Page 6 of Breaking All The Rules

“Put him through.” I waited until I heard the click, confirming that the call had been transferred.

“Good morning, Brent,” I greeted as I clicked send on the email that I had been drafting. “What can I do for you this morning?”

“I wanted to let you know that I’ve decided to pull out of the deal with Fred,” he said tiredly.

“Night clubs aren’t your thing after all?” I chuckled, opening his file on my desk.

When he asked me to join him for a meeting at the club with their new owner, I knew he wouldn’t end up going through with the deal. I had worked with him long enough to be able to predict what he would do before he ever did it.

What I hadn’t been able to predict was how that night would go so completely differently than I had planned. I glanced up and looked across the hallway at Eva—the bombshell from the club who ran off before I could get her name—who was sitting at her desk, laughing at something Regina had said.

“No, there’s not enough money in the world that would make that deal worth it for me,” he confirmed with a throaty laugh.

“Fair enough. I’ll close the file on that one, but if you decide to reconsider, just—”

“I won’t.” His tone was sharp, and I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing. Brent wasn’t the easiest person to please, but that was part of what I loved about working with him. He knew what he wanted and was a fucking beast of a business partner.

“Do you still want me to work on Watson Investments?” I asked, looking at his other file on my desk.

“Yes. I want those shares in Starke, and that seems to be the best way to get them. I know Watson has had financial issues in the past, so that’s my aim. Acquire Cody’s company and boost my shares to fifty-one percent in Starke. From there, we can discuss what I plan to do with my controlling interest.”

“Got it,” I said as I wrote down a few notes on a piece of paper and tucked it into the file. “I’ll work on this and get in touch with you soon.”

I ended the call and started working on organizing the files on my desk when I heard my stomach growl. I had been so caught off guard this morning when I found out that our new hire was the same girl from the nightclub that I hadn’t taken the time to grab breakfast after the meeting.

My attention had been scattered all morning, trying to focus on anything other than the beautiful woman in the office across the hall from me. Every time she shifted position in her chair, my eyes immediately focused on her long, toned legs, which were golden brown from plenty of time spent in the sun.

By noon, Kate had brought my lunch in and set it on the table. I tried to get out of the office for breaks when I could, but nothing beat the view I had of the city. The aroma floated through the air, pulling my attention away from the email that I was trying to respond to as my stomach growled loudly in the empty room. I pressed send and looked up to see Kate delivering Eva’s lunch to her office. Her smile spread across her cheeks as she thanked Kate, and there was genuine sincerity in her eyes.

I pushed away from my desk and adjusted my tie. While I had been trying to avoid Eva so I could get work done, I found that I was desperately trying to find a way to spend time with her instead. She was like a drug, and now that I’d had a taste, I couldn’t stop.

I walked across the hallway and leaned against her door frame, knocking on the door to get her attention. She looked up, surprised to see me there.

“Hi,” she said nervously. “Did you need my help with something?”

“Actually, I was just about to take a quick break for lunch and wanted to see if you wanted to join me.”

“Oh, thank you, but Kate just brought my lunch.” She nodded over to the table where the take-out bag and a drink were sitting.

I attempted to grin, but it fell as flat as my attempt to play it cool. I never had to try with women—things just came naturally to me. If I had asked anyone else to join me for lunch, they would already be in my office, making a move—which was why I never invited anyone. But Eva was different. It was like she had already disregarded what had happened between us and went straight to the professional mode we briefly discussed earlier. While I respected it, I couldn’t say I cared for it. Not when thoughts of what she sounded like as she came continued to play on repeat in my mind. Just because I couldn’t fuck Eva anymore didn’t mean I couldn’t try to get to know her in a non-sexual kind of way.

“Umm...” I stammered nervously. I hated that she had this effect on me. “Let’s try that again. Would you like to bring your lunch to my office so we can eat together?”

I waited while she contemplated the idea and hoped that she would say yes because she wanted to and not because she felt like she was required to as my employee.

“Okay. Sure.” She pushed away from her desk and smoothed her skirt down before walking around to the front of the desk.She reached for her food at the same time I moved forward to grab it for her, forcing us into each other’s arms once again. I felt her body stiffen next to mine, the scent of her vanilla perfume filling my senses as I fought the urge to lean in and inhale the intoxicating smell. She pulled back and looked up at me under her dark lashes.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were going that way,” she apologized, rubbing her full lips together.Fuck. Me.

“Don’t be. But let me grab that for you,” I offered as I reached around her and grabbed the food from the table. My arm brushed against hers, sending a thrill of electricity through my body. I sucked in a deep breath and grabbed her drink, hoping that the coldness of the ice would help chill me out.

I pulled a chair out for her as we sat down at the table in my office. Her eyes were wide with amazement as she stared out the window, taking in the sight below us. It reminded me of a child seeing the tree light up in Times Square at Christmas for the first time. I grinned, loving how impressed she was with the view. Maybe it would be what lured her to my office more often.

I grabbed the bag of food that Kate had brought me and started to unpack everything, thankful that she had gone with Italian today instead of seafood. Not that this was a date, but I didn’t want it to stink in here, either. Given that we needed to find a way to work together and be professional, I still couldn’t force myself to stop trying to impress her, which was weird because I had never in my life worried about impressing a woman. She was different, and I found that to be more exciting than it should have been.

Finally, she broke her attention away from the window and started to unpack her lunch, which surprisingly was pasta as well. I laughed and wondered if Kate had anticipated that we would have lunch together and had ordered food from the same restaurant on purpose. She was overly receptive to people andhad a knack for knowing how to coordinate things, making it all look like it was purely coincidental.

Eva opened the lid to her pasta and leaned forward, closing her eyes as she inhaled the savory aroma of her Penne Alla Vodka. The smell filled the room and mixed beautifully with the Pasta Al Pomodoro that was sitting in front of me. It was silent while we scarfed down our food, neither of us willing to stop to try to make friendly conversation.

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