Chapter 27

Michael

It had been exactly a week since Rainey and I had our little confrontation. I knew that because I made little marks on my calendar for each day. The morale in the office suffered for maybe a day, but Rainey’s mood picked up significantly by the end of last week. I suspected her need to keep things professional outweighed her attitude with me at work.

I’d come in fresh off the weekend to her wearing a sheer cream colored shirt. As I came closer to her, I could see the outline of her breasts. I remembered touching them when we were at the lodge. And with one look, I found myself back to thinking of us together.

I hated the way we ended things between us. I had wanted nothing more than to start a relationship with her but apparently, I read all the signals wrong. I’d explained myself about Natalia, so what was her hesitation? What was she hiding?

I wasn’t the type to be paranoid, but I’d kept a good eye on her and noticed she kept taking mysterious phone calls and slipping away to answer them. I could have used my superiority over her to prevent her from taking personal calls when she was at work, but I wanted to find out more about the situation. I had this incessant need to know more about her, even though we’d agreed to keep it professional.

I felt like a kid who was told not to have a cookie, and now I really wanted that cookie.

During one of the instances, I found an excuse to pass by the supplies closet while she was inside. She chose different places to go each time, but I’d been lucky today. The door was open a crack so I could see her stocking the shelves while she was on the phone. She was quite the multi-tasker.

“If you want that from me, you’re going to have to take it,” she’d said.

There were many ways to interpret that remark. I hoped it was more innocent than it sounded. We’d trod on the line of no return at the lodge, but was she secretly a dirty girl in the bedroom?

No way, I thought, shaking those insane thoughts out of my head. It had been too long since I got laid, so I was projecting. Rainey was a firecracker, but she was also sweet. I couldn’t imagine her talking dirty at work, but fuck if I didn’t want to hear it.

Was she in a relationship? Is that why she broke it off? She could have easily said that during our conversation. She thought I was in a relationship so I couldn’t wrap my head around that excuse from her. If she had been in a relationship, she might have been relieved instead of pissed off that I supposedly had one on the side too even though that clearly wasn’t the case.

I had left my hiding spot before I was caught snooping. I continued my sleuthing in secret.

But when she asked to leave early yesterday, I knew something else had to have been going on. She didn’t offer an explanation, and I didn’t pry. She promised to come in early this morning to make up for the time and also promised it wouldn’t happen again.

She was a hard worker, so I didn’t think meeting a boyfriend during her work day was in her plan to keep her job.

“Where are you going?” I’d asked.

“It’s personal,” she’d said, not quite meeting my eyes.

I allowed it because if there was something going on with her, I could use that as leverage to eventually find out what it was.

I snapped myself out of my thoughts. Why did I even care? She was my assistant and clearly not interested in me. It was better that I didn’t get involved.

And she had been at work this morning before I arrived. She was a little more distraught today which made me think I hadn’t been right about her personal issues. They weren’t affecting her workload, but I hated seeing her like that.

I had to stop getting distracted by her. Though it was hard to fight. And with the last-minute approvals for the Christmas charity sitting in my inbox, this was the time to focus. With the event a little over a week away, we were getting down to the wire.

When Rainey was in the office, she was extremely helpful with the event. She handled it with the same care that Cynthia did. And at the end of the day, that’s why I’d hired her. Even though she turned me down, I had to try and look past that to what mattered most. And this charity was everything to me.

I shook away all thoughts of Rainey and rolled my shoulders, ready to dig deep and finish up everything I needed to get done today.

I clicked through one email before my phone rang.

I let out a frustrated groan, but then I saw it was Frederick calling. I snatched my phone and pressed it to my ear just as my office door opened.

I glanced up. Speak of the devil, Rainey stood there holding a file folder.

“I’ll come back,” she said quietly.

I shook my head and indicated for her to come in. One of us had to be the bigger person. Besides, I was her boss. As far as she knew I was talking to a client. I didn’t want to act suspiciously around her if I could help it. She already accused me of terrible things. Things that I was involved in, but she didn’t need to know that. The more I acted as if everything was fine, the less she’d pry. And if those men came to the office, I hoped they would leave her out of it since she wouldn’t have any information for them.

She came over to my desk and started looking through the paperwork in my outbox. I inhaled, taking in the sweet scent of her perfume. I swore I could smell her in my sleep.

“Hey,” I said into the phone, but I never took my eyes off Rainey.

