Chapter Five
Addilyn
At 7 o’clock in the evening, it was almost exactly twelve hours since I’d seen Mr. Worthington. I’d slept, showered, and was now dressed in something that didn’t look as though it had been pulled out from the bottom of the dirty clothes hamper.
I tapped on Mr. Worthington’s office door, not at all surprised to find him still here while almost everyone else had gone home for the night. What I had not expected, though, was the way little butterflies took flight in my stomach when he looked up from his work. Get it under control. He’s your boss, nothing more! I chided myself, knowing even as the thought filled my mind that I wouldn’t pay it any heed.
“Mr. Worthington, I have a report detailing the errors from last quarter.”
“Good! Come in.” I was taken a little aback by his upbeat response. Every other time I’d seen him, he seemed as though he was ready to kick puppies. “Have you had dinner yet? We can eat while we go over your report.”
My stomach growled at the mention of dinner, and I felt my cheeks heat. My thoughts reached back to when I’d eaten last, and it had been half an egg bagel on my way out the door to come back to work at two this afternoon. Even so, I probably would have lied about being hungry if my stomach hadn’t given me away. I was downright starving. “That’s would be great, Mr. Worthington.”
“Please, call me Harris,” he said as he picked up the phone. “I’ll call Terry and have him double the order I’ve already called in. Chinese okay?” Terry was the company concierge, the get-anything-you-need gopher who made the lives of the executive staff a little easier as they did their best to balance life with the not-uncommon twelve-hour work day.
“Sounds great,” I said and meant it, even though I would have said the same if he’d offered to feed me monkey brains. While it was true that I did not need this job in order to survive, I did want it. I valued my Independence, and I wasn’t ready to give it only to crawl home to daddy and his claims of being right about he thought my life should be.
“Give me a few minutes to finish up this paperwork, and then you can walk me through your report,” he said, losing himself to his work once again. I couldn’t help but take the opportunity to study his face. When he wasn’t having to wear the mask of authority, when he was instead able to lose himself in himself, he looked much younger.
A few minutes easily turned into half an hour, and it was not until Terry showed up with our food that Mr. Worthington—I mean, Harris—put his work aside.
Opening food-swollen cartons and divvying out generous portions of the various dishes, I soon found myself sitting side by side next to Harris as I walked him through my report. I’ve managed to find two more mistakes, although very minor ones, in the last third of last quarter’s report. In addition, I’d outlined a recommendation of what I thought would be the most efficient and accurate method for evaluating previous quarter reports. I already understood that with programs and earmarked budgets that had changed throughout the years that reviewing the reports for previous years would be much more challenging in comparison to reviewing the last three months of operational results.
Harris took everything I said in stride. I’d watched his face carefully, being sure I hadn’t lost him during any part of the explanation, but he remained completely on target, always asking questions that were insightful and which showed true comprehension of what I was proposing. It was a slow transition throughout our conversation but when it finally happened, it took me by surprise. Mr. Worthington was no longer just a figurehead at the top of a huge corporation. He was not some clueless leader sitting in a useless driver’s seat while hundreds of workers manually pushed his car forward. No, that was him at all. He was brilliant, and he was quickly becoming one of the sexiest men I’d ever met.
“This is some excellent work you’ve done here, Ms. Clement,” Harris said, leaning back in his chair before popping a pot sticker in his mouth.
“Call me Addilyn, and thank you.” It was nice to see Harris when he was, in essence, letting his hair down. He wasn’t who I’d expected to find. He was more relaxed than the harsh boss I’d first seen him as.
“Addilyn, tell me about yourself. Why is the daughter of Clement Securities working for my company?”
“Oh,” I couldn’t stop the smile that pulled on my lips. “I wanted a job. Being my father’s daughter was either going to open doors for me or shut them in my face, and I wanted neither one of them. So, I went my own way.”
“Okay. But why are you here?”
“Humph,” I huffed, not bothering to hide my contempt. “Daddy has specific ideas about what I should do with my life, and they all involve me marrying rich and being a socialite’s wife to help my husband climb the corporate or political ladder.”
I was aware my response was less of an answer and more of a rant.
“I see. Well, that still doesn’t tell me what you’re doing here,” prompted, though his voice was coaxing rather than pushy.
I shrugged, and then said, “A girl’s got to pay her rent.” I smiled brightly.
“And if your father paid your rent?” he asked, leaving it an open-ended question.
“It would come with his top rate match making services for whoever he thought was the up-and-coming mover and shaker of the day.” I captured a piece of shrimp with my chopsticks and bit it in half.
“And what does Addilyn want?”
Besides you? The words almost left my mouth, but I held them captive on the tip of my tongue. I hesitated to tell the truth. Within the circles of the rich and powerful, I’d never had a truly positive response for my academic cravings. I decided to go for it. “Against my father’s wishes, I got a Master’s degree in Mathematical Engineering.” I watched his face closely before what I had to say next. “I want to help things fly, go to other planets and reach the stars. I want to work at NASA someday.”
Harris froze with a bit of kung pow chicken halfway to his lips. “Really?”
“Really,” I answered, still watching him closely while simultaneously steeling myself for the ridicule to come.
“I guess I can say that you’re reaching for the stars!” His face lit in a smile from ear to ear that made my heart skip a beat as he became not just a brilliant man but a man I could throw myself at. He was sexy as hell! How he’d managed to hide how gorgeous he became when he smiled, I had no idea, but his constantly stern exterior finally made perfect sense. Without it, he’d be having to press sexual harassment charges against half his female staff. As it was, I had to grip my chair to keep from throwing myself at him.
Could it be that the man sitting before me was beautiful both inside and out? Maybe the charity events were more than just an opportunity to network for him. Maybe he actually believed in the causes they stood for. Maybe Harris Worthington was nothing like my father at all. Maybe he was a man I wanted to know more... needed to know more.
Maybe... he was an actual good guy.
Maybe...
But he was close the kind of guy my father wanted me to marry.