by Alycia Brown
“Alexis,” Ronan’s voice called from down the hall. Our eyes locked, even from that far away, and I stood to greet him.
I still hated him.
And I still thought he was damn fine for a white guy.
But I still had a job to do, and I still had to be professional.
“Good morning,” I said, extending my right hand. I gritted my teeth as I added, “Boss.”
“Let me show you to your office,” he said, slipping his hand casually up my arm and down my back, where he rested on the small indentation just above my ass. An electric jolt of I didn’t know what coursed through me.
This man is smooth.
We stepped in tandem down a long dark hall until we reached a metal door with an empty name placard.
“Your name will go here eventually. I’ve had Jaclyn order a name plate for you.” He pressed the door lightly and it swung open.
Floor to ceiling windows let in the warm morning sun and a polished dark wooden desk sat center-stage. A laptop rested in the middle of the desk and in the corner of the room was a small, makeshift design studio complete with a drafting table and every type of pen and pencil imaginable.
“I hope this will be sufficient,” he said. I felt his eyes on me, as if he were waiting with bated breath for my reaction.
“This will do,” I said, swallowing my excitement like a jagged little pill. The truth was, I loved it. I just didn’t want him to think I was so easily bought out. “It’ll work for now.”
His face fell as I stepped toward the drafting desk examining the pencils. They weren’t cheap. They were pricey graphite pencils. A tablet full of thick drawing paper rested next to them. I fanned through the papers and shoved them aside.
I should’ve said thank you. I should’ve jumped for joy. My dreams were coming true. The circumstances, however, made it damn near impossible for me to actually enjoy it.
“Your laptop,” he said, tapping the closed lid, “is equipped with the latest in CAD jewelry design software. It’s called Sapphire 2.0. Have you heard of it?”
Heard of it? It was on my wish list. It was the one thing I had wanted most in the world but at three grand, I could never justify buying it until I absolutely couldn’t live without it.
“Yes, I’m familiar,” I said, holding my nose up and turning my face so he couldn’t see the smile I was trying so hard to hide.
“Excellent,” he said. “If you need any training, let me know. We can fly you to the manufacturer for some hands on training.”
“Won’t be necessary.” I folded my arms and stared out the window to the swaying trees in the parking lot that shaded my old Jetta. That thing was on its last leg, and I’d need to replace it soon. I was one breakdown away from trashing the damn thing anyway. I daydreamed about driving off some car lot with a shiny new car, maybe a small BMW or Audi - snow white with tinted windows and chrome galore. With the kind of money I was making, I could easily afford to drive something stylish and chic.
“You have a video conference in two hours with the Manhattan design team,” he said as he made his way toward his door. “You’re just going to introduce yourself to them. You’ll work with them mostly over email and phone calls, sending designs back and forth and giving creative directives that way, but for now, they just want to meet their new boss.”
A ripple of excitement coursed through me, though I kept my poker face tight. Managing an entire team of designers was something I’d never envisioned myself doing, but the idea was beginning to grow on me.
“And after that,” he said, his hand gripping the door as he stood with one foot in the hallway, “I’m taking you out for lunch. Just a little celebratory luncheon.”
“What are we celebrating?”
“The first day of the rest of your life, Alexis,” he said with a smirk. “You’ve been working hard your entire life. It’s all going to pay off for you now. Here. At Pratt Diamonds. Your life begins now.”
I scrunched my nose at him, and brushed his comments off. What did he know about me and my life? He disappeared a moment later, and I shut the door behind him.
***
I hooked my purse around my shoulder a few hours later as I waited in the reception area for Ronan. Jaclyn pretended to be knee deep in her email as I stood to the side. I knew a faker when I saw one though – Monique used to do the same thing. She’d look busy when I knew she wasn’t.
“Ready?” Ronan said, slipping his sport coat over his shoulders and dangling his keys.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we rode the elevator down together. I could feel his energy, as if an invisible thread linked our shoulders together even if I attempted to keep a safe distance. His scent filled the elevator, enveloping us both in a mix of expensive cedars and musks.
“I made us reservations at an Italian bistro called Blanca. You ever been?”
I knew of the place, but I’d never been. A meal at that place cost more than what I made in a week. “I’ve never been, no.”
“Me neither.”
The doors parted and he placed his hand on the small of my back, sending live wire voltage down the length of my body once again as we headed to the parking lot.
Ronan lifted his keys, pointing them at a Jaguar and pressing the button to unlock it. Beating me to the passenger door, he pulled it open, as if we were on a date.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said as I slid into the seat.
“Do what?”
“Treat this like it’s a date.”
“Alexis,” he said with a deliciously sexy smile. “It’s simply good manners. It’s how I was raised.”
My cheeks burned hot as I diverted my eyes to the floor and bit my tongue. I brushed my ebony curls out of my face and fished around in my purse for my sunglasses. How foolish I was for making an assumption.
