Which brings me to another fact that is startling.
I have a very definite crush on my boss.
Chapter Eighteen
(Or: Temptation, You are the devil. And I probably love you.)
Since Rick the Dick couldn’t find it in his schedule to take Sophie for an extra night, I arrange to have Sara stay the night at our house with her. I’m fairly comfortable with that, or at least, I am after I stipulate that Sara can in no way do anything wild with Sophie.
My best friend solemnly promised.
So, I leave for the airport feeling somewhat at ease with the situation. I’ve also got an appointment scheduled with Shade for tomorrow night. I figure a hot, sexy date with a hot and sexy younger man will help take my mind off the fact that I have a crush on Alex. Shade could take a dying woman’s mind off of the fate of her own soul. He’s distracting that way.
I park my car and walk into the terminal…the one where they fly out the private planes. Zellers has its own fleet of private jets. Since I’m not a vice president of the company, I can only use them when I am traveling with a vice president. But it’s still a nice perk.
Alex is already here, waiting for me. He looks stunningly handsome in his casual khakis and white button-up. Sara was most certainly right. White button-ups can be hot as hell after all, particularly when stretched across his toned chest.
And as if looking so good wasn’t gift enough to me this early in the morning, he hands me a cup of gourmet coffee. Is he trying to make me fall in love with him? Geez.
“Thank you,” I tell him, sipping at the nectar of the Gods. “I didn’t have time to stop on the way.”
“I didn’t figure you would,” he tells me. “Are you ready?”
I nod. “I am. I stayed up last night and reviewed the email you sent. Everything looks in order.”
“It is,” he agrees. “This should go smoothly. I think this project is going to work and they’re going to be naming conference rooms after us at work.” He grins and I grin back, both at his cockiness and at the thought of my name on a plaque outside of a plush conference room at Zellers.
I follow him up the stairs and into the plane, where we are surrounded by the kind of luxury that usually only senior executives are afforded. Plush leather couches, soft blankets, private flight attendants. I decide that I need a promotion so that I can fly like this even when I’m not accompanied by Alex. Vice president is only one step up from my current executive director title, after all.
The flight is only thirty minutes long, so we really don’t even have time to settle in and get comfortable before we’re touching down in San Diego. There’s a car waiting for us, a sleek black Town Car, which takes us to our hotel.
“I figured we could meet up in my room to go over a few things and then we could go to dinner,” Alex suggests as the car glides to a stop and the driver opens the door.
“Sure,” I tell him, even though being cooped up with Alex in his room sends my heart into palpations. “Just let me put my bag in my room first.”
We check in and I head to my room. The hotel is amazing and my room has a gorgeous view of the ocean. I shoot a quick email from my phone to Taylor to thank her. She really does take care of me and I know she’s trying to make up for sending Alex to my house yesterday.
At the thought, I touch my face. The swelling has gone down a remarkable amount. Seriously, you can barely tell now. My eyes look like they are a little puffy from lack of sleep, not like someone took a ball-bat to my cheekbones. It’s progress and I’ll take it.
I drop my suitcase and look into the bathroom mirror.
I look pretty good, actually, all things considered. I pull a brush through my hair and glide some lip balm on and then I make my way to Alex’s room, which is just down the hall.
He opens the door and I have to suck in my breath. He’s loosened the collar of his shirt, which makes him look even sexier. Heaven help me.
“Hey,” he greets me. “How about this view?”
“I know,” I answer as I step inside. “If only Vegas had an ocean, right?”
“Well, we’ve got a desert. That’s almost as good, right?” he flashes me a grin. A white, white grin. I steel my resolve. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“A water would be great,” I tell him as I take a seat at the table. He’s already got papers spread out everywhere, even though we’ve only been here for fifteen minutes. He hands me the bottle and then sits next to me.
He smells like the outdoors…like sunshine and man. And I find myself wanting to leap into his lap and inhale him. Which would be weird. So I resist the urge and instead, I focus on the paperwork in front of us. It keeps us occupied for two hours, actually.
And I find that once we start talking business, I am able to somehow tune out his sexiness and his amazing smell and focus on the matters at hand. We come up with a pretty spectacular co-partnership model to present in the morning, if I do say so myself.
“We’re a good team,” Alex points out as he starts gathering the papers together. I nod.
“Yes, we are.”
“Are you in the mood for steak?” he asks. “Because I am.”
I smile. “Are men always in the mood for steak?”
He nods. “Yes.”
“Well, in that case, far be it from me to keep you from exhibiting your man hood. If you want to beat on your chest for a second, I’ll wait patiently.”
Alex laughs and my vagina flutters.
He slips on his shoes and then holds open the door, a perfect gentleman. I find myself mesmerized by his movements, by everything about him, actually. I gulp. This whole working together thing is harder than I even anticipated. Why does he have to be so gorgeous? BB flutters again, her vaginal antennae on high alert. I shush her. Now is definitely not the time.
Before I know it, we are seated in an elegant dining room, in the dark corner of a restaurant that has soft music piped in the background. I have a glass of red wine and Alex has a gin and tonic. And I am losing myself in his blue eyes.
It doesn’t help that there is a decorative mirror on the wall next to us and when I glance at it, I can see that we look perfect together. Perfect ages, perfect differences in height and even our coloring complements each other. I turn my attention back to him. This isn’t helping.