Page 81 of 2 Books in One Bundle

A smile crossed her face as she saw Julie at the bar. “Hi, Julie.”

“Oh, hi, darling. How’s it going?” Julie asked as she accepted a cup from the barista.

“Busy but good.”

“I figured when I saw how late Damon’s been staying.”

Evolet frowned. “What?”

“The past two weeks, I don’t think he’s left his office before eight o’clock. I’m gone by five, but I review the security log every morning.” She glanced down at her watch. “Speaking of time, I need to get back to my desk. Let me know if you need anything.”

Evolet nodded absently as Julie walked off. Guilt niggled at her as she walked back to Damon’s office, a latte in one hand and a biscotti in the other. The deadline was next week. Submitting on time was imperative. Submitting early was even better. She’d allowed her own preoccupation with their kiss to shadow her interactions with him, assume the worst when he appeared to be doing exactly what he’d said he would do and act in a respectful manner.

This was what came from letting emotions creep in, especially in business. She had let herself get distracted and missed the signs that her boss and the company she was working for needed a little more than she was giving. Time to mirror Damon’s professionalism, stop acting like a moody teenager and do her job.

With her self-reproaching lecture over with, she sat down and began to work.

CHAPTER SEVEN

DAMONGLANCEDDOWNat his watch and stifled a groan. His four o’clock meeting had started twenty minutes late and gone an hour longer than expected. Every time he’d spied Evolet throughout the day, she’d been working even harder than she had been the last two weeks. He had no doubt that a rough draft of the proposal, including the case studies, would be ready for his review. He wanted nothing more than to shove it aside, go home and relax on his balcony with a glass of bourbon and watch the sun set over the skyline.

Maybe next month.

Although the fact that he was wanting to leave before a project was completed unsettled him. For years Bradford Global had driven nearly his every action. He hadn’t been able to, nor wanted, to relax if he had unfinished business. Given the continuing expansion and repeat business of satisfied clients, he almost always had something to do.

Perhaps it had been coming home to an empty apartment after he and Natalie had broken up. He didn’t miss her. But walking into the empty penthouse, everything exactly as he’d left it, had begun to weigh on him.

Casual dates here and there suited him. Relationships were off the table. Maybe he should listen to Julie’s advice and get a dog.

Evolet’s face flashed in his mind. That was one entanglement he didn’t need. Bad enough that he had kissed an employee like a starving man who’d just been granted his first meal in months. Worse was how she managed to do her job, do it well and not once look at him with the fire he’d glimpsed in her eyes in Central Park.

Never before had he been on the receiving end of an uninterested party. As arrogant as it sounded, women wanted to be with him, whether it was for sex, money, prestige or the occasional one who had professed to care about him. To have the one woman who had sparked his arousal for the first time in months—and to a degree he had never before experienced—treat him with cool professionalism grated on his usually steady nerves. It should have been impressive. Yet it almost seemed like she’d withdrawn into herself, become a milder, more placid version.

Once in a while, he caught a glimpse of the vivid spitfire he’d encountered at the gala, like her addressing him as “sir.” From the tiny gleam of mischief in her eyes to the pertness in her voice, it had made him hard almost instantly.

Stop.

He needed to get a grip on himself. Not only was Evolet off-limits as his employee, but she had literally run away from him in the park. Whatever twist of fate had brought her to his company’s doorsteps, he needed to focus on the positives of having someone with her experience and skill working on the Royal Air contract rather than this borderline obsession.

A rich scent teased his nose as he neared his office. Spices, meat, roasted vegetables. He hadn’t eaten since lunch, and that had only been because Evolet had handed him a smoothie from the coffee bar in between meetings. Perhaps Julie had left him something, he thought with a fond smile. The woman had been a secretary for Bradford Global for over forty years, and she had treated all three CEOs like they were her children instead of executives over a multibillion-dollar company.

He opened the door to his office. And stopped.

Evolet was seated in one of the leather chairs, hair pulled up into a loose knot on top of her head, a few stray tendrils laying on her neck. He tightened his fingers into fists, a physical reminder to keep his hands to himself and not brush the hair off her neck before laying a kiss on her skin.

His eyes dropped down. Her legs were curled up underneath her, her bare feet peeking out from beneath the hem of her wine-colored dress. With a full skirt and sleeves down to her elbows, she should have looked matronly. Not sexy.

“What are you doing here?”

His frustration with the direction of his own thoughts made his voice snap out. Her head jerked up, her eyes widening at his tone.

“Um...working?”

He inhaled sharply and steadied himself as he walked to his desk. “You didn’t have to stay late.”

She shrugged. “Julie told me you’d been staying almost every night since I started. With the deadline next week, I wanted to make sure we would be ready in time.”

He shot her an enigmatic smile that he hoped covered how oddly touched he was that she would be so invested in the work despite the temporary nature of her position. Then he spied two paper bags sitting on his desk. “What’s this?”

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