowed and her hands clenched at her sides, but she nodded and left his office, closing the door behind her.

  Greyson grabbed his pen and signed the pages after he read them, set them in his out tray, and brought up the schedule for the new game launch. They had run into another glitch last night, and he needed to have a meeting to find a way around it. The launch date was going to have to be pushed back again.

  He entwined his fingers behind his head, leaning back in his chair. His gaze lingered on the pictures around his office—his first successful game launch and every one since then. At the age of twenty-eight, he’d managed to establish one of the top gaming companies in the industry, and he did it without relying on his wealth. Now, he had a company wealthy enough to recruit some of the best talent across the country, and it was going to keep expanding if they could launch this game before the holidays. It might only be January, but they had months of work still ahead of them.

  Lost in thought, he didn’t realize his eyes lingered on Belle and what he could see of her bare shoulder as he watched her work. She made one call, then another, before turning to her computer. He had seen the designs on her computer. They might’ve been rough around the edges, but the potential in them was apparent. But that was all it was. Potential. For now, he needed her as an assistant and nothing more.

  He grumbled under his breath and picked up his phone. “Tim,” he said when the man answered at the other end. “Can you and Davis get to my office? I want to go over the glitch.”

  “Yes, boss man, be there in two,” he said and hung up.

  Belle pushed back from her desk and walked into his office. “Those papers ready? Legal’s been messaging me for the last ten minutes.”

  “Right there,” he told her and pointed to the out tray.

  She scooped them up and sifted through them, standing barely a foot away from Greyson, and he shifted closer, wanting to push the loose strand of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. He’d been wondering the past few days how he could convince her to go out with him that weekend for drinks, but the words wouldn’t come.

  “Boss,” Tim said loudly as he and Davis entered the office.

  Greyson frowned and pulled away from his musings of Belle—maybe without her clothes, eventually. “Tell me again why there was a glitch? I thought we figured out the design problems a while ago.”

  Tim smiled at Belle as she left, and she waved before he sat down and held up his tablet. “We’re not sure, but I think it’s an error in the optimization somewhere. Must’ve missed it because if we try to run the program, the graphics are blurry as hell and it rubber-bands real bad when you try to move.”

  He pulled it up and Greyson leaned over, scratching his beard. The lagging in the game had been a problem a while ago, jerking the player around, but the rubber-banding that sent them back to another area was new. “Did you ask IT?”

  “They sent us a back a few options to try, but nothing’s working, so it has to be something we did.”

  “Belle!” He glared at the screen as she bustled back in. “Schedule a meeting for this afternoon with everyone. We have a problem.”

  “You have a call at noon,” she reminded him. “Shall I call them and reschedule it or do the meeting afterwards?”

  He debated which would be better and watched as her eyes jumped to the tablet Tim held. She frowned and moved to see it better. “Reschedule,” he ordered, wondering what she was thinking. “That’s all for now.” He dismissed her roughly, and when she lifted her eyes to his, he shifted in his seat at the flare of annoyance before she nodded and left his office, closing the door behind her.

  “What do you know about her?” Greyson asked Tim and Davis.

  “I know she’s studying to be a designer in school,” Tim said. “She’s got some work of her own I’ve seen, and it’s not bad considering she taught herself everything before getting to college.”

  “She showed it to you?”

  “Yesterday. I gave her a few tips, but she’s got some great original work and has a knack for computers, too. She could be more than just a designer,” Tim told him. “Why? Has she not shown you anything yet?”

  “I didn’t ask,” he said, leaving out how he’d already seen some of her work.

  “Why not? You’re always looking for new talent.”

  “I need an assistant right now to keep everything in order, and besides, she’s young,” Greyson said with a shrug. “She’d probably be more of a liability than an asset.”

  “Uh huh,” Tim said. “Just so you know, there’s a pool going around the office.”

  “About Belle?” Greyson asked.

  “Yep, on how long she’ll last as your assistant.” The tone of his voice told Greyson he wasn’t too happy with his boss, but he left it alone. “What do you want me to do with our glitch?”

  “If the graphics are malfunctioning, something wasn’t optimized right,” Greyson agreed quietly, his mind racing about the bet. “See if you can run it again and pinpoint exactly when the game starts to fail. We’ll go from there this afternoon.”

  Tim and Davis nodded and left, deep in conversation about options for optimizing the graphics again if they were running too high for the intended platform. Greyson rubbed his eyes and stared at the coffee mug in his hand. Cold.

  “Belle, when you have a second, another cup of coffee would be great,” he said sweetly into the intercom on his desk.

  “Sure thing,” she said. A few seconds later, she returned to his office. “Anything else?”

  Her tone was more snappish than usual, so he shook his head. “No, that’s all for now.”

  He watched her leave, gripping his mug so hard his knuckles were white and muttering under his breath. He considered following her, maybe finding his chance to make a move, but an IM showed up on his computer and he groaned. Time to focus on his work and worry about women later.

  By the end of the day, Greyson and his team were no closer to figuring out the problem, and he insisted everyone go home before they ruptured their brains trying to find the issue. Tim was beside himself, and Greyson patted him on the shoulder. This was his baby, after all, and he kne
w the man wanted to get it off the ground.

  “It’ll be there in the morning,” Greyson told him firmly. “Get some sleep and start fresh.”

  “We’ll have to push back development again,” he groaned. “We can’t even get the startup screen to run properly now.”

  “The morning, Tim,” Greyson repeated. “Night everyone.”

  He waved as they told him goodnight, too, and walked to gather his things from his office. He saw Belle at the bus stop across the street. The streetlight close by lit the corner block, but he didn’t like her being out there alone at night, waiting for the bus. He quickly grabbed the rest of his papers and haphazardly shoved them into his bag. This might be the chance he was looking for.

  Once inside his new, leather-interior, dark blue Mustang, he revved the engine as he pulled out of the parking garage and drove to Belle. “Hey,” he called out the passenger side window, and she jumped. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

  Her jaw clenched. “You didn’t,” she said. “What are you doing?”

  “Offering you a ride. Where do you live?”

  She shook her head. “No thanks, I’m fine with the bus.”

  “Where’s your car? Kelly said she gave you a permit for the garage,” he asked, debating if he should get out and find a better way to convince her.

  “Really, this is fine,” she insisted. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  He gripped the steering wheel, his chances of a possible moment alone with her in his car slipping away. “See you then, I guess,” he muttered and pulled away. He hated leaving her alone, but the glimmer of suspicion in her eyes said she was not the type of woman to get by pushing. He’d just have to try a different approach.

  Chapter 2

  Belle glared at her monitor, frowning. Barely two in the afternoon, and she was done for the day, ready to storm out of the building and not look back. She had taken this job assuming she’d be working with Greyson and his team, not being a lackey and fetching him coffee. She was nothing more than a glorified assistant, and if it wasn’t for the pool on her lasting more than a week, she would’ve quit that morning.