Page 58 of My Demon Assistant

"Even when we're at work?"

"Even then," I agreed honestly, and he watched me, his green eyes practically sparkling with all the light reflecting off the ice.

"I..." he murmured, and I held my breath, unsure what he was about to say. It couldn't bethat, could it?

"I think I wanna go for another round," he said, nodding toward the rink, and I tried not to feel disappointed. Instead, I took his empty cup and threw both in the trash, then offered him my hand.

He smiled as he took it, and I grinned back at him as he led me onto the rink.

We stayed there for another hour, then got dinner at a fancy Italian place with candles on our table and held hands the whole time.

When we got to Jerry's place, he invited me to stay the night again, and I realized I didn't need him to say those three words at all. Because that wasn't how Jerry expressed his love and care anyway. He did it through his actions, through touch.

And the way he touched me that night? It told me everything I'd wanted to know.

Twenty-Two

Jerry

"Areyoukiddingme?Please tell me you're kidding," I begged my best friend, my ex-wife, the woman I treasured more than any other woman in the world.

"I'm so sorry," Kat said, and she truly looked apologetic. Her strawberry blond hair was a little more frazzled than usual, like she'd been worrying the strands as she tried to deal with this. I was confident she'd done everything she could before telling me, and that the original deadline the client had suggested before she talked some sense into them had been downright preposterous.

"They're moving up the deadline from six weeks totwo? Are theystupid?"

Kat winced. "Right? Tell me about it. They were aiming for a week. I told them at least two weeks and we won't charge more than fifteen percent for the rush."

I whistled. Fifteen percent wasn't a small amount, especially not when working with a giant like Hanover's. "And they agreed?"

"Yep. That will dissuade them from pulling shit like this again. I'm sorry about this, Jerry. I know you still haven't found someone to replace that ass."

I sighed, then gave her a smile. "It's not your fault. I'll just need to get a little more involved than I usually do."

"I'll take care of everything with our other clients. You focus on your teams and this project."

I nodded, and she walked around the desk to pop a kiss on my cheek before leaving the room. As soon as she was gone, Eshim walked into my office.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked, because of course he'd heard everything and was ready to help.

Smiling, I waved him closer, and he grinned as he walked around the desk and leaned his ass against it. I wrapped my arms around his middle without getting up, and tucked my face against his abdomen with a sigh. I didn't mind doing the extra work—actually, I was excited about the chance to get a little more involved in the process. It'd been a while since I'd gotten to do something more than working on someone else's designs and ideas—but I minded that I'd get to spend less time with Eshim.

We'd been spending more and more time together over the last few weeks, ever since the day I'd almost told him I loved him at the ice rink. I wasn't sure what had stopped me, what was still stopping me, but Eshim didn't seem to be in any hurry to say or hear the words either. The evening after that, we'd gone to his neighbor's place for dinner, and I'd realized Eshim truly cared about the woman. I'd liked her instantly—especially when I found out she was the one who'd made the cookies Eshim had brought me in the beginning—and she'd spent the whole evening telling me how sweet and kind Eshim was, and how I better not hurt him. I'd agreed with every word she'd said, especially when she told me he was going to pay for her to live in the retirement home of her choice. I knew money wasn't an issue for Eshim, but the fact that he'd offered help at all was still something to admire.

"Okay, I need to go downstairs and talk to everyone. I don't know what kind of assistance they'll need. Kat said she'd look after things on this end," I said as I reluctantly pulled back, leaving my hands on his hips for another few moments.

"I suppose I'll keep you and the teams supplied with coffee, snacks, and meals, and you can tell me anything you need done as and when you need it," Eshim suggested, and I smiled up at him.

"That sounds good."

We made our way downstairs, and I broke the news to the design department. They reacted the way I'd expected. A few of them—the ones I most related to because they reminded me of myself when I first started in this field—were excited by the challenge, while others groaned about the overtime they'd have to put in.

I promised them they'd be fairly compensated and get a bonus, which mollified the reluctant ones, and then Eshim emailed them the new schedule he'd come up with—probably while Kat and I were still talking—so we could finish everything up on time.

While I'd already allotted the project to one of the teams—lead by a brilliant designer named Aubrey Kane—the new deadline meant we needed more than one team, and when Aubrey insisted I should act as team leader, I agreed, but included both team leaders—and Tanya Brown, who was leading Martin's old team since she was the most qualified—in the planning process so we could play to the strengths of every member.

We decided to focus on planning and design this week, and on the production next week. While we usually gave production more time—there were far too many errors to rectify no matter how careful you were—with the crunch, we decided it would be better to focus on having the cleanest design we could to avoid as much revision as possible.

The advertising campaign was for a new hotel launch, and while they'd originally scheduled it for six months from now—giving us enough time to come up with the adverts, and for the marketing team to generate the buzz—they'd moved it up to three months from now for reasons we weren't privy to.

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