CHAPTER TWO
I frowned as I stared out of the glass doors of my office. There he was, like clockwork. Every Tuesday morning Arieon strolled through the firm only to lock himself in his office doing God knows what. I knew it wasn't work whatever it was because I was the one keeping the firm afloat. I was the one doing everything. Everything that a managing partner would do, I thought bitterly, feeling a familiar rage boil in my belly.
Normally, I wouldn't complain but I was still feeling snubbed. Passed over for a man who only showed up to the office once a fucking week. It was all just entirely too insulting. I'd continue to do my job and the job that had been taken away from me but goddam if I wasn't going to be salty about it.
I sighed as I turned my attention to the reports on my desk. My frown deepened as I went over the information. We had an opportunity to land a big fish for the firm. Carlie Sims. The CEO of Tech-Technology, an up-and-coming company taking the world by storm with their projection watches and computer eye-glasses. I had all of the information. I had put together a near perfect strategy, but I didn't have a boss I could count on. I didn't have the power of a Banks behind me. I needed to show her that she was important. I'd learned enough about her to know that landing her business meant stroking her ego. She had to feel like she was worthy of face time with any member of the team and unfortunately, that included Arieon.
Groaning, I pushed the reports aside. I'd be goddamned if I was going to let him in on my strategy. The only real option was to find a way to work around him, to go the extra mile and edge him out.
I reached for another stack of files on my desk and froze as I caught sight of Arieon barreling toward my office. For once, with no grin on his face.
"Did you call a meeting on the Carlie Sims strategy?" he asked as he invited himself in.
"Hmm." I pursed my lips as if I were thinking it over. "Yes, I think I did."
"Don't you think I should have been told?"
"Weren't you?" I asked innocently. "I sent out an email." I bit back a grin. I'd coordinated with every member of the office that I could trust to purposely keep Arieon out of the loop. It had been much easier than I'd anticipated. Arieon seemed wildly disinterested in being the head of the company, and he did very little work to actually be included.
"I haven't been CC'd on an email since I took over," he said.
"Strange." I feigned confusion. "I'll have to talk to the interns."
He ran a frustrated hand through gelled blond hair. I could see him cracking. He wore his weakness on his sleeve. Fucking pathetic.
"Fine. Just..." He let out a breath as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Until it's fixed, can you just add it to my calendar."
He'd have sounded authoritative if he wasn't so obviously flustered.
"I'm actually not your assistant. So, no." I rolled my eyes. What kind of asshole worked in an office for a month without figuring out who his assistant was? "But you have one. His name is Phillip."
He blinked before letting out a grunt. "Fine, where do I find Phillip?"
I smirked." "He's on man-ternity leave." I could see the outline of his jaw as he clenched his teeth and it gave me the most delicious satisfaction.
"Alright," he grumbled, uncrossing his arms and straightening the lines in his suit. "Well, how about you don't call any meeting unless I'm in the office to be told."
"Well, then we'd hardly have any meetings at all," I quipped, feeling bolder the more uncomfortable I made him. "I've actually got a lot of work to get back to. I'll check on the email thing but if there's nothing else..."
He opened his mouth and closed it, shaking his head. "No. Nothing else."
"Okay. Bye then." I grinned. There was something about executing my power over him that utterly thrilled me. He was the boss in title only. I held all of the cards. I dictated what people did, who got CC'd on the emails and it brought me the ultimate joy to throw it in his face.
He turned to leave my office, his eyebrows furled in confusion or anger or disappointment or, if I was lucky, all of the above. I watched after him feeling overwhelmingly pleased. It wasn't managing partner satisfaction but pissing him off gave me a buzz that I hadn't had in a while.
I returned my focus to my files. Feeling more chipper than I'd been in a long time.
*~*~*
I tapped my foot as I impatiently waited for the elevator. I'd had a tiring day and all I wanted to do was soak in a hot bath and drown in a bottle of dry red. I groaned when I caught sight of Arieon approaching from the office. Just being in his proximity was exhausting. I wanted nothing to do with him for the most part—though, it did tickle me on the rare occasion to piss him off.
