Page 10 of The CEO

“This is your room. Feel free to put all your stuff away.” He placed my suitcase in front of the closet. “Is this all your stuff?”

“The rest is at the office. I didn’t want to haul it around to wherever I ended up tonight. I’ll bring the rest back with me tomorrow. It’s not much.”

“If you need any help, Roger, who’s the day doorman, will gladly help you out.” He looked around the room as if it was his first time in there. “You can do whatever you want, and I won’t hear it. I’m on the other side of the apartment, but I guess it won’t matter after tonight.”

“You don’t have to worry, I’m not a loud person.”

“Is that so?” A large smirk crossed his chiseled face.

Internally, I rolled my eyes and acted as if I didn’t get his innuendo. Was sex the only thing he ever thought about? It certainly seemed it was all I thought about when I was in proximity to him.

Leaving the room, Kingston looked over his shoulder at me. His eyes were dark as they scanned me up and down. “Put your things away and when you’re done come out and help me decide what to have for dinner.”

Had I entered the twilight zone? Kingston Avery was nice and caring, and dare I say almost… sweet?

Slipping my heels off, I opened the door to the closet and gasped. Holy hell, it was the biggest closet I’d ever seen. That seemed to be a running theme when it came to Kingston Avery. It was one of those closets you’d see in a magazine of a master suite. But never in a guest bedroom. Had Kingston given me the master suite? There was an honest to god island in the middle of the closet. An entire wall was meant for shoes. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine the amount of clothes it would require to make a dent in all the storage. The best part about it was it smelled like cedar. I could spend hours in its little sitting room looking at how beautiful it was. If I lived here, I’d never want to leave.

Stepping outside the closet, I looked around the bedroom in utter astonishment. The bed seemed to be bigger than a king and yet barely took up any space at all. One wall was entirely made up of windows that looked out on what seemed to be the entire city. His apartment was like a mansion on top of a skyscraper. I’m not sure why I was so surprised. Kingston grew up with money and he made a hell of a lot of it on his own with Avery Capital Holdings.

After unpacking my meager belongings into the closet of all closets, I went out in search of my boss. I needed to keep reminding myself he was my boss and not the hottie that was currently standing in his kitchen.

I couldn’t help but do my own appraisal of him as he’d done of me before he left me to unpack. He looked good in his natural habitat. Not that he didn’t look good at work, but here in his home with his suit jacket off, hair in disarray, white shirt sleeves rolled up, and standing barefoot in his kitchen, Kingston Avery was phenomenal. The look of stress was no longer evident on his face, and as he smiled and played with his dogs, I wanted to run my hands through his hair and jump him.

“Everything okay, Ms. Wang? You’re not still thinking about your tool of an ex, are you? Because if you are, let me tell you something. He was stupid to cheat on you. Stupid. Utterly stupid. I would never… Any man who would cheat on you needs his head examined.”

“I… no I wasn’t thinking about him.” But I was now. Changing the subject so I wouldn’t start crying, I asked, “Did you give me the master suite?”

Kingston along with all the dogs cocked their heads at me. He made a strange sound in the back of his throat as his lips moved with nothing coming out. “I gave you the biggest guest room. Do you want to move to a different room? It won’t hurt my feelings.”

“You have feelings?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. Slapping my hand over my mouth, I looked at him with what I was sure was terror in my eyes. I had to remember that even if I was in his home, Kingston was still my boss and I couldn’t say anything I wanted to him or I might get fired.

A low rumbling chuckle filled the room. “On occasion, I seem to exhibit signs of feelings.” His eyes narrowed as his full lips tipped up. “If you tell anyone, I’ll have to kill you.”

“Under penalty of death seems pretty harsh.” I moved into the kitchen to find about twenty menus laid out on the counter. “It looks like you do takeout as much as I do.”

He looked down at the menus, one shoulder went up in a half shrug. “I work late and it’s more fun to order for one person than it is to cook for one.”

I didn’t even have that excuse. I could have cooked for Haider and me, but after work and almost an hour ride home, I was in no mood to cook. Maybe that’s why Haider strayed.

“What are you in the mood for?” I noticed then that the menus were organized by cuisine and at least half of them were Chinese.

I came around to stand beside him, so I didn’t have to try and read them upside down. “Anything but Chinese.”

Kingston leaned his hip against the counter, looking down at me. “I don’t mean to be insensitive, but are you Chinese?” Immediately he looked away and I swore I saw the slightest tinge of pink in his cheeks. I had to be imagining everything about tonight because nothing made sense, especially my boss being embarrassed.

“One hundred percent.” The bite in my tone was unnecessary and I hated it immediately. I didn’t want Kingston to think he’d upset me by his question. It wasn’t him in the slightest. I couldn’t stop thinking about the redhead I caught Haider with. From an early age, I knew I’d always marry someone Chinesebecause that was the way I was raised, and that’s all I’d dated since I was allowed to start dating at the age of seventeen. That’s not to say I wasn’t ever attracted to a male of another race, but I was never interested until I stepped into Kingston Avery’s office and saw the Adonis standing before me.

“I’m sorry. It’s not you.” I closed my eyes and tried to calm down enough to explain. “All my life I was brought up to believe that the only right man for me would be Chinese and my fiancé. Ex fiancé, Haider,” I amended. “He was very traditional in most ways.”

“Wait, your boyfriend’s name is Haider?” He choked out as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. He doubled over the counter. His low rumble of a laugh filled the space. “As in ‘hate her’?” He placed an elbow on the counter as if it would help stabilize him from falling over. It didn’t work. Kingston slapped the counter and pretended to wipe a tear leaking out of the corners of his icy green eyes.

It did kind of sound like that and I had to laugh along with him. It felt good to laugh today after feeling as if life as I knew it was over.

Straightening up, I turned back to the menus. Standing there with Kingston was a mixture of both awkwardness and comfort. It made no sense and yet it did which further confused me. “My ex only ever ate Chinese food.” It never made sense to me since I’d grown up in a traditional Chinese family and although we ate a great deal of Chinese food, we ate other food.

Kingston started picking up all the menus that were Chinese and threw them in an empty drawer. “Do you have a drawer solely for menus?” I asked on a laugh. It was possible since his kitchen had more cabinetry than my entire house.Not your house anymore.

“It wasn’t being used for anything else.” He studied the menus as if he’d never seen them before. Was he embarrassed? Out of nowhere, he said, “How about pizza and ice cream?”

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