At about ten-forty, I made my way to Luke’s office, the direction of which I’d extracted from Jillian who’d been to the upper floors where denizens of the bottom of the corporate food chain like me barely wandered into.
I did what I could about my appearance—smoothened the wrinkles on my blouse, plucked the lint off my navy blue pencil skirt and tucked my wildly wavy hair behind my ears. I wasn’t sure why I was bothering. One, he’d already seen me in much worse shape and two, he wasn’t going to care about how I looked if he was about to show me the door.
I ignored the evil eye Theodora cast me as I walked past her desk and pretended not to hear her call my name as I was about to step out the door. She was bellowing something about me gabbing her something from finance but I had a feeling she was purposefully trying to sabotage my meeting with Luke by causing me to be delayed or distracted. It wasn’t hard to assume that considering she’d spent the last near half hour talking so loudly to Shelby, her head minion, about the very strict standards the Hedenbys held their employees to. I almost blurted out that one of those standards was probably office etiquette where one didn’t spend so much time gabbing on and on about the boss instead of getting any work done.
“Hey, Max!”
I looked up as the elevator doors opened and Ryan Wilcott, the top guy for Legal, stepped out and greeted me with a grin.
Six feet tall with dirty blond hair, warm brown eyes and freckles, Ryan was considered a company-wide heartthrob. He looked like a surfer hunk and had a sweet, endearing personality to go with the good looks.
I met him three months ago after I helped him fix a paper jam in the printer at the conference room where I came in to prepare some of the materials the marketing team was presenting for a public awareness campaign. He’d shown up at some of group drinks Jillian and I had attended. He was easy company that it was no hardship to hang out with him.
“Hi, Ryan,” I greeted back brightly. “Where are you off to? You’re not usually from around here.”
He chuckled. “I’m off to see Bryce about something. I thought I’d see you on my way over there.”
Bryce Elmers was the actual head of the marketing department, a fact that Theodora liked to conveniently forget when dealing with the lower ranks.
“I’m on my way up for a meeting with Mr. Hedenby,” I said as I stepped into the elevator which I held open, much to the impatience of a girl glaring at me as she tapped her foot noisily.
I let go of the door but Ryan put his hand out and pressed it back. “You’re meeting with Luke? What about?”
I shrugged. “Beats me.”
His brows furrowed in thought. “Is it related to the general meeting earlier?”
I bit my lip. “I honestly don’t know. But I’m running late so I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Alright. Let’s go get coffee later with Jillian,” he said as he released the door. “Good luck.”
I glanced at the only other occupant of the elevator—the same girl who had been glowering at me—and murmured an apology. She just gave me a hateful look.
I sighed inwardly and glanced up the ceiling, choosing to ignore the urge to demand what her problem was.
Jillian and I had gotten some pretty scathing looks from some women at work whenever Ryan hung out with us during lunch or when we got coffee together. Jillian reassured me it was nothing personal—mostly just a few women nursing not-so-secret crushes on Ryan—but sometimes, they went a little too far with their hostility.
“So, moving up the ladder, huh?” the girl spoke up beside me, her tone snide. “From Ryan Wilcott to Luke Hedenby. Atta girl. You surely must know how to please ‘em.”
I probably should’ve kept my mouth shut about my meeting with Luke within earshot of other people but it was too late for that now. Besides, suspicions aside, there was nothing actually wrong about a meeting with a company leader. We wouldn’t be having this snarky conversation if I had balls between my legs but since I didn’t, it just cast a bit of shade to the whole thing. And this woman who didn’t know me from Adam, was heaping on the presumptions.
I turned to her with an arched brow. “You know something?”
She pursed her lips at me. “What?”
“You are so not worth it,” I said before turning away and starting to hum under my breath.
I could feel her seething—it was practically broiling inside the elevator—but I ignored it and secretly enjoyed her predicament.
A few seconds later, the elevator stopped and opened to her floor and she bolted out of there in a huff. Cool breeze blew into the boxed space, I swear.
A couple minutes later, I reached Luke’s floor.
The interior was airy, bright and minimalistic, featuring an entire glass wall that looked out to the ocean.
An older woman in a tweed suit and a friendly smile greeted me as I approached her desk.
“Ms. Moss, I assume,” she said as she stood up to shake my hand. “My name’s Peggy Bernardson, Luke’s secretary and personal assistant.”