Ronan hopped in across from me and started up the engine, which purred silently, and we began rolling out of the parking lot. Ten minutes later we pulled up to Blanca’s valet lane and a man dressed in a tuxedo opened my door and helped me out. My knees pressed together as I attempted to exit his car in my sheath dress.
As we headed inside, Ronan placed his hand on my back, guiding me toward the hostess stand. He mumbled something to the hostess in Italian and she seated us at a cozy corner booth in a dark, candlelit section of the restaurant.
Not a date my ass. This guy is tripping if he thinks I don’t see the way he stares at me. He wants me.
“Do you take all your employees to romantic restaurants at lunch?” I couldn’t resist.
“There you go again, Alexis, reading into things.” He unfolded a linen napkin and laid it across his lap. A server ran up to our table and poured still water into our glasses before taking our drink orders. “If you’ll recall, I’d mentioned to you that I’d never been here before. It was not my intention to make this a…romantic…lunch. If you’re uncomfortable, please let me know and I will take you to the deli counter around the corner.”
I hung my head again, pulling in a deep breath and swallowing my pride. Lifting my eyes to meet his, I straightened my shoulders and reached for my water glass. “I just want to make sure you and I are on the same page.”
The perfect arch of his upper lip coupled with the flash of dimples that appeared when he smiled sent a ping of arousal to my core that hit me like an ocean wave before gradually receding. “Oh, we’re on the same page, Ms. Turner. I can tell you that.”
He took a sip of water, and for a split second, I found myself wishing I was that water glass. I wanted his hot mouth all over me. I wanted to feel the soft, pillow-y kisses he could give, and I wanted to feel the heat of his fingertips as they grazed my surface.
Snap out of it, Alexis!
“Are you enjoying your first day so far?” He took another sip of water before retiring the glass in front of him.
“Yes,” I said. “I met the New York team this morning. They seem nice. Young, but nice.”
“You’ll be meeting t
hem in person soon,” he said. “When you go back with us.”
“And when might that be exactly?” I wasn’t entirely opposed to moving to another city, especially when the salary was something I didn’t dare try to walk away from.
“Two months,” he said.
“That soon?”
“Is that going to be a problem?”
“No,” I said, mentally prepping myself. I’d just closed up my shop, and now I was going to have to make arrangements to move to a whole new state. I pulled in a deep breath and reached for my water as our server approached with a bottle of wine.
Wine at lunch? I guess when you’re with the boss you can get away with it.
“So tell me a little more about you,” he said, his eyes glowing against the flickering candle and holding me in an intense stare. “How’d you get into the jewelry business?”
I rambled on about my grandmother’s pawn shop and school and my passion for precious gemstones and metals and designing, and I could feel my hardness dissolving as I spoke about my one true love. And before I knew it, a smile had claimed my face, immediately weakening my determined resolve not to be overly nice to the man who had destroyed my business.
“I can tell you really love what you do, Alexis.” The way he said my name, like soft velvet, caused my breath to hitch.
“It’s why I opened my own store,” I said, a hint of bitterness returning to my tone as I took a swig of white wine.
“We all have passions,” he said, his brows furrowing. “We all have familial expectations and legacies to carry on. I see a lot of myself in you.”
I wished I could say the same, but all I saw when I looked at him was a silver spooned, privileged white boy from New York with more money than God. I huffed. I didn’t mean to but it just happened.
“Really, I do,” he said. “My grandfather taught me everything I know, much like your grandmother did for you. You and I both come from an entrepreneurial background. It’s bred into us. It’s in our DNA. It’s who we are. We’re more alike than different, Alexis.” He pulled in a sip of wine and swirled it on his tongue before licking his lips slowly and swallowing. My heart galloped for two seconds until I finally summoned the strength to look away.
“So you’ve always loved diamonds?” I asked with a skeptical look plastered on my face.
“Not diamonds,” he said. “I’ve always loved making my family proud, and that has translated into more of a business-minded career for me. I was born and raised to do this, Alexis. To expand my family’s legacy.”
Pratt Diamonds were synonymous with wealth and richest beyond belief. They owned 75% of the diamond mines in the world. Not only did they mine, design, and sell their diamond creations, they also sold them wholesale. Some of my diamonds came from their very mines.
“What would you be doing if you weren’t in the diamond business?” I asked, suddenly wondering why I cared enough to ask him.
“Charity work,” he said without pause. “Traveling the world. Vaccines. Clean water. Education.”
“Why don’t you hand over the company now and go do those things?”
“It’s not an option.” He shook his head and stared down at the shiny silver fork on the table. “My brother would destroy this company and my cousin, Sam, is worthless. I’m the only one my grandfather trusts.”
“And your father?”
