I don’t even bother responding. This doesn’t feel like it will be all good. It feels like this is going to hell in a damn handbasket. It’s only now I really take in what Natalie called for. Leo didn’t like the way I dressed? What about what Victoria said? Was I that ugly? Was I too fat that I needed to cover every inch of myself, so he didn’t have to see my fat? What the hell? And my hair too? Victoria said he liked long hair and he liked it down. But he wants me to put mine up?
Leo didn’t like me. He doesn’t think I’m pretty, not even a little bit. He doesn’t want me, and he never will. Why am I crying? I knew this is what I was getting myself into, this is nothing new when it comes to an attractive man not wanting me. I’ve gone through this before. It doesn’t make it hurt any less.
8
Tuesday
Leo
When the elevator opens I find out I was right. Alexa’s hair is scraped back in a bun so tight not a single hair can escape. She is wearing a prim white blouse buttoned to her neck. All it does is put her beautiful face in sharp relief. I want to yank her hair out of that ridiculous bun and watch it flow down her naked body.
Sonofabitch. It doesn’t help her eyes are firmly on her computer screen. If anything, it makes me angrier. “Double shot.” I bark on my way to my desk. I slam my door, needing to break something.
When she knocks on my door almost ten minutes later, I am biting at the bit to get at her. “Come.”
She opens the door and is careful with the cup and saucer she carries as well as the two morning reports. The moment she sets the coffee and reports on my desk I strike. “I want my coffee waiting for me when I get here. I am here at seven. I have been waiting for almost ten minutes. What did I tell you yesterday?”
Her jaw goes tight. “Yes, sir. It will be here when you come in tomorrow. Is there anything else, sir?”
I open my briefcase and pull out the report she did yesterday and toss it across the desk. “You left out information on other mines. I want the history of all mines within a five-thousand-mile radius both operational and non-operational, not just precious metal. There is an opal mine less than a thousand miles away from the one I am considering buying. Redo it. I want it in two hours.”
“Yes, sir.” She reaches for the report.
“If I say I want it in two hours Alexa, what does that mean?”
Her lush mouth tightens. “Two hours, sir. You’ll have it by nine.”
“Complete?” I taunt.
A vein flickers in her forehead. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. Nine o’clock it is.” I am going to hell for enjoying the way Alexa fought against her every desire to say something very different from ‘yes, sir’. I could feel the little bursts of heat from her anger, it was damned intriguing to think about Alexa’s temper. Did she yell? Did her eyes get bluer? Did her breasts heave with her deep breathing? I am so fucked because the
slacks she is wearing cling to her and detail just how long her legs really are. It is another kind of hell to watch her round, sweet ass as she walks away.
If I keep this up she will be gone by the end of the week. I refuse to acknowledge the way my skin tightens at the thought. This is the best thing, for the both of us.
***
Alexa
I hate Leandros Kaplan. With his stupid smug smile and those all-knowing black eyes. He’s in a stark black suit with a snow-white shirt and dark blue tie today. I’m not proud of the way I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I am proud of the way I didn’t tell him he was a stupid jerk about his coffee. And the way I didn’t tell him I wasn’t psychic about the stupid report. I’d looked up all the precious metal mines in a thousand-mile radius. Okay, yes, I only looked up the operational ones but how the hell would I have known to make the jump to minerals?
Leandros Kaplan is an asshole, and I’m starting to hate his guts.
***
Leo
I am staring at the clock in the corner of my computer. It’s two minutes until nine. There is no way she will finish the report on time, and if she does manage it, it will not be complete. The time changes, Alexa knocks on my door. I cannot believe it. I will have to dig through it to find something wrong, there has to be something wrong with it. I need there to be. I pull out the article I found last night. It’s her next project.
“Come.” The word is barely out before she opens my door. Her cheeks are pink, and her eyes are glowing a deep blue. Fuck, I want her. She offers the report to me with a defiant expression on her face, daring me to find something wrong with it. I will.
I take it with one hand and extend the article with the other. “Josh Barker is looking to extend his brand. I want to know everything. Where he has been, where he wants to take it. Do not forget to find out his competition and if there is room for his growth or if it will oversaturate. I need it by eleven. My lunch at noon is a working one with Drake Hawthorne. You will be attending as well, to take notes. Confirm the reservation at Ludlows and a car. Before you do that, I need more coffee. A single shot this time.”
Her eyes grow big then narrow. “Yes, sir.”
She stalks out of the room. Damn, she’s gorgeous when she’s angry.