I returned her smile. “Hello, Peggy. Nice to meet you. I’m here for my meeting with Mr. Hedenby at ten-forty-five.”
I was surprised at meeting Peggy, actually. For some reason—probably prejudice—I expected Luke Hedenby to have a bombshell of a secretary especially after the spectacle with the woman at the hotel this morning and the bits of gossip here and there after the general meeting. Although I never looked him up myself, I got the impression that he was a bit of a playboy, always spotted with some arm candy or the flavor of the month. I didn’t give a lot of credit to office gossip usually but it was hard to miss the pictures and articles people were looking up online and murmuring about, especially when they weren’t attempting the slightest level of discretion.
Meeting a sweet, almost motherly older woman—not that Peggy wasn’t lovely—as his secretary caught me off guard but I appreciated the fact.
“Yes, yes. I’ve been expecting you,” she said as she led me toward his office door. “Just walk right in. He should be finishing up his call.”
I hesitated. “I can just wait out here until he’s ready. Um, I don’t want to intrude on anything.”
She waved her hand dismissively as if I were being silly. “You’re not at all intruding. He said to tell you to make yourself comfortable. If he’s not done quite yet, have a snack or a cup of coffee. There’s a snack bar inside and I always stock it full with good stuff. Just let me know if you need anything.”
And before I knew it, I was through the door and standing awkwardly in front of Luke whose desk was on the other side of the room, the panoramic view of the harbor spread out behind him on the epic glass window.
Damn, the man looked good. He could give that view a run for its money.
He was leaning over the desk, talking on the speaker phone.
Looking up at my arrival, he grinned and gestured to a cushy leather arm chair in front of him.
I could make out some of the things they were discussing in the conference call and they sounded important so I just gave him a small smile and cocked my head toward the snack bar.
Although I didn’t really want to be too brazen and make myself at home in his office, I felt that the excuse to fix myself something to eat or drink was more polite than sitting there and listening to a conversation not meant for my ears. Hopefully, he wouldn’t take forever or I’d be running out of distractions.
I took my time fiddling with the top-of-the-line espresso maker which was like operating a mini-rocket. In short, not very user-friendly to the average, no-rocket-scientist kind of user.
Finally, I managed to fill a tiny cup and I sprinkled the frothy top of it with a sprinkling of dark chocolate shavings. It was hot and bitter and rich and for a moment, I forgot what an awful day I was having.
“And here I was wondering what I’d have to do to get you to smile at least once since I met you.”
My head shot up straight and I lowered the cup on the counter quickly.
Luke was standing less than a foot way, his head tilted to the side as he studied me in mild amusement.
His hair looked more disheveled than it did earlier—probably because he’d been pulling at it during the conference call—and his eyes were sparkling mischievously.
“You’ve known me not more than five hours,” I stated baldly.
He laughed. “So? Women smile at me within the first five minutes of meeting me. They give me their number within the first ten.”
“And their virtue and dignity in the first half hour,” I supplied with a snort. It was too late by the time I realized I rolled my eyes at him too.
“Be still, one second,” he said and I stiffened when he reached up and flicked his thumb across the tip of my nose. He pulled his hand back and sucked his thumb. “Sorry, you had some froth on it.”
My hand instantly patted my nose dry. “And you waited to tell me?”
He shrugged. “I was debating whether to wipe it off or not. It was cute.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Or was that a lame cliche move to test if I would actually hand over my virtue and dignity since it’s been almost five hours?”
He grinned. “Did it work?”
My brows arched. “Do you see me stripping for you?”
I nearly bit my tongue off because of course, the supposedly-sarcastic remark only served as an unintentional invitation.
Luke’s eyes glittered with laughter as he gave me a deliberate look of appraisal that told me he was imagining exactly the scene I suggested. He exaggerated a sigh. “To my eternal regret, no, I’m not.”
He was being outrageous, yes, but to my own eternal regret, I couldn’t resist smiling at his audacity. “This explains a lot about this morning.”
Wiping a hand down his face, he groaned. “You’d never let me live that down, will you?”
“It’s not everyday a naked man collides with me on the street with a scorned woman at his heels.”
Despite what appeared to be his genuine embarrassment, he smiled at me. “I’m not that bad, you know? Despite this morning’s example, I’m not in the habit of bolting out of hotels as naked as the day I was born to run from a potentially murderous woman. It only happens when I have a severe lapse of judgement and decide on meeting up with an old flame who left her fiancé due to some twisted notion that I was warming up to the idea of marriage to her.”
