Page 4 of The Interview (Executive Suite Secrets)

4

ARDEN

Tim…was here.

Seeing my ex knocked the breath from my lungs while my brain scrambled to reboot. This was the first time I’d run across him since we’d separated. We didn’t have a lot of friends who overlapped, so I’d never heard where he moved to or how he was doing.

Apparently, he’d started dating again.

Fuck. So had I!

Sort of.

Well, I hoped I was dating again.

The interesting man who’d tempted me from my very first glimpse as he approached the art museum now stepped in front of me. I caught a tight smile and something in his narrowed eyes that made me both nervous and excited.

He couldn’t be…jealous, could he?

Possessive?

Protective?

If even half of that were true, I was taking Kaylan home and screwing his brains out.

“Hi, I’m Kaylan,” my date introduced, sticking his hand out to Tim.

My ex stared at it for a second with wide eyes and then at me in question before accepting the handshake. “Hello. I’m Tim Lunken.”

“Oh, like the old airport,” Kaylan cheerfully replied.

I bit the inside of my cheek, holding in my goofy grin. Kaylan had not actually put emphasis on “old.” I was just hearing things.

Or maybe not, considering the way the apples of Tim’s cheeks flushed red.

“Yes,” Tim agreed flatly. He pulled his hand free of Kaylan’s and motioned to the man standing on his right. “This is my boyfriend, Karl.”

I clenched my teeth to hold in my anger. It was a struggle to not grind my teeth. Karl, as in Karl from work. As in, “There’s nothing going on between us” Karl. “We’re just work friends” Karl.

“Nice to finally meet you, Karl. Tim told me a lot about you,” I said, trying so very hard to keep my tone flat. I probably shouldn’t have said anything at all. Should have been the bigger man. Walked the fuck away.

“Have you been dating long?” Kaylan interjected. He stepped onto the small arched bridge and leaned on the metal railing with the waterfall behind him.

“A few months,” Tim answered, not daring to make eye contact with me. “What about you and Arden?”

“We just met today!” Kaylan reached out with the arm that had his coat draped over it and hooked one of his fingers through a belt loop, pulling me in close enough to bump against his chest. With his free hand, he cupped my cheek, tipping my face toward him. “But this has been the best date of my life. I can’t wait to see how he tops it.”

My jaw dropped on a choked gasp, and Kaylan struck. The devilish man jerked me in close and plunged his tongue into my mouth. It tangled with mine and I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping one arm around his slender waist, pulling him in even closer.

Kaylan was pure magic. With one toe-curling kiss, my ex and his new boyfriend disappeared. The crashing water of the two-story, man-made waterfall vanished. All sounds fell away, so that there was only the wet heat of Kaylan’s hungry mouth demanding that I do dirty, dirty things to him. And God help me, I wanted to. My body ached to give him everything that kiss was begging for and more.

Time slipped away from me, and I was more than a bit dazed when Kaylan broke off the kiss and glanced to his left from the corner of his eye. I followed his gaze to find that we were alone. Tim and Karl had left, but I had no idea how long we’d been alone.

“It’s okay if you hate me now,” Kaylan murmured, sliding one finger across his damp bottom lip.

“I’m sorry, what? Why would I hate you?” Had Kaylan killed brain cells with that kiss? I wasn’t following.

He released me and shrugged one shoulder as he fully leaned on the railing. “I wasn’t thinking. He just…I don’t know…something about him rubbed me the wrong way. Sounded like his new boyfriend is someone he knew while you were together, which makes me angrier. If he was cheating on you, I hope there’s a plant in here that can eat both of them.”

I stepped into Kaylan again, placing one hand on his hip while resting my forehead against his. “You mean like an Audrey II.”

“Precisely.”

And, of course, my geeky heart soared that he’d gotten my dorky Little Shop of Horrors reference.

“I don’t know if he technically cheated. Karl is someone he works with. He said they were just friends.” This time, it was my turn to shrug as I lifted my head. “Feelings for Karl might have been what pushed him to end our relationship.”

Kaylan jerked his head back and narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t sound or look upset by any of this. Why?”

“Maybe it’s because I’m over Tim, and any anger I felt was my ego being tweaked.” I leaned in close, placing my lips right beside Kaylan’s ear. “But it might also be from the amazing kiss I just received.”

“Mmmm…” Kaylan hummed. “I’m a polyglot. Makes for a very limber, talented tongue.”

I jerked away from my date, my head falling on an explosion of laughter. Of all the things I’d expected him to say, that was not it.

“It shows,” I agreed when I caught my breath. Taking his hand, I tried to pull him to the path so we could continue, but Kaylan tugged me in the opposite direction.

“Wait. We need a selfie, and this is the perfect spot.”

“To mark the occasion of our first kiss?” I asked as I returned to his side.

“I wasn’t going to be that sentimental. My thought was to prove to my boss that I went out on this date,” he muttered as he fiddled with his phone.

“Got it. Kaylan is not a romantic,” I teased as I stood beside him with an arm wrapped around his waist. The waterfall tumbled behind us while lush greenery framed the rest of the shot.

“Hey, now! I can be really fucking romantic when I want to be. I just didn’t want to make any assumptions.”

