Page 4 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

CHAPTER TWO

Alex

“How’d it go?” Agatha asked. She was the fifth assistant I’d hired since the best assistant of all time, Aubrey, had quit more than a year ago. And Agatha was the first one who could do the job anywhere near the level Aubrey had done it. Five years younger than me with the fashion sense of a bohemian who could afford to shop at boutique stores Agatha had skills beyond her years.

I dropped into the comfy chair across from her desk where important people often waited to talk to me. Me. Still blew my fucking mind. “She didn’t kill me.”

Agatha leaned forward and raised her brows. The woman was like a damn inquisitor. Sad to say she was the only person in my life I could talk to about anything real.

“I don’t get it. I’ve never had trouble talking to a woman, but I get close to her and it’s like I lose brain cells.” I laced my hands together and dropped my elbows on my knees. “I should just move on. Get over her.”

She smirked. “Because that’s worked so well for you this year.”

I glared at her, but she was right. Jill was stuck in my brain, in my body, in my nose. Damn, the scent of that woman, spicy and sultry with a hint of floral. “If I didn’t see it in her eyes, if it wasn’t so obvious that she wants me, too,…”

“Are you sure she wants you? Or are you just seeing what you want to see? If she turned you down—”

I got to my feet and started pacing. “She didn’t turn me down. She said she wouldn’t date her boss.”

“And you told her about the stock options?”

“She accused me of trying to buy her.”

Her eyes popped wide in surprise. “Did you broach the subject the way I suggested? You know she’s neurotically professional, psychotically serious.”

I glared again. “On the outside, maybe, but underneath…” There were no words. I shook my head and kept pacing.

Agatha was not impressed. “You didn’t follow the script.”

“It’d been more than a week since I’d seen her, so long since I’d seen anything real from her, other than excitement over numbers, I couldn’t resist pushing a little.”

She threw her hands up and sighed. Then she turned to her computer and started typing.

“Wait,” I said. “What are you doing?”

“I’m working. It’s what you pay me for.”

“But I need your help.”

“You’re beyond help.”

“But I have an idea,” I said. “It’s a truly amazing idea.”

She looked up, doubt and hope warring in her gaze. “Spill.”

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