Page 13 of Surprise Me Tonight
I’m not doing this to get a look from him. I’m not. I just don’t want to fade. Not again. Not around someone who already made me feel invisible once.
Chapter 5
Callum
I’m halfway through untanglingthe bastard of a cable bundle in the corner of the office when Jess calls back.
“Right,” she says, without hello. “We’re hiring her.”
I wipe my hands on the front of my jeans and glance at the phone screen, already regretting answering.
“I haven’t decided that.”
Jess snorts. “You don’t need to. I’ve decided for you.”
“That’s not how this works.”
“Spare me the CEO routine, Callum. You need a PA. You’ve got two weeks’ worth of flagged emails and you just called me from a stack of printer paper.”
I lean against the desk. “She’s... not the right fit.”
“Really?” Her voice is too light. “Because from where I was sitting, she was the only one we’ve seen who didn’t talk about their five-year plan involving a podcast and a wellness brand.”
“She called me out. In the interview.”
“She had a point.”
“She’s blunt.”
“She’s direct. And frankly, you need someone who’ll tell you when you’re being a pain in the arse.” Aside from Jasper only Jess has the audacity to call me out like this but she has been with me long enough and she knows how valuable she is to the company, a knowledge she cleverly uses every year to get her well-deserved salary increase.
I glance out the window. I haven’t stopped thinking about the way Stella looked at me. It was the way she went from shy to sharp like a switch had flipped. The flush in her cheeks. That tight little smile when she thought I wasn’t worth looking at.
The chocolate brown of her eyes had turned almost black when that little fire of resistance flared in her. And now I can’t stop wondering how I’d stoke it again — not to watch it burn, but to control it.
I usually go for women most people would call gold diggers. I don’t mind the label. It’s uncomplicated. They want luxury; I want no strings. It’s a transaction. Clean. No drama, no surprises, no pretending it’s more than what it is.
They’re always polished… sleek, low-maintenance in a high-maintenance sort of way. All designer handbags, salads, and Botoxed smiles. They know the game and they play it well.
Stella, though… she’s another category entirely.
She tries to hide her curves under mumsy cardigans and office trousers that haven’t seen a tailor in their life. But there’s no hiding the full tits pressing against her shirt. No cardigan on earth could disguise the delicious arse she’s carrying under those stiff black trousers.
God help me. I wasn’t trying to notice it. But it was there. Round. Perfect. The cardigan did nothing to hide it. I didn’t mean to look, but I did. And once I had, it stuck.
I shift, sliding my fingers through my hair. The room feels warmer than it should. Jess is still talking.
“... and before you try to fob her off with some imaginary shortlist of better candidates, I’ll remind you you’ve seen five people. Two lied on their CVs. One sent you a selfie on LinkedIn.”
“She’s too...”
“Too what?”
I don’t answer. I can’t say she’s too distracting because Jess would run with that for the next decade. I can’t say she makes my trousers tight when she blushes either.
Jess sighs. “You don’t have to become friends with her, Callum. You just have to be civil to her.”
That’s the problem. I do want to be more than civil. Not in alet's be work bestiessort of way. In agrab the edge of the desksort of way.
