Page 16 of Mr. On Your Knees
When Aaron hurried past him, entered the room and greeted Desi with an exuberant “hello” Jared figured this was the reason the guy wanted to carry all four of these boxes that easily weighed more than him into the room—to impress Desi. Jared decided right then that he was either going to have to tell Aaron to back off or fire him because there was no way he was going to be able to continue watching this dude try to shoot his shot with her.
“Hey, Aaron,” Desi replied and then looked past him to see Jared walking directly behind him. “Jared? I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
“Hi Desi,” he said. “Where do you want these?” He motioned toward the boxes with a nod of his head.
“Oh, you can put them right over here.” She moved around the table where she and Mari had been standing.
He followed her and caught Mari’s smirk as he passed her. “I didn’t expect to see you down here today either.”
“He called your office looking for you,” Aaron chimed in just before he bumped into Jared’s back.
He’d been following Desi too and most likely watching her ass as she moved. Especially when she bent over the table to move some of the fabric that had been laid out there. She wore a fitted red skirt today with a cream-colored blouse that hugged her breasts.
“Oh, sorry,” Aaron said when Jared turned back to glare at him.
“Did you need something, Jared?” Mari asked lifting a brow.
He turned back to see that Mari had moved until she was standing right beside him now. “I did,” he replied because he was guessing she knew exactly why he’d really made his way down here. It was probably the reason she hadn’t told him that Desi was coming to the hotel this week. “The contract we’re meeting about tomorrow, there’s a chunk of the third section that has to go. I wanted to ask why it was even in the original contract in the first place.”
Mari nodded. “I think I know what you’re talking about. Do you want to head back to my office to discuss? Desi can finish up here with Aaron.”
His teeth clenched again but he gave Mari a curt nod anyway. “That’s fine. But I need to talk to Desi for a second, so I’ll meet you in your office.”
“Right,” Mari said and then turned her attention to Desi who was standing on the other side of the table. “Email me with any changes, but otherwise as we discussed, all looks good so far.”
“I will,” Desi replied.
Aaron had been stacking the boxes on the end of the table at Desi’s direction so now the three of them stood in the large room. Aaron rested his arms on the boxes and gazed from Jared to Desi and then back to Jared again. When the younger guy held Jared’s gaze that last time, he caught on to the frown Jared was offering him.
“Oh. Okay. Um, I’ll just go over there,” he said pointing across the room at nothing in particular. “Yeah, um all the way over here, while you two talk.”
He hustled away and Jared returned his gaze to Desi.
“You scare him,” she said with a shake of her head.
“He should be scared,” Jared replied. “If he keeps sniffing around you the way he has been I might actually break his neck.”
“Jared!”
“What?”
She huffed. “Stop being ridiculous. What did you need to talk to me about?”
He slipped one hand in his front pant pocket and tried to keep his gaze from falling to her body again. She looked good as fuck and he wanted desperately to touch her, to kiss her again, to feel her soft curves against him. “Have dinner with me tonight?” The question just rolled off his tongue. On his way down here he hadn’t given any thought to what he was going to say to her, just knew that he wanted to see her.
For a few seconds she looked stunned. Her eyes widened and she stood up straight to stare across the table at him. She’d pulled all that thick natural hair into a smooth bun on top of her head today. Tiny pearl earrings were at each ear, leaving her neck bare to the high collar of her blouse. He used to love nuzzling her neck, dropping kisses along the line of her jaw. Swallowing hard he asked, “I know you eat dinner, Desi. You’re the one who got me eating three meals a day every day.”
“Five,” she chimed in. “Two snacks between meals.”
He grinned and nodded. “Yeah, I forgot that part.”
“It helps to keep your metabolism stable,” she continued.
“I want to take you to dinner, Desi.”
“Like a date?” she asked, her eyes still wide like she really couldn’t believe he was asking her out.
But she’d been present for that kiss. In fact, her nipples had hardened, he’d felt them through her blouse and the dress shirt he wore. Desi had the biggest prettiest blush-colored nipples. He couldn’t help it, he licked his lips at the thought.
