Page 36 of Desperate Needs

For a moment, I thought maybe he knew about last night. Me and Connor. And I cringed. My family could be a little bit overprotective. Okay, like scary overprotective.

But I needn’t have worried. Pop just pulled me in for a hug, and I rolled my eyes and went with it. He was really a great father. The perfect blend of affectionate and overbearing, really.

“Nothing. You’re just so grown up. I’m proud of you and what you are trying to do. Mom, too,” he said, and smiled, shaking his head.

“Well, thanks to you both. Drew’s Place is going to be able to open its doors officially in January. I’m really excited.”

“Mom is, too. By the way, she said she wants all of you over to help with the Christmas party at the ranch early on the 24th.”

“Sure, Pop. Like always,” I said and nodded.

The ranch was an affectionate name for one of several houses owned by my parents. This one was in upstate New York and housed a state-of-the-art barn where we kept horses, some goats, and chickens, too. We had a fantastic garden there, as well.

It was my favorite house, and because of that, we spent every Christmas there ever since I was three and threw a tantrum when they tried to make me leave before Santa came with his presents.

I still don’t know how they managed to get the whole family there that night and all the gifts, but when I woke up the next day, it was the most wonderful surprise.

Now, it was tradition.

I bit my lip, walking into my office, and wondered if Connor had traditions like that. I shook my head.

Curiosity simmered below the surface as I went about my day. The need to know more about the man who’d made me see stars last night grew hotter and more urgent, like magma waiting to surface.

The fact he wanted to see me again had me trying to fill in all the blanks. Made me want to guess his reasons for contacting me again.

Does he like me?

Does he just want a replay of last night?

I needed to relax. It was not like Connor was dying of love for me. He only asked me to dinner, for fuck’s sake.

No big deal.

“Clem? Did you hear me?” Jameson asked.

He was sitting opposite me inside my office, and I flicked my gaze over to him. No, I hadn’t heard him.

“Sorry, I was just thinking,” I said, and offered a small smile.

He’d been with Sigma for a couple of years on the tech side and I’d worked with him before.

I trusted my father knew what he was doing, but even though Jameson was good at his job, he was a bit of a braggart. Always claiming he figured stuff out that he really didn’t do.

I had an inkling he took credit for things he didn’t have a claim to, but I had no solid proof. So I kept that to myself.

Andrea absolutely abhorred him. She worked for Sigma, too. And neither of us had any use for a man with that big an ego and nothing to back it.

“It’s Clementine,” I corrected him, though, really, I’d rather he call me Miss Aziz.

We weren’t close enough for him to use the nickname reserved for family. In fact, we weren’t even friends.

“Sure, sure. But only another week, right?” Jameson smiled and there was something off-putting about it.

“Another week?” I asked, clearly not following.

“Yeah. This is your last week at Sigma. Then we won’t be coworkers, and I can finally ask you out,” he said, smiling even wider and gesturing as if he were giving me some kind of gift.

“Um, Jameson, I don’t know where you got the idea?—”

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