Page 15 of The Boss’s Obsession
He noticed you yesterday. The insistent voice in my head made me blush. Sure, he had noticed me yesterday, but was it just because I’d rocked the boat, and threatened the status quo? Did he think I’d change my mind about leaving if he threw me a bone?
Clicking through the résumés, I selected the candidates I thought would work best and forwarded them to HR, copying in Ronan as I did. Last night was no reason to change my plans and I should make that obvious. If Ronan thought that I could be so easily swayed, he had a lesson to learn. At the end of the day, Ronan and I didn’t make sense. He was brilliant, a certified genius, older, sexy as hell, and rich. Why would he be interested in me? I didn’t hate myself or anything, but I was a realist, and something didn’t add up.
Once the email had been sent, I closed my laptop, the emails finally sorted, and pushed it away, then burrowed under the covers. Sleep beckoned, and eager to stop my circular thoughts, I surrendered to it.
CHAPTER12
Ronan
That morning, I’d woken from a restless night. My mind was spiraling, like it often did when I was overwhelmed with emotion or sensations. I needed quiet, and to be alone to process the magnitude of the shifting feelings inside my chest.
One thing I knew for sure.
Everything had changed.
I’d gone into the office earlier than usual, and given the night guard a fright. Once I’d organized for a nurse to watch Sienna, I put my mind to work and hoped to shift through my tangled, unfamiliar feelings that way. Hours passed, and the sun rose in the sky, hitting its zenith before I started to have some clarity. I called Nurse Debbie and was perplexed to hear that Sienna had taken herself home. An odd, empty feeling clutched my chest when I thought of going back to my penthouse and finding her gone.
Then, the email landed.
As I sat at my desk, trying to keep my mind on work, an email from Sienna popped up with her recommendations for other assistants. I had one week with her left, and she was committed to leaving. The reminder, and the fact that her intentions were unchanged even after last night, sent me shooting up from my chair. I called Jim on the way to the elevator and had him meet me downstairs.
I needed to speak to her face to face. The urge to be in the same room as her was impossible to ignore. Everything in my body was driving me forward to Sienna, wherever she might be.
I got into the town car, and we started downtown. How exactly I had come to depend so hard on Sienna, I couldn’t exactly trace. It had started at some point in the first few months, while she had struggled through her grief, and kept showing up, rain or shine. She had shown a strength that drew me in and impressed me effortlessly.
The memory of her body beneath mine last night kept replaying in my head. I wasn’t averse to physical intimacy, I just didn’t like most women enough to consider it. It had been a long time since I’d looked for a partner other than my own hand, but laying there last night, with Sienna beneath me, I’d finally understood what it was that drove people insane with desire. I wanted her and I wanted more than one illicit encounter. I wanted a whole lot more. I wanted her in my life, by my side, not as my assistant, but more.
The realization was at once obvious and shocking at the same time.
The car slid easily through the traffic toward Sienna’s neighborhood. I’d promised her father I’d take care of her, and I’m sure that fucking her hadn’t been what he’d had in mind. Guilt sank its talons through my chest. She was too young for me. She had a whole life full of possibilities in front of her, while my lifestyle was set. She might want to travel, to live abroad, and she certainly had enough money to do whatever she wanted, squirreled away in the trust I’d made for her. She had no idea about that. She also had no idea about how I’d bought her entire building before it could be repossessed and transferred to her estate, or that I owned downstairs. I’d told myself countless times that Sienna was off limits, and yet, here I was, desperate to see her, frantic at the thought that she still might want to leave me.
She’s leaving a job, not you, I reminded myself, but it was hard. To me, work was life, and there was no way to distinguish between the two. Thoughts of Sienna were cracking that neat picture, however. I wanted time with her outside the office. I wanted her in my home, in my bed, and not just at her desk at work, where I watched her on the security cameras more often than I liked to admit.
Getting out at her apartment, I caught the door as the postman stepped out the stairwell to the street.
“Don’t just let anyone in here,” I told him, hypocritical as hell, as I stepped in and let the door slam behind me. Taking the stairs two at a time, I arrived at Sienna’s door in a rush. My hand was knocking hard and insistently before I could stop myself.
I took a deep breath, as the sound echoed around the walls.Calm the fuck down, Ronan.
I felt nervous like I had never before. I’d walked into investment meetings where the outcome would make or break the company in the early days of Turner Tech, and not felt as urgent as I did right then.
After a moment, the silence in the hall shifted, and I knew in my gut that Sienna was standing on the other side of the door. I stared up at the discreet camera mounted in the doorbell, the one I had completely neglected to notice in my urgency to knock.
“Open the door, Sienna.”
The door opened slowly.
“Mr. Turner?” Sienna’s voice was scratchy with sleep, and she looked tousled and gorgeous as hell.
I stepped through the threshold, and Sienna stepped back, her eyes wide. “I thought I told you to call me Ronan from now on.”
She swallowed hard, and wet her lips. “Ronan. What are you doing here?”
“Checking on you. You were supposed to stay at home, in bed,” I said, advancing slowly into her kitchen.
“I was at home, in bed.”
“I meant my home, in my bed,” I clarified.
