Page 19 of Dearest Protector

I startled. I’d been so lost in thought that I hadn’t even heard Ben come in.

My heart skipped a beat as I turned to look at him, just like it did every single time I saw him.

Dammit!Why couldn’t I stop that ridiculous reaction.

Yeah, he looked ungodly gorgeous in the navy custom suit he’d worn to the office today, but he wasmy boss.I’d had two weeks to get used to being around him, and he never treated me like I was anything other than a valued employee.

He’d never given me an iota of encouragement that kept me reacting this way to him.

He was friendly.

He was courteous.

He was kind.

But hedid notlook at me like he wanted to undress me with his eyes.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for myself.

I ogled his gorgeous face and amazing body every time I saw him, and it was a habit I couldn’t seem to break.

I nodded as I mentally slapped myself for salivating over my boss. “It does, right? It’s perfect in this living room.”

“This whole house looks different already,” Ben commented. “It doesn’t have that unfinished, half-moved-in look anymore.”

“If that was your preferred décor, it’s definitely starting to disappear,” I joked. “It’s beginning to look like someone actually lives here now.”

“You’re doing an amazing job, Ariel,” Ben replied in a sincere tone.

My heart squeezed inside my chest.

How long had it been since I’d gotten any kind of approval on the jobs I’d done at work?

Leland had been so cruel and so critical about everything I’d done for him.

It felt really good to hear that Ben was happy with my progress.

“I’ll start organizing and filing the paperwork in your office tomorrow,” I promised.

Ben’s home office was a complete disaster, and I knew it wasn’t because he was generally a messy guy.

He’d just never really had the energy or time to organize it since he’d worked in the Blackwood headquarters and in his home every single day for years without a break.

He smirked. “No big hurry on that. It’s been that way since I transferred some of my stuff from my office so I could do some late nights from home. I don’t expect you to fix something in a few weeks that it took years to accumulate. Relax, Ariel. It was never my intention to make you work this quickly.”

I swallowed hard as I watched him yank at the knot in his tie.

Not only was Ben Blackwood drop-dead gorgeous, but inherently thoughtful as well.

Maybe that was one of the reasons he was so damned intriguing.

After our initial meetings in the beginning, I’d discover that hedidsmile on occasion, and the result of seeing those appealing grins was absolutely devastating on my psyche.

I was weirdly drawn to Ben Blackwood, and I hated it, but I couldn’t seem to be completely at ease whenever he was around.

It was very hardnotto like him because he was a likeable guy, but I didn’t really understand him any more than I had two weeks ago.

The tension in the air that seemed to spark whenever he was around was…unexplainable.

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