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When she had made no attempt to contact him in the two weeks he had been away from the office, he had thought she was being discreet.
But now?
Pippilotta Jones was obviously a hell of a lot smarter than he gave her credit for, having succeeded in making him cool his heels like some infatuated idiot, the way no other woman before had done so.
Picking up the intercom, he buzzed his PA in and asked Charlie to find out where the girl was having her lunch. Hopefully, it would be a restaurant with a private room. She intrigued him, and morsels like her were meant to be savored and indulged in private.
When Charlie came back, Acheron was more than ready to leave, only to hear the younger man report ruefully that Ms. Jones was having lunch at her desk.
“She what?” That had to be an act, surely? Millennial thinking had long gotten rid of that kind of dedication to work. She had to be faking this for some reason.
“I’ve gone to the CCTV room to have this verified, sir. I went as far back as a week, and I checked footage from random dates in the past few months. She always has her meals at her desk, Mr. Simonides.”
Her desk, which was the one place in the world Acheron hadn’t a hope in hell at having a private conversation with her. Had she known that perhaps, and this was simply her way of forcing him to exert more effort in wooing her?
Acheron was normally contemptuous of such games, but instead he found himself even more intrigued. She was becoming more and more of a challenge, and it had been a long time since he had last felt this way.
Years if he recalled correctly, and it was when he had Serenity Raleigh temporarily working for him as a secretary.
You win then, Ms. Jones, Acheron thought. I’ll play your game…for now.
Chapter 3
Pippi was in one of the toilet cubicles when she heard the door to the ladies’ open, followed by the sound of chatter and heels clicking against the floor. In the act of leaving, she changed her mind and instead stepped back to lower the lid of the toilet.
Life Hack #2 for the Socially Inept, Pippi thought as she sat back down on the toilet. Wait it out to avoid having to make small talk.
“You’ve heard, haven’t you?” Pippi overheard one of the girls ask.
“About BILF coming back to work from the Amazon?”
Sheltered as she was, even Pippi knew that BILF stood for Boss I’d Like to Fuck. The latter part of the girl’s news, however, had her brows raising, more so when the conversation took the most outrageous turn.
I heard someone say he’s got his eyes on being South America’s most powerful lumber baron.
I heard differently. They say he’s there to buy the skin of a 100-hundred-foot anaconda. He wants it in his living room…
Listening to the girls speculate the most wildest things had Pippi rolling her eyes and longing to blurt out the truth.
He had pneumonia, you guys! That’s all!
Pippi waited for a full minute after hearing the door close behind the other girls before cautiously stepping out. I should tell the others about that, Pippi mused as she made her way back to Mr. Collins’ office. It would make a funny story to share over dinner, and her family always did love having a good laugh.
It was a pleasant thought, but one she shelved by force of habit as soon as she returned to her desk. As the eldest child, she had always felt it was her role to be the responsible one, and this outlook had inevitably spilled over to her personality at work.
Her phone rang, and as she listened to the caller report about a crisis at one of the company’s regional offices, it was business as usual, and any lingering thoughts about an Amazon trip that never happened faded for good.
Outside Mr. Collins’ office, it was the same for the rest of those working at the 30th floor until the elevator doors slid open and a tall, powerful figure came out. Even to those who didn’t recognize him by face, Acheron Simonides’ commanding presence was such that he had everyone staring at him.
As he strode down the hallway, heads snapped so fast it was a wonder no necks were broken, with everyone wondering what possible reason the CEO could have to visit their floor. News of his presence quickly spread to the rest of the offices like wildfire, gossipy tongues setting fire all the way down to where the executives worked behind closed doors. Five seconds were all it took for everyone to know. Or at least everyone except Pippi.
A knock sounded on the door just as Mr. Collins’ private phone rang.
“I’ll take the call,” her boss said and gestured to the door, adding, “You take care of that, and if it’s a memo from Mrs. Gardiner, you know what to do.”
