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“Hi, I was hoping we’d be able to talk either here or in my office when you get a chance,” she said.
Cole averted his eyes from the pages he’d been flicking, and when his gaze landed on hers, a tremor worked its way down her spine, awakening all her female parts. Damn. She hadn’t noticed the rings of hazel outlining his bright green irises. She swallowed, wishing to get rid of the lumps of lust forming in all her pulsing points. “Of course.” He glanced down at his expensive watch then scratched his chin. “I’m in meetings all day. Dinner?”
Her heart skipped a beat. Dinner implied going home to change, nighttime shenanigans and the mistakable date-type atmosphere. Dinner was dangerous. “How about lunch?”
“I’m already meeting a couple of other managers to go over some operational things at lunch.”
Damn. He left her no options. “All right. Sure. Dinner sounds good.”
“My assistant will forward you the details. See you then.”
* * *
“The sommelier will be right with you,” the waitress said, after pouring the bottle of Evian into his glass.
“Not needed. This is a work meeting,” Cole said out loud, because the five times he had internally chastised himself with those words hadn’t been enough. Soon, Nikki would arrive and they’d only discuss business. A lump of frustration expanded in his chest, and he tapped the linen tablecloth. Work meeting, man.
Those two words put him right where he should be—professional, detached. Truthfully, he could have scheduled the meeting with Nikki at a different date, but the idea of not seeing her just because of his packed scheduled had deflated a balloon inside him he shouldn’t even be filling.
After he had been involved in a scandal with his father’s former assistant, his father had once again been disappointed, and worst of all, adamant about his son’s removal from the family business. He’d offered to buy his share of stocks, but Cole had refused. He’d worked hard his whole life and was too good at it to walk away because of a bad decision, a bad call to sleep with a woman who blackmailed him with a sexual harassment lawsuit if he didn’t deposit a good amount of money in her bank account.
When he hadn’t acted fast enough, she had contacted his father and blackmailed him.
One more failure in his father’s eyes.
Cole took a gulp of water, pretending it was hard liquor. This is different. Nikki didn’t work for him when he’d kissed her. She had been a random woman who had changed his evening and gave him a perpetual hard-on during the weekend. What would it have been like if they’d had sex?
The main vein in his neck pulsed. Passionate.
His cock hardened, every part of him so attuned to the forbidden thought unraveling in his mind. When he’d slid his hands down her lower back, her lush ass had filled his palms. What wouldn’t he give to feel her naked against him and touch, kiss and nibble her peach-smooth behind? She’d moan, urgency dripping in her voice. And he would—
“Cole?” the woman who had assailed his peace of mind said, pulling a chair in front of his. “Sorry I’m late.”
He coughed, realizing he couldn’t stand up to shake her hand because his erection was even more stubborn than his mind. “No problem. I didn’t see you coming.” Otherwise, he would have pulled her a chair. No. Not at a work meeting, he told himself, willing away the thrumming in his heart.
Wearing a beige turtleneck and the same color skirt, she looked even better than he remembered. She had pulled her hair up in some kind of a glorified bun, but a few strands managed to stray and frame her face. Stunning.
“Thanks for seeing me,” she said in a neutral tone. She pulled a folder from her bag and placed it on the table. She opened the folder, stared at its contents, then sighed. With a flicker of vulnerability in her eyes, she closed it and drummed her fingers on the cover. “First, I wanted to tell you I didn’t know who you were when I approached you at the bar.”
He straightened his shoulders. A zing of awareness traveled from his scalp to his core. Why would he think she had a hidden agenda to go talk to him at Splurge? “No worries. I’m glad you brought this up. Seems we’ll work together while we transition the communities, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“It’s okay. I’m not uncomfortable.”
Good, because he was about to come in his pants. “So, what do you want to talk about that couldn’t wait?”
She stared him square in the eye. “I don’t think moving some of the residents to another facility is a good idea.”
Specks of gold shone in the depths of her rich brown irises. It was like something had gone down his throat and sucked away all his moisture. All of a sudden, he was thirsty, dry and raw.
He shook his head. In the last year when his father had called him to help, he’d dealt with his share of stubborn employees who despised change and, in many cases, progress. “But you haven’t even visited the new place. How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’ve been working at Great Escape for three years. I know the residents’ stories and what an undertaking it will be to some of their families if they transfer.”
He had a drink of water. “They aren’t moving to a remote town in India, they’ll be just some hours away by car.”
She opened a folder and selected some sheets of paper, sliding them to his side. “A lot of research concluded these patients are better off close to family members.”
He stretched in his chair, desperate to find a comfortable position. Her words, her plea didn’t faze him, but her presence… her presence had a way of spiking his pulse. Would he feel the same if they had had sex after leaving the bar? Would she still affect him as much? “The family members who feel so strongly about it can move.”