She continued to sift through the papers, and I noticed her shoulders were up to her ears. She could tell me that she didn’t want to be with me, but I still affected her. I just had a better poker face.

“Hey,” Frederick said. “Is this a bad time? You sound weird.”

“It’s fine,” I said, turning my gaze away from her. I wondered if Frederick had talked to Demetri yet. He wouldn’t have called if he didn’t have news. “What’s up?”

“We need to meet,” he said. “I have some updates for you.”

“All good things I hope?”

“No,” Frederick said. “Why would you say that?”

“Busy day at work,” I said, trying to make it sound like I was having an everyday conversation.

“Oh,” Frederick said, finally catching on. “Got it.”

“I can meet you at Kadia,” I said. “Tonight.” I had to end this conversation before Frederick ruined it for me.

Rainey looked away, giving me as much privacy as she could even though she stood several feet away from me and could clearly hear everything.

“Yeah, we have some more things to discuss. Meet me in the VIP room around eight.”

“Eight is perfect,” I said.

Frederick hung up the phone, and I placed my phone on the desktop.

“Did you find everything you’re looking for?” I asked her.

Her chest heaved as if she were out of breath. Thinking back to the one-sided conversation she heard, I wonder if she thought I had a date. Thinking of her secret phone calls, I hope she did think that.

“Yes,” she said, tapping the papers on the desktop and then shoving them into the folder.

Then I felt terrible for wanting to deceive her. I hated playing games with women. There were enough that tried to do that with me, and I cut them off straight away.

It wasn’t Rainey’s fault that she wanted to keep things professional. In fact, I admired that. I was the childish one now.

I wanted to ease her mind. “That was my brother.”

She looked somewhat relieved, yet she shrugged it off. “It’s none of my business.”

“As my assistant, much of what I do here is your business. I want things to be good between us.”

“They are,” she said.

“Did everything go okay yesterday?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You left early. You seemed a little out of it. I wanted to make sure that you were fine.”

Her eyes narrowed for a minute as if she were gauging my interest in the matter. “You said it wasn’t a problem—”

“I know what I said. I’m interested in the well-being of my employees. You can come to me with any issue you’re having.”

She blinked a few times and nodded. “Thank you. But I took care of it.”

There was a “for now” lingering on the edge of her sentence, but I didn’t push the issue. I put myself out there, and I hoped if she were in any serious trouble, she’d come to me. I had enough money and resources to take care of any issue she might face.

“Do you need help finalizing anything for the charity? Rachel called today to make sure you were on track,” she said.

“What did you tell her?”

“I said you were on top of it,” she said.

I smirked. Good girl. “To be honest, I’m not. But this is the perfect opportunity for you to learn. How about you pull up a chair, and we’ll do it together?”

I extended the olive branch. It was up to her to accept or leave it.

She left the room.

My jaw slackened. Was she still upset with me?

She returned seconds later with a pad and pen and rolling her office chair into the room.

I suppressed a smile and moved my chair over so that we could work on the project side by side.

“What?” she said with a confused expression.

“Nothing,” I said, turning my attention to the screen.

Sandra came in a little while later to ask what we wanted for lunch. She took our order and left us alone again.

“I can’t believe this event is so close,” she said after we’d completed half of the tasks. “It’s exciting, right? Are you excited?”

I smirked. Once again I was reminded of Cynthia. She always loved this time of year, but the charity event made it even more exciting for her. “I am.”

“This money is going to help so many children with cancer. And their families, they are going to be thrilled. It’s like the best Christmas present ever.”

“You seem to love children a lot. Do you have a big family?”

She stiffened then shook her head. “Not really. But, yes, I do love children.”

“Me too,” I said. Cynthia and I always wanted a bunch of our own but fate had another plan for us.

Rainey stared at her hands for a minute, clearly thinking hard about something. I cocked my head to the side, hoping she would say what was on her mind. But that was something she might have done before Natalia crashed into my life last week.

As much as I outwardly pretended not to care, I’d developed feelings for Rainey. And my need to protect her was strong. I couldn’t deny that. And I didn’t want to.

“So,” I said, breaking the moment. “Let’s check if our lunch is here.”

She shoved away from the desk, appearing grateful to end the conversation about kids. I wanted the best for Rainey, even though it wasn’t me. But then my hackles rose, thinking of her with anyone else. I supposed I should get used to the idea, but until it happened, I couldn’t.