CHAPTER2
“God, I love bacon,” his new assistant murmured with a happy little sigh as she nibbled on what looked like an egg sandwich with an unhealthy amount of bacon while Devyn stood there, wondering why his new assistant was sitting outside at six-thirty in the morning.
“What are you doing here, Miss Dawson?” Devyn drawled as he gestured for the security guard manning the front desk to let them in.
“Besides enjoying a delicious bacon sandwich to start my day?” she asked, grabbing her bag and moving to stand up only to murmur, “Thank you,” when he reached down and took her small hand in his and couldn’t help but notice just how soft her skin was as he helped her up.
“Besides that,” Devyn said, glancing back down at the email that he was trying to make sense of as he opened the door for her.
“I don’t like to be late,” Andi Dawson, the woman that he’d been forced to hire after the last assistant the temp agency sent over decided to have a mental breakdown, murmured absently as she continued nibbling on her sandwich as they made their way to the bank of elevators.
“And?” Devyn asked, reaching over to press the call button before swiping to the next email.
“And I have questions,” Andi murmured, finishing off the last bite of her bacon sandwich with a heartfelt sigh that drew his attention to find the small woman that had been extremely overqualified for the entry-level position that she’d applied for, looking up at him expectantly.
“And what are those questions, Miss Dawson?” Devyn asked, gesturing for her to join him in the elevator.
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were?” Andi asked as she joined him.
“Why didn’t you ask?” he asked, taking in the small woman that probably wouldn’t last the day, from her beautiful brown hair swept up into an elegant bun at the back of her head with strands that looked like silk teasing the back of her neck, mischievous baby blue eyes, an adorable nose, and a plump bottom lip before his gaze lowered to the baby blue blouse that loosely clung to generous curves, the short skirt that ended just above her knees, and the short, but very shapely, tanned legs that ended with a pair of black tennis shoes with Mickey Mouse on the sides that had his lips twitching before he shifted his attention back to the emails waiting for his attention.
Nodding, she murmured, “Fair enough. Then maybe you can tell me what job I was interviewing for?”
“I need a new assistant, Miss Dawson,” Devyn said as he leaned back against the wall.
“And you decided that the best way to go about that was to hire a woman that you knew absolutely nothing about?” she asked, making his lips twitch.
“I know plenty about you,” he assured her as he swiped to the next email.
“I could be a serial killer,” Andi pointed out.
“At this point, I’m willing to take the chance,” Devyn said, willing to do almost anything at this point to fix this mess.
Since he took over as CEO of Carta Hotels a year and a half ago, he’d been fixing one mess right after the other, working his ass off to bring the company that had been on the brink of bankruptcy back to its former glory and doing everything that he could to meet all the requirements of his contract. He’d been given two years to turn this mess around, and so far, he’d been able to surpass every expectation, but now that his contract was set to expire in a few months, Devyn was having a hell of a time getting anything done with every assistant that he hired quitting and making his life a hell of a lot harder than it needed to be.
“That bad?” she asked, looking thoughtful.
“Could be worse,” he admitted as he considered her. “Are you going to take the job?”
“That depends,” Andi said as she reached back into her bag and pulled out a small apple juice.
“On?” he asked, wondering what he was going to do if she didn’t take the job. Probably lose his fucking mind, Devyn thought, watching as the small woman that would probably be better off turning him down and going back downstairs to inquire about the other job took a sip of juice.
“What happened to your last assistant?” Andi murmured, looking thoughtful.
“She decided that the position wasn’t a good fit,” Devyn said, deciding against using the reason Miss Jenkinson gave when she quit since most of it had been mumbled incoherently, and the rest…
Probably wouldn’t help this conversation.
Nodding, Andi said, “She was the woman who made the security guard cry, wasn’t she?”
When he didn’t say anything, she cleared her throat and murmured, “I’m probably going to need a raise.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but…
“Probably.”
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