Page 12 of Boss's Baby Surprise

“Why do you say that?” I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. The house was cute. I would have loved to have seen this street when it was full of the old homes.

Kyle held out his hand. “Let me see your sketches.”

“You made me leave my sketchbook back at the office, remember?” I tried to be sassy.

“Yeah, but you have your tablet. And that’s where you put the sketches you like.”

“How do you know that?” I asked. My words came slowly as I fished the tablet out of my bag. I clicked it on, input my password, and then handed it over to him.

I stood next to him and watched over his arm as he scrolled through the gallery of images. He made humming affirmative noises as he scrolled through my sketches.

“This one,” he said, holding up something I had redrawn.

It was a cleaned-up version of something I had based on a drawing Steve had done after getting feedback from Kyle. At the time, I felt that Steve had given it good bones, but it needed a littleoomph.

“You like little gems. Visual surprises. Like this house. Unless you knew it was here, driving down the street, it would completely catch you off guard. And the temples, they are visual gifts, rewarding you for looking up the length of repetitive building façades.”

“Nothing wrong with that. There is no visual payoff on half the buildings out there. They are all knock-offs. Exoskeletons aren’t new. Glass towers aren’t new. Sometimes, it feels like no one is even trying to make new buildings visually interesting.”

I shifted my gaze from the tablet to his face. I didn’t realize he was so close. He had been looking at me, and now our eyes locked.

“You make things interesting.” His voice was low.

When his gaze shifted to my lips, my body tingled like I had been touched. I closed my eyes. His lips against mine were soft, seeking.

“Dangerous,” I said with a sigh when he ended the kiss.

6

KYLE

“Imean the man was designing glass-wrapped structures before the building technology was really available. To say it was more than groundbreaking is an understatement. It’s almost like he was sent back in time to make sure we got the glittering cities of the future.” Steve continued his presentation.

I sat back and half paid attention as Steve went on and on obsessively about Mies van der Rohe’s architectural aesthetic. I couldn’t help but think how Clarissa’s tastes were exactly the opposite. She even admitted hers was not a popular opinion.

In an attempt at treating my interns with equality, I asked Steve to prepare a presentation as if he were going to give me a walking tour of Chicago. He had to pick five pieces and explain why. Pretty much the same assignment I had given Clarissa, only I had no intention of hiking around the city with him. His choices held no surprises for me.

Motion by my open office door caught my attention. I looked as Clarissa tapped on the door frame. “Am I interrupting?”

I let my smile bypass my lips but reach my eyes. I was like some kind of eager puppy whenever I saw her, only it wasn’t my tail that started wagging. I waved her in. “Steve was showing me his choices for a walking tour of Chicago. Only, he needs a car to get from place to place.”

“You included the Ben Rose house in Highland Park?” she asked.

“Didn’t you?” Steve asked.

Clarissa sat in the empty chair next to Steve. “No. Did you include Oak Park or just the Robie House?”

“Oak Park. There are too many Frank Lloyd Wright houses to choose from, so I lumped them all together,” he said. “What did you include?”

Clarissa’s eyes went wide, and she gave me a panicked look.

“Clarissa’s presentation was different. I’m afraid I didn’t give her nearly as much time to pull a presentation together. But it was very informative. Are you ready for your next task? I wanted to share some notes on this project and see how you would respond.” I proceeded to discuss the details from a project I completed several years earlier. They were being presented with the exact same parameters I had to work with. I knew how I approached and brought resolution to the situation. I wanted to see what their solutions would look like.

As usual, Clarissa took notes, writing down every word I said, while Steve stared at me intently. When we were done, Steve got quiet and began nodding, a lot. That seemed to be his thinking mode. He left without saying much.

Clarissa bit her upper lip and reviewed her notes before making her move.

I waited for her inevitable questions. “Everything okay? Any questions?”

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