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His cologne.
He turns in his swivel chair, and the image of him goes right for my knees. He is gorgeous in that dark gray suit, gorgeous with that faded buzzcut, gorgeous with that sleek watch on his wrist as he puts the phone down, gorgeous as he smiles when he sees us.
Gorgeous as he is about to fire me, I reckon.
CHAPTER4
BECKY
This is the first time we’ve been in the same room for more than a minute. I only shook Todd’s hand when I first joined HeartMatch and he came downstairs into the bullpen to meet the new staff. I still remember the tingling sensation that his touch left behind, but I never gave it a second thought. The man is rich, successful, married and has a kid. I never imagined any form of interest from him. Not to mention the fact that he’s my big boss, which would’ve made any such scenario horribly complicated.
But anyway, here I am, standing in his office now, shaking like a leaf as I brace for the worst.
It’s got to be about my running late today. To my shame, it isn’t my first time, but it’s definitely my worst. Elliot sucks the life out of me sometimes. Callie and Laura do their best to drain him of his energy during the day, but damn… he’s so hard to put to bed sometimes.
“Hi, Rebecca. Thank you for taking the time to come up here,” Todd says in a calm and pleasant voice. He strikes me as the complete opposite of what Piper has been dishing since I first walked in.
“Um, hi… Mr. Connors,” I mumble, my cheeks burning. “I was told you wanted to see me.”
“Please, call me Todd.”
“Todd.”
“Yes. Please, have a seat,” he says, pointing at one of the guest chairs across from his massive desk. Piper leaves a leather-bound folder in front of him, along with a silver-plated fountain pen, then gives me one last frown before she leaves us. “Thank you, Piper.”
I wait quietly while wishing I could chew my fingernails to take some of the edge off. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. It would be a shame to break a one-year streak, but I’m terrified of getting fired. I’ve been late more than a couple of times, and Todd values timeliness above most other qualities in his employees. I’ve read that in a number of company materials, for that matter, and even Duncan, the head of our department, has emphasized it more than once.
Todd turns the folder around and pushes it across the desk, then flips it open and offers me the fancy pen. “If you don’t mind, before we proceed with this conversation, I’d like you to have a look at this non-disclosure agreement and sign it.”
“Oh.” I’m stumped. I stare at the first page, recognizing my name and home address, along with a few other familiar details, followed by a standard wording for an internal non-disclosure agreement. I’ve signed something similar before—back when I got hired, I think. “Can I ask what this is about?”
“Not until you sign,” he replies.
I give him a long look, wishing I could read his mind. But he’s damn near impossible to even guess. Besides, I’m more distracted by his strong jaw and smooth features, the brightness of his blue eyes and the honey-like shade of his short hair. I bet it curls a little whenever he grows it out. My fingers tingle as I imagine running my hands through it.Get a hold of yourself, Becky. Geez!
“Okay,” I reply, the curiosity getting the better of me. “This isn’t about me being late, though… right?”
“You were late?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.
“No,” I lie, my voice jumping higher as I proceed to read through the NDA and sign it. The whole thing seems pretty standard to me, and it is specifically limited to the conversation currently taking place today in his office. The company lawyer has already signed off on the document; I can see the stamp at the bottom of the page. “Okay, so what is this about, then?”
Todd leans back into his chair, satisfied to see my signature in blue ink across the dotted line.I’msatisfied to see how the dark gray suit is perfectly tailored to frame his broad muscular shoulders without making him look like an eighties pop star.
“I suppose you, like everyone else, have been told that I have a wife and small child,” he says.
“Yes. You’re quite protective of your personal life as well, which I, like many others, have come to appreciate,” I reply politely.
Man, the way he looks at me is so intense. I haven’t felt this tingling sensation in the back of my neck since… since I met Elliot’s dad. Luke had a way about him, I’ll forever give him that. A way to look at me that made me feel like he was peeling away at my layers, one by one. But what Todd is doing seems far more profound. Infinitely more dangerous.
“It’s all a lie,” Todd says. My jaw hits the floor, and I hear myself gasp. “It’s something I had to say to get the funding for HeartMatch to grow globally. It was part of the pitch, and I thought it would fade away like a little white lie, that nobody would remember it later. But then they all did, and I had to keep it up because… well…”
“It would’ve exposed you as a liar,” I mutter.
Why am I not disappointed? I don’t appreciate liars, especially one who has carried on with such a big farce. Then again, it’s none of my business. It never has been. But it’s not that I’m not disappointed—in fact, I seem to feel… relief. Even giddiness.What the hell?
Oh, right, the hot boss ain’t really married, nor does he have a child, so that makes him… available. He’s no longer the most forbidden among the forbidden fruit.
“Precisely. And the company’s stock value, not to mention my reputation… it would’ve all gone down the drain. Everything I’d worked so hard for up to that moment would’ve burned up in flames. It wasn’t fair to any of the HeartMatch employees, either, you included. So, I had no reasonable choice but to keep lying about it. Only Piper and my attorney know the truth, and now, so do you. I’ve entrusted you with something that could potentially destroy HeartMatch.”
