Page 2 of Not As Advertised

Whoa. I was shocked by his direct, “no fucks given” kind of tone. Mr. Sullivan sounded like a man who knew exactly what he wanted and would accept nothing less.

My stomach rolled.

The caller must have taken that as the cue that his time was up, but not before he had one last thing to say.

“Nothing. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Thanks, Quinn.”

The call ended, and Mr. Sullivan looked up, and his chocolate-brown eyes met mine.

My stomach plummeted through all five floors of the building below. This was not happening. I couldn’t believe it. It was the same man I’d clumsily flirted with at the park yesterday!

I was in the center of Amado’s downtown square, working on the latest assignment for the community college photography class I’d given my monthly grocery budget toafford. Photography was my secret passion. I loved the class enough to suffer through thirty days of peanut butter sandwiches in exchange.

I was still struggling to get over my bitterness about having to work overtime for the first time in my three years at my job. I hadn’t even met my new boss, but HR had called me this morning saying I absolutely “needed” to proof the new company-wide employee handbook he’d written before Monday morning.

“Hi. You left this over there.” I’d been so lost in my thoughts the sound of a voice had me jolting with shock.

My head whipped to the side so quickly that some of my long hair smacked me in the face. Quickly brushing it out of my eyes, I was surprised to find myself face-to-face with a hot stranger. The rich brown of his eyes, with hints of gold around the center, drew me in. His defined cheekbones and jawline were accentuated by the five-o’clock shadow, making him look rugged and handsome even though it was early afternoon. His perfection was almost complete, except for a slight bump in his nose. Maybe he had broken it once upon a time.

Gaping like a fish was probably not the best first impression, so I’d done my best to force my sluggish brain into basic human interaction mode. I hadn’t said a word or glanced at the hand he’d been holding up for too long for this moment to be anything but awkward. When I finally got my brain and body in sync, I looked down to see he was holding my lens cap. It must have fallen out of my bag as I scouted the surrounding gardens for the best shots.

“Oh. Um. Thank you!”

Brilliant. Wasn’t I just the conversationalist of the year?

The rest of our interaction evaporated into mist as I shook myself out of the memory of how smitten I’d been after spending such a short time talking to him on that bench.

Now, he was standing in front of me expectantly, and I had evidently missed an essential part of this introduction process.

“I’m sorry? I was lost in thought.” My cheeks heated with embarrassment at being caught not paying attention.

An indecipherable expression graced his face.

“I said, ‘Good morning, Ms. Summers.’”

I stammered a rushed reply. “Uh, erm, yes! Good morning! I mean, it’s uh, very nice to meet you, Mr. Sullivan.” I shoved my right hand out toward him, hoping he didn’t notice it was shaking.

Did I sound as idiotic to him as I did to my own ears?

His warm, dry hand enveloped mine. No nerves for this man. Only one of us was a train wreck.

Hint: that person was not named Aiden Sullivan.

With only the quickest glance over at Linda, his attention snapped back to me. But why? Was he worried that I’d bring up yesterday? God forbid, did he think I’d pick up where we left off at the park and clumsily attempt to hit on him?

Between the nerves swirling in my stomach and the shock of seeing the blindingly hot man from the park again—now my boss because the universe must be just that cruel—the last thing on my mind was anything hookup related. Meeting a stranger I was supposed to work closely with was awkward. But we’d blown straight past awkward into some sort of hurricane of social disaster.

It was official. This was going to be the shortest contract in Appeal’shistory. This certainly wasn’t representative of my professionalism. What kind of faith could he have in my ability to do this job if I didn’t have much myself?

I closed my burning eyes and sighed. I’d been hard at work in my new office since 6:30 a.m., and I still hadn’t gotten enough done to feel like I was making headway on the pile of to-dos my predecessor had left. This put me in the position of playing catch-up on my first day with the company.

I loathed being out of control, and here I was, starting my first day of the most important role of my career, frantically trying to steer a ship with no map.

One perk of my new office was the coveted “corner office” view. Apparently, I had a magnificent view of the city of Amado and its central square in the distance. Unfortunately, even a couple hours after I’d arrived, there hadn’t been one moment to appreciate it.

The irony was I’d have to schedule some time to think about it later. For now, two cups of simply awful coffee and four paper cuts later, I wasn’t even sure I was still breathing. I was so focused on getting everythingjust rightso no one would question why I’d been hired to do this job.

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