Page 5

He was messing with mine, both the one on my shoulders and in my pants.

“Sorry, I was doing two things at once when you called.” Gods, not the way to start a relationship, business or otherwise, by making an excuse. I should have apologized and left it at that.

“Would you prefer to deal with Harold? I’d assumed as you emailed me that it was my expertise you wanted.”

I needed his expertise so badly. Did he give blow jobs that were rated as 10+? And what about kissing or fondling, not to mention being penetrated and tightening around me?

“No, I hope my reaction didn’t give you the wrong impression.”

Joss tilted his head, our gazes locking on one another. He was killing me and he had no idea what he was doing.

“You have a problem you need me to solve.”

Why did he have to put it like that? Yeah, I had a number of them, and only one of them was to do with the business. My head was spinning, I was sweating, and my pants were too small to contain my arousal. But unless Joss was ready to get naked and bend over, none of those problems would be erased.

So, I sat behind my desk to hide my crotch. My voice trembled as I ran over what I needed, and I handed him the points I’d listed that needed immediate attention.

“You need me to build a system from the ground up.”

I nodded because I had to conserve my voice, not wanting to squeak or rasp or twitter.

Foxes don’t twitter. My beast was indignant that I was comparing myself to a bird.

Just watch me.

4

JOSS

Getting Redtail Global as clients was a pretty big deal. They were well known for being leaders in their industry, and were going to open a great deal of doors for us just by being one of our clients. Honestly, I’d been a little surprised they didn’t do everything in-house.

That surprise ran away very quickly once I got in and saw the hot mess of organization that they had. It was beyond unbelievable that they were managing to be as successful as they were with the system they had in place. It was going to take a lot of work to get it all fixed, but when it did, there was no stopping this company.

When I first went in, it was a job. No big deal. I didn’t think much of it other than what it could possibly do for our bottom line. But now that I was here, something had changed. I was excited, and I didn’t really want to leave the building… ever. I—I wanted to stay for reasons I couldn’t place my finger on..

And no, that didn’t have anything to do with Garner, despite how incredibly attractive he was… and kind… and sexy… and did Imention hot? He was a client. Nothing more. Or at least that was what I kept trying to tell myself.

My feelings about Garner were complicated in ways I didn’t fully understand. When I thought that he wanted Harold instead of me, something inside me just—well, it struggled. It was jealousy. I recognized it as that. But it made no sense. Since when did I become jealous of Harold?

We were two halves of a whole. We’d worked this entire time together to make this company. Never before did I care who took a job.

Well, that was a lie. If it was a plane-distance type job, I was happy to pass because I preferred the ones I could drive to. But other than that, there was no ownership in any of it. It didn’t matter.

Except for some reason, with this one—it did.

But I tried not to think too much about that, instead focusing on all of the things that I could do to help them. It was gonna take a lot. Definitely more than I’d suspected when I gave them a quote. When I mentioned that to Garner, he told me not to worry about the money and to focus on doing it right, so I did. Still… this was an undertaking of mammoth proportions.

It was my third day here, and I was starting the day with Garner, once again. This wasn’t how I usually worked. Most companies had a team I met with and I pretty much directed them on what to do. But Garner wanted to be very hands-on, and I did too. His assistant offered to take over multiple times, and one of those times, I swore I’d heard Garner growl.

To each their own. Everyone ran their business the way they wanted it to run. And Redtail had been doing well, even in their disorganization, so if growling fostered that, so be it.

Then again, maybe I wanted him to growl at me, and that was warping my view on the entire thing. No, that was weird. Why would I want a human to growl?

Because it was Garner. I could see it now: him tossing me on the bed and crawling across it growling. Yeah, that could work. Only no, it couldn’t. I needed to shut that shit right down.

Being attracted to my clients wasn’t fair. And there was no denying that was exactly what was happening here. I was woefully attracted to Garner, and it had my mind wandering all sorts of places.

Like… if he did growl, would he only do that in bed? Would he say my name under his breath as he did, no matter who was there? Would his eyes be locked with mine? Would he be licking his lip, sharing all of his desire with that one tiny gesture? Would the growl rumble in his chest?