“That’s bullshit. You knew I didn’t know.”
He didn’t have to drag me with him this time. He’d have to block my path. There was no way I wasn’t seeing this office. I was hoping it would be a dump, like the rest of the place, but knowing Fate he’d have the one nice chunk of real estate in this crumbling 80s carpet and Formica dive.
“This is why you don’t have a desk in the pit of hell.” In the entire time I’d been here, Fate had flitted in and out of the main office, and I’d never realized he did this because he had his own space. I’d assumed he went somewhere—anywhere—that wasn’t here. I’d thought I’d known every nook and cranny of this building. He himself had seen me pouring over it, and his comment now added to the insult of not knowing.
We didn’t stop climbing until we made it to the top floor. No surprise there. If he was going to have an office here, I couldn’t imagine any other place. I wracked my brain, trying to think of any unchecked door up here, and I couldn’t.
He took a left and I followed him to the very end of the hall. He stopped in front of what I’d thought was a maintenance closet. It wasn’t labeled and it was always locked. He turned the knob. There was no way whatever lay behind that door would be nice. There wasn’t enough space. I’d figured the interior of this building out. It was four-by-four at best. He’d converted a closet. It was probably just big enough to squeeze in another Formica desk. There was no reason to get irritated.
The door swung open to a twenty-by-twenty room. It shouldn’t have fit, but it was here, gleaming hardwood floors and all. An expensive looking wool area rug sat under the wooden desk centered against the back wall, the antique detail contrasted by the largest flat screen TV I’d even seen. It was the latest model and took up almost the entire west wall.
“In case you don’t know,” I made a grand gesture of pointing toward the screen, “that is an absurd size for a TV. And, it doesn’t go with the decor.” Uh huh, take that Mr. I’m So Cool I’ve Got a Corner Office. I flopped down on the impossibly soft couch that sat opposite the TV. You fell into it like a leather hug that whispered of sweet siestas as it nestled your head. All those mysterious disappearances made a lot more sense now.
“Do you have cable?” I asked in a threatening tone, ready to kill him if he said yes.
“No. I’ve got cables. What do you want to watch?”
“Show off.”
Fate walked around and sat on the arm of the couch and his eyes roamed slowly up my legs, exposed by the shorts I’d worn today. When his eyes eventually met mine, an image of him completely naked, my hands gliding up the skin of his abdomen before they wrapped around his neck popped into mind. The vision excited my cells like I’d been popped in a microwave.
Get a grip. It was just some flesh lying over some toned muscles. Big whoop. I could go to the gym down the street and find all the muscles I wanted. Yeah, they wouldn’t be Fate but so what? A girl could only handle so much sexy. He had too much. It was a big flaw.
That wasn’t helping at all.
Staring at him from a reclined position was also another very bad idea.
“How do you want to handle the new guy?” Getting up, I tried to make my way to the chair behind the desk several feet away as casually as possible. “And what was the big deal about talking there?”
He sank down onto the couch, taking my position with a look that begged me to join him. He folded his arms behind his head and got settled before he spoke. “I’m not sitting on the interviewee’s side of the desk in a folding chair. As far as what I want? Him to stay out of our way.” His lips turned up. “There’s room for two over here if that chair is uncomfortable.”
I immediately forced myself to stop squirming about. “I don’t think we should be hasty. He might be able to help us.”
I kicked my feet up onto the surface. The movement disturbed the air and caused a slip of paper to gently drift to the ground.
I reached down and grabbed it to set it on the desk. I shouldn’t have looked but I couldn’t stop myself. What did Fate have receipts lying about for? What was he out buying himself that his shopper couldn’t get?
Perfume? He’d been trying to get me into bed nonstop, maybe not saying the words but laying it all out there nonetheless, and he’d been buying perfume for someone else.
Returning my feet back to their previous position on the desk, I tried to act normal even though I was furious. I couldn’t say a word. I didn’t have a leg to stand on. Trying to get me in bed wasn’t saying he was committed to me. It was just sleazy to be that big of a pig.
“Did you see something that made you upset?” Fate said from the couch.
It pissed me off how well he read me. It made me even angrier that he obviously knew what I’d read and didn’t even care.
“Nope. Nothing important.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you have a lousy poker face?”
“Not until I landed in this dump.”
He got off the couch and headed over toward the desk while I used my feet to kick off and wheel myself to a more comfortable distance. He looked down at the desk as if he found something incredibly amusing. “So, nothing is bothering you? Nothing you want to ask me about?”
“Like I just said, there’s nothing that concerns me here.” I kicked my feet back up onto the desk from my new location on the other side of it and leaned back, turning my head away from him and toward the window I wanted to slam a fist into.
I couldn’t believe the jerk thought it was funny that I found his receipt for a gift for another woman. The world was falling apart at our feet but that didn’t slow him down any. Good to know. I might have started to think I was something special.
Fate perched himself on the desk near my feet. “Can we talk business or are you too upset?”
I didn’t need to look at his face. I could hear the smirk and this time I didn’t have torn feelings about it. There was no love of the smirk, only hate. Why he thought it was so funny that I’d find a receipt that confirmed exactly what I feared was beyond me. “I’m not upset. Go ahead. Talk away.”
He sighed, the amusement fading fairly quickly. “As much as I’m enjoying this, it wasn’t what you think.”
I sniffed the air. “You don’t smell particularly feminine today. You wear perfume?”
“No.”
“You have a sister who does?”
“You know I don’t but I do have a Mother who does.”
Mother. Her name sounded like a curse when I heard it. “If you have a thing for Mother, that’s fine. It’s none of my business.”
He stiffened. “It was a work thing. Why would you think there’s something between me and Mother?”
Why? Was he kidding? She was utterly enamored with him and he certainly hadn’t been pushing her away when I’d seen them together. “Like I said, it’s none of my business.”
“I’ve known her a long time, and when she’s upset, I’m the only one she’ll listen to. From time to time, I give her little gifts. It makes her happy and makes the situation easier.”
“Easier for you?”
“You don’t get it.”
“I completely understand.” I just didn’t like it. Although, I did like it better than the alternative.
He stood and took a couple of steps away from me, shaking his head, and then turned back. Good.
“It’s—”
There was a rapping at the door a second before Knox walked in, cutting off Fate’s sentence.
He stepped a few feet into Fate’s office and stopped. The guy looked like he’d come ready for battle.
“Have a seat,” Fate said as he himself stood and made no move to relax.
“I’m fine,” Knox replied, not bothering to look for a seat, even with the invitation.
They stood staring at each other for approximately three and a half seconds before Fate leaned against the desk, looking completely relaxed.
I wasn’t sure if Knox understood what had just happened, but I did. Fate had sized him up and found him to be of little consequence.
“Paddy sent you?” Fate asked casually.
“Yes.”