"I'm not," he countered.
He was so bold and confident with his approach, I couldn't help but smile like a timid schoolgirl. He shot me a soft smile and continued to walk closely next to me.
Ryder was almost completely off my mind until, Jace said, "What color suit should we get Ryder?"
Fuck! Why'd he have to bring him up?
"Maybe navy blue?"
"Yeah, I like navy blue. It's a strong color," he said as we walked through the sliding glass door entrance to the building.
Chapter Eight
RYDER
I sat back in my chair just staring out the window, still annoyed as hell from the morning and the car ride, when a knock filtered through the door.
"Yes?"
"Can I come in?" Summer called out.
I sat up in my chair and ran my fingers through my hair. "Yeah."
The door creaked open, and Summer slipped in wearing her usual tight outfit and a rather unusual smile.
"What is it?"
"Your wish is granted."
"Huh?"
"I found another girl who is actually willing to work for you."
My stomach churned—not the response I thought I'd have when I heard I could replace Hannah. "A replacement?"
"Yes."
"Well, how do we know she's qualified?"
"She's been a personal assistant for years, and really it's not rocket science."
"Why isn't she working for the last person? Is she a thief or something? Maybe you should run another background check. You know—an extensive one. Those take long, right?"
She smiled. "Well, if I didn’t know better, and I do—I'd think you wanna keep Hannah around."
"What? No!"
"Yes."
"It's not that, I just get—" I paused, trying to find something plausible to say. "—I just hate breaking in someone new."
"You like her. I never thought I'd see the day that some woman actually made you nervous."
"What are you talking about? I'm not nervous."
"Prove it. Hire the new assistant, and let Hannah go."
"Let Hannah go?" I echoed under my breath.
"Yes. That is, if you can."
"Of course I can. Go ahead and hire the new girl."
She turned and headed for the door. "Okay, I'll hire the new girl and give Hannah a pink slip."
"No!"
She whipped around. "What?"
"I'll take care of Hannah."
She smiled. "I'm sure you will."
My lips tightened. "You're crossing the line, Summer. Get the hell out of my office."
"Whatever you say, Tiger." She chuckled, closing the door behind her.
Fuck!
I leaned back in my chair, rubbing the scruff on the side of my face.
Fire Hannah. Fire Hannah.
The words rolled around in my mind. Why was I dragging my feet to do something I couldn’t wait to do just a day earlier? Needing some advice, I reached for the phone to call Regan, but then I realized he would only urge me to throw caution to the wind and marry Hannah.
He'd gone crazy about love ever since he hooked up with Cher, and I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted him to agree with me, and support me in my decision to let Hannah go, but I knew he was going to say the exact opposite.
I sat back and let out a deep sigh when another knock came from the door.
"Yes?"
Summer pushed the door open and stood next to it. From the hall, a tall, slender woman walked in. Her long, brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her outfit resembled Summer's—tight, provocative, but professional.
"This is, CJ," Summer said from the door.
"CJ?" I asked as I stood from my seat.
"Yes, short for Christine Jalili."
"Got it. Well, it's lovely either way, but if you prefer CJ—"
"I do," she interrupted, holding out her hand for me to shake.
"When can you start?"
"Right now." She smiled, flashing her perfectly straight, white teeth at me.
"Oh."
"Is that going to be a problem? Summer said—"
"No, not a problem. You can definitely start now."
Summer chimed in as she walked out of the room, "I'll let you two get to know each other."
CJ turned around and waved at her. "Bye, Summer."
"Yeah, bye, Summer," I said with a little snarkiness in my tone as she shot me a wink before shutting the door.
CJ turned around and rested her hands on her hips. "Okay, where should we start?"
I looked over my desk, wondering what menial task I should give her since I really didn’t have anything for her to do.
"Maybe you can organize my desk?"
"I can do that," she said, walking around the desk to get started.
She stopped and looked at me as I awkwardly looked back until I realized she needed me to move in order to get started. "Oh, I'm sorry," I said, backing away.
"Oh, goodness, no worries at all."
I moved toward the window, glancing over my shoulder to catch a glimpse of her one last time. She was beautiful, and in another world I would've already been prepping her for a long night at my apartment, but I didn’t have time to ponder all the different ways I could lay into CJ, since all I could think of was how I would explain her presence to Hannah—worried about how she was going to react. What the fuck was wrong with me? I hated the knots tightening in my stomach, and the increasing anxiety swirling above my head, starting to give me a headache.
Is this the shit women went through? Fuck.
The sun had started to move toward the east, and I began to wonder why I hadn’t heard from Hannah. Hopefully, she wasn't giving Jace too much shit. She was a little spitfire, after all.
HANNAH
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE MALL…
"So, these are the suits you want to buy him?"
"I think so. I just don’t know how they're gonna look on him."
Jace looked down at the finely tailored material, pulling out the tag to check the size. "Well, he's my size. Would you like me to try them on so you can get an idea of how they'd look on him?"
"I couldn't ask you to do that."
