Page 42 of Love In The Spotlight

There. That would leave him guessing on what they’d talk about.

Because the truth was, she didn’t know herself.

But she knew she wouldn’t mind another kiss.

13

PLAY DIRTY

“Ididn’t think you’d want to meet this quickly,” Jamie said once he was in Laken’s office on Friday. “I’m sure you just returned from the holiday.”

“Yesterday,” she said. He sat in the chairs off to the side like he’d done before and she followed to sit across from him.

She had on some fitted black pants, another pair of sexy heels, this time white and black that reminded him of a Dalmatian, and a dark green and black sweater with a few white buttons on the cuffs.

“And you didn’t want the rest of the week off?” he asked.

“I’ve got too much to do. I’m finalizing some work on other projects and companies. Not to mention the calls I get nonstop from all of West’s investments. It’s not as if I just go in and meet and then walk away. They know to reach out to my department at the very least.”

“I bet not many have a direct line to you,” he said, smirking. Maybe he was special.

“In the beginning they do, but once things are up and running smoothly, they go through others in my department or have managers in our organization that oversee them. I’m the last line of defense before West.”

“Ahh,” he said. “Makes sense.” Which told him that once things were going with this company he’d rarely see her. He didn’t like the sound of that. Thankfully they had a lot of time and were going to talk about it today.

If he could get her off of business as he’d said in his text.

“What makes sense?” she asked.

He wasn’t sure why she seemed almost nervous. He would have guessed Laken Carlisle didn’t have a nervous bone in her body yet she was looking down at her computer a few times and then back to him.

“That once we are up and running, I’ll most likely go through Nelson? Or someone else. But no one has a way to reach West, as he’s too important. There are several layers to fix problems before they end on his desk.”

“Something like that,” she said. “West is aware of everything that he needs to be. But you’re right: the legal team handles things more times than not and just gives updates to West. Trust me when I say no one wants him involved when it comes down to legal.”

He’d always read and heard West was ruthless when it came to business. That didn’t make him shy away from approaching though.

“Are we done with business talk for the moment?” he asked.

“Nelson will be meeting with us in an hour,” she said.

“You play dirty,” he said, grinning.

She laughed. “I’m giving you an hour to talk.”

“I’d like to think it’s an hour for us to talk. Or maybe I’m off base here.”

Her head went back and forth as if she was weighing her words. “First, I’ll apologize. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“I believe I kissed you and I’m not apologizing. Not unless you’re offended and I don’t think you are. Because if you were, you wouldn’t have apologized first thinking I was offended.”

He kept the frown from his face as he tried to play those words back in his head. Did they sound right? Sometimes things sounded better in his head than coming out of his mouth.

“We can agree that the kiss just happened,” she said.

“That works,” he said. “And I’m not sorry it did. Are you? Be honest.”

“I’m always honest,” she said.

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