Page 11 of Hostile Takeover

“Thank you,” I say, smiling shyly at him. “Do you want a tour of the office?”

“Are you going to give it to me?”

“Sure. Unless of course, you want someone more professional… I’ll understand completely…”

He grins and my insides get all light and fluttery. “Just don’t glue me to the floor and we should be fine.”

“I’ll do my best, but no promises.”

He follows me out the door and I begin showing him around. All of the ladies of the office keep popping their heads out of their cubicles like groundhogs wherever I go. It’s like Office-Whack-A-Mole. Whenever he’s not looking, their eyes go wide and they mouth things like - ‘So hot!’ or ‘Are you kidding me?’

This man really is a stunner. He’s a ten-on-ten if I’ve ever seen one.

“This is the accounting department,” I say as Cindy and Megan wave at him with blushing cheeks and big smiles. “Most important department in the company, since they’re the ones who give me my checks.”

“Hello, ladies,” Mr. Raven says with a polite nod.

We continue walking and I smile to myself, knowing they’re probably whispering and freaking out once we’re gone.

“This is the marketing wing,” I say as I step into the vast open room. With over thirty people—mostly women—it’s normally very loud and bustling, but everything comes to a standstill when Mr. Raven walks into the large room. All heads turn to take in the new owner, and then they all stay staring at him because he’s that gorgeous.

“Let’s keep moving,” I say.Before these horny women turn feral and mob attack you.

It might be my imagination, or my self-consciousness, but I can feel his eyes on me as we walk. I keep wanting to suddenly spin around on my heels to see if he’s looking at me, but that would be weird and I’ve already been way too weird in front of this man for one day.

“This is my office,” I say as I wave at the door in a weird dramatic way.

Why did you do that, you freak? Just act normal. Please. He already thinks you’re a nut bag.

I step forward to continue the tour, but he walks inside my office like he owns the place. I guess he does now if Linda has already signed the contract.

It’s going to feel so weird to have a new owner. To havehimas the owner.

I’ve always seen She’s The Sun as mine and Linda’s. It’s always felt like a second home. Like I can be myself here and do whatever I want.

It’s going to feel so different with these corporate suits walking around. What if Mr. Raven stays in the office and works here from now on? I don’t know if that would be exciting or terrifying. Probably a little bit of both.

He wanders in and starts looking at the framed photos hanging on the brick wall.

I keep my eyes on him, wondering what he’s thinking.

A smile spreads across his very kissable lips as he looks at an old picture of me and Aunt Linda in her kitchen after we had perfected the concealer for the first time. I have a big chef’s hat on and we’re holding up the massive pot—huge smiles on our faces. Even though my acne is so bad in that photo, it’s still my favorite photo ever.

I don’t have many photos from my teenage years. Whenever I saw a camera pointing at me, I either hid behind my hair or ran from the room. This is one of the only ones I have where I’m smiling.

“This is where it started?” he asks as he turns to me with a grin.

“Yup! In my aunt’s kitchen.”

“And look what you’ve built since,” he says as he turns back to the photo. He strokes the frame and my body tingles with life. “It’s very impressive.”

“Not as impressive as you Hammerheads,” I say as he looks at the next photo of me and Linda standing in front of our new office building. “I don’t think there are many sharks that find minnows impressive.”

He turns and looks at me with those piercing brown eyes and I find myself taking a step back.

“Sharks?”

I swallow hard. “I didn’t mean offense,” I ramble on. Gawd, is it possible to fuck this first impression up more than I already have? I wish I could restart the day.

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