The CEO & I

I collapse on the bed, groaning.

What the hell just happened?

Oh. My. God. He asked me to call him Luke.

My heart hammers away as conflicting emotions war inside me. Luke knows what I look like now. He knows having me as his assistant violates his unspoken rule, but he just behaved as if it isn’t that big a deal. Like I am such a good assistant, my little trick doesn’t matter. Will he change his mind once he’s had some time to think about it? Will he decide to fire me? Or will he just transfer me to another department?

On the other hand, I’m over the moon that Luke knows what I look like now. I hated dressing like a frump, I hated the thick glasses, hated scraping my hair into the most unattractive hairstyle anyone could ever have, and I sorely missed my lipstick and my mascara. It did my ego no good to be so invisible for so many hours of the day. So, I had to be nearly naked for him to notice me, but he has finally looked up and noticed that I’m a woman. He even said I’m tempting. My heart feels as if it will fly out of my body with happiness because obviously, I’ve been crushing on him hard since the first time we met for my job interview.

I mean, I’d have to be blind not to be attracted to him.

I was barely able to string a sentence together during my interview with him. Who can blame me? The man is the sexiest thing on two legs I’ve ever seen. Dark tousled hair, ruggedly handsome face, strong cheekbones often peppered with sexy stubble. And his eyes. Oh my, those eyes. They’re so blue it’s like looking into a hot summer sky. Sometimes, when he’s explaining something to me, he’ll look directly at me, and I can feel the intensity of his gaze. It cuts through me, like he’s looking straight into my soul. Intoxicating me.

I’d even say that over the past two months, my crush has deepened into a kind of obsession. When he’s talking to other people, I find myself just watching him, greedily drinking in the sight of him.

I didn’t think it was possible to find him any more attractive than I already did. Suits were made for that body and face. That is, until I saw him just now, when he stood in only his underwear and told me I was tempting. It’s enough to make my head spin with desire.

Then the way he’d looked at me before he left. Intense. I’m still reeling from it. I honestly thought he would kiss me, or throw me on the bed and claim me. I wish he had. I hug myself and remember the delicious tension that hung between us. I felt it. I wonder if he felt it too. I think he did. He’d never looked at me that way before. And he’d said more than once that I am attractive. Distracting even. I smile to myself.

Too bad, he hadn’t acted on those feelings.

I make my way back to the bathroom and look around me. The spider is gone now. All that’s left is a dark blue smudge. I hate spiders with a passion, but this one was a bit of a martyr. It gave up its life to change mine. I wonder how on earth it got into the bath. Maybe it hitched a ride on of the cleaner’s carts. I think of Luke slamming it with his shoe. Luke took care of me. Warmth fills my belly. My hero.

It’s like at the airport earlier, when that guy from the car service was being a dick and I couldn’t be a bitch back because Luke was standing in front of me. Luke took care of that for me, too. I’m no damsel in distress. I don’t need a man to save me, but it feels amazing when the man who comes to my aid is Luke.

Dreamily and completely forgetting that I’ve already had my shower, I step into the tub. The water rushes over me while I carry on fantasizing about him. Yes, he is an asshole sometimes. He’s over the top and domineering, and when it comes to work he is tough and demanding, but he never lets anyone else treat me badly. He may never have noticed me as a woman, but he’s always been protective of me.

It’s one of the things I love about him. His protective streak is all the more endearing because he has no ulterior motive for it. Until today, he never looked at me with any kind of sexual interest. So he didn’t protect me because he wants to get in my pants. He did it because that’s just who he was. Good and kind. Otherwise, why would he give a damn how other people treat me?