Page 20 of Grumpy Boss's Secret

“Why does everything have to feel so complicated right now?” I murmured.

I thought about Kirk's email and Ian's post. No wonder I'd dreamed about wandering through a library: I felt lost in a maze of words and uncertainty. Something was itching at the back of my mind, but I didn't want to think about any of it just now. I felt too overwhelmed.

I crawled out of bed and made myself breakfast. Potato trotted into the kitchen and rubbed against my legs.

“Hey!” I said, looking down at her tiny face, gazing up at me with wide eyes. She meowed. “That was our first formal at-home encounter. We’re gonna be snuggling during movies before you know it.”

Potato meowed dubiously.

“I guess people are like cats sometimes,” I mumbled. “They need a long time to get adjusted. You liked me in the cat shelter, but now I’m just a scary new giant in a scary new place. Maybe men feel like that about women sometimes. Babies.”

I fed Potato, and her tail swished happily as she ate. I stared down at her adoringly. I would win her over; I knew it. Would I be able to win Kirk over?

“Time to go to work,” I muttered, again ignoring the itching curiosity in my mind.

I dressed in black slacks and a red blazer with matching heels and went to the office. Our meeting was at ten o'clock, and until it started, I dove into my work with dazzling focus.

We planned on using one of the photographs of Ian from the Divine photoshoot in our upcoming marketing campaign. On my computer, I opened the folder of all the shots we’d been given permission to use and clicked through them.

His eyes. Those glittering blue eyes, their hue enhanced by the royal blue suit he'd been wearing, stared into the camera. His expressions were tender, alluring, and vibrant. His eyes shone, and his lips hinted they were about to smile.

“God, he’s beautiful,” I muttered.

I wanted him to look at me like that. I guessed he already had - in brief moments here and there, like shooting stars passing through his eyes. There was a knock on my office door. Startled, I looked up guiltily as if I had been looking at something I shouldn't have.

“Come in,” I said.

Ian opened the door. He was wearing a sleek grey suit, but there were circles under his eyes and the shadow of stubble on his chin. He looked as though he hadn’t slept well.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

He raised his eyebrows.

“I just wanted to check in with you about the promotional photos,” he said.

“I’m looking at them right now,” I said, feeling as though I might be blushing slightly. God, I hoped not. “You want to help me pick the one we’re going to use?”

"Sure," Ian said after hesitating for a moment. He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

My skin prickled as he did so. Obviously, it made sense. People close doors when they want to work so the room will be quieter, with fewer distractions, and so on. But the sight of him turning his back to me and shutting the door made my entire body hum, knowing we were alone in a room together.

"I'm thinking this one," I said as Ian started to walk across the room to me. I couldn't look straight at him. For some reason, his somewhat-disheveled appearance made him look more attractive – like I was seeing him naked again. The real person underneath the sleek persona of the billionaire.

He approached my desk and stood behind me, leaning toward the computer. I could feel his breath on my neck.

"Mm," he said, almost distastefully. Was it disapproval of my choice or just a reaction to seeing a photograph of himself?

“Or this one,” I said, clicking through a few more until I landed on my second option.

Ian leaned closer to the screen, squinting a little.

“I like the first one better,” he said. “I look friendlier.”

“Okay,” I said, smirking, “that was my first choice too.”

"Great," he said, straightening up. He moved quickly, almost anxious to stop being so close to me. "Go ahead with that one, then."

He started to walk around my desk and then paused. My copy of Captured by Love was resting on the side of it. I’d brought it in to read on my lunch breaks. Ian gazed down at it.

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