Rushed

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Rushed Page 5

by Nicole Goodin


  The last thing I need is to get involved with another man anyway.

  Evan gave us the access card to explore the other levels on our own. The gym was huge, and there was a lap pool, spa and sauna that all of our employees would have full access to. The conference rooms were sleek and professional and would be great spaces for us to use. The ground level of the building had a delicious looking little café that was also open to the public. It was all amazing.

  We checked in with Reeve, who had no concerns about the agreement. Evan had us complete and sign the paperwork and as soon as the pen left the paper I felt another weight lift off my shoulders. We would be running Rush Communications from these offices and I couldn’t wait to get started.

  ***

  We had been unpacking for the last 2 hours and I was over it.

  Both of our bedrooms had made beds, and boxes everywhere. The living area was about the same. I hadn’t realized just how much stuff we had when we combined it all. Quinn had flopped down on our brown leather couch about 15 minutes ago, put her feet up and started taunting me about Evan.

  “I saw that sly bastard wink at you before we left El. And he checked about 100 times that you had his damn number.” She laughed at me from across the room.

  I picked up a throw pillow and hurled it across the space at her. I nailed her right in the stomach.

  I always was a bloody good shot.

  “Bitch.” Quinn was laughing even harder now. “You should go out with him El, what’s the harm?”

  I put down the box of kitchen stuff that I was unpacking and sat down on the couch with my legs tucked underneath me. “I don’t think so Q. The last thing I need is another man in my life.”

  “Have a bit of fun El, it might just be one dinner. And maybe breakfast.” She laughed and wiggled her eyebrows at me.

  That cow was enjoying this a little too much.

  It earned her another throw pillow, this one right in the face.

  A one-night stand. Me? No bloody way.

  “Not happening Q. I’m not interested in going out with him. And besides, he didn’t actually come out and ask me on a date. He probably just wanted to make sure I was happy with the lease.”

  “Right, uh huh, sure he was sweetheart. You just keep telling yourself that.” Quinn jumped up and headed down the hallway to her bedroom. “Oh and El?” She tossed over her shoulder. “I saw you drooling over him, so you’re not fooling anyone but yourself.”

  Damn Quinn.

  I just wish she wasn’t right.

  “You go out with him if you’re so bloody keen to get the guy a date.” I yelled after her.

  I got no smart reply from Quinn so I decided she must be over messing with me – for now anyway. I had a feeling this would not be the last I would be hearing of Evan Graham.

  We spent the rest of the evening unpacking and eating the Thai takeout that Reeve had brought down around dinnertime. He’d stayed and helped us for a few hours before he headed up to bed, it was Tuesday tomorrow he had to head back in to work. Quinn and I had a lot to do to get the office set up for our start date in less than one week too. We needed to furnish our own offices, brief the relocating staff from our L.A. branch that would be arriving on Wednesday and begin the process of hiring new staff. It was going to be a very long few days.

  ***

  The last few weeks had passed in a blur. It had snowed, and I would have loved to of spent a few days enjoying how absolutely magical it was, but there hadn’t been time for that.

  Quinn and I were completely settled into our new apartment. We had even decided to hire the house cleaner that Reeve used to clean our apartment too, we had been so busy in the office that we just didn’t have time to do it ourselves. I loved to be busy, but I was looking forward to everything settling down with Rush Communications.

  We had hired about 80% of the staff we would eventually need. We had an operational reception, nearly all of our Chief Officers had their own personal assistants and we had taken on a bunch on interns and support staff too.

  My father was the official CEO – but since he would be based in L.A. I would take on the day-to-day responsibilities that his job entailed. I was also the chairperson of the board of directors. Quinn sat on the board of directors also, but her day-to-day role was Chief Technology Officer. She was amazing at her job, and I couldn’t wait to see what she could do here in Boston.

  I had hired a personal assistant after only two interviews. As soon as I’d met Weston I knew he was going to be perfect. I had offered him the job on the spot and he was elated. He had started the next day, and we were already working together as if we had known each other for years. Quinn however, was having a little more trouble. She had been less than impressed with most of the potential candidates, and I was beginning to think that she had the same high standards that she joked about her brother having.

  My father had flown in last week so that he could help me finalize a few of the details, and sit in on a couple of the important interviews. He had seemed impressed with the way I was running the business, and he had told me numerous times how happy he was that I was doing this. It felt amazing to know that he trusted my judgment and business sense.

  I direct dialled Quinn’s office, only three doors down from mine.

  “Quinn Pierce.”

  “Hey Q.”

  “Hey bitch, how’s it going?”

  I laughed at her tone. She sounded exhausted. It was 7.00pm on Friday evening, and I was ready to get the hell out of here.

