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She looked up from her computer, a small smile crossing her face. Relief filtered through him. He knew he’d been borderline rude with his response to her gentle prompt on his own sorrow. It hadn’t been fair to prod her to share when he had no intention of doing so.
Although it went much deeper than simply not wanting to open up. Digging down into the depths of his grief, of ripping open a wound that had taken so long to repair to the point he could function was too much. Even just recalling memories of his parents sent pain lancing through him. While he appreciated the intention behind the hanging of the obituary in the lobby, an action taken in the weeks after his parents’ deaths when there had been an interim CEO, he avoided looking at it every time he walked through.
“Is everything okay?”
He refocused on Evolet, who was watching him with guarded cautiousness. God, he felt like a cad. She’d trusted him with something incredibly precious—not just once with asking him to be her lover, but twice by sharing such an intimate part of her history.
“I don’t talk about my parents.”
She turned then to face him completely, folding her hands on the desk and fixing him with that golden gaze.
“I won’t ever ask you to. I know what arrangement we have, Damon, and I—”
“You misunderstand,” he said, trying to suppress the frustration in his voice. “It’s cliché to say that it’s not you, it’s me, but it’s true. Talking about them...” He paused, hardened his heart against the past straining to break free. “It hurts too much. I fell into a very dark place after they passed.”
Memories of waking up, vivid nightmares of his parents’ accident giving way to the crushing reality that they were gone, flashed through him. He had loved his parents, and they had loved him. But that love had come with a heavy price in the wake of loss.
A price he would never pay again.
Her face softened. “You must have loved them very much.”
“I still do.”
She stood and came around the desk. Before he could move, she took his hand just as he had taken hers in his office. Her fingers were so much smaller than his, pale and elegant against his skin.
“I understand.”
Just like that, he was forgiven. Humbled, unsettled by her simple acceptance, he nodded at her computer. “Any word?”
The tension in the room bled out as she circled back around her desk and blew out a frustrated breath.
“No.” She glanced at him, then laughed. “You’ve been checking, too, haven’t you?”
He grinned. “I feel like a little kid at Christmas waiting for his present to arrive.” He glanced down at his watch, then groaned. “And it’s only ten o’clock.”
Evolet sighed. “How am I going to survive the weekend?”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, her head jerked up as her eyes darkened. His mind scrambled, thoughts of business scattering as possibilities opened before him, each idea more sensual and tantalizing until he was so hard it was almost painful.
The proposal had been submitted. Evolet would move to a different department on Monday. Nothing was stopping him now from fulfilling her request.
“Let’s go.”
Her eyes widened. “Go?”
“It’s Friday.” He walked closer until he was just on the other side of her desk. “The proposal is submitted. Bengtsson will take at least a week, possibly two, to review the proposals. On the off chance he jumps the gun, I have my phone on me.”
“But you’re the CEO. What if something comes up?”
“I told Julie I would be available off-site by phone. I also told her I was giving you the rest of the day off to thank you for your hard work.”
She worried her lower lip with her teeth. “And our...arrangement... I know you didn’t want me to be working for you...”
“As of Monday, you’ll be reporting to my chief engineer, Nathaniel Pratt, and serving in a temporary role as executive assistant to three of his engineers. I’ve wanted to try out the concept of having assistants for our engineers for some time, and testing it out through the remainder of your contract is the perfect opportunity.”
“Don’t you still need an assistant?”
“Louise requested an extension of her maternity leave. She’ll be gone for up to a year. One of the secretaries who works under Julie has been jumping at the chance to become an executive assistant, and this will give him a chance to get some experience.” He arched an eyebrow. “Any other roadblocks you’d like to throw in my way?”
