Page 8 of Tempt

My heart raced as I hurried toward the conference room and my impending lecture on lateness.Mr. Sutherland most certainly does not laugh.

I made him laugh.

I also made his breath hitch.

For a mysterious man who never made appearances, everyone sure seemed to know an awful lot. It looked like I needed to acquaint myself with the local gossip columns. If I was going to keep running into Theo in strange places, it was high time I armed myself with information.

I needed to know what I was getting myself into before it was too late to run in the opposite direction.

Because that was the last thing on my mind now that I’d seen him twice.

Chapter 4

My lecture from Margaret when I arrived was surprisingly short. It consisted of a glare, a command to sit, and a cold shoulder for the rest of the meeting. Of course Margaret was looking at her phone when I walked in, which led me to believe Theo had made good on his promise to email her. I couldn’t imagine any other reason for such leniency from my boss.

“Margaret, I want to apologize for being late,” I said as the conference room cleared after the meeting. Ava paused near the door, eavesdropping.

“Don’t do it again.” The air in the room zapped with a new electric charge—the cold kind that came from being too close to someone in a bad mood. I wanted desperately to take a step back, but didn’t dare follow through.

“Of course,” I said. “Again, I apologize and it will not happen again.”

“Do you have a moment?”

Oh, that couldn’t be good. Ava needed to come back. Or Luis or James. Someone needed to save me from whatever Margaret was going to drop on me. “What can I do for you?”

She slid a folder across the table. “I have another project I’d like you to work on while you’re here. It might require you to extend your stay by a week or two, but I think it could use your touch.”

I flipped open the folder. Pinned to the top of the documents was a picture of a stone-faced historic building. The information sheet on the inside cover listed the address as two blocks from the iON Building. My eyebrows rose. “What’s this?”

“This isn’t an HMD2 assignment. I’m being contracted on the side and I’d like to hire you as the consultant. Nolan Industries has purchased this building and wishes to renovate it, but the way they want it done really needs a personal and creative touch. As you can see we will have to deal with a large number of issues because of the building’s age. They want to keep the important features, but make this building as green and efficient as the law will allow. I couldn’t think of anyone more suited than you.”

I nodded absently as I skimmed all the information in the folder. “I’ll need to get up to speed on London preservation laws and probably consult with an architectural historian, as well as someone in code enforcement—or whatever your term for it is here.”

“You’ll have carte blanche on planning. Speak with whom you must, order any research you need. I want an extensive plan on my desk in two weeks.”

On top of my regular workload?That was going to be a fun… But then again, I wasn’t in London to have fun. I was here to make my mark. “You’ve got it.”

She gave me a nod, indicating I was free to go, so I gathered up the folder and moved toward the door.

Just as I was about to pull it open, she spoke again. “And Allison? Watch out for Theo. He’s…” she paused. I’d never seen Margaret look so soft. As if she liked Theo. “He’s unique and a bit eccentric. Focus on your work and leave the crazy billionaire in the attic to himself.”

“I intend to.” I assured her, but deep down inside I knew that wasn’t what was actually going to happen.

* * *

“Theo Sutherland.”I said his name under my breath as I typed it into the search bar on my computer. The results were instantaneous. Images, articles, gossip and business. I took a breath and leaned back, taking it all in. Most of it was the basics I already knew. Theo was thirty-two, born in London to the famous Sutherland family. He started iON Innovations when he was twenty-two and it had quickly become one of the largest and most successful technology companies in the world. One article called him the “British Elon Musk.” Another touted his accomplishments starting with his membership in Mensa and ending with his list of inventions currently in production.

It blew me away. I was smart, but Theo was, quite literally, a genius. He’d created more by thirty-two than I ever would. It was mildly intimidating to realize how brilliant he was, but mostly it was just plain sexy.

I moved over to pictures. They all looked nearly identical. Theo in a dark suit looking stern. His hair changed style and he went back forth between clean-shaven and gorgeous beards, but in every single picture he looked like he was pissed. Angry even. I could imagine him terrifying a conference table full of board members just as easily as I could picture him in a dark alley with a gun. Either way, Theo would be intimidating and fully capable of handling the situation. He just had that look about him.

And yet, he never once looked like this with me. Granted I’d met him all of twice, both rather briefly, but this angry face staring back at me from image after image and page after page, was completely different from the man I saw Friday night, and again a couple of hours ago in the elevator.

It was almost as if he were two different people.

That made me wonder about Margaret’s parting words,Leave the crazy billionaire in the attic.Like Bertha inJane Eyre. Except Theo was no Bertha. Then my eyes fell on an image I wasn’t expecting. The faintest smile pulled at the corner of Theo’s lips. His arms were around a woman in the throes of laughter. That woman was Margaret.

I quickly clicked on the image. It brought up an article from a gossip column. Apparently the pair were snapped at a fundraiser. The caption read,Childhood friends Margaret Hickman and Theo Sutherland.

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