It had only been a few weeks since Madeline had moved into Bennet’s house but she had settled into an easy routine of balancing her work, gym life and even some social outings here and there. She had even learned to relax a little around Bennet on the off chance he walked half naked through the house covered in sweat or joined her for dinner.

She was still shy about seeing him at her boxing gym or the commute to and from work. Thankfully he spent most of the commute on calls or working on his tablet. She tended to use the time to prep for her day while casually stealing glances of his perfect profile and full, kissable lips.

How could someone be so intelligent, funny, down to earth and insanely hot all at the same time? His demeanor and personality were disarming but his looks and success were a constant reminder that he was out of her league.

Oddly she had yet to see him bring a woman home or even attend a work function with someone on his arm…Oh my god maybe he’s gay! She let out a small audible gasp.

"Everything ok?" Bennet looked up from his tablet to see her staring at him intently. She hadn’t realized that she not only gasped aloud but was staring at him with her mouth hanging open.

"Uh yeah, yeah sorry I just realized that I might have left my curling iron on!" She stammered.

"No worries, I’ll let Marta know and she’ll just switch it off." He said as he pulled out his phone and typed a quick text to Marta before diving back into whatever he was reading on his tablet.

Maddie was a little on edge today, she was presenting in a meeting with Bennet and the CEO of Larson Designs. She had been working tirelessly on the sunglasses campaign for the Larson file and while she felt confident in her decisions, she had never presented to a CEO of a multimillion dollar design company before. Bennet didn’t seem to share Maddie’s apprehension and simply told her she’d do absolutely fine and not to worry about anything. Once at her desk she set her bag down and headed to the restroom to give herself a pep talk.

She stood in front of the mirror and took some long, deep breaths—willing herself to remain calm and not sweat through her red silk blouse. She adjusted her black pencil skirt and smoothed down her blonde curls…”You’ve got this. You have prepared for this and you will kick ass today!" She thrust her pointer finger at her reflection before spinning on her heels and walking confidently back to her desk.

The presentation wasn’t until 10:00 AM so Maddie had time to enjoy a cup of coffee and finish up a few items for another project she needed to send over to her boss. She sent a text to Jazmine demanding she wish her good luck and that she would need a stiff drink after boxing class tonight.

The girls agreed that since it was Friday, a few drinks after a hard work week and even harder workout were well deserved. She was smiling at her phone when her 15 minute meeting alert sounded on her computer. She gathered her thoughts, took a deep breath and headed to the conference room.

The meeting had just wrapped up and Madeline was on a euphoric high of endorphins. The CEO and a few of his partners had not only loved her pitch but had told Bennet they wanted her to work on all of their future campaigns with Windsor Marketing. Not only did she lead her first presentation, she managed to secure a massive contract for her employer with a whale of a client. Bennet and the majority of the team had left the conference room and where talking shop in the hall as Maddie gathered up her paperwork and straightened up the conference room.

She had her back to the door as she bent over the table to grab some remaining papers, "How is it that I’ve been in this office three times now and I’ve never met you?" She turned around slowly to see Jared Larson, the CEO’s son and current VP of the company leaning against the door frame.

"Well I’m new and I imagine you’ve probably only been on the top floor. I work two floors down in the design department." She smiled sweetly as she straightened the rest of the chairs around the large table.

"Well it’s certainly a shame but I’m glad I finally got the pleasure. Your proposal really was outstanding today, hard to believe you’re so young. You speak like you have a decade of experience under your belt." Jared sat on the edge of the table as Maddie stood beside a chair nervously shuffling her papers.

"Thank you, I’m so happy that you and your team agree with my vision for this campaign. I’m so excited to have this opportunity and I couldn’t have done it without the encouragement and guidance from Ben—Mr. Windsor." She corrected herself quickly, realizing it might seem unprofessional for a newbie to refer to her boss by his first name.

Jared finished up his small talk with Madeline but before he left the conference room he pulled out his card and slipped it in her hand. “I'd love to grab a drink and hear more about your ideas for my company." He gave her a quick wink as his fingers lingered on hers for more than a professional amount of time. He walked out into the hall to rejoin the group as they headed out for lunch.

Maddie had already declined the offer to join the group as she had a ton of work to catch up on and was hoping to bug out early for the day. She finally lifted her gaze from the card in her hand to see Bennet staring at her intently with a look she had never seen before.

He looked almost angry—she continued on with her task of gathering up the papers when Bennet stepped inside the room, “Madeline you don’t need to clean up in here, that’s what the interns are for.” She avoided eye contact and grabbed her things to head out, dropping Jared’s card in the process.

Bennet slowly leaned down and picked it up. “Wouldn’t want you to forget this, might help keep you out of the office on those lonely Friday nights.” He said with a smug look.

Maddie was shocked at the rude comment and took the card from Bennet’s hand. “Enjoy your lunch Mr. Windsor.” She said as she walked out of the conference room and back to the elevators.

She spent the next several hours at her desk with her head down, powering through her “to-do's" and sending off different projects to her boss for approval. She hadn’t received any feedback from Bennet yet on her presentation, she wasn’t sure if he was still out rubbing elbows with the Larson group or if he was brooding in his office and frankly she didn’t care.

It was almost 4 o’clock and she had already gotten approval from her boss to take off early. She quickly shut down her computer, said a quick goodnight to Vince and then made a beeline for the elevators. She was catching an early boxing class with Jazmine and then they were hitting the town for some much needed drinks!