Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
But I can’t really help it. A gaze like that in bed could make a girl go wild… I shiver at the thought of his strong arms around me, wrapping me up, lifting me up from the floor, my body pinned against his as he leans in to claim my mouth…
Then I shake myself back to the present.
He seems to do the same. “Through here please, Ms. Cross.”
I trail after him, a bundle of confusion. He leads me across the open-plan condo – which has warm wood floors and cozily-painted walls, not to mention wood accents everywhere. The office he takes me into even has an exposed brick wall, and an old-fashioned looking desk. Not at all the style I’d expect from a man like Cassius, but I love it. It’s rich but cozy at the same time, fancy and yet you could totally live here. Not like those stark white insane asylum-looking penthouses you see on TV.
He draws to a halt, and I’m so busy gazing around the room that I collide with him. For a second, I feel his body heat against mine. He catches my arm, as if worried that I’ll fall, and I feel the burn of his palm against my skin long after he lets go and brushes off his coat, like he’s dusting me off of him.
My face is flushed as I look around the office once more.
He points to the desk. “These are my files,” he says, his voice curt, orderly. Snapping me back to reality. “I think you’ll find they are in presentable order – I just need them refilled into this drawer here, and my calendar updated and synced to my digital planner…” He leans over to turn on a computer, which unlike the rest of this office is definitely not an antique.
He leads me through the tasks he’d like me to do – refile a stack of papers that are already meticulously organized, and copy his online calendar onto a hanging wall calendar, which he wants me to set up in his own office, adjacent to this one.
All the while that he’s speaking, I can’t help sneaking glances around the room. It’s so neat and orderly in here. There’s nothing out of place, and his files don’t really need updating or anything. Why did he hire me? Normally if someone is looking for a PA, their life is a hot mess and they need things really tidied up.
Just another mystery to add to the long list of things I can’t figure out about this man.
I sneak a sideways glance up at Cassius as I reach into the carriage to pat Luca’s stomach. He’s giggly and happy, and every now and then interrupts Cassius with a loud laugh. His laugh is contagious, and soon enough he gets his sister started too. They’re both giggling, and Cassius actually cracks a smile – the first I’ve seen from him all day. He leans over to stroke Luca’s hair, and my heart does a spinning leap in my chest.
Shit. He’s hot and bossy and he likes kids?
I’m doomed.
“Manila?”
Crap. What was he saying? He’s standing so close to me, his masculine, deep scent flooding my senses. It’s hard to concentrate on anything else. He takes another step closer when I don’t reply, and I catch my breath, counting the inches between us, watching his muscular chest, hoping he doesn’t notice the way mine is rising and falling faster as I try to control my breathing, which is suddenly desperate.
“Mmm?” I ask, hoping that’ll cover. I was a bit distracted staring at the way his muscles ripple underneath his shirt. He’s still got a hand resting on Luca’s carriage, and there’s something so sexy about that, the way he hangs out with the twins like it’s nothing, takes them in stride.
His hard eyes stare dead into my own. “I said, take all the time you need to care for the babies in between this filing. None of it is particularly urgent.” His breath ghosts over my cheeks as he speaks, and it takes my brain a second to register what he said. The excuse he just handed me. Is he really this nonchalant about a job he’s hiring a PA for?
My eyes widen. Seriously, did he just pop out of my imagination? “Are you sure? I don’t mind, if there’s something you want me to focus on right now…”
“Just get acquainted with things. We’ll start on the bigger tasks next week. I don’t want to rush you.” He rests his hand on my shoulder, for just an instant, and every nerve ending in my body fires. We’re just inches apart. So close I can feel his heat on me. I fight an insane, stupid urge to throw myself at him right here and now.
I haven’t gotten any action since giving birth to the twins – actually, no, since before I was even pregnant with them. My sex drive had been idling in the background, mostly forgotten, while I was swept up in parenting and all the crazy problems that come with it.