by Timms, Lexy
“Guess so,” I agreed. “But I went through the whole grieving process. Anger and all. I didn’t have a company to focus on.” I paused. “But I do have a brother, and I guess that helped.”
Daniel nodded at me. “I’m an only child,” he told me. “You’re lucky to have family.” For a moment, there was a wistful look to his eyes. It made me want to ask a dozen questions about where he saw himself in the future. Would he ever settle down and get married? Have kids?
But that was none of my business. And besides, asking whether he would ever settle down would mean admitting that I did know something of what the paparazzi said about him. I liked him thinking that I only knew about the business side of things and didn’t waste time on the gossip about him.
I didn’t know why that mattered to me. I would have had to live under a rock to ignore all the silly stories about him that were printed in the papers and online blogs, and surely he knew that.
The moment passed, fortunately. We finished our beers, and Daniel nodded at me. “I need you in early again tomorrow, if that’s okay,” he said. “We’ve got another busy day of meetings, and I also have a couple things about the company that I’d like to go over with you. I know you’ve done your research already, but this is insider information. You know, our current projects and that sort of thing.”
I nodded right back at him. “You’re the boss,” I reminded him. I was excited that he wanted to let me in on some of the current company projects. That was a good sign, wasn’t it? He wouldn’t share all that with me if he wasn’t planning on keeping me around.
I hadn’t realized that I was so worried about the probationary part of his job offer, but with the idea that he wanted to train me up and keep me around, I felt I could breathe a little easier.
Daniel drummed his fingers on the table. “I’d have another drink, but there are a few things I want to finish up tonight when I get home. Work things.”
“Sure,” I said easily, mentally filing that knowledge away. So Daniel’s workday wasn’t just finished because everyone had gone home from the office. Interesting. It made me wonder just how many hours he spent holed up at home doing work.
It also made me try to picture what he looked like there. I had never seen him in anything other than a suit, not even in the tabloids. Well, except for that picture where he’d been bare-chested, but even then, he’d been wearing his slacks, his thumbs hooked in his pockets. What would he wear in the privacy of his home, though? Sweatpants? I tried to picture him lounging on a couch, even an expensive couch, but I couldn’t imagine it.
“Let me get you a cab,” Daniel said as we headed out to the sidewalk.
“Thanks,” I said, watching him as he easily hailed a cab. It pulled up to the curb, and Daniel leaned in the passenger-side window so he could pay the cabbie in advance. “You didn’t have to do that,” I said, but I smiled at him. Was this how he treated every woman he knew? Or all of his new employees?
I could tell, even after one day, that the other people working for McGregor Enterprises were all totally loyal to Daniel. It made me feel pretty certain that this was ordinary behavior for him. Why wasn’t this the kind of thing that the tabloids focused on? Daniel as CEO was a pretty nice guy.
But of course, nice guys weren’t what sold magazines.
“See you tomorrow,” I said as I slipped into the cab.
“See you tomorrow,” Daniel echoed, shutting the door carefully behind me.
I gave the cabbie my address. As the cab made its way down the street, I couldn’t help looking back to see Daniel. He was standing there on the curb watching after me, a slight frown drawing his brows together as though he was thinking hard. For a moment, I imagined that our eyes met. But he probably couldn’t actually see into the interior of the cab, I reminded myself.
After a moment, the cab turned a corner, and Daniel disappeared from view. I sat back in my seat, heaving a heavy sigh. This might be more complicated than I had expected, for reasons I could never have anticipated. But all the same, I couldn’t deny how excited I was to really get to work with Daniel by my side.
Chapter 11
Daniel
I SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS and locked the door as I left the office on Friday evening. Everyone else had already gone home. Abby had lingered, asking me three times if I was sure that I didn’t need anything else from her. I had assured her that I didn’t, that I had everything under control. Finally, I had actually ordered her to head home for the day.
I didn’t want to admit how badly she distracted me. I knew it wasn’t her fault. No, it was my own fault, for picturing what it would be like to slip that loose red top off to the side and kiss the smooth skin of that bare shoulder. My fault for wanting to lock her there in the office with me, press her up against the wall and have my way with her.
Her second day of work had gone well. She was quick on her feet, and I could tell that she was already learning my values as a CEO. She wasn’t just telling me what actions she thought I should or should not take; she was fitting those actions into the broad picture of the company and deciding what would be best for everyone.
I was really glad that Erin had talked me into going through with her interview, when I’d thought about just canceling the whole thing.
Of course, she didn’t know the company as well as Gerrard had. The man had worked here for almost as long as Abby had been alive, so there was no faulting Abby for making a few mistakes and miscalculations. But she had proven that she was eager to learn and eager to improve, and I appreciated that.
I just had to keep my feelings out of things.
I headed to a nearby restaurant to meet Austin for dinner. He had been my best friend growing up, and he had spent a lot of time at our house through high school and college so that he wouldn’t have to go home to the fucked-up situation that was his own family life. Now, he had his own start-up company and worked in an office building right around the corner from McGregor Enterprises, so we met up pretty regularly for drinks or dinner.