“Died five years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged until the server came back with a much appreciated interruption to take our lunch orders. I’d had my lunch all picked out until Ronan ordered for me. I didn’t even have a chance to object before the server scampered off to place the order for us.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I ordered for us. It’s good manners, Alexis. If you are around me, you’re going to be treated like a proper lady.”
My jaw hung open. I’d dated guys I the past who didn’t treat me half as good as my boss was treating me in that moment. I wasn’t entirely convinced that we weren’t on a disguised date of some sort, but I kept my mouth shut.
By the time we finished our lunch, I found myself looking at him in a completely different light. He wasn’t the asshole rich white guy who destroyed my business. He was just a man doing what anyone else in his position would’ve done.
It wasn’t personal.
It was all business.
But it still sucked, and I wasn’t quite ready to forgive him – pretty paycheck and dream job or not.
SIX – RONAN
“So what do you think of Alexis?” Levi, my right-hand man entered my office and shut the door behind him before plopping down into my guest chair.
“She shows a lot of promise,” I said, firing off an email to a regional manager in California. I glanced up at Levi who had a calculating smirk across his face. He raked his hand through his spikey blond hair and licked his lips. I’d gone out with the guy a hundred times. He was my college roommate. I knew what that look meant. “No.”
“No, what?”
“No.”
Levi’s hands flew up in protest as he continued to wear his smart-ass smirk. “Come on, it’s not like you have dibs on her.”
“I don’t condone inter-company relations,” I said. Levi may have been my best friend, but at work, he was my employee.
“So it’ll be off the clock,” Levi argued.
“Can’t you find someone else? Shit, Levi, you go to Happy Hour almost five days a week.” I fired off another email to a vendor and hit ‘send’ before leaning back in my seat. Folding my hands across my lap I stared at him squarely in the face. “I said no. It’s not happening. Alexis is off limits.”
“What you like her or something?” Levi laughed. “Why do you care?”
My lips held in a straight line. What I felt about Alexis was none of his business, and I wasn’t quite sure I knew what I felt anyway. Sure she was pretty and intelligent and driven. Talented as fuck. But she was also my employee, and my policy was strict. My rules were unbreakable, even when it came to myself.
“God, she’s so fucking hot,” Levi said, sounding like the crass frat boy he used to be back in the day. Some things never changed. He held his hands out in the air as if he were grabbing something. “That ass, Ronan. That ass!” His face held a pained look as if he were grabbing for something he couldn’t reach.
“Do I need to remind you that you cost me $300,000 in a civil suit last year because you were hitting on my last secretary?” I said. I should’ve canned him long ago, but the man could woo clients and vendors like nobody’s business. He easily earned Pratt Diamonds ten times the expense of keeping him. And we had a history. I didn’t need to throw him out when I could keep a leash on him instead. Everyone was happier that way.
“That was a bullshit judgment and you know it,” he said. “She sent me pictures of her tits! And I get in trouble when I reply with a dick pick?”
“More like twenty dick picks over the course of three weeks.”
“I had a plan, Ronan! I had a plan. I was laying the bait.”
“That’s not how women work. You know that. Anyway,” I stood up. “I trust you’ll leave Alexis alone?”
My heart stopped for a second as I realized that as much shit as I’d let Levi get away with over the years, I knew a part of me would have no issue finally firing him if he bothered her.
What was getting into me?
“Get back to work,” I said, cracking a fake whip at Levi. He stood up and shuffled out of the office, never having lost his confident swagger for a second, and I returned to my email.
A few hours later, I heard a beeping noise coming from the parking lot, as if a large piece of machinery were backing up. Popping over to the window, I stared down to see a little Volkswagen Jetta being hooked up to a tow truck.
That’s weird. Isn’t that…?
And then I saw Alexis running out to the car waving her arms.
I flew down the hall and down toward the elevator, rus
hing out to the parking lot the second the doors parted.
“What’s going on here?” I asked, scratching my brow.
“Nothing, Ronan. Don’t worry about it.” Alexis sounded exasperated and slightly embarrassed. Her car was old. I couldn’t imagine it was getting repo’d, but then again, I didn’t know her situation completely.
“What can I do to help?” I ignored her attempt to brush me off.
“This lady owes three months of car payments,” the gray jump-suited guy with the clipboard said. He shoved the clipboard into her arms and handed her a pen.
“Please,” she said. “I can make the payments at the end of next week.”
“Take it up with your lender, lady,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m just the middle man.”
Alexis pouted, scribbling her signature on the sheet of paper and probably knowing she had no control over the situation.
“This is some bullshit,” she muttered under her breath.
The driver hopped back into his tow truck and hauled away her piece of crap Jetta as we stood and watched.
“Alexis.” I placed my hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re not going to need a car in the city anyway.”
“But I need a car.” She shook her head. “While I’m here, I need a car. I can’t just walk to work, Ronan.”