It was part of his mystery. Every CEO I’d worked for had been glued to his texts and emails night and day. Aidan wasn’t. What did he do in his off-hours? My only experience was with workaholics, so I had no idea.
Well, I knew what he’d done in his off-hours last night. He’d gone to a gala. Alone.
“Is there a reason Noah Pearson is calling for a partner meeting by email, instead of texting you?” I asked. All of the partners must know that an email would get to Aidan much more slowly than a text to his private line.
Aidan shrugged. “Probably because he knows you’ll see an email before I do, which means that whatever he wants will actually get done.”
“But he’s never met me,” I said. I hadn’t met any of the partners yet, since they weren’t here in New York.
“He doesn’t have to meet you,” Aidan said. “He knows that I turn up everywhere I’m supposed to, on time and fully dressed. That means you must be competent. If he texted the request to me, I’d never show up.”
I shook my head. “Thank you for the compliment, but I doubt that.” Aidan was one of the smartest men I’d ever met. “I’ve never seen you forget anything.”
Aidan pushed his shoulder off the doorframe. “I didn’t say I’d forget. I said I wouldn’t show up. You keep me honest, it seems. Can you meet me in my office for a few minutes?”
“Of course,” I said, standing. I grabbed my notebook and pen and followed him back to his office.
When we were alone with the door closed, I felt the familiar rush of quiet excitement I always had. This was new, and probably a bad idea. I’d never felt attraction for any of my bosses before. Some of them had made passes at me, or at least made it known that they were open to the idea of sex. It was creepy, but it was part of the job. Men who were as rich and powerful as the ones I worked for saw sex as just another acquisition, something that came easy to them from anyone they chose.
If I wasn’t comfortable working for a particular man, I left. And if a man wanted to fire me for saying no, that was his problem. I knew my worth, and I wasn’t going to starve.
But I’d never worked for a man as good-looking as Aidan. Aside from that, there was a quiet zing of chemistry between us. It made me remember that I was single and not dead from the neck down. It also made me remember that I hadn’t had sex in a while. It was difficult not to notice how easily Aidan moved in his expensive suits or how good he smelled. The fact that he was single, with a mysterious reputation as a loner, only made him more attractive.
Still, I was a professional, and this was my job. A high-paying job that I was very, very good at. I could handle a sizzle of attraction without acting on it. I wasn’t about to make Aidan feel uncomfortable by fawning over him. If a man couldn’t do that to me, then I couldn’t do it to him either.
We worked well together. That was what mattered.
Still, as I sat in the chair across from his desk and crossed my legs, I felt that zing again. It made me feel feminine, which I hadn’t felt very often lately. I found my gaze lingering on one of Aidan’s gorgeous hands, and I pulled it away.
“Is everything ready for the meeting at ten?” he asked me.
Right. Wake up, Samantha. “Yes. Coffee is ordered and the room should be set up. I’ll go double-check that when I leave here.”
“The Egerton brothers,” Aidan said with a grim tone to his voice. He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I hate doing the internet startup deals.”
“But you’re going to do a deal,” I said.
“You guessed from the schedule?” He shrugged. “The metrics look good, and the profit potential is there. Though the internet deals are more Dane’s area of expertise.”
Dane Scotland, the Chicago partner, was the programming wiz. Aidan was the expert in real estate deals.
“Is there anything else on my schedule?” he asked.
I checked my phone. “No. Not that I know of.”
Aidan’s eyebrows rose. “That you know of?”
“I just mean that last night…” Shit. What an idiot. Why was I bringing up the gala last night? It had just slipped out because it was on my mind, and now I’d dug myself a hole. “Maybe I didn’t have your schedule right,” I finished lamely.
“You’re asking me about the gala last night.” Aidan leaned back in his chair.
“Not really.” And damn it, now I could feel my cheeks get hot. This never happened to me. “What I mean is, it’s none of my business. I’m only concerned in case I missed something I was supposed to know.” A lot of my bosses needed my help with attending events: making sure formalwear was acquired and cleaned, ordering drivers, sending gifts.
“And how did you know I attended?” The corner of his mouth quirked, but his gaze was calm. I’d never annoyed Aidan, and I didn’t want to start today. Especially after warning the others about it.
“I may have seen a headline somewhere by mistake.” He said nothing, so I decided to handle the situation by turning it around. “Honestly, it was an accident. I don’t Google you in my off-hours, Aidan. If you think I do, that’s your ego talking.”
He blinked, and then his expression relaxed. For a second, the Man in Black almost smiled. Then he said, “Fine, Samantha. Let’s move on.”