He smiled. "I'm offering."
I didn’t want to give Ryder another reason to be upset with me, and picking out the wrong suit would definitely piss him off. "Okay, just one or two."
He smiled and called for a store attendant to come over.
"Yes, sir?" the attendant asked promptly.
"I'd like a room to try these suits on."
"Yes, sir." The woman took the clothes from my hand, then turned and walked to the back of the store.
Jace turned back to me. "Wait here for me?" he asked so tenderly.
His words could have floated in on a soft breeze from the ocean as we stood on a pier waiting for him to ship off to war—it was that romantic. I couldn’t feel my feet or the ground underneath them. I had to admit, it was nice to encounter the sweet side of a man, for however brief a time. "I'll wait for you."
He moved his hand toward mine, giving my finger a slight tap with his. I turned away from him, looking about the room like a caged animal. No matter how endearing Jace was, I couldn’t deny the feelings I'd always harbored for Ryder and the electricity I felt when I touched him just couldn't compare.
"Everything okay?" Jace asked, laying his hand on my shoulder.
I glanced down at his strong hand. "Yeah, everything is good. I'll be right here when you get back."
"Okay."
He walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Why'd I take the damn job? I loved Ryder. I knew I loved him. Taking the job was just a recipe for disaster, and this was turning into a disaster. He was mad—shit, I was mad, and now Jace was starting to step over a line he didn’t even know was there.
"What do you think?" Jace asked from behind.
I spun around ready to tell him I wasn’t interested when I was thrown in a moment of awe. He was so ha
ndsome dressed in the navy blue suit meant for Ryder. "Wow."
"You like it?"
Impetuously I replied, "I love it."
"You think I should buy one for myself?"
"You should totally buy one. It really suits you."
"Well, the next time I have a thousand dollars lying around, I'll be sure and grab one." He winked before turning back to the dressing room.
I shot him a smile in return, which quickly faded. This wasn't going to end well—I just knew it. I pulled out my phone to check if Ryder had texted, but he hadn’t. He was truly trying to play the game to the fullest, and it was really starting to piss me off.
"Do you think we should keep shopping for him?"
I looked up from my phone. "You know what—I think we should spend the rest of the day shopping."
He smiled, handing the sales clerk the suit he'd just taken off. "You're the boss."
Slapping my phone against my palm, I followed him to the register. "No, I'm not," I muttered under my breath.
He glanced over his shoulder. "Did you say something?"
I stopped in my tracks. "No, no, I didn't say anything…"
Chapter Nine
RYDER
"Mr. Thorne, sir, how would you like your coffee?"
I smiled. "Thank you for asking. I hate when people assume."
"It's not my job to assume, sir."
I nodded. "I like that."
A girlish smile washed over her face, and a slight blush of red tinged her cheeks. Fuck, I needed to rein in the charm. The last thing I needed was to blur any lines with her. My life was already complicated enough, and I didn’t need to wreak any more havoc.
"Black," I replied."
She walked out, and Summer walked in. "Hey."
"Hey yourself," I growled.
"Are you mad at me?"
I waited for the door to close behind CJ. "You brought her here," I whispered.
"Her? Her who?"
"CJ."
"You wanted a new assistant. You wanted to get rid of Hannah—remember?"
"I know what I wanted—I know what I told you."
"Then what's the problem?"
"Fuck. I dunno!"
"You do know."
"Why does this shit have to be so fucking difficult?"
She planted her hands at the edge of my desk and leaned forward. "Matters of the heart usually are."
Heat washed over my body like a wave crashing against rocks. "Stop it."
"Stop what?"
"Saying shit like heart—girly shit."
She pushed herself off the desk and backed away, grinning from ear to ear, but before she could say anything else, a knock sounded from the door.
"Yes!" I barked.
"It's me, Mr. Thorne," CJ's meek voice filtered in.
My brow furrowed, shooting a hard stare at Summer. Shrugging her shoulders, she winked then turned, opening the door for CJ.
"Come in, he's ready for you," Summer gloated.
CJ walked in, holding a cup of coffee. "Oh, okay," she replied a tad bewildered.
Summer closed the door behind her as CJ proceeded to the desk, holding out the cup to hand to me. "Here's your coffee, Mr. Thorne."
I held out my hand but pulled it back in when I got a text. It was from Jace, telling me they were on their way back.
Fuck.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Nothing. It's nothing. Do you think you could take the rest of the day off? With pay of course."
Hesitant, she asked, "Did I do something wrong?"
"Wrong? No, I just have a few personal things I need to take care of, and I'd rather do them without an audience."
She tapped her finger against the steaming mug. "Of course. Tomorrow then?"
"Yes, tomorrow."
She set the cup down and waved at me as she headed for the door. I responded with an obligatory smile and a half-assed wave.
What the fuck am I gonna do? Regan won't be any fuckin' help either.
I could just hear him gloating about how I had finally figured out I had feelings for Hannah, and how I should just pop the question. What the hell? Like we didn’t need to know each other, go out, live together possibly—that's when it hit me. We had done all of those things and got along perfectly. It was only when my fear got the best of me was when things went to shit.
