Page 14 of Noah's Reckoning

The only talking Olivia and I had ever done revolved around whatever we disagreed about.

She shrugged. “Just seems like something you should know about a person who you work with. I’m from—”

“Seattle,” I finished for her.

“How do you know that?”

“I looked at your personnel file.”

Her jaw dropped. It was actually pretty funny. “You looked at my file? Can you even do that?”

Without even a little guilt, I thought. “Are you shitting me? The second I left that meeting where they introduced me to an engineer who was going to offer me ideas about improving my work, I was on it. Sally in human resources loves me. I told her I needed to see your file and she handed it over.”

She was shaking her head. “You were taken off guard because I was a woman.”

No, I had been taken off guard by how hot she’d been. By her pencil skirt and high heels. Then I had to immediately look beyond that to the fact that she would be looking over my shoulder and critiquing my work.

Woman or man, I’d decided she was the enemy.

“You act like you’re the only female engineer in America. I didn’t have a thought about your gender one way or another.”

Which was a total lie. I’d thought about Olivia a lot after reading about her education, job history and experience. After seeing that picture.

I knew she’d graduated top of her class from the University of Washington. Knew she’d worked for the EPA coming out of school. Then later for a larger energy company until coming on board with Dyson. Always a promotion with each move.

Now she was here.

With me.

Stuck in this cabin. Which was way smaller than an oil rig.

I took a deep breath.

“Yeah, right,” she returned. “I don’t buy it for a second, Mr. Don’t-wear-skirts-because-I’m-afraid-for-you. You have no clue how to work with a woman who is your equal.”

“My equal as an engineer?” I said, looking over at her and immediately I could see she was flustered.

“Okay, maybe I haven’t done what you’ve done in this industry.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Or anything close to it really,” she conceded. “Still, it’s obvious you don’t like that I’m a woman.”

“I like that you’re a woman just fine, Olivia,” I drawled.

“See, right there! You just made my point. That little drawl you do. That’s innuendo. You’re deliberately bringing sex into the conversation so you can put me in a box.”

“No,” I said, getting annoyed. “That drawl was to tell you I like the fact that you’re a damn woman because you’re fucking beautiful. Period.”

She blinked a few times. “You think I’m beautiful?”

Shit. This was definitely not a conversation I wanted to have. I stood and made my way to the cabin door, taking the kettle with me to fill with snow.

“Where are you going?”

“To take a piss.”

“You’re going to pee in the kettle?”