Page 19

19

BEN

It’s been over a week since Thanksgiving. A week of coexisting side by side and we’re both still alive. I think that’s an accomplishment, especially after the way things played out after Monopoly.

We haven’t spoken about anything non-work related so I haven’t had the chance to clear the air with her. She seems to be avoiding me as much as possible, and I don’t know if it’s because she’s still annoyed over the game fiasco or because she came to the conclusion that our ‘closeness’ was inappropriate.

Either way, I shouldn’t be focusing on her. The Spartans lost the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but we just won against the Bandits, which is pretty much how our season has been going this year. I should be focusing on strategies to get us winning every game, consulting with the coaches, making sure they have the resources to build and train a championship team. But, I’m constantly thinking of ways to be alone with her.

If I ask her to come into my office, she leaves the door open and always seems to get a phone call about five minutes into whatever fake meeting I’ve arranged. And I know, as her boss, I could make her stay and talk to me, but I’m trying to keep my arsehole tendencies to a bare minimum around her. It’s a struggle, but an absolute necessity seeing as I want to ask her out.

But it’s even more than that. I don’t want a casual date. Dinner and a movie is far too banal for a woman like Penelope. I want to show her exactly how special she is. But I don’t know if she’ll even give me a chance now. She's sending hot and cold vibes my way and it's confusing as hell.

Contracts with end dates are much simpler to navigate. Jenson with his overactive imagination and big mouth put ideas into my head that I definitely didn’t need. But now they’re there, and I can’t seem to get them out of my head.

I want her to want me. To look at me like I hung the moon. I want to argue with her and then make her blush when I whisper something I want to do to her that’s truly obscene in her ear.

But even more than that, I want her to really bring me into her bubble of people. Because right now I feel like I’m teetering on the edge of it, with one foot in already but precariously close to being pushed out again.

Like when we both ended up at Hank’s bedside after his operation a few days ago. She was fussing over him so much I could see he was getting annoyed, so I tried to help. Fat lot of good that did me. It was the whole ‘rescuing a damsel’ speech again. Thankfully, Hank managed to intervene before an all-out war broke out in front of him.

And as much as I like her for me, I really like her for the team. She’s a good fit. I can email over a schedule to her, things she needs to do daily, and she makes sure everything is done precisely and completely. She’s a natural—dedicated, organised, and does her job even better than Hank did.

The one thing I am pissed about is I still don’t know why she left the school. We’ve both signed the NDA, but I haven’t been alone with her long enough to ask. And it’s irritating me. I want to know to slake my own curiosity, but more than that, I want her to have someone to talk to about it. The way her eyes looked, the sadness and vulnerability she showed in my office when I first mentioned it, still haunts me.

She’s got a good support network around her—I’ve witnessed it first hand with the Bradys—yet she still feels she can’t tell them. And that kind of works in my favour. Sometimes we need someone not so close to be the ear we speak to. For some reason, it’s easier that way, less personal. Well, it was for me when I ended up spitting out my feelings to Jenson. People I’ve known my whole life still haven’t seen that side of me before. I want to be that person for her. Her confidant.

She must be lonely. She hasn’t been spending as much time with the Brady boys lately. It’s actually something they’ve complained to me about, both together and separately. She’s probably scared something will slip out. She’s still spending a lot of time with Angie, but she must miss her brothers. And I hate the idea of that.

But I can’t do anything about it now. It’s Monday night and I’m signing off to endure the Bradys and poker, grateful I don’t have to worry about sore heads too much as tomorrow is a late start.

I stride out of my office and over to the bank of lifts, stopping abruptly when I come face to face with Penelope. “Oh, I thought everyone had left.”

I wish I could step back in time a few seconds and stop that ridiculousness from leaving my mouth, but I can’t. I shake my head to clear the fog that hinders my brain every damn time I see her.

“I forgot my phone so had to come back and grab it.” She waves the phone at me and grimaces at her actions.

A little smug reassurance flows through me knowing I’m not the only one affected by whatever this shit is between us. She offers a curt smile and turns her back to me as the doors slide open. For a brief second I consider going back to my office and avoiding her altogether, but she looks over her shoulder, lowers her lashes and smiles at me.

Without a conscious thought, my feet follow after her and I’m hitting the button for the ground floor. The lift doors slide closed and I take a deep breath, nerves swarming my stomach and making me feel like an inexperienced teenage boy again. The silence is deafening inside this little box as I stare at the numbers descending on the screen. She shuffles on her feet and clears her throat, of course she’s going to be the one to break the ice, gaining the upper hand once again. Not this time.

“How are you finding it?”

“Have I been doing alright?”

We both speak at the same time and she huffs a little breath at sharing the upper hand, pouting her lips and making my dick twitch imagining those lips doing more than just pouting.

“You’ve been amazing. Very efficient.” My voice is huskier than I’d like, but this woman makes me lose control of my body it seems.

“Thank you. I’ve enjoyed it so far. If there’s anything you need me to do differently, just let me know.” She tucks her hair behind her ear and lets her eyes meet mine. She’s shorter than usual and a quick glance lets me know it’s because she’s swapped her heels for a comfy pair of Uggs.

“Actually there is something. The NDA. You still haven’t told me.” I lean against the wall and watch her.

She squirms and a red blush streaks across her cheeks as she takes a deep breath. “We haven’t really had the time.” She avoids my gaze, looking around the small confinement, trying to find anything to focus on that isn’t me.

It irritates me. I want her to look at me. I want to see the need to look at me in her eyes, the same I know is in mine every time I seek her out.