I slammed my palm on the desk. "Fuck me!"
Life had been so simple only a few days before, and now it wasn't. I could fire Hannah, and make life simple again, but this time it was different. I knew things I didn’t know the last time—things that everyone around me seemed to already know.
What am I gonna do?
JACE
"Let me get the door for you."
"No, I'm a big girl, really."
"I can see, but I'm also a gentleman, and your driver, so I'm doubly obligated."
"Well, since you're doubly obligated." She chuckled, sitting back in her seat.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her sweet face, and although I had a personal rule about dating coworkers, there was just something about her I couldn’t shake. It's like she didn’t need me to fawn all over her, and I liked that—I liked her.
I hurried around the car to her the passenger side door and pulled the door open. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes, and I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. I must've looked like a fool, but at the moment I didn’t really care.
"What are you smiling for?" she asked as she stepped out of the car.
"Can't a guy smile?"
"I've never known one to smile without an ulterior motive."
"What kind of animals do you know?" I asked, closing the door behind her as she adjusted her outfit.
"Ryder—Mr. Thorne I mean."
I chuckled. "Mr. Thorne is a great guy, but why do you say he has an ulterior motive?"
"Oh, nothing. I knew him in a past life that's all."
"What kind of life? You don’t strike me as Mr. Thorne's type."
Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not good enough for Mr. Thorne, is that it? Why, because I'm not scantily clad at eleven in the morning, or look like I've had more surgery than Anna Nicole?"
I waved my hands in surrender. "No, that's not it at all. I meant to say that you are too graceful for him."
She shrank back, setting her gaze to the concrete. "I shouldn’t have said that," I tried to apologize.
"Let's pretend you didn’t."
"But, I'm not good at pretending." She glanced up at me.
"Neither am I."
I don’t know if it was wishful thinking, but I was hoping her coyness was some sort of invitation to ask her out. She pulled her phone out, then slid it back into her pocket.
"Someone important?"
"Just wondering why Ryder—I mean—Mr. Thorne hasn't texted yet."
"Probably busy. You know him. No time for anything."
"Don't I know it," she muttered under her breath.
"You really have to tell me one day why you hate him so much, and why you decided to work for him anyway."
"Easy—rent."
"You hate him because of rent?"
"No, I work for him because I need to pay my rent."
I grabbed the bags from the day's shopping excursion from the trunk and stood next to her. "Ready?"
"Oh, I can take these in."
"My mother would have my head if she knew I let a lady carry her own bags."
She chuckled. "Well, I wouldn’t want your mother to do anything to that head of yours."
I held out one hand, motioning for the entrance. "After you, madam."
"Why thank you, sir."
We both strolled into the building, and I must admit I had an air of confidence around me with her by my side that I didn’t have when I woke up that morning. We made it through the lobby and into the elevator, where we had to shove our way in through a hoard of black suits and bone straight pencil skirts just to take the last remaining square footage in the small eleva
tor car.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t stand together. Hannah was shoved to the back corner, and I found a spot standing in front of the elevator buttons facing the back of the car. It wasn't such a bad position, as I could still keep my eyes on her as the car started its ascent.
As we stopped at floor after floor, the occupants slowing trickled out, relieving the cramped space, and allowing me to edge closer to Hannah. Finally, as I was able to take my place right next to her, the door dinged open.
"We're here," she blurted out, walking out the door before me.
Yeah, here.
I shook my head as I followed, holding Mr. Thorne's bags in tow. This was it, my last chance alone with her until who knew when. I was gonna go for it. Setting down the bags, I laid my hand on her shoulder, gently pulling her back.
"Hannah, I was wondering if—"
Her eyes widened. "Yes?"
"If you'd like to…"
RYDER
I walked out of my office with a knot in my stomach, ready to tell Summer that CJ couldn't come back. But I stopped in my tracks when I saw Jace with his grubby little hand on Hannah's shoulder.
The sudden anger in me whipped through the hallway like a dragon's tail, trying to smash its foe. What the fuck was he doing with my girl? That ungrateful son of a bitch.
If looks could kill, Jace would have been dead on his feet in two seconds flat.
"Jace, what are you doing up here?" I asked, walking toward the two. "Get back down to the car."
He turned to me, pulling his hand off Hannah's shoulder. "Sir, yes, sir."
"That's what I thought," I said, finally reaching the two.
"I'll see you later, Hannah," Jace said as he backed away.
"Don't be so sure," I huffed.
Hannah turned to me—her eyes glaring like the midday sun. "How dare you treat him that way," she said in a low voice.
"How dare I? How dare I? I leave you alone for two seconds, and you can't keep from flirting with my driver?"
"How do you know I was flirting? And why do you even care?"
Summer walked into the inferno billowing around us. "Can we keep it down in here? This is an office building, not a goddam MMA arena."
Tempt Me: A Second Chance Billionaire Romance (Me Series Book 2) Page 6