“Great,” I say. “Email it to me, and we’ll talk more next week.” I hang up the phone, look at Sarah. “About time.”
She pulls the sunglasses off and makes a show of rolling her eyes at me as she takes a seat on the other side of the desk. “You’re giving me a raise.”
“Am I?”
“Yes,” she says, meeting my eyes. “Or I’m going back to San Francisco.”
I crack a small smile. I already had her raise processed through HR, but I like fucking with her. “Guess you better go back to the airport, because you’re nuts if you think I’m paying you more than I already do.”
She pulls her laptop out of her bag and sets it on my desk. “I’m nuts for working for you.”
“This is the best job you’ve ever had,” I say, leaning back in my seat.
“Right,” she says, with another eye roll. “You’re still giving me that raise.”
I look up at the knock on my half-open door, to find Selene looking in. Her hair is down, which is definitely my favorite look on her. She’s wearing a fitted white shirt with a wide collar and a pair of dark slacks that remind me of how long her legs are. Fuck, she’s spectacular.
“Sorry to bother you,” she says. “Do you have a second?”
“Absolutely,” I say. “Come on in. Sarah, this is Selene Taylor. Selene, Sarah Reynolds. Sarah works for me at Edge, and she’s transferring here.”
Selene smiles and shakes hands with Sarah. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Sarah says.
“Again, sorry for interrupting, but Marketing wants to move the meeting this afternoon to noon instead of three,” Selene says. “I want to be sure you can still make it before I respond.”
I look at Sarah.
“Don’t look at me,” she says. “I just got here and I don’t have your calendar synced yet.”
“Noon is fine,” I say. “Thanks.”
“Great, see you then,” Selene says and walks out the door, closing it behind her.
Sarah looks at me with her eyebrows raised.
“What?” I ask.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” I ask.
Sarah nods toward the door. “That. Is there something going on with her?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Sarah gives me her I know you’re lying through your teeth look. She’s worked for me for about four years, but we’ve been friends since college. I can’t get much past her. “I saw the way you looked at her. Please tell me you aren’t sleeping with an employee.”
“Not yet.”
“Ronan,” she says, her voice stern, “you realize that’s a terrible idea, right?”
I rest my hand on my chin. “No, it’s a risk. There’s a difference.”
“Ah,” she says. “I see what’s happening.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“No?” she asks. “Let me guess and you can tell me if I’m right.”
I arch an eyebrow at her. “Fine.”
“She turned you down, probably because she’s as smart as she is gorgeous and she knows sleeping with her boss has the potential to ruin her career,” Sarah says.
Ruin her career. I do not like hearing that. I shift in my seat, but don’t say anything.
“Now, you see her as a challenge,” she continues. “She’s the next jump spot you need to conquer.”
Ordinarily, Sarah would be right. Most of the women I’ve dated have a similar story. They present a challenge in one way or another, and fuck if I don’t love the chase. It’s a rush.
I need the rush.
It would be easy to agree with Sarah, to say that I’m attracted to Selene because she’s hard to get and I want to be the man who gets past her defenses again. It wouldn’t be a lie. But it wouldn’t be the whole truth either, and I don’t think I want to try explaining it to Sarah.
I can’t explain it to myself.
“Not quite,” I say.
“What does that mean?” she asks.
“It means you don’t quite have it right,” I say.
She narrows her eyes at me. “What’s going on with you?”
“We’re done talking about this,” I say, and the casualness is gone from my tone. I’m not kidding. I pick up my phone to glance at the time. “We have some time before the marketing meeting. Your desk is right out there, if you want to get settled first, but I have some things I need to go over with you.”
“All right, back to business,” Sarah says. “I have some things to review from Edge, but there’s nothing that can’t wait. Where are we with the contract?”
“I’m close to setting up a meeting,” I say. “But I need to get the team here on board first.”
“You haven’t told them?” Sarah asks.
“Not yet,” I say. “Everyone here is still reeling from the sale. That jackass Brad didn’t give them any warning, so they had no idea it was coming. I need to gain their trust before I spring this on them. It represents a pretty big change in direction.”
“It does, but at the end of the day, we all need to do our jobs,” she says.
“True,” I say. “But I could also lose half the dev team and then we’d be fucked.”