"Waiting for the lift?" he asked as he parked himself beside me.
Nope. Just standing here for shits and giggles. I resisted rolling my eyes. "Mhmm." I hoped I was curt enough that it didn't invite anymore small talk.
Arieon fidgeted next to me and again, I tried not to roll my eyes. He was an oversized child in a suit. The man couldn't even manage to stand still and wait for a goddamn elevator.
I breathed a sigh at the soft bing as the elevator arrived and the doors slid open. Thank, God, I thought, stepping inside. Arieon followed behind me, positioning himself by the buttons.
"First floor?"
I nodded. Where the fuck else would I be going?
The doors slowly closed as he pressed the button for the first floor, stopping before they met in the center.
"No, no, no, no, no." I moved for the doors, peering through the tiny bit of space left between them. "Hello? Hey, we're stuck. The doors stalled, again," I shouted. I knew the interns were still in the building. I'd demanded they stay late to redo case files that I felt they'd botched the first time. "Hello," I screamed again.
"Calm down. They'll reboot. Give it a few minutes."
I whirled on Arieon, his nonchalant grin pissing me off. "I know that. You think I don't know that?"
Arieon held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry. You just seemed a little freaked out. So, I thought—"
"Well, don't. I'm not freaked out. I'm annoyed. I've had a long day and I want to go home, not wait for five minutes while the goddamn elevator figures how to do its job." I turned, kicking the doors in frustration. "All the money in this place and we can't fix this?" I kicked the doors again, even though I knew my anger was misdirected. It was my job to put in a maintenance request, which I'd done, but been too swamped to follow up. Instead, we'd had an elevator that stalled once a week for the last two months because I had better things to do with my time. It really put things into perspective now that I was the one stuck in it. I was definitely following up with building maintenance first thing in the morning to light a fire under their asses.
"We can. I've actually talked to Bob in maintenance. He'll be here tomorrow with a team to get things working properly."
I turned slowly on my heels. "You did?"
Arieon smiled. "Yeah. Contrary to what you think, sometimes I do things."
"Hmph." I pursed my lips. "I don't think," I started but he held up a hand to cut me off.
"You do. And that's okay. Hopefully, I'll prove you wrong."
Fat chance, not in this life time, you wish; any of those would have been acceptable responses. He'd done one thing. It didn't mean anything. It didn't make him worthy or useful but I still found myself speechless, blushing like a teenager under the attention of his piercing blue eyes.
"Maybe," I found myself whispering and wanting to kick myself for it. What the hell was wrong with me? I was suddenly completely aware of how attractive Arieon was. Of how perfectly fitted his suit was to his broad shoulders and thick frame. Of how his slicked back blond hair complimented unblemished tanned skin. I was practically salivating as my eyes rolled over him, appreciating his thick thighs, tucked into his slacks. God, you need to get laid, Ellen, I thought, remembering that this man was the bane of my existence and I was eyeing him like an ice cold lemonade on the Fourth of July.
"You alright?" Arieon reached out moving toward me.
"I'm fine," I answered, stepping back. I was already hot and bothered, the last thing I needed was him touching me. "I was just thinking about...work stuff." It was a transparent cover and Arieon smirked as if he'd read my mind, making my cheeks flame even hotter.
"God, how long has it been?" I asked quickly, attempting to deflect.
"Maybe two minutes." He shrugged, glancing at his watch.
"Fuck." I moved to pace but my feet were killing me. It'd been the kind of day that had required a lot of back and forth and my heels were unforgiving. I let out a breath of frustration and bent down to slip them off. Who gave a shit about appearances, anyways? I was stuck in an elevator with a guy whose opinion I couldn't care less about.
"Feet hurt?" he asked as I slipped off second heel.