“I’m starving,” I announced, dropping into a seat across from Austin.
“Already ordered appetizers” was the response.
“You’re a fucking hero,” I told him, and Austin grinned at me.
“Still working yourself into an early grave?” Austin joked, making a show of glancing at his watch. He clucked his tongue. “Seven p.m. on a Friday night, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
I sighed and shook my head. “It’s been a long week,” I admitted. “I’ve been busy.” Because I’d had all those interviews early in the week, I had gotten behind on everything early on, and it had taken a bit of work to get caught up again. Again, there was no rest for the wicked, or the CEO.
“Yeah, how are things going?” Austin asked. “You find a replacement for your advisor?”
“I did, actually,” I told him. “At least, I’ve found someone that I was willing to give a try-out to. But she’s doing a pretty good job.” I wrinkled my nose. “She apparently studied me in college, though. How weird is that?”
Austin laughed. “You must be getting old, man,” he said. “But she? You hire some sexy pair of legs that you can bend over your desk every time no one’s looking?”
I rolled my eyes. Of course that was what he would latch onto. “It’s not like that,” I insisted. “I mean, she’s cute and all, but she’s my employee. I would never go there.”
“Never?” Austin asked teasingly. I gave him a look, and he just laughed, holding up both hands. “Just teasing, man. I know the kinds of things the media always says about you, but you know I know you better than all that.” He paused. “What’s she like?” he finally asked, a glint coming into his eyes. “If you’re not into her, maybe I might be.” He grinned at me. “In fact, maybe I’ll find a reason to drop by your office on Monday just to see her.”
“Don’t you dare,” I told him, but I couldn’t help snorting with amusement at the idea of it. I didn’t like the idea of Austin going anywhere nea
r Abby, admittedly. I felt inexplicably jealous, even though I didn’t even know if he was Abby’s type. And it wasn’t like I could claim her as my own.
A broad grin broke out on Austin’s face, though. “You’re totally into her, aren’t you?” he asked me. He held up both hands as I started to protest. “I get it—you’re never going to go there because you’re the boss and whatever. But you’re totally into her.”
I shook my head, but I knew that any denial I made would only make him more sure that I was interested in Abby. “So how’s your work coming anyway?” I asked, trying to change the subject. And aware of just how guilty that made me sound as well.
Sure enough, Austin continued to grin at me, but he didn’t press it. “Things are going well,” he told me. His start-up company helped young entrepreneurs market their businesses, and I knew that he viewed it as his way of giving back to the community. If it hadn’t been for my father, Austin might never have a chance at starting a business of his own. He’d grown up on the wrong side of the tracks, and it would have been just as easy for him to drop out of high school and really fucked up his life.
As Austin told me about his latest triumphs with his business, I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Abby the previous evening. I had meant it when I told her that I hadn’t really had a chance to properly mourn for my father. Sometimes, I thought my father’s death had hit Austin harder than it hit me. Of course, Austin was practically a brother to me, and my father had been the father figure he had never had. But it went beyond that.
Sometimes, I had to wonder whether everything that the tabloids said about me was correct. Maybe I really was heartless and only focused on what was best for the bottom line, and for myself, at the expense of everything else. Maybe I really shouldn’t have all these lives in my hands.
But I had a feeling that Abby would have called me on it if that was the case. Instead, all of the things she had suggested for McGregor Enterprises made it clear that she could tell I cared for the people more than for the business side of things. Or was it just that that was what she believed in?
“You okay?” Austin asked suddenly, and I became aware of the fact that I was frowning. Not only that, but I had barely been listening to him.
I shook my head, feeling guilty. “Sorry,” I told him. “I was just thinking.”
Austin snorted. “You’re going to go home and work tonight, aren’t you?” he said.
“I might,” I admitted. “I have a few more things I was hoping to get done leading into the weekend.”
Austin shook his head. “I swear you’ve become even more of a workaholic since I moved out of your place and into my apartment,” he said. “I didn’t even think that that was possible.”
I grimaced but didn’t comment on that. It was true, though, I reflected as I came back home that evening. But what else was I supposed to do? Every time I came back to the family estate, this massive mansion I had grown up in, I was forced to confront those waves of loneliness that had been bothering me lately.
I could hear the echo of my footsteps as I walked through the front hall. Even after I toed off my shoes, the padding of my bare feet along the tiles seemed unnaturally loud in the stillness of the place. But it was always like this. The housekeeper and the cook and the gardener I had on staff, they all came during the day, while I was at work. In the evenings, it was just me. I never even brought women back here, because that was the last thing I wanted to deal with.
I paused in the doorway of my office, which had once been my father’s office. I remembered what Austin had said, about how I had become more of a workaholic since he had moved out. I remembered what Abby had said about having her family to lean on in the wake of her parents’ passing.
