Page 10 of Say You're Mine

“Thank you, Royce.”

“It was my pleasure, ma’am.”

“Lev is good,” I tell him, not that it matters. “Wish me luck?”

He gives me a smile. “I think you’re going to be more than all right.”

“I’ll take it, Royce. You have a good one.” I head toward the glass doors. When I reach for the handle, I hear a buzz, and it opens when I pull. I didn’t realize it would be locked.

Oh fuck, I think as I enter. I see a woman with a high ponytail in a very nice suit skirt. That is not casual. She even has heels on. I glance back over my shoulder to see Royce’s SUV still parked out front. I could make a run for it. I’m sure he would take me back home if I asked.

“You must be Ms. Valentina.”

“Lev is good.” I walk over, offering her my hand. “I thought it was casual.”

"If that's the information you received, then I don't understand the issue." She meets my gaze with a polite smile. That helps me relax because I judged her, thinking she was going to be a stickler because she is so put together. Shame on me. I should know better.

“Your name?”

“Kate.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Kate.”

“Are you ready to see the place?”

“Yeah, I didn't get a whole lot of details.”

“I could see that. I think you’re going to be doing a lot of odds and ends. Boss man often wants to get a feel for new employees so he can better place them. We perform a variety of tasks here, and if we are unable to handle them, we will subcontract them out.”

“Boss man?”

Kate smirks. “He hates when we call him that. So I do it often.”

Is that a positive sign? Either the office is lighthearted, or she's hooking up with the boss man so she can poke fun.

“Let’s head up. He’s been impatiently waiting. He was going to come down but got pulled into a call.”

“Waiting for me?” I follow Kate past the elevator to the open stairs.

“Yeah, oh, here you go.” Kate gives me a badge after we climb the first set of stairs.

“Oh wow,” I say when we walk in. The room is a massive square with glass offices all around it. In the center are more desks. There are people standing around them working together. A few glance toward us. Others are engrossed in whatever they are working on.

“New girl,” Kate tells them. A few say hi, and I get a few chin nods. “Boss man's office is right there.” She points to what looks like an entire side of this floor. The windows are shaded out for privacy.

“Aren’t you coming with me?” I don’t know why, but I don’t want to go in alone.

“He’s asked to meet with you alone.” What the heck? First she said he was impatiently waiting for me, and now he wants to be alone with me. Something is off here. “You have nothing to worry about. Go on in. He has a no-knock policy.” I guess she can sense my hesitation. She’s right. I’m overthinking things. “I’ll catch up with you after your meeting and show you around some more.”

I watch her go, leaving me standing there. All right then. I raise my hand to knock because it feels strange not to. As I do, the door opens.

Eros snags me by the wrist, my arm still in the air ready to knock, pulling me into the office, the door closing behind us.

“What the hell?” I get out before his mouth is on mine.

8

EROS

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