Page 17 of Hold On Me

“Please take your time to read it. We wouldn’t want you making assumptions now, would we?”

She grins at me before lowering her gaze to read. She’s fucking beautiful. She fits here, as well. I can visualise her working with me, with my team, and doing a great job. I’ve already decided she’s hired and I’ll sign that NDA to find out what happened because not only do Ineedto know, but I think she needs someone to talk to about it. She obviously doesn’twant that to be her family, and I fucking love the idea of it being me. Of being the person she turns to.

Shit. I’m catching a lot of feelings quickly for a woman I’m not meant to like. “Would you like a drink?” Quickly shutting down my thoughts, I stride over to the drinks station on the opposite side of the room, enjoying the feel of her eyes taking me in. I know I look good, I take pride in my appearance. But knowing she thinks it too, even if she doesn’t particularly want to, makes it even sweeter. “Tea, coffee or water. I would offer something stronger, but I know you don’t drink.”

Her head snaps up and she zeros her eyes onto mine. “How do you know that?”

Her voice is controlled, but I note the hitch in it. Vulnerability? Curiosity? I grimace inwardly at letting the slip out. I don’t want her to know just how much I do actually know about her. She already thinks I’m an arrogant twat, I don’t want to add psycho stalker to that list as well.

“Your dad told me.” Sorry Hank, but I’m throwing you under the bus here. “I know about your mum as well.”

Her shoulders stiffen but her emotions are held in check, and my admiration for her goes up another notch.

“What, you mean her love for Jesus juice and men she wasn’t married to aren’t a secret? Dang.” She bites the side of her cheek, downplaying her feelings by throwing out sarcasm. It’s a move I’m familiar with. I do it myself.

Yet a swarm of anger rushes through me. I don’t want her guarding herself with me. I want her to open up and trust me. And that’s bloody ridiculous. I have no claim over this woman. I don’t trust her completely and she barely even likes me, or tolerates me, and here I am wanting her to reveal her innermost secrets and feelings to me. All because she showed me a little vulnerability. I’m a joke.

“I know your dad drinks—expensive bourbon from my personal collection, to be precise.” I give her a small smile, trying to lighten the mood a little and stop my stupid thoughts, but she just nods in reply. “He told me you don’t. And I guess it’s something that’s stuck with me.”

I fiddle with the cufflinks on my wrists and lower my voice slightly. “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you or overstepped. It wasn’t intentional.”

She presses her lips together and breathes through her nose. She blinks rapidly and I desperately hope she clings onto the modicum of restraint she’s shown so far. Unlike with other women, I don’t think I could hold my composure together with Penelope if she started crying. I’d end up with my arms wrapped around her shoulders and her face buried in my chest faster than she could blink the tears away.

“You didn’t upset me. It actually touched me a little that you not only remembered something my dad told you about me, but you didn’t make fun or scoff at it.” She pauses for a breath, and with a voice barely above a whisper, says, “I always got the impression you didn’t like me very much.”

Fighting the urge to close the distance between us, I inhale sharply and turn away from her. She can’t see the look in my eyes. It would give everything away, and I don’t even know whateverythingis right now.

I know I want to hold her. Wipe the vulnerability away and have that strong, confident woman back here again, even if she is infuriating. I know I want to fuck her and have her completely at my mercy as I bring her to the edge over and over again. But I know I can’t. I don’t even know how long she’d want me for, if she ever did. A one-night stand? A fling? Forever?

She’s always confused me. And confused is an understatement to how I feel right now. She has the ability to make me want things, want to do things that aren’t normally inmy wheelhouse. And until I figure out what it is I want, she can’t know any of this. Casual flirting is one thing, but letting her see just how deeply she affects me is another.

“Erm, tea or coffee?”

A quick glance over my shoulder shows me her brows are slightly furrowed in confusion, but instead of questioning my motives she just murmurs, “Coffee please.”

She turns back to the document whilst I busy myself preparing her drink.

Placing the steaming mug onto a coaster on my desk, I step back behind it and motion to the document in her hand. “Well?” Business is better. Business has no place for vulnerability or emotions and feelings. This is where my head should be.

She glances down at the paper, bites her bottom lip, and frowns. Her face shows the war waging in her head. And then her brows straighten, smoothing out the little crease between them, her lip pops out from between her teeth and her eyes snap up to mine. Clearly her mind is made up. Her bottom lip looks plumper and pinker from the ministrations of her teeth and I find myself drawn to it, wanting to taste it, to soothe it as my tongue traces every indent left by my own teeth.

“I can do this job. I may need a few days to get my head around the systems, but looking after your needs can’t be harder than dealing with a bunch of toddlers now, can it?” A quick smirk and a look through her lashes lets me know she's joking. And I fight through the fog in my mind to nod mutely at her. “But I don’t want any special treatment because of my dad or Jenson.”

Shit. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this. Her being around me every day is bound to have my self control slipping. But maybe thisiskismet. Maybe I do just need to see where this goes.

I clear my throat, shift on my seat, and rest my elbows on my desk. “This isn’t how I expected this interview to go,” I start off, and watch as the hope slides off her face and is replaced with disappointment. Fuck. “I expected you to insult me a little more. Possibly threaten a little violence.” I smirk and she fights the twitch at the side of her lips.

“If that’s what you’re into, I can rethink my interactions with you. I’m not about yucking someone's yum, Mr. Elias.” Her eyes light up and the smile that takes over her face is luminous.

A laugh barrels out of me and I shake my head at myself. “If you want to discuss yums, Miss Richards, I’d be happy too. Especially as I have a few theories about your own. But let’s sign the contracts before that.”

She smirks before bringing her bottom lip between her teeth as I suppress a growl. Fuck. I want her bent over my desk and coming on my cock just from that one look. I am in so much trouble.

“So you want me then?”

Her words take me by surprise. I tilt my head and let my eyes rove over her body. They graze her legs, scour up to devour her breasts, and linger on her lip between her teeth.

“Very much so.” My voice is gravelly, filled with lust at the double meaning of our words.

---