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April intended for the building to both welcome workers and clients and draw the best productivity from them. Samson was more of a businessman than a creative, but he could see the potential in the work she had done.
When April entered the building for her interview, security alerted Samson and he opened the live feed on his computer. She was wearing a sharp pencil skirt that matched her suit jacket and a sleek blouse that looked like a print of an abstract painting. Her hair had been straightened and it swung primly around her shoulders. Try as she might, she would never look like a stiff businesswoman; she bore more of a resemblance to a model who had wandered away from her painter.
She never need know that he’d watched her initial interview with his hiring manager, Joan, before having his assistant, Babette, fetch her notes and tell April to wait for him outside of his office.
The interview was interesting. At first there was no glimmer of the feisty girl who had teased him—until Joan tried to ask personal questions.
“I’d prefer to take some time to get more information about your firm here. I know Samson Bennett’s overall conglomerate involves firms including real estate, architecture, and interior design, so basically the sales end and the design end. Where does Jones & Ramirez fall in the scheme of things? And what kind of projects are your top priority right now?”
Samson liked that flicker of temper and how she turned the conversation around to interview Joan about the company. It showed an employee who was mature, who knew what she wanted. As the conversation had progressed, it was clear that Joan didn’t like it quite so much, especially since April kept doing it. Her passive demeanor from before had disappeared, and she had followed each answer with another question or comment.
Samson looked forward to having a bit of a tête-à-tête with her.
His assistant, Babette, tried to pry for his intentions when he gave his orders, but Samson wasn’t about to go over his business practices with his secretary. Babette had always been too curious for her own good, anyway. He skimmed the papers and then went to stand by the window as he waited for April to be brought to him.
“Mr. Bennett? You wanted to see me?”
Samson didn’t turn yet. He let her wait before he even answered. He could practically smell her starting to sweat.
“Have a seat, April.” He let the moment linger before taking a slow stroll around to the side of the desk. “I’ve taken the liberty of looking over your application.”
“And you liked it?”
“It’s a bit sparse, to be honest.”
“Oh.”
Samson half-sat on the desk and leaned toward her. “Tell me more. I want to know who April Lucas really is.”
April’s fingers twisted in her lap. “I really am… looking for a job. Preferably in an architecture firm, which this is. And I really want to be able to work on projects that don’t involve constructing poorly-made pop-up houses and strip malls, which from what I’ve seen of your oeuvre, you don’t do. That’s it. That’s me.”
“Work isn’t all there is to a person, though.”
“It’s what you tend to ask about in a job interview, anyway.”
“Are you originally from Houston?” Samson raised his brows as she instinctively crossed her arms and tensed her jaw.
“No. I just... I thought I had a job here.”
“More than just ‘thought’ if it made you move all the way down here from New York. Where are you from originally? Where did you stay during the summer?”
“I worked during the summer.”
Samson sighed and inched closer. “Where?”
“In a diner. As a bartender.” April shrugged. “You don’t put that kind of work on a professional resume.”
“That’s not…” Samson pinched the bridge of his nose. He walked over to stand in front of her. April’s stormy green eyes widened as she looked up at him.
“Are you looking for someone who ca
n self-start? I can do that. Are you looking for a team player? I can do that, too, provided your team leader knows what he or she is doing. I’ll marry this job, Mr. Bennett,” she paused and the muscle in her jaw twitched. “You just have to tell me what you want from me.”
Samson watched her silently. He took in her heart-shaped face and the furrow in her brow. He listened to the hitch of her breathing. He made her nervous. That was good. But she also intrigued him. So much so that his curiosity might just be winning out over his business sense.
He could simply tell her to go away, that he had no space at the company for her. Lana would probably forgive him, since it had been his idea to interview April in the first place. And still...
“What do you think I want from you?” He looked down at her and crossed his arms. “Do you think I want business buzzwords? Do you think I want someone who will tell me what I want to hear?”