He lifted the phone to get us both in the shot. I rested my cheek against the side of his head and smiled while getting lost in Kaylan’s bright grin.

“What kind of assumptions?” I inquired after he finished snapping pictures and put his phone away.

“You know…assumptions about whether there will be a second date. Or a second kiss.”

“Or kisses that involve both of us being naked,” I suggested.

“That,” Kaylan said sharply, pointing one finger at me. “That right there is why I think you’re a very smart guy, and I want a second date with you.”

Chuckling, I tugged Kaylan off the bridge so we could continue through the rainforest display. There was still one more room to tackle, which would give me time to figure out how to sneak some more kisses or if I should hang all my hopes on a second date.

“So, Mr. Polyglot, how many languages do you speak?”

Kaylan flashed me a smirk as we climbed the curved marble stairs up to the main entrance of the conservatory. “Fluently? Eight.”

“You’re shitting me,” I scoffed.

He lifted one hand, counting them off on his fingers. “English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. It was part of the reason I got my job. Sebastian’s executive assistant speaks French, German, Dutch, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian. Sebastian wanted someone to fill in the gaps. When he hired me, I spoke three, but expressed an interest in learning more. Sebastian said that he’d pay to have me professionally trained, and my salary would increase with each language I mastered.”

“That’s amazing.” I reached out and caught his hand, threading our fingers together again. The man with the wicked tongue grinned at me as we turned to the right and headed into the last room—the Fern Room. It was a smaller room with a pond in the center, while trees and a wide variety of ferns filled almost all the space. There was a little narrow path through the greenery for us to walk, and even here and there, we had to move some leaves aside.

“What exactly do you do for your job?”

“Are we giving up on listing our most unappealing qualities?” Kaylan taunted.

“They weren’t working for me. If that’s your worst, you’re never getting rid of me. I figured we should just get the boring stuff out of the way.”

Kaylan waggled his eyebrows at him. “Got plans for the fun stuff later?”

“Maybe…”

A low snicker escaped Kaylan as he continued to walk. “This is the boring stuff. My job is to do a lot of odd jobs, most of it talking. I talk to all the different departments and department heads, gathering reports and various bits of information. It’s also a lot of meeting prep work. And then there’s research. Sebastian will get this crazy idea, and I have to track down random things for his idea.”

“Sounds…unpredictable.”

Kalyan nodded as he took a picture of some koi swimming around a gray stone mermaid sculpture. “Some days, it’s definitely unpredictable, but there are a lot of days where I know what I’m in for. It’s a nice balance of routine and chaos.” He tucked his phone away and smiled at me, a couple of locks of brown hair falling in front of his eyes. “What about you? I know plenty of graphic designers from work. Do you do your own artwork on the side?”

I couldn’t fight the urge any longer. Reaching up, I brushed his hair awayfrom where it was in danger of tangling with his long eyelashes. Since I was already taking liberties, I dragged the tips of my fingers along his cheek in a light caress that had Kaylan tipping his head up like a cat seeking affection.

“I create digital art and doodles every once in a while. Not nearly as much as I would like. Since it’s my day job, I don’t feel like drawing in my spare time like I used to.”

“That sucks,” Kaylan mumbled.

One shoulder lifted in a weak shrug. “I enjoy my job, so I don’t mind much. There are plenty of other things, such as hours of anime watching, to keep me occupied.”

I continued on the path to leave the room, but Kaylan caught my elbow, holding me back. The spot we were standing in was heavy with thick leaves crowding close on all sides. It was easy to believe that we were alone in a tropical forest with only a soft trickle of water and hidden animals watching us.

“I’m sorry about what happened with your ex at the bridge,” Kaylan apologized.

“What?” I whispered, completely confused. Was he apologizing because there was a chance Tim had cheated on me? I was over that bullshit. There was nothing between us any longer. Tim had Karl and right now, all my focus was on the frowning man at my side.

“I shouldn’t have kissed you without asking first. Something about Tim made me angry, and I just had to show him up. To prove that you were over him and so much better off without him in your life.” Kaylan’s adorable nose wrinkled. “One of my less-than-stellar traits—I can be impulsive.”

Pinching one of his coat lapels between my thumb and forefingers, I tugged Kaylan in close enough to bump his chest against mine. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. Maybe I was pissy at first, but you reminded me that I am over him and my life is better off without him.” I dropped my head so that my forehead pressed into his. “As a side note, I am so glad you kissed me. I’ve been wanting to kiss you since you confessed that your boss set you up on this date. I was afraid that you’d think I was too aggressive if I kissed you too soon.”

“That is very good to know.”

“Good.”

“This would also be a good time for you to kiss me to prove that you don’t mind me kissing you,” Kaylan teased.

I wanted to laugh, but I wasn’t stupid enough to pass up that oh-so-subtle hint. Tipping my mouth just right, I captured his plush lips in a deep kiss to leave him hungry for a hundred more kisses, just like this. Kaylan’s free hand landed on my chest and slid up, gripping my shoulder as if he wanted to get closer.

But that wasn’t possible. Not here.

This date needed another stop. A secluded, private one—like his place. Or mine.