God, he asked a lot of stupid questions. "Yeah, expensive shoes are great for everything but your actual feet." I resumed my pacing with a limp, the pain still echoing through my soles.
I stopped, staring in surprise as Arieon slid down the wall of the elevator, plopping to the floor. "Come here." He gestured at me, patting a spot next to him.
I blinked. It was an odd sight. A beautiful, grown man in a twenty-thousand-dollar suit sprawled on the floor.
"No, I'm good." I shook my head, limping to resume pacing.
"Come on. Just, for once, listen to what I say. Sit down."
I frowned but moved to his side. We still had another two minutes, at least, until the system rebooted and sitting wasn't the worst idea in the world. I pressed myself against the wall, moving awkwardly down it to take a seat next to him. My pencil skirt wasn't exactly designed for floor sitting but I managed an uncomfortable position with my legs stretched out in front of me. "There. Happy?"
"Put your feet in my lap."
I looked up at him, arching an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"Just give me your feet," he answered with an exasperated sigh.
"I don't think so."
I sucked in a breath, swatting at him as he grabbed my legs, spinning me until my feet were in his lap. "Are you crazy?" A thousand different harassment suit headline flashed in my mind, all of them fading as his fingers dug into the balls of my feet. I found myself unconsciously moaning as his hand worked their way down to my heels. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph."
Arieon let out a laugh and the sound brought me back to reality.
"I don't need you to rub my feet," I protested, without actually pulling away.
"I know," he agreed, massaging against my big toe. "But you seemed like you needed it."
I bit back another moan and fought not to agree with him. I had needed it and the longer he worked my feet, the more I thought about what else I needed. I was keenly aware of how close my foot was to his crotch. I licked my lips and my eyes traced the pattern of his inseam, finding the faint outline of his cock. Goddamn, I was wired and his magic hands made me want to rip those slacks right off.
"I used to rub my mom's feet before she passed," Arieon said, snapping me out of my inappropriate daydreams.
"Oh." I suddenly had a vague recollection of Elion taking time off when his sister took terminally ill. I hadn't put the pieces together before but now, I realized that had been Arieon's mother. I hadn't asked Elion for the full details but the rumor mill had told me, whatever killed her had been brutal. And even for a man that didn't bring emotion to the work place, Elion had been obviously wrecked about it. He'd gone missing for months. It was how I'd managed to make a name for myself, by taking on the responsibilities he left behind.
"I'm sorry," I said, feeling a wave of guilt. I'd profited from the death of this man's mother. It hadn't been intentional but as I thought about it, I couldn't even remember if I'd taken a moment to stop thinking about myself and my promotion to give Elion my condolences.
I lifted my head, meeting Arieon's eyes. "Thanks." His baby-blues sparkled and it took my breath away. His hands had stopped moving and the energy that burned between us seemed to suck all of the air out of the room. His eyes dropped and I was suddenly very aware that he was at the perfect angle to see up my skirt.
I slid forward, lifting a foot out of his grasp to his shoulder to give him a better view. It was reckless and classless but my body was desperate for his attention. His hands moved from my foot, sliding up my ankle as his eyes stayed trained on the direct line of sight I'd give him to the sheer black panties beneath my skirt.
The elevators doors slapped shut and I nearly jumped out of my skin, dropping my leg and scurrying across the floor in embarrassment. I cleared my throat as I climbed to my feet, smoothing a hand down my skirt and trying to find my dignity again. My body still felt like it was heated to a hundred degrees and I was panting as I remembered how to breathe again.
As Arieon slowly climbed to his feet, I avoided looking at him.
"Uh," he started, but I shook my head.
"Nope." It wasn't much but it was enough to get him to stop speaking until the elevator stopped on the first floor.
"Ellen," he tried again as we both stepped off and into lobby. He reached out for my arm and I quickly pulled away, looking around to make sure that no one had been around to see.
"Thank you for...everything, Mr. Banks. I'll see you at the office the next time you show up."