  “Are you ready to head out? I’m starving and all this paperwork is going way above my head anyway.”

  “I just have to finish up a couple of reports and I’ll have to take them down myself, since I can’t find a fucking decent assistant.” She complained. “Why don’t you head down in about fifteen minutes and bring the Jeep around - I’ll just meet you out front?”

  I tried my hardest to stifle my laugh, but I’m pretty sure Quinn still heard it. “Sure, I’ll have Weston file this stuff and I’ll meet you down there in about 20.”

  “Lucky Bitch.” I heard her mutter before the line went dead. I had to laugh at her. I could see what her problem was, there had been some useless young girls parading in and out of Quinn’s interviews, wearing nowhere near enough clothing, and clearly not having nearly enough brains either. Some hadn’t actually seemed to bad, but I think Quinn was at the point where she was incredibly frustrated and she had begun to nit-pick over details that she normally wouldn’t have even noticed.

  I called Weston into my office. “Could you please file these for me West? And then you can finish up for the weekend.”

  “No problem, are you sure you don’t want me to stay behind and finish up that typing?”

  “God no, it’s late, and you’ve been here for some seriously long hours this week.”

  “You know I don’t mind El, but thanks. Has the ice queen had any luck finding a servant?” he joked. I knew Weston actually loved Quinn, he had joined us for late dinners here in the office several times in the last few weeks and they got on like a house on fire. He had taken to calling her the ice queen for the last few days, after she had all but screamed at a young girl during an interview and caused her to leave crying. In Quinn’s defence, the girl had turned up for a personal assistant interview, dressed like a hooker, and without any knowledge of how to operate a computer.

  I’m not sure what she was expecting.

  I was beginning to wonder if all of these women thought that they were going to be interviewed by a man rather than a woman.

  I giggled. “Nope. Not a single potential candidate.” I sighed. “She’s exhausted though, she really needs to find somebody ASAP.”

  “I actually might be able to help. My roommate Macie is looking for a new job. Her last boss turned out to be a complete prick so she left at short notice. She’d probably be a little over qualified, but that might not be a bad thing if she’d be working for Quinn.” He smiled at me.

  �
��Really? Okay well bring her in on Monday? I’ll talk to Quinn this weekend. Try to get her to relax a little.”

  “Sounds good boss. Enjoy your weekend El.” Weston winked at me and turned to leave.

  “You too Weston.” I called after him.

  ***

  I had packed up my office and pressed the call button for the elevator – It arrived, I stepped inside and pressed the button for the parking garage. My blackberry beeped with a new email. By the time I’d finished reading it I noticed that I was on the 7th floor and there were about half a dozen people in the lift with me. I was leaning against the wall of the elevator and had my back to most of the people in the lift.

  The doors closed again – I started to feel a little uncomfortable, as if somebody was watching me. My neck prickled and I fought the urge to spin around.

  You’re a new girl here, people are going to look.

  I stood straighter in my heeled boots and shifted my weight to my other foot. I glanced around the elevator and smiled shyly at the middle-aged woman to my left.

  “I don’t think I’ve seen you here before have I?” She asked me kindly.

  “No probably not, I’m new to Boston. I’ve just started upstairs, I’m El.” I extended my hand for her to shake.

  “Karen, I’m a PA on level 6.” She smiled again. The lift stopped and the doors opened. “I hope you enjoy Boston.” She said as she exited the elevator onto the gym floor.

  “Thanks. It was nice to meet you Karen.” I smiled back.

  Two other men also exited and headed into the gym. Another woman stopped on the floor of the pool and sauna.

  I hadn’t yet made eye contact with anybody else in the elevator, but it felt like there were eyes on my body the whole time I had been in here. I turned and looked up.

  Whoa. That guy is big.

  I was having trouble making my eyes move further than the broad chest and shoulders that were clothed in a crisp white button down shirt with a light grey tie. He had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, revealing his muscular forearms.

  Oh sweet Jesus… that tattoo.

  He looked to have a sleeve of tattoos, with a few inches exposed to my gaze. He had his dark grey suit jacket draped over his other arm, and a brown leather laptop bag hung from his shoulder.

  I would definitely not be surprised if I was drooling.

  I heard a deep chuckle come from the direction I was looking, and I snapped my eyes up to his face.

  Holy fucking fuck.

  This guy was beyond hot. He looked like a damn model. He had a strong jaw, that hot as shit groomed stubble, and messy dark brown hair that almost flopped in his eyes.

  Oh god his eyes.

  He had breathtaking green eyes. Eyes that were currently locked on mine with a look of intensity and a hint of amusement. I flicked my gaze down to the smirk on his lips. I found myself licking my lips without even making a conscious decision.