I scoffed “You make it sound as if it’s all her fault. Maybe you should’ve left her alone when she was already engaged.”
He gave me an exasperated look. “I would’ve if she didn’t conveniently forget to mention that part. Anyway, the point is moot. It was a horrible idea and I paid for it dearly this morning.”
“Hmm. If anyone’s paid for it, it would be the morning commuters you scarred for life when they saw you streaking naked through traffic,” I said wryly. “Them and the poor, unsuspecting girl you robbed of her favorite coat.”
His gaze softened as he lowered his head in… remorse? Weird.
“I am sorry,” he said as he snuck up a glance at me.
This guy, about a foot taller than me, was peeking up at me through his ridiculously long and dark lashes like a little boy anxiously hoping to be spared a scolding.
Whatever fight I had in me drained away.
Even though I strongly suspected that he probably wielded the puppy dog eyes to his advantage every chance he got, I just couldn’t keep up my defenses against it.
The man was potent.
“You know what? It’s none of my business, really. I just happened to be there at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He scrunched up his nose in an admittedly adorable way. “I don’t know about calling it all kinds of wrong circumstances. I, for one, have no regrets about running smack into you.”
I could’t help a half-scoff, half-laugh. “You just keep going, don’t you? I would be flattered if this weren’t, for certain, just an automatic reaction from you toward anyone biologically equipped to be female.”
I probably shouldn’t have gone so far and called my boss a shameless skirt-chaser without brakes but instead of getting offended, he just let out a long-drawn sigh and shook his head.
“I’m never going to rise above your current estimation of me, am I?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Does it matter if you do? You’re the one who makes the big decisions around here. You don’t have to please anyone.”
The look on his face was brief but surprisingly honest in its frustration. “That wouldn’t be an accurate statement at all. I’ve got more people to please than you might think.”
I studied him for a moment, gauging the sincerity of his words, and somehow understood. Not a lot, probably just the tip of the iceberg, but I gleaned a little bit of the surprising depths to Luke Hedenby.
It rattled me a little because I had no business knowing that about him. It felt too intimate, that glimpse into him, even far more intimate than seeing him naked.
It was time to take a back up a step into a safe distance again.
“Fair enough,” I said. “But I strongly suspect I’m not one of those people so you don’t have to reassure me that you’re not all that bad.”
A corner of his mouth pulled up, the clouds in his eyes clearing quickly. “I do want to reassure you. I’m really not that bad.”
“More like detrimental,” I retorted, giving up my fight against his stubborn insistence. “Detrimental to my perfect attendance record and my reputation for always meeting the dress code and my finely-tuned skill at not standing out in a crowd.”
That sobered him up. “Did you get into trouble this morning?”
My first instinct was to snort and tell him what a hellish morning I had—being late for the first time in my life and getting chewed up into pieces by Theodora about it and then getting put on the spot in front of a few hundred employees. But at the concerned frown on his face, the words couldn’t make it past my mouth.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I told him after too long a moment, shrugging lightly.
He studied me with sudden intensity I wouldn’t have counted on about Luke before he lowered his eyes at my deplorably wrinkled outfit, a smile softening his face. “I don’t think your clothes survived getting drenched though.”
I glanced down at my blouse with a sigh. “Well, they never did come advertised for water-related activities so I can’t say I’ve been misled.”
“Join me for lunch,” Luke blurted out as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to say next. “We can step out, get something to eat and replace your clothes.”
My eyes widened. “Is that what you called me up here for?”
“Yeah. That and to apologize,” he said, looking slightly puzzled. “What did you think I called you up here for?”
I bit my lip. “Um, well… I thought… I thought you were, um—that you’re firing me.”
His brows shot up in surprise. “Fire you? And why the hell would I do that?”
“Because I tore a strip off you this morning,” I explained in exasperation. How could he not figure this out?
“You were perfectly justified in doing so,” he answered with a roll of his eyes. “I wasn’t particularly proud of myself this morning—much less so to one of my employees.
His frustrated expression seemed genuine. The way he was pulling at his hair again seemed like an unscripted gesture of his confusion. And he looked adorable doing it.
Stop it right there, Max. You are so not going in this direction.
