The Project

“What are you doing?”Devyn found himself asking as he watched the woman that saved his ass take her time getting comfortable on the large leather couch on the other side of the room instead of the chair in front of his desk.

“Ensuring that this meeting is productive,” Andi murmured absently as she took her time getting organized, placing her bottle of water on the coffee table in front of her before reaching for her laptop only to think better of it and grabbed a fresh legal pad off the stack of notebooks that she’d helped herself to from the supply closet. That led her to taking her time selecting a pen as Devyn joined her in the large sitting area.

“You know, most people sit in the chair in front of the desk when they’re taking notes,” Devyn drawled, leaning back in his chair as he watched her.

With a sad shake of her head, Andi said, “Those poor misguided souls,” making his lips twitch.

“Is there a reason why we’re sitting over here?” Devyn asked even as he found himself thinking about what happened in the boardroom only a few hours ago.

If she hadn’t come when she had…

He would have lost everything.

“To make this easier on you,” Andi said with a solemn nod as she finished settling in.

“That’s very considerate of you,” Devyn drawled as he thought back to the notes that the H.R. department had made on her resumé and couldn’t help but wonder how they’d missed something this fucking huge. Then again, her ex-employers would have been stupid to share that kind of information with them, especially if they were hoping to lure her back one day, which made him curious about something.

“What happened when you quit your last job?” he asked, watching as she started to worry her bottom lip between her teeth only to stop when she realized what she was doing, shifted uneasily, cleared her throat, and asked, “Why do you want to know?”

“Curiosity,” Devyn murmured as he watched her, wondering what H.R. would have done if they’d found out about this unique skill of hers. Probably tried to stick her in the accounting department, he thought even as he had to admit that he was tempted to do the same. With her skills, he’d be stupid not to do everything that he could to convince her to take a job in the accounting department, knowing just how much Carta Hotels would benefit from having her there and if she’d been anyone else, he would have already done that, but…

He couldn’t do that to her.

“They tried to entice me into staying, but unfortunately for them, it wasn’t enough to stop me from leaving and coming to work for you as the best assistant that you’ve ever had,” Andi said with a long-suffering sigh that had his lips twitching.

“I can honestly say that you were probably the worst assistant that I’ve ever had,” Devyn drawled.

“What are you talking about? I was the best and you know it,” she said with a sad shake of her head.

“Really?” he asked, surprised that he was able to sit there feeling this relaxed considering just how badly he’d been fucked over by this deal. He should be losing his fucking mind trying to figure out how he was going to fix this in time, but right now, all he felt was relief.

If he’d signed those papers, he would have lost everything. The board would have fired his ass for gross incompetence. He would have lost everything, his job, the bonus that he’d worked his ass off for, his reputation, and his chance to finally keep the promise that he’d made to his mother, and it was all because of the small woman that was clearly in denial about her assistant skills.

“Really,” Andi assured him with a firm nod.

“Assistants answer the phone,” Devyn pointed out.

“I would have done that, but I knew that you didn’t want to be disturbed,” Andi said, nodding solemnly.

“You also didn’t go through my emails,” he reminded her.

“Because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise?” she said with a hopeful smile.

“And what was the surprise?” Devyn drawled even as he couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to regret doing this. Probably, but he owed her.

“That I forgot to check your email?” Andi admitted, blinking innocently.

“Fair enough,” he murmured as he considered her. “Are you going to take the job?”

“That depends,” she said, shifting to get more comfortable.

“On what?”

“On whether or not my list of demands are met,” Andi said slowly with a sniff as she tried to stare him down as she folded her arms over her chest, trying to look intimidating, but honestly, she was just too fucking adorable to pull it off.

“And what exactly are these demands?” Devyn asked, biting back a smile.

Narrowing her eyes dangerously on him, she said, “No multitasking.”

“I really think that went without saying.”