  The elevator slowed and stopped on the ground floor. An older man that I hadn’t even noticed moved past me and exited onto the ground floor. He broke the spell that Mr. Tall, dark and hotter than hell had on me. I shook my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts.

  Holy shit El, keep your eyes in your head.

  I pushed the button for the parking garage a few more times – an attempt to get the elevator to move faster. I could feel my face getting redder by the minute. I had been snapped undressing the poor guy with my eyes.

  Why won’t this bloody thing move?

  I heard a chuckle again.

  “In a hurry there sweetheart?” His deep voice moved through me. It was smooth and strong and hinted at a southern twang. It suited him perfectly.

  I took a deliberately slow step back from the numbered panel, keeping my eyes focused ahead.

  “You’re not going to get all shy on me now are you?” It sounded like he was having a laugh at my expense. I still hadn’t turned around to look at him again. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to turn away if I did.

  I could feel myself blushing even deeper as I stood there looking like an idiot. “What do you mean?” I replied, still not looking at him.

  The lift had reached the parking garage, but neither one of us had made any move to get out of the elevator.

  He snorted. “Really? I saw that little eye-fuck you were giving me.”

  I felt my mouth hang open as I turned to look at him. The air between us crackled with tension, sexual and otherwise. But before I could even come up with some witty remark to throw back at him, he took a couple of steps towards me. He was so close I could smell him.

  Damn he smells amazing.

  He smelt the way a real man should smell, clean but masculine. I couldn’t even put a name to the way he smelt.

  “I don’t know who you work for, but you’d be better off working for me sweetheart.” He whispered against my hair. I could feel his warm breath on my face and I nearly passed out. This guy had me all tied up in knots and he’d barely said two words to me.

  Working for him… Wait what?

  He brushed past me and walked out into the underground garage.

  “Excuse me?” I yelled after him as I stalked out of the doors after him. “Why in the hell would I want to work for you?”

  He stopped and turned back to me, a smirk playing on his gorgeous face, like I’d just walked into some sort of trap. “Because you’d look good sitting at the desk outside my office.”

  I was lost for words.

  What. An. Asshole.

  I couldn’t believe how arrogant this guy was. I was fuming that he was making assumptions about me and my career options based on my appearance.

  I don’t know where the hell I got my confidence from all of a sudden, but I found myself following him out of the lift, and as he turned back to face me I stepped right into his space and took hold of his tie.

  “Look asshole, I’ll have you know that I don’t sit outside anybody’s office. I’ve got my own office.” I scowled at him. “But you’re more than welcome to come and sit at the desk outside it whenever you like.” I looked him up and down and raised one eyebrow. “Shit, you might even look good sitting there.” I let my hand slowly slide down the length of his tie as I stepped backwards, before letting it fall back against his body. I smirked at his surprised expression and took the moment to quickly unlock and climb into my Jeep.

  God I can’t wait to tell Quinn about this sexist pig. I bet women never speak back to him like that.

  I backed out and caught site of the arrogant bastard leaning against a giant black truck. He was just watching me drive away with a wide grin on his face.

  God what a wanker.

  A hot as hell wanker.

  But a wanker all the same.

  6. Quinn

  As soon as I jumped into El’s Jeep, I could tell something had happened. She was riled up. I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears.

  “What the hell is up with you? I thought I was the one stressing?”

  El glanced over at me and took a deep breath as she pulled out into traffic.

  “Oh yeah, since you mention it, I might have good news. Weston has a roommate looking for work. Macie I think he said. He thinks she’ll be perfect for the position and he is going to talk to her about coming in on Monday for an interview.”

  “O wow, that’d be awesome. If Weston rates her then she must be good. That boy is a damn god send.”

  El grinned at me. “Yeah, he really is.”

  “But anyway back to you and whatever the hell happened during the 20 minutes since I talked to you last?”

  I listened as El spilled the story about this amazingly hot guy she’d encountered in the office elevator.

  “Wait so what was him name? Does he work for Lawson?”

  “God, I have no idea. The asshole made me so mad. I told him off and got the hell out of there.” She grinned. “But yeah… I guess he probably does work for Lawson, since he sure as shit doesn’t work for us.”

&
nbsp; She breathed out a heavy breath. “He was a tool, Q. God he was so good looking… but I’d put money on the fact he knows that, and uses it to his advantage too.” She snorted. “You would have gone crazy with how much of an ass he was to me.”

  I pushed against her shoulder. “Maybe y’all just had a bit of sexual tension going on El.” I baited her.

  “That guy saw nothing but my boobs and how good I’d look sitting outside his office – his words, not mine. A guy that good looking… he’d only be after one thing. And he is certainly not going to be getting it from me.”

 

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