My stomach twisted, and my heart rate quickened at his words. I didn’t know whether it was the certainty of his voice, the fact that he was wearing a suit, or the look of confidence spearing from his gaze, but suddenly it made me forget everything and for a brief moment, in the middle of the boardroom, I was just a girl who had the attention of a guy who seemed so out of her league.
I suddenly felt something I hadn’t felt in years.
Alive.
Opening the door and finding Angela laying into Eden had pissed me off. When would this woman realize that I wanted nothing to do with her outside of our professional relationship? It was pretty obvious that I didn’t want anything to do with any woman besides Eden. Yesterday I had come into the office with Josh and for some reason Angela had been there; she had interrupted Josh and me as we were talking about Eden. Well, Josh was trying desperately to get information out of me regarding Eden. I knew by the time I arrived that morning that word would have gotten around the office, but I certainly didn’t expect that the two of us would already be the office gossip.
That also pissed me off.
It was a fan-fucking-tastic start to the week.
“Come with me,” I grated out and headed toward the door. Of course she followed without consideration.
We walked side by side through the open office space, her heels clicking against the polished floor, which caused heads to look up. Angela stood by the desk of the biggest gossip in the office and both of their mouths hung open as Eden and I passed. I shot Angela a glare in silent warning, and she hastily turned away and pretended to be sorting through paperwork.
“Where are we going?” Eden finally spoke.
“My office.” My response was too short. I was taking out my mood on the wrong person, and I regretted it immediately.
She remained silent and once we reached my corner office, I held open my door and she walked through; I closed the door behind us even though I knew that would only fuel the office gossip even more.
“Have a seat,” I requested in a monotone, motioning to the seat opposite my desk.
She quickly fell into the seat, her laptop bag dropping beside her. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. I can leave. It would probably be best for me to leave.” She pushed back her seat and went to stand, but she froze when I spoke.
“Did I say I wanted you to leave? Sit down Eden.”
She nodded and pulled the seat back toward the desk. Her eyes glistened as she dropped back down in it. I inhaled sharply and rubbed my fingertips to my temples. This could be the perfect time to tell her that my stupid proposition was a mistake and that we could just see each other when required for the job. I could slip back into simply being the guy who signed her paycheck.
This was completely fucking with my mind, and I was a loose cannon at the best of times, but now I was afraid that I would implode or worse yet explode in front of the wrong person.
Once I opened my eyes, I took a moment to bask in her beauty. After our day at the park and then night at the movies I had left her and went back to my apartment and tried to comprehend what had actually happened. I still felt the heat of her hand in mine, the sound of her laughter in my ears, but I also remembered the look that would float over her face at random times during the night. It was almost like the longer she was out, the more uncomfortable she became. I didn’t like to think it, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was pretending the whole time.
It killed me not speak with her yesterday, but I knew I had to approach this with kid gloves. I couldn’t scare her off with my intense motives, and I knew the longer I spent with her the more I was losing my battle to restrain myself.
“Look I’m sorry. I’m not pissed off at you, I am pissed off that Angela would say something like that. Whatever we are doing is no one else’s business. Fuck, I don’t even know what we are doing.” I raked my hand through my hair, frustration was a bitch of a thing and it was penetrating to my very core. Eden sat frozen to the spot, looking back at me with wide shocked eyes. I was failing miserably on the whole intense motives factor so I thought why the hell not, let’s just go full balls to the wall and deal with the consequences later. “Did you actually enjoy the other day and night because I did and I may have said that I wouldn’t fuck you, but Jesus, Eden, it would be a lie if I said I didn’t want to kiss those perfect lips again. That’s what I am fighting with at the moment, so no I do not want you to leave. I want you to stick around so you can continue to torment me.”
The intensity in the room went from zero to a billion after my little display. Our eyes connected as I opened my laptop. Eden didn’t look frightened, if anything she looked intrigued, and the sweetest flush graced her cheeks. I had asked Josh to bring her here to discuss work, but now all I had done was bring our personal life into my professional space.
“We need to discuss where you will be working and sort out a schedule. There is space here if you want to work from here or we can look at somewhere else. You have a lot of work in front of you, and I want to be able to give you what you need.”
Fuck me. If that wasn’t a sexual innuendo I didn’t know what was.
Her sharp inhale of breath wasn’t lost on me; it shot straight through my pants and began massaging my cock. Josh’s warnings rang through my ears, and I knew I was treading in dangerous territory. All I had to do was ask one question—make an asshole move then ask her a question she wouldn’t be able to refuse. She couldn’t refuse. While her bright blue depths stared at me, I got lost under her gaze while scenario after scenario flashed before me.
“You confuse me Eden.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Her gaze didn’t drop, she showed a confidence that I knew was in there but which she had hidden away from the world. Could it be true that slowly she was beginning to find the courage to stand up to me?
“You say yes without considering the consequences, which scares the fuck out of me; you do whatever I ask without question; there are times when I see this sassy confident girl who wants to come to life, but in the next breath she is lost to a girl who is scared at the thought of a guy touching her.”
“I can’t help who I am Ky. It’s just me.”
“Well I have a month Eden, and I am going to find that sassy confident girl and bring her out because she deserves to be seen. I will touch you; that is as guaranteed as the air you breathe.”
“You said you wouldn’t fuck me,” she said, panic roaring within her words as she stood up and gathered her belongings.
“There is a big difference between fucking and touching Eden.”
And then she left.
••••
It had been two days since my immature outburst with Eden. Two days of working obsessively, two days without sleep, two days of annihilating myself at the gym until I fell into a pit of pure exhaustion.
I had finally been convinced to leave the office and I was sitting in the diner with Ashlyn and Josh.
“You look like shit,” my ever so honest brother decided to announce.
“You do realize you are an asshole right?” I shot a laugh and rolled my eyes.
Aunt Carole headed toward us with concern flashing over her face, and she directed it squarely on me. Unease confronted me and I narrowed my eyes awaiting her words.
“Eden is outside getting harassed by Chris.”
My body flew out of the booth, and I felt like my feet didn’t even touch the ground. When the fuck would he get the point? I didn’t want to discern why he was hanging around. I hit the sidewalk and standing near the entrance was a fearful looking Eden being spoken to by Chris fucking Edwards. I rushed at neck breaking speed with one thing in mind—Eden’s safety.
I gripped hold of the back of his shirt, pulling him away from a trembling Eden and slammed him against the brick wall.