Page 11 of Mine for a Moment

His gaze roams over my face, and Theo tenses beside me. “Must be my unruly curls,” I murmur, unsure what else to say. “My hair takes up half the photo.” They’re somewhat behaving today, and I hope it stays that way.

Mark chuckles. “Yeah, I’ve never seen hair like yours. Where are you from?”

I raise a brow and throw him a sweet smile, but it stings a little, that insinuation that I must not belong here because I don’t look likehim when I was born here just like he probably was. “I’m from a small town called Rivelle,” I tell him, even though I know exactly what he means. He’s curious about my ethnicity, but that isn’t what he asked, so it isn’t what I offer.

“It’s about two hours from here,” Theo adds. “We were both born and raised there. Serenity and I are actually childhood friends. We even went to the same college and everything.”

Mark blinks in confusion, but then he forces a smile and nods. “Rivelle, wow. That’s where one of our two CEOs is from. Have you ever met him before?”

I chuckle, unable to help it, and Theo grins. “Yes, we have, actually. Ezra Sterling is a bit of a celebrity in our town,” he tells him truthfully, and I nod in agreement.

I always hated that my brother and I don’t share the same surname, because it always made me feel like we aren’t truly family. I didn’t think there’d ever come a day when I’d be grateful for it.

“That’s pretty incredible,” Mark says. “We don’t get to see Mr. Sterling frequently, but we do often have the honor of working directly with Mr. Harrison.”

Mark leads us around the corner, and as if on cue, Archer looks up from where he’s leaning against an empty desk, a beautiful, familiar-looking woman standing next to him.

My breath hitches, and Archer’s eyes meet mine. He smiles smugly as he pushes off the desk, his gaze provocative. “There you are,” he says, his voice gravelly. “At last.” My heart begins to race as he keeps me trapped with his gaze, and heat rushes to my cheeks. He knows I’ve been running from him—and he knows he’s finally caught me.

“Perfect timing, Mark,” the woman says. “I want you and your interns to join Archer and me in our product design meeting.”

“Isn’t that Emma Evans? The company’s COO?” Theo whispers.

Realization hits me hard, and my eyes widen. He’s right. I should’ve recognized her from the company’s website, and maybe I would have if I could’ve kept my eyes off Archer for more than a few seconds.

Archer grins as though he knows exactly how flustered I am, his expression far too pleased for my liking. Not in a million years did I think I’d actually work directly with him, and his amused smile makes it clear he’s well aware of that.

Eleven

Serenity

I can feel Archer’s eyes on me as I take notes as quickly as I can throughout the meeting, barely able to keep up. There are only six of us in this meeting, and I’m more nervous than I’d care to admit. I’ve done extensive research on the company and its products, and in recent months I’ve tried to pay special attention to everything Archer and Ezra said. Despite that, I still feel a little lost as Dunya, a woman on Mark’s team, gives a presentation on the feedback Serenity Solutions has received from the businesses that use our payment solutions.

Halfway through the presentation, Archer rises to his feet, and everyone falls silent. I follow him with my eyes as he makes his way through the room and takes a small remote control out of his pocket. He uses it to move a few slides back and sighs. “Payments failing is absolutely unacceptable,” he says, his expression hard. “Design flaws I can live with, but this isn’t one of them. This is a critical flaw. A payment failing immediately makes a retail customer uncomfortable, makes them wonder if our system is reliable. In turn, it just makes thebusinesses we work with lose faith inus. Hearing this is caused by a slightly too thick layer over the reader is simply ridiculous.”

I’m transfixed as he questions Mark and Dunya on the quality control of the product before it was rolled out. I’ve never seen Archer at work, and it’s like he’s an entirely different person. He’s always had a domineering aura, but it’s even more prominent in this environment, and the navy three-piece suit he’s wearing only adds to it.

I suck on my bottom lip and try my hardest to steer my thoughts in a different direction. When did I even begin to notice him that way? It was long before I added his name to my list, that’s for sure. If I’m truly honest with myself, he occupied my thoughts more this weekend than Theo did. Him finding that list took the edge off my heartache, gave me something else to focus on. Over and over again, I replayed the moment that Archer told me I must know him better than he knows himself, effectively telling me I was wrong to think he couldn’t want me. His words just ignited my fantasies, and all weekend, I kept thinking about what it’d be like to be with him. He kept my mind off Theo without ever even touching me at all.

“Recap the issue for me, Serenity.”

My eyes shoot up to his, and his expression softens a little. His shoulders relax, and he leans back against the wall as he watches me. There’s something different about the way he looks at me now, and I try my best not to read too much into it.

“There were three primary concerns the way I understand it. Our key concern relates to core usability, as payments have been failing more frequently than is acceptable in our latest model, causing harm to our reputation and our relationship with customers. This should be our primary focus. Secondly, there appears to be a design flaw in our chargers, making it so they no longer sit flush on customers’ counters. This will be easier to fix, but I doubt there’s a way to fixthis for customers who have already bought our point-of-sale system. Offering a new charger model could do further harm, since it’ll seem like we sold them a less-than-ideal product, only to then charge more to make it more aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, recalling products isn’t really an option either. Lastly, we appear to have gotten a higher-than-normal amount of complaints about the battery life of our new POS system when used without its dock. It’s heavily impacting those that primarily sell at conventions or pop-up stores, where they may not have access to a charger.”

Archer glances at his watch and smiles. “Less than three minutes,” he says, before turning to Dunya. “If our brand-new intern can summarize our issues in less than three minutes, why did it take you twenty?”

Dunya’s expression falls, and he sighs as he runs a hand through his dark hair. “I need a summary and solutions on my desk by noon. I only attended this meeting because I expected you to have solutions for each problem you presented—so find them.”

Archer’s eyes meet mine as the meeting concludes, and some of the frost in his expression melts. My heart begins to beat a little faster when the edges of his lips turn up into the slightest smile. There’s something oddly thrilling about the way we’re hiding that we know each other, and it makes my thoughts turn to where they shouldn’t go. My gaze involuntarily roams over his body, and I tear my eyes off him.

“Theo and you are so lucky,” Mark informs me as we gather our things. “It’s very rare that interns get to work directly with the CEO, but I’ve been involved with this project for a while now, and I’m glad Mr. Harrison is allowing Theo and you to join me on it. You’ll learn so much.”

I nod and force a smile, unsure what to say to that.

“He seems like a tough and unforgiving boss,” Theo says, his toneconflicted. His gaze flicks to me, almost like he’s trying to get a read on my reaction to that.

Mark raises a brow and smiles. “I guess it’s his good looks that make people underestimate him. Honestly, between our two CEOs, Mr. Sterling is definitely the kinder one. I suspect that’s why he leaves the company’s management mostly to Mr. Harrison.” He leads Theo and me to our new desks and smiles. “He tends to have high expectations, but every single time I’m in a meeting with Mr. Harrison, I walk away having learned something new. Sometimes it’s about our products, but often it’s things like today—like how you shouldn’t walk into a meeting with your boss and present problems without proposed solutions.”

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