“Hmm.” He made that sound far too often. It was infuriating, because it could mean everything or nothing.
Moving swiftly on … “Don’t forget you have a meeting in an hour. The agenda is on your desk, and I emailed you the materials that you’ll need to review for the meeting.”
His gaze on the laptop screen, he said, “You’ll attend it with me.” An order.
“That’s fine,” I said, nothing in my voice betraying that it was far from okay.
He went very still, and his eyes flew back to mine. “Is that going to be a problem?”
Seriously, the guy was a warlock or something. It was next to impossible to get anything past him. “Of course not,” I replied. “Are you sure you don’t want coffee?”
He didn’t answer. He just fixed me with that hunter stare. The only reason I didn’t squirm or avert my gaze was that I’d had plenty of practice at acting unaffected.
The cell phone he’d placed on his desk began to ring.
“I’m sure,” he finally replied, reaching for the chiming phone.
“Okay. Buzz me if you need anything.” With that, I left the office and returned to my desk. It was clean and tidy but, unlike his, far from sparse with a computer, printer, landline, stationery, and the fake cactus that my foster mother gave me. Melinda knew I’d accidentally kill a real plant.
I didn’t have time to dwell on the upcoming meeting—I had too much shit to do. As the founder and CEO of an incredibly successful analytical software company, Dane maintained a schedule that was never anything but hectic, and his workload was never anything but heavy. That meant my workload was just as heavy.
There was never a lull in the activity during the day. It started off at full throttle and remained that way until the business hours finally came to an end—and sometimes even longer than that. But I liked working in such a fast-paced environment. Each day was similar yet different.
Luckily, Dane wasn’t one of those bosses who asked his PA to do ridiculous shit like buy him condoms or cater to diva-like whims. In fact, he never sent me on any personal errands, as if preferring to keep his personal life separate. He was an intensely private guy, and I’d long ago given up trying to get to know him.
He rarely sent me out of the office on errands, though he did occasionally ask me to courier sensitive documents to other buildings. He also used me as a sounding board on occasion, which I liked. Mostly, though—in a nutshell—I handled his calendar, kept things running smoothly, and freed up as much of his time as possible by taking care of tasks that didn’t require his personal touch. I also made sure everyone else was in sync with his calendar of meetings, trips, and conferences.
The most trying part of my job was screening Dane’s emails, calls, mail, and visitors. Everyone “needed” to speak to him, and everything was a “priority.”
One of the things I most liked about being his PA was that I often accompanied him on business trips. They weren’t necessarily fun, since my time was rarely mine during those trips—I ran on pretty much the same schedule as him. Still, I got to travel on private jets, stay in luxury hotels, and attend exclusive events.
I was part way through an expense report for his last business trip when Dane came striding out of his office, and I realized that almost an hour had gone by. My stomach sank. All too soon, he and I were heading to one of the conference rooms for the meeting.
I was so annoyed with myself for caring that Owen would be there. I didn’t want it to matter. Didn’t want him to matter. He didn’t deserve to. Not that I was still hurting after what he’d done. But I didn’t like being reminded of that time; of how small he’d made me feel when he’d not only dumped me but dropped me from his life like I was a bag of crack.
Maybe it wouldn’t have hurt as much if we hadn’t been friends for so long. I didn’t trust easily, but I’d trusted Owen. I’d never thought he’d ever cut contact between us like that. And it stung that he’d so easily been able to do it.
As we reached the conference room, Dane stopped at the door and turned to me. “Is there something I should know?”
I blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“You’re uncomfortable. Why?”
Yep, he was a warlock. “I could tell you, but it involves talk of feminine products—”
“I don’t need to hear it.”
I almost snickered.
Dane entered the room first. The three men gathered at the long table instantly rose to their feet. Once they’d all exchanged greetings and the visitors were done metaphorically kissing Dane’s ass, he gestured at me and said, “This is my PA, Vienna.”