I sat down next to her and turned to face her. “What’s wrong?” She frowned. “Lily, something’s happened. The spark has gone from your eyes. Please talk to me. Did David see us together last night?”
She looked at me for a minute, and then sat back in the chair. “If he saw us, he hasn’t said anything.” She took a deep breath, then looked at me again. “David apologized last night for being an ass earlier in the day. He said he was shocked I hadn’t told him I was working here. I guess I should’ve told him.” She sighed. “He made me dinner and said he didn’t want…. to lose me.” She took a deep breath and tried to smile. “You look tired,” she said and lifted her hand to caress my face, rubbing under my right eye with her thumb.
We both froze. My cock jumped to attention and my heart pounded. I took hold of Lily’s hand and brought it to my mouth then placed a kiss in her palm. She shivered.
With my eyes still focused on her, I watched her swallow and found I couldn’t take my eyes from her mouth. Just as I started to lean in to sample those lips, there was heavy knocking on my door. We jumped apart just as Ruben came barging in. He opened his mouth to say something then shut it abruptly and looked between the two of us.
I found my voice. “Lily, you remember my brother, Ruben, from last night. Ruben, you remember Lily, she’s my new assistant.”
He walked over to us and took the hand Lily offered him and, instead of shaking it like she expected, he placed a kiss to her knuckles.
“That’s enough,” I said, which stunned them both. “Lily, why don’t you finish what you were doing when I arrived?”
“Okay. It’s nice to meet you again, Ruben,” Lily said, on her way out of my office.
“Oh, the pleasure is all mine.”
Ruben was dead!
As she shut my office door behind her, I turned to my brother, who had the biggest grin that I’d ever seen on his face. “Don’t you start flirting with her,” I warned.
He started to laugh and sat in the chair as I collapsed back onto the sofa. “Wow, brother. You’re so fucked.” I frowned at Ruben’s choice of words. “I can’t wait to tell the boys.” Meaning our three brothers. Shit.
“There is nothing to tell. I have a new assistant whose boyfriend is a jackass and cheating on her with his boss’s daughter. Which she doesn’t know, so keep that to yourself. All I was doing was comforting her.”
Ruben was still grinning at me. “So, if she doesn’t know, why does she need comforting? And why, where you practically making love to her last night on the dance floor?”
I let out a sigh. “For some reason, she hadn’t told him about getting the job here, and he was one of the Oakfield representatives at the meeting yesterday. He was pissed, to put it mildly. Last night he wanted to make it up to her with apologies, and I don’t think she was too impressed with him.” I was staying well away from the ‘making love’ comment.
“Yeah well, tell yourself whatever you want, but there was sure as hell a lot of chemistry going on between the two of you when I walked in. It’s a wonder I didn’t get burned.”
I’d had enough of Ruben. “I presume you’re here for a reason. What is it?”
“So abrupt, brother. You wouldn’t by any chance be trying to get rid of me so you can get back to your hot assistant.” He laughed.
“Let’s get something straight, she’s my assistant, which means she is out of bounds to anyone with the McKenzie surname. Are we clear?” I stood and faced him.
“Crystal.”
Then why was he still grinning?
He cleared his throat and walked over to the large window in my office. Ruben had a smaller build than the rest of us, but he sure as hell used to prove that size didn’t matter on the mat. We all grew up having to do boxing and karate, which Ruben excelled at and used to kick our butts. Much to his delight, I might add. I sensed something was bothering him and it must be pretty damn important for him to come to me.
“Ruben?” He turned to look at me.
“I shouldn’t have come.” He started to walk towards the door.
“Ruben, wait. You obviously have something to say or ask, so just get it over with.” I ran my fingers through my hair and waited.
He paused and looked back at me. “It can wait. I’ll see you soon.”
That was really odd. Perhaps Ramon knew what was going on with him. They spent more time together than any of us. I couldn’t even remember Ruben being so….bothered.
Chapter 15
LILY
I sat back down at my desk, stunned with how quickly I’d become attached to Michael. He had been about to kiss me when his brother had walked into the office. Perhaps it was a good thing. I needed to act more professional towards him and remind myself that he was my boss. Plus, I was still with David, who I really needed to sort out, sooner rather than later. That was something I should have remembered last night. What a mess.