Page 22 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

“I do, actually. But I think it changes your aesthetic a little, and the question I have is whether that works for you.”

Elliot took a moment to look around the room. “How would you say it changes things?”

“Well, you can probably feel it for yourself,” Ivy said. “I think this space used to be a continuation of the energy you had in your office, and now it’s a little different. I’m not saying the office itself is cold by any means. It has a very energetic feel. But it is businesslike. This is a little homier now. I think it’s good, because it’ll give your guests a nice transition as they come inside. They’ll be able to sit here and relax, feel welcome, as if they’re coming into an especially inviting place. You know, it might be really good if we added some potted plants here.” She pointed to either side of the couch.

Elliot was skeptical. “Would I have to water them?”

“Well, only if you wanted them to stay alive.” She laughed.

“I don’t exactly have a green thumb,” he admitted. “I used to have a couple of succulents in my office, a gift from a client, and I killed them within two months.”

“Succulents are pretty hard to kill, so that’s actually kind of impressive.” She grinned. “Well, you’re the boss. Surely one of your employees has the skill to keep a couple of plants in good health. You could always delegate.”

“I suppose I could,” Elliot agreed. “You really think this makes the space more welcoming for guests?” That was definitely something he wanted, but it wasn’t something he would have known how to achieve without her help.

“Let’s see how it feels,” Ivy suggested, gesturing to the couch.

“What, sit on it?”

“We should,” she said. “See what your guests will experience when they come in and sit down here.”

It did make sense. “Okay,” he agreed, taking a seat on the couch. Ivy sat down at the opposite end.

Or rather, not quite at the end. She was more toward the middle, he thought, and he was suddenly very aware of the nearness of her body.

There had been no further discussion of the night the two of them had spent together. They hadn’t spoken, either, about the agreement they had made to keep things professional between them now that they were working together. And things had been kept very professional. At least, on a surface level they had. Elliot was confident that he treated her just like anybody else who worked in the building.

But he didn’t look at her like anybody else who worked in the building, and after spending the amount of time that they had together, he had come to the conclusion that there was simply nothing he could do about that. The history between them, although it had been only one night, was too potent.

He hadn’t been with another woman since that night. His friends had tried multiple times to bring him out, to set him up, but his heart simply wasn’t in it. Every time he thought about being with a woman, all he could think about was Ivy. He was sure anyone else would be a disappointment to him right now, and he’d never felt like that before. He had never had the experience of craving a specific woman.

The fact that she was sitting right beside him on the couch, within his reach, made the whole thing that much more difficult. He could reach out and touch her if he wanted to, and he couldn’t pretend that he didn’t want to. It was all he seemed to want lately.

But it wasn’t what they had agreed upon, and he had too much respect for her to force the issue. He couldn’t stop thinking of her as the hot woman he’d bedded, the best sex he had ever had. But that vision of her was made murky, now, by the fact that he also saw her as the brilliant, creative woman who had designed his office space and turned it into a place he could love. He admired her mind as much as he admired her body, and that made the whole thing so much more complicated.

This is why people get into relationships, he realized. They wanted to have great sex and also spend time together with their clothes on. That was what he wanted with Ivy. He wanted her days and her nights.

But he had never been one to commit. Not to anybody. He couldn’t just change that fundamental fact about himself now. The idea of being in a relationship still felt like a prison to him.

And she didn’t want it anyway. She’d made that clear, hadn’t she? She didn’t think a relationship was a good idea for the two of them. It wasn’t as if she was asking for something and he was refusing her. The decision to disengage had been agreed upon mutually — in fact, she was the one who had said it first. Even if he did come to a place of feeling as if he wanted a relationship, she wasn’t open to that. Not now, and not with him. So the idea had to be set aside.

He looked over at her. She was sitting upright with her hands folded in her lap. “What are you doing?”

“I’m pretending I’m here for a job interview,” she explained. “I’m trying to see how that would feel.”

“And?”

“Nervous, but exciting at the same time,” she said. “I’m intrigued at the possibility of coming in to work here every day. It seems like a nice place. It seems like it probably has a lot of nice people.”

“You know the people who work here,” he pointed out, laughing. “You know they’re nice.”

She swatted his arm gently. “I’m using my imagination! Maybe you’ve heard of it?”

“Yeah, yeah, all right.”

“How would you feel if you were coming in here for a job interview?”

“Oh, God, I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t been on a job interview in years. Over a decade. I can hardly remember what that feels like.”

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