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And at the other end of the table, Aiden fairly vibrated with barely concealed dislike that Blake seemed to lean into like a flower turning its face to the sun. He could have easily ignored Aiden. I wasn’t even sure why the head of Cross Media was here, except to meet and greet an important new client. He certainly wasn’t saying much, but Blake purposefully lobbed the conversation his way, over and over. He seemed to enjoy Aiden’s terse responses.
And when he wasn’t baiting Aiden, he was looking at me.
On one level, it was flattering. On another, it was disconcerting. Plenty of men had shown interest in me over the years, but the way Blake did it was unusual. For one thing, we were in abusinessmeeting. For another, he didn’t seem particularly concerned about drawing me out or getting reciprocation. In some ways, his interest in me felt almost like a show rather than a real emotion he was feeling.
It was thoroughly strange and confusing, but there was one person who wasn’t confused.
Aiden.
CHAPTER16
AIDEN
The idle thoughts I’d had about firing Andrew suddenly felt quaint. I didn’t want to fire Blake–I wanted to dismantle him. It wouldn’t be murder because he wasn’t a real person. If I wasn’t seeing him in the flesh, I’d swear he was an AI bot. Dismantling was too much work. I wanted to just erase his code or pull the plug on the machine.
But the problem was that Blakewasn’ta robot, AI or otherwise. He was real, and he was really looking at Layla like she was an ice cream cone and he’d just trekked across Death Valley. It would have been shitty if she’d returned the sentiment, but I could have handled it. What was worse was seeing her grow visibly more uncomfortable the longer the impromptu strategy session went on.
“The nerve of the guy just showing up here,” I’d muttered to Maureen when I found out about his decision to drop by unannounced. I’d been irritated, but as the minutes ticked on, I was becoming closer to enraged.
Blake was up out of his seat, circling the table. He was holding his chin with one hand, and he was supporting his elbow with the other. A sort of mobile version ofThe Thinker. His circuit somehow never brought him all the way down to my end, but it did keep him in close proximity to Layla. The third time I saw her scoot her chair closer to the conference table, my self-control snapped. I stood up suddenly and plonked my coffee cup down hard enough that the little bit at the bottom splashed up and onto the table.
Maureen’s wide eyes were the only thing that arrested my next movement, which was to grab Blake by his steroid enhanced upper arm and tell him to keep the hell away from my staff. They were the jolt that reminded me that I was in an office building.Myoffice building. This was a meeting with an asshole, not a brawl in a bar. Even if our client was asking for a punch to his dimpled chin didn’t mean I could give him one.
I was the boss. A blessing and a curse. Wings and a leash.
With unimaginable effort, I reigned myself in and managed to slap a rictus smile across my face. “Blake, thanks so much for stopping by. I’m afraid we have to wrap it up for today.”
Blake predictably came to a stop right behind Layla’s chair. I cut my eyes at Maureen, who immediately pushed hers back.
“Already?” He frowned, like he was offended. “I think we were getting into some really good stuff here, Aiden.”
Everyone I knew called me by my first name. Mr. Cross still sounded like my father to my ear. But what the hell gavehimthe right to it?
“SorryBlake.” I put emphasis on the name in the hopes he’d realize how stupid it was and go back to his given one, which was actually Jeff. “Joe will get in touch with you about setting up another meeting.” I pushed back my chair and stood up. Maureen and the others followed suit.
Making no attempt to look casual, I made my way around the table and put myself between Blake and Layla before I reached out and shook his hand in a quick, firm goodbye. I could tell he wanted to object, but it was hard when Maureen was leading the way out of the conference room and Joe was insinuating himself between us, putting even another layer between Blake and Layla.
“Come on,” I said to Layla, gesturing for her to go the other way around the table to get to the exit since Joe was blocking this one now. “I need to talk to you in my office.”
Layla looked instinctively toward the door to see if any of the team had overheard. No one had. Joe was too busy talking Blake’s ear off, and everyone else was already out of earshot. She looked back at me and nodded once.
There was a thrumming beat in the back of my brain. A warning call. It seemed like it was always playing in the background when Layla Davis was around, but now the bass had been turned up. The Brand Development team must have gone into Maureen’s office because we didn’t see any of them as we made our way back through the floor. Of the people who were there, no one looked twice at us as I led the way up the stairs and into my office.
Layla shut the door behind us, and the definitiveclickbrought the pounding beat in my head to an abrupt halt. Silence filled the space between us. Heavy, textured. It had weight and it smelled like vanilla. It tasted like popcorn and beer and the velvety feel of her lips on mine. It was everything the music had been warning me about.
Layla pulled her hand off the knob slowly, like she was considering whether or not she should have done that.
“Sit down,” I said, gesturing to one of the two chairs on the other side of my desk. Normally, I’d take one so I could talk to my team without the heavy oak desk between us. Today I thought it prudent to stay where I was.
Layla walked to the chairs, but she didn’t sit down. “What’s this about, Aiden?” she asked and picked up my empty coffee mug. I hadn’t even had a chance to fill it before Blake fucking Morten had crashed my morning. She turned it until she could see the text.World’s Okay-est Boss. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Maureen?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s great.”
“I didn’t bring you here to talk about Maureen.”
Layla raised an eyebrow, somehow managing to look devilish and elegant all at once. She set the mug down. “Whydidyou bring me here then?”
