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She’d bought her flat two years ago, mostly to invest her more than generous salary. Her frantically busy role as Joao’s EA meant she got to stay in her flat once or twice a week if she was lucky. Half of the plants she kept defiantly buying because she expected her life to miraculously slow down survived only because her next-door neighbour took pity and watered them when he could.
The majority of what little down time she got was spent in one of the executive condos Oliviera Enterprises kept for its high-ranking employees. It was where she kept her work clothes, where she’d crashed in the early hours of yesterday morning after working with Joao for sixteen hours straight on the top ten deals he was juggling.
And now, as she walked around rooms that should’ve felt familiar but didn’t, Saffie’s mind was back in the penthouse. Back against that glass wall, her senses clamouring for everything Joao had to give.
How she wanted to be back there now, caution be damned.
With grim determination she pulled out her suitcase and gathered the few essentials she kept at the flat. It struck her that she could walk out of her flat and never return because everything she needed was taken care of at the company’s executive suite.
The awareness that she had allowed herself to become fully dependent on Joao sent a pulse of apprehension through her. She shook free of it a moment later.
She’d pulled herself back from falling into total disgrace after vowing to keep away from her powerful, charismatic boss today. She was allowed a few wobbly moments.
Order would be restored tomorrow.
Except it wasn’t.
Joao’s bad mood arrived, and stayed, displaying a full spectrum of his Latin temper that sent her assistants cowering. Eventually, knowing Joao would be locked in meetings and conference calls in the hours before they flew to Shanghai, she gave them permission to leave mid-afternoon.
With the videoconference she’d set up for him about to commence, Saffie decided to make herself scarce, too.
She was eager to flee her thoughts, but more than that she was eager to shake off the addictive hunger that had taken root inside her and wouldn’t shift.
Standing up from her desk, she started as the intercom buzzed to life.
With unsteady fingers, she answered. ‘Yes?’
‘Come into my office, please, Saffie,’ Joao commanded.
She replaced the handset, feverishly making a list of what he could possibly want and abandoning it after a few seconds. Joao’s needs were fluid and numerous.
Thoughts of needs immediately intensified her hunger, thickening the vein of desire he’d effortlessly triggered in her. Desire he
’d more than fulfilled in Morocco only for it to return ten times stronger.
Her footsteps faltered outside his doors despite her traitorous senses yearning for the man within.
She slicked unusually clammy hands down her merino-wool-clad thighs. She worked for the man and knew it wasn’t her overactive imagination broadcasting his impatience from behind the closed doors.
And when she opened those doors she wasn’t fooled for a second by his seemingly relaxed pose behind his desk.
Fiercely intent eyes latched on her the moment she stepped inside and tracked her mercilessly across the plush carpet.
‘What do you need?’ she asked in a voice nowhere near her usual even tones.
He stared at her for a terse few seconds before he flicked a glance at his watch. ‘The Silverton team weren’t ready with their report. They’re under orders to get themselves into shape and reconvene for the videoconference in half an hour.’
She frowned. ‘I spoke to them this morning. We went through the bullet points and everything was in place. I wouldn’t have arranged the meeting otherwise.’ She’d learned to her advantage that triple-checking those with access to Joao was better for everyone concerned, including her.
He pushed back his chair and rose. ‘They weren’t ready to my satisfaction. So we have fifteen minutes. Correction, we had fifteen minutes. Since you wasted five minutes with your dawdling, now we have ten,’ he drawled as he rounded his desk.
The swift spike of excitement robbed her of breath and immediately replaced it with a racing heart and shrieking warning that this...anticipation coursing through her was skating dangerously close to foolhardy. ‘Ten minutes for what?’
He raised one mocking eyebrow. ‘To discuss what happened yesterday. Specifically, if it’s going to cause another episode like Monday’s.’
Her heart flipped in her chest. ‘Why should it?’
‘You tell me. I would’ve had this conversation with you last night, but you made yourself rather...unavailable.’
