He rubbed my back while I pulled myself together, then I pushed him away and sat down heavily on my couch. I began pulling files from my briefcase to prepare for the meeting, and I lost myself so deeply into the files, I didn’t realize he had walked away.
“Stella?” Christian said.
“I’ll be ready in 30,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. I rescheduled our meeting with the doctor for Monday,” he said.
“What?” I asked. “Why the hell did you do that?”
“Because you need time to adjust. I told her there was information we would need from her, detailed information, and she said she could have it ready by Monday. That way, you have time to process, I have more time to learn the tricks of the trade, and we can get her going with orders before we even walk out of that meeting,” he said.
I looked over at him in appreciation and took in the impression he made in his new clothes. The suit fell wonderfully against his shoulders before it tapered at his waist, and I’d never realized until this very moment how long his legs really were.
It took force to rip my gaze from him before I flopped the files down onto the coffee table.
“Thanks,” I said.
“No thanks needed. It’s the smarter choice for the company in the end.”
“When did you get to be so smart?” I asked.
“I’ve always been smart, I think,” he said, winking.
“Stella!”
I hopped up from the couch when I heard Greyson’s voice yell down the hallway.
“Greyson’s here?” I asked.
“I’ll handle this,” Christian said.
“Stella! Get out here now!” he yelled.
Christian stood his entire body in my doorway, and it was the first time I got a sense of how truly tall he was. He pushed his hands into his pockets and stood in the doorway of my office, blocking Greyson from coming in. His shoulders were pulled back, and his head was held high, and that’s when I finally realized that Christian had grown up.
Christian Gunn had become a man, and I had been oblivious to it.
“Can I help you?” Christian asked.
“Get out of my way,” Greyson said. “Where’s Stella?”
“Hard at work helping me run this company. But, I’d be more than willing to take a message for her, if you’d like,” Christian said.
“Stella! You left before we could talk!” Greyson yelled.
“I don’t really believe there’s anything for the two of you to talk about. You cheated on my stepsister. One of the most beautiful, vibrant women I’ve ever known. That’s your fault.”
“No one breaks up with me. We can talk this out. She’s better than this,” Greyson said.
“No,” Christian said. “She’s better than you.”
“Fine. You want to play it like this? That’s alright with me,” Greyson said. “You tell her she’ll amount to nothing. There’s no fucking way she could run a company like this. Hell, she couldn’t even stick out a decent relationship without bitching at every single hiccup we had.”
“Is that what this was? You just hiccupped your dick into the body of another woman?” Christian asked.
“You let her know I stopped by,” Greyson said.
“Not a chance,” Christian said.