“You know that you can do pretty much anything you want and my opinion of it won’t matter much, right?” I asked, lifting the cup of coffee again to take a sip so that I didn’t have to look at him. “This is the real world. Us, employees could like or dislike what you do all we want but it’s your personal business at the end of the day.”
His mouth curled up into an almost ironic smile. “I may be cavalier, Max, but I would like some respect. I do’t bandy around my personal affairs but they always seem to make it to the press and that’s bad enough. I don’t have to throw it in people’s faces.”
At his statement, I felt even more begrudging respect for the man. I sighed. “Your secret is safe with me, don’t worry. Although with the number of people who saw you this morning, I may not be your only problem.”
“To hell with everyone else,” he muttered before squaring his shoulders, his face lighting up. It was perturbing how adept he was at boxing everything in so neatly you would think they were never there. “So, are we going or what? I’m free until twelve-fifteen. If we’re going, we’ve got to get moving.”
“I don’t need new clothes,” I protested even as I consciously fingered the crinkly edge of my blouse. “These just need to be thrown into the laundry and properly dried. All I need is my coat back. It was a gift from my grandpa.”
“Really?” he asked with a teasing grin. “I didn’t realize it had sentimental value. I’ll have it cleaned and returned to you asap.”
“Thank you.” I picked up the white mailing envelope I’d tucked under my arm and handed it to him. “Here’s your money. I can’t accept it so please, take it back.”
He stared at the envelope for a long time, his forehead scrunching up.
“I’ll only take it back if you allow me to replace your clothes,” he said, glancing back up at me with a stubborn glint in his eyes. “Come on, Max. It’s lunch and shopping. You’ll be perfectly safe with me.”
I felt a thrill at the casual way he said my name, and yes, it’s usually a bad sign when a woman starts thinking that. But I couldn’t help it. I didn’t really notice it earlier when he said it somewhere in our banter but the hint of teasing in his voice just now brought out a sense of playfulness to my name’s shortcut.
“Why do I get the feeling you mean the exact opposite of that statement?” I said dryly, ignoring the sudden dryness of my throat which a big, final gulp of my coffee didn’t help.
His grin was boyish. “Can’t say why you’d ever think that. Now, come on. Grab your purse or whatever and I’ll meet you out front, okay?”
My lips pursed. “I really don’t think it’s a good idea. Imagine the things people will think.”
He matched my frown with one of his own. “I don’t waste time wondering what people will think when I know perfectly well what really happened.”
“Convenient if you don’t have anybody daring to ask you,” I shot back, stashing the now empty cup into a small dishwasher under the snack bar. “I can’t go to lunch with you, Mr. Hedenby. It courts all sorts of trouble.”
He groaned a little. “Please call me Luke, and if anybody asks, tell them I’m doing informal interviews of some employees about engagement—see what everyone thinks of the new direction. I’ll even go spend five minutes each talking to a handful of employees to make it credible. That’ll provide you with a cover story and that might actually help me learn something useful.”
I was about to point out that his plan was set to fail but he looked so adamant I couldn’t shoot him down. I smiled. “You’ll have to count Theodora in that handful. Unless she goes through the interview herself, she won’t buy it.”
He grimaced. “If I must.”
I laughed and pressed the envelope into his hand. “Okay, fine. I just need five minutes to grab my purse.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you out front,” he called after me as I made my way to the door. “I’ll be waiting in the car. You’ll know it when you see it.”
Probably has Hot CEO painted on the sides of it.
Just as I was about to reach for the handle, I paused and glanced over my shoulder at Luke who was leaning against the snack bar, his arms crossed over his chest, watching me with a smile.
“By the way, would Peggy like anything?” I asked. “Maybe we can bring her something. She’s a sweetie.”
Luke’s face lit up. “Eclairs from Pepe’s. She loves them although she hates them for constantly ruining her figure.”
My heart tugged at his animated expression. “You seem to get along with her really well.”
He chuckled. “I better. She was my nanny. She can still set me straight.”
My mouth opened in surprise but he quickly walked over to me and gently placed his hands on my shoulders, steering me out through the door. “I’ll tell you later during lunch. Now, go. I’m starving, Max.”
If I knew exactly what I was doing at the moment, I probably would’ve gone a completely different direct but since the moment Luke Hedenby collided into me this morning, I wasn’t sure of very much anymore.