His brown eyes were deep somehow, as striking as I remembered them to be. In the days since I saw him last, I convinced myself that he wasn’t really as hot as he was in my memory. But I’d been wrong.
In the soft morning light, wearing a power suit that must’ve been tailored for him from the way it fit him like a glove, he was gorgeous.
Bone structure that could’ve made angels weep, dark hair styled so it fell over his forehead just a little, it was easy to see why the women of New York were obsessed with the guy. And now he was focused completely on me.
A rush of heat spread through me. So not the time, Steph.
I took his offered hand and pumped it firmly just once before I let go, trying not to notice how warm and smooth his hand felt in mine. How his long fingers wrapped perfectly around my hand, making me wonder what else he could do with those fingers.
Jeez. Cool it, girl.
If I didn’t watch it, I was going to melt into a Steph-sized puddle of desire. Giving myself a mental shake, I managed to find my voice. “Good morning, Mr. Williams.”
“Ms. Donavan,” he replied. His voice was rich with that cultured timbre I wasn’t used to hearing from guys his age. He stepped away from me, sweeping out his arm in the direction of the hallway opposite from where his office was. He turned his wrist to check an enormous watch. “You’re awfully punctual.”
I was taken aback that he acknowledged my punctuality. Didn’t bosses usually only notice when you were late? In my experience, that was definitely the case.
“So are you.” I wanted to bury my face in my hands and kick myself with both legs for saying it, but it was already out.
It didn’t look like he minded though. If anything, the small smile I’d seen earlier returned and his eyes lit with amusement when I risked a quick glance up at him. “Touché. If you’ll follow me, we can get started with your tour.”
“You’re the boss.” For fuck’s sake, what was wrong with my mouth? Every sassy thing I thought just popped out around him. A regular thing for me, but did it have to happen around my new employer all the damn time.
A breath of air that might’ve been a chuckle escaped him, but by the time I looked at him, there were no signs of laughter. “I guess I am. Listen, before we get started, I wanted to talk to you.”
My eyes widened. Not even ten minutes on the job and my mouth had already landed me in trouble. “Okay.”
He stopped in the middle of the nearly deserted hallway, just before another set of turnstiles that led through opaque glass walls. “I know we’re keeping things professional and all that, but with the amount of time we’re going to be spending together, I don’t think it would be inappropriate to refer to each other by our first names. That okay with you?”
I was prepared with an apology about my runaway mouth, which died on my lips when I realized he hadn’t wanted to talk about that at all. Referring to him as Mr. Williams was an archaic tradition I wasn’t really comfortable with anyway. But calling my boss by his first name hinted at a familiarity I wasn’t sure I should have with him. Not under our circumstances.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
He nodded. “You’ll come to find that people who work on the same teams here are more informal than they are with those they don’t work directly with. Since we’re working directly together, there’s nothing strange about it. Unless you’re not comfortable with it, of course.”
“No, no that’s fine,” I told him, a little dazed by the knowledge that I was going to be working on a team with the Jeremiah Williams. There was a difference for me between working for him, as I was, and working with him, as he obviously thought of us as doing.
“Excellent.” He flashed me a smile and extracted a keycard from his pocket, swiping it across an electronic pad and motioning for me to precede him through the turnstiles. “Now that’s settled, let’s start the tour.”
“Let’s.” I caught a glimpse of us walking beside each other in the gleaming reflection of one of the walls as he started pointing things out to me. It was disconcerting to see what I looked like beside him, in my outfit that cost less than a hundred bucks when his suit probably cost thousands.
I pushed my insecurity aside when we stepped into a large, circular area filled with different kinds of coffee machines, strange pod-like things, and scattered couches and beanbags. My jaw loosened. “What’s this?”
“The staff break room,” he answered, standing a bit straighter. “We upgraded the building’s interior last year. It seemed fitting to bring the staff areas into the correct century.”
“Wow.” I was impressed. I’d heard of places like this at companies, of course. I just never thought I would be working for one of those companies.
Being awed by my new workplace didn’t end there. This was a multi-million dollar company. It was modern, luxurious and classy.
Clean lines, stainless steel, glass, laminate flooring and plush carpets ruled the space. The conference rooms Jeremiah showed me were equipped with state-of-the-art electronics, and when he informed me of what phone and laptop the company would be issuing me with, my jaw actually dropped.
“This place is incredible,” I said, following him back to his office.
“Glad you said yes yet?” he asked, entering through a door just down the hall from his office.
“Definitely,” I replied distractedly, instantly drawn to the massive windows off one side of this office. The entire back wall was a window, which let in plenty of natural light. It was much smaller than his, unsurprisingly, but comfortable with a large desk in the center, a small seating area, and even its own small coffee station. “Who does this belong to?”
Jeremiah shrugged. “You.”