Slowly, I pulled the door closed, and rather than trying to do more work, I headed upstairs to bed. I stripped down and slipped between the sheets, automatically groping for the remote. I never even watched anything on the TV in the bedroom, but tonight, the silence was deafening.
I put on a random channel and rolled over, trying my best to sleep.
Chapter 12
Abby
MATT HANDED ME A GLASS of wine and then dropped into his favorite armchair, the worn old leather one that had been in this living room since we were kids. He sighed dramatically and took a sip of his wine. “That’s better,” he said, winking at me.
I laughed. Leanne was upstairs putting the kids in bed, and the decibel level had gone down noticeably in their absence. “They’re just excited to see you,” I reminded my brother. He had been out of town for the latter half of the week, and they had been all over each other trying to tell their father everything they had done in his absence. You would have thought he had been gone for months, from the way that they were talking. I thought it was adorable, but I also could tell that he hadn’t slept much during his trip and needed a little peace and quiet.
I understood how he felt. Ever since starting work for McGregor Enterprises, I’d been working myself half to death every day, trying to keep up with Daniel.
Oh, he wasn’t a terrible boss. He didn’t make me work as hard as I did. But there was something about watching him work late into the evenings every day that made me want to push myself as well. I didn’t know what I was trying to prove to him. Really, I should have been doing the opposite: advising him to delegate a little more and head home early every once in a while. Or at least head home before it got fully dark outside.
I had to admit, though, I liked those late evenings together as we pored over different business plans and proposals. Daniel would sometimes order in food, and we would sit there mostly in silence, just reading through the paperwork. It was comfortable. I was getting more used to his presence; it was no longer quite so intimidating.
Of course, the more I knew about him, the more I realized that I actually liked him. He was smart, witty, and more attractive than any guy had any right to be. It wasn’t just that, though. He was a nice guy. I realized it more and more. He cared about his employees, and he cared about the guys that he did business with. He knew them all by name, and he knew about their wives, their kids, and everything else.
I was impressed by it, to be honest. I had read through some of the stuff about him online, even though I knew it was all garbage. And sure enough, all any of the paparazzi seemed to think was that he cared only for himself and only for the next great fuck. That just wasn’t the guy I was working with, though, I was sure of it.
“How’s that new job of yours going, anyway?” Matt asked, as though he could sense the direction that my thoughts had drifted to.
“It’s good,” I told him honestly. “I like the work. It’s challenging, but I think it’s a good position for me. And I’m making some good connections.”
Matt raised an eyebrow at me. “You thinking about quitting already?” he asked.
I laughed and shook my head. “Nah, not just yet,” I told him. “I have a lot more to learn before I quit. I think there’s a lot that I can learn from Daniel. But eventually—well, he’s the CEO, and I’m not about to take over his company, but that’s the position that I want.”
Matt laughed. “I know it is,” he said. But there was something in his eyes as he said it that let me know he was carefully choosing his next words. “I just wonder if it’s such a good idea, you spending so much time with Daniel McGregor.”
I stared at him for a moment. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I finally asked. I couldn’t help how flat my voice became.
Matt held up both hands. “I just did a little reading up on the guy, that’s all. He doesn’t sound like the greatest guy.”
“He’s one of the greatest businessmen of our time,” I said.
Matt gave me a look. “You know that’s not what I’m talking about,” he said. “Sounds like the guy is quite the player. I’m not sure he’s the best guy for you to be involved with.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not involved with him,” I reminded my brother. “He’s my b
oss, not my boyfriend.”
“I know, I know,” Matt said. “And if he was your boyfriend, we’d be having a totally different conversation. But even as your boss, you have to remember that you’re going to be judged on your relationship with him in the future, when you do go to apply for a job at a different company. He might be one of the brightest businessmen you’ve ever met, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is going to think just about the business side of things when they’re hiring. Especially not when the guy is in the paper every week with a new woman on his arm. Did you see the latest one?”
I had. Daniel and I had worked late the previous night, but somehow after I left, he found the energy to go out to one of the hottest new clubs in the city. There had been photos all over the tabloids that morning of him dancing with a couple of hot blondes and rumors that he had a new girlfriend.
It was none of my business, so I hadn’t asked him about it. Honestly, it would probably be better if he did have a girlfriend; maybe it would make it even easier for me to forget about how sexy he was if I knew that he was really off-limits, and not just because he and I worked together.
No, I hadn’t asked him about any of it, even though seeing those pictures made jealousy flare in the pit of my stomach.
“Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying,” Matt said. “I know how badly you want to make a career in business, and I would hate for anyone to not hire you because they thought this guy Daniel had hired you for the wrong reasons.”
I couldn’t be angry at Matt for wanting to look out for me. And I knew just as well as he did that there were possible repercussions to my working so closely with Daniel. It would be so easy for the press to find out about those late nights alone in the office together and spin it into something it wasn’t. But Daniel and I were both careful about it, and anyway, his reputation in the business world outshone his reputation with women, at least as far as other businessmen were concerned.