Today had been the first day I’d felt reasonably human again, and I’d known from the moment I’d gotten out of bed that I couldn’t go another day without talking to Jade.
Yeah, the doctor had told me it would take some time until I felt back up to my normal speed after the drain of having bacterial pneumonia. But I’d been on antibiotics long enough to be certain I wasn’t contagious anymore. It hadn’t mattered that I was still dragging ass. I knew I was going to see Jade or die trying.
But she’s here now.
And holy fuck . . . I needed to see her.
I was irritated as hell about being sick. I hadn’t gotten the flu since I was a kid, and it had been the last thing my relationship with Jade had needed.
I pressed the intercom button. “Give me a minute, Alice,” I instructed my secretary.
“Let me know when you’re ready, Mr. Stone,” she replied.
I stood up and walked to the bathroom, splashed some water on my face, and then stared at my reflection.
At some point over the last few weeks, I’d finally figured out that I didn’t need to be Austin. My brother would always have a place in my memory, but he died because he had an addiction problem. Nobody could cure him when he hadn’t wanted to be sober himself. We’d all tried. My parents had done everything they could to get him straightened out, and I’d pretty much begged him to stop. But the will had needed to come from him, and he’d never made the effort to stay clean. Not really. He’d gone to rehab to satisfy my parents and not himself.
Only after I’d lost it with Jade had I been able to actually evaluate the emotions that hadn’t seen the light of day in four years.
And I wasn’t very happy with the way I’d handled Austin’s death.
I also wasn’t pleased at the fact that I’d been offered the chance to be with an amazing woman like Jade, and I’d pretty much pissed away the opportunity because I’d been a dick.
I’d known that Jade was special from the moment we met.
I should have been pursuing a real relationship.
Instead, I’d thought that all I needed was sex.
Yeah, maybe I did need it with her pretty damn bad, but I wanted a hell of a lot more than just Jade’s body.
I fucking wanted her heart.
I’d just been too damn slow to realize that.
Now, it was very likely that I’d pay for that stupid mistake.
But I’m not going to lose her. It doesn’t matter what it takes to make sure she ends up with me.
I tossed the towel I’d used to dry my face into the hamper.
Moment of truth, Stone.
It was about damn time that I fought for exactly what I wanted, and the only thing I really needed was the woman who was waiting outside my office.
I sat back down in my chair and took a deep breath before I pressed the intercom. “Send her in, Alice,” I instructed.
“Right away, sir,” she answered immediately.
I shook my head, wondering if the secretary who had been with me for several years now was ever going to call me Eli like I’d asked her to about a million times before.
The errant thought left my mind as Alice appeared, and Jade came strolling through the door.
I knew the moment that she directly met my eyes that something was way different.
It took a couple of seconds for all the changes to completely sink in.
I didn’t notice the soft click of the door closing that signaled Alice had left us alone. I was too busy watching the woman who had walked into my office like she owned it.
There was no hesitation, no nervous new female billionaire like I’d encountered the last time she entered my office.
Her beautiful eyes were wide open and taking my measure as she walked up to the desk.
Jesus Christ! What in the hell happened to the Jade I knew?
Gone were her blue jeans and T-shirt, and in their place was a figure-hugging, black leather pencil skirt that ended above her knees, making her legs seem to go on forever. As far as attire went, she was pretty much dressed for business, but her white blouse was cut just a little too low. And the short cashmere sweater that she was wearing open over the top of the silky creation that had my attention sure as hell wasn’t made to keep her warm.
She moved gracefully in a pair of black heels, and as she arrived in front of my desk, she dropped the stylish black purse into the chair next to the one she sat down in.
“What did you do to your hair?” I rasped.
The locks were pulled to one side with an enormous clip, and cascaded down one shoulder. But it wasn’t the style that had thrown me. It was the color.
Jade was a brunette, but her hair was more of an auburn shade now, the red highlights likely to make any guy do a double take. I didn’t like it, but my eager dick certainly did.
“It’s new,” she said vaguely. “I guess I needed a change.”
A change?
Buying a new pair of shoes was a change.
Everything about Jade seemed entirely different right now, including the makeup she didn’t generally wear.
“You look beautiful,” I said in a husky voice.
There had never been a day when Jade hadn’t been the most attractive woman I’d ever seen, but she looked particularly stunning today.
She shrugged, but kept her eyes locked with mine. “Thank you,” she said breezily. “But I’m not here for compliments. I’m taking you up on the offer to be your intern if it’s still open.”
“Of course it is,” I said eagerly. “But Jade, I wanted to talk about—”
She put her hand up. “You don’t need to explain. I just want a chance to learn. I’m not asking for anything else.”
I wanted her to ask for anything she damn well wanted. I’d find a way to give it to her.
“I’m sorry that I—”
I immediately got another “talk to the hand” motion. “I don’t need an apology for anything. We had a good time, Eli. Now it’s time for me to get down to business.”
She’s not going to accept my apology. She’s not going to listen because she isn’t interested in a prick like me.
Not that I could really blame her. Looking back now, I knew I’d been a complete asshole. She might have been looking for a real relationship had I not told her that basically all I wanted was sex.
“I was just looking at a new potential investment,” I told her. “It’s a pretty big one, so I have a lot of analysis to do.”
In truth, I hadn’t been looking at shit. I’d been scribbling my signature on papers that had to get signed before I left to go track her beautiful ass down. But I did have proposals on my desk, and one in particular that was a big project that needed more research.
There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to at least keep her within my sight. So I’d roll with the intern thing for now. I wanted to understand what was really happening with her, and I was willing to take all the time in the world to figure it out.
“Good,” she said cheerfully as she rose and started to scoot her chair around the desk. “Can I look with you?”
She shoved her chair against mine and sat back down.
Being a red-blooded male who had never been able to keep my eyes off her in the first place, I couldn’t help being fixated on her legs as she crossed them, and that tight skirt that was riding up her thighs.