A loud clang and a jolt has me reaching out to steady her as darkness envelops us. As my hand wraps around what I assume is her elbow, the emergency lights flicker on. And in the dim light, her eyes fly to mine.

“Are we stuck?”

I glance at the control panel and note that the lights are out on the screen. Just great. “It looks like it.”

Gritting my teeth, I press the emergency call button and sigh in relief when building maintenance answers. “Gabe, it’s Mr. Elias. Any idea how long we’ll be stuck in here?”

I catch the silent scoff from her when I don’t use my first name with Gabe, but I also don’t care. This is my building, my team, and I didn’t get where I am today by being familiar with my employees. There are a few exceptions to the rule obviously—her being one of them—but the majority of my staff have a professional relationship I like to maintain.

She glances at her watch and sighs. She’s obviously late to something. A date maybe? The idea pulls my brows together as I try to focus on what Gabe’s telling me. I manage to catch ‘could be an hour or so, could be sooner’ and watch the way her mouth gapes open and closes like a fish out of water. She must really want to make this date.

After signing off from Gabe, I fold my arms over my chest. She’s squinting at her phone and shaking it, clearly trying to get some sort of service in here. A small chuckle leaves my lips and she glares at me. Instead of backing down, I focus my gaze on her hazel eyes. “Looks like we have time now, Penelope.”

It takes a second for her to realise what I mean, and when the penny drops, she narrows her eyes. “You did this on purpose.” Her arms fold over her chest, the heavy winter coat draped over her arm flapping against her hip as she raises her brow, always challenging me.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You would’ve seen if I’d pressed anything. And why would I want us stuck in a lift together?”

I lean against the wall, feigning nonchalance, when in reality my heart’s beating faster than I’d care to admit. Being this close to her, I can smell her shampoo—green apples and vanilla. I want to bury my nose in her hair and inhale until I’ve had my fill, but I don’t think I’d ever have enough.

“A lift?” Her brows are raised so close to her hairline, I smirk.

“It’s what we Brits call this…” I motion to the small box we’re trapped in, sarcasm dripping from my voice as she frowns back.

“It’s an elevator, but that’s besides the point. Maybe you hit a button to stop us so you’d finally find out what happened at the school. You seem to be very interested in it after all. I take it signing NDAs to find information from your employees isn’t common practice?”

Her voice is shaky, it gives away the feigned confidence she’s trying to exude. It’s adorable. But I won’t tell her that. I don’t want to fight with her right now. I want to know what happened, and this is the perfect opportunity.

“You say potayto and I’ll say potahto. You’re right. It isn’t something I do for all employees, but I made an exception for you.” I let my gaze lock with hers to let her see I’m being genuine before I continue. “And I didn’t press anything. I promise.” I hold my pinky finger out for her and watch as the shock on her face takes over and then turns into amusement. She lifts her pinky and wraps it around mine, grinning at me. “So, spill.”

Disentangling myself from her, I place my hands in my pockets, not trusting I’ll keep my hands to myself if I don’t. The feel of her skin on mine, even though it was just her pinky, sent currents rushing through me.

She blows out a breath, lowers herself down to the floor and stretches her lean legs out in front of her. The hem of the knitted dress she’s wearing is riding high on her thighs, gliding over her opaque tights, but not high enough to show me any of the good stuff. And yet I still can’t force my eyes away from her. “May as well get comfy seeing as we’re gonna be here for a while.” She glances at her watch again and I lower myself next to her, mirroring her stance in the small confines.

“You keep looking at your watch.” It’s not a question, but I still raise my brow, expecting an answer.

She tilts her head to the side to look at me and raises her brow back. A smile tips my lips and I motion with my hand for her to continue speaking. I love the balls on this woman. Like . I like the balls on her. Jeez what’s with me?

“I wanted to check on my dad before I went—um… attended my prior arrangement, and this situation is making me late.”

Hmmm… A prior arrangement my arse. That’s a polite way of saying she’s got a date. She probably wanted to go home and change beforehand. I take another quick glance at her legs. Even though the tights she’s wearing are thick, I can still make out the shape of them, and can still imagine how smooth they’d be. I let my gaze roll over her dress, a dark chocolate colour with a few buttons popped to show a sliver of her cleavage, and quickly look away when her eyes meet mine. She doesn’t need to change a damn thing. She looks pretty perfect to me already.

“And the NDA?” I clear my throat to rid some of the lust filling it and catch her smirk. I’m fucking gifting her the upperhand on a silver platter here.

“Why do you care so much?” The confidence oozes from her this time, and I kind of miss the apprehension she had in the beginning of this little situation.

“You seem like you need someone to talk to about it.” Honesty is the best policy, and I went with it. I left out the small tidbit of me needing to know because it’ll give me an edge over everyone else who knows her so well. She doesn’t need to know that.

“Wow, that was honest. I didn’t expect that.” She blows a puff of air from her lips and stares straight ahead to avoid my gaze, her back flush against the wall. “I was asked to leave quietly after a parent and my boss hit on me and I turned them down.”

It takes me a second to understand what she’s said as I’m struggling to understand why the vulnerable whisper of her voice activated a possessive gene that’s been dormant for most of my life. “You can’t be serious.”

Her head snaps around and her eyes meet mine, fire and humiliation blazing through them. “You think I’d lie about this?”

“I was hoping you were, but no, I don’t.” My voice cuts through the icy atmosphere, the anger clear with my clenched jaw.

She looks down at her hands wringing together in her lap, but not before I notice a tear fall down her cheek.

“Tell me exactly what the fuck happened and who the fuck it was. I’ll handle it.”