Filed to story: Can’t Get Enough Of You
I’d gotten through the past several years without her. If I’d been able to wait that long, I could wait a little more.
“Cynthia?” I called, and my secretary popped her head around my office door. “Set up a meeting with Derek Grimes.”
“When?”
“As soon as he’s available. Before the weekend.”
She nodded and disappeared.
“What do you need to talk to Derek for?” Austin asked.
Grimes was the design director at the company. He worked directly under Austin, and technically Carey was his new hire.
Not that I gave a shit about that. I was going to poach her no matter where her position suggested she should be. But I had to talk to Derek about it. He was going to be pissed if I just took her without explaining to him why. He was going to be sour that he would have to find another designer just when he thought we’d solved his problem.
That was up to Austin to clear up, though. Not that I was going to tell Austin that. Not yet. I was going to keep it all to myself until I had her under me.
I relished the possibilities of what that could mean.
“What’s on your mind, Nolan?” Austin asked, his voice driving through my thoughts. “You’re being weird.”
“How?” I asked, turning to face him.
Austin shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re more full of shit than usual. And this silent treatment thing you’ve been doing all day-“
“I’m not giving you the silent treatment,” I laughed.
“Yeah, well, you’re not telling me what’s going on, and that’s the same thing,” Austin said.
“Aww, don’t pout,” I mocked and he flipped me off before he laughed.
I laughed, too. I would tell Austin what was going on eventually. For now, though, I needed to figure out what I was feeling. I knew I felt something when I was with Carey. Something… different. Not just lust, like I usually did. But I’d pushed that feeling away five years ago and I was shocked at the strength with which it returned today. It was as if seeing her made everything I’d done fall into place. Like she was the last piece to the puzzle.
And I wasn’t sure how that was possible with a woman I’d only slept with one night.
When I’d slept with so many of them and barely remembered them at all.
On Monday morning, I was at the office just after seven. It was early-so much earlier than I usually came in. But I wanted to meet her. I wanted to talk to her, personally.
I wanted to be the one to escort her into the building.
When she arrived, she took my breath away. Her hair was bright red, flaming in the early morning sun. She wore tailored black pants and a crisp white button-up shirt, and the stark color scheme made her red hair and bright eyes stand out that much more.
“Nolan,” she said when she met me in the lobby. She didn’t look nearly as shocked to see me as she’d looked the day we’d hired her, when she’d passed the conference room. I’d relished her surprise then. I was drawn to her cool confidence now.
“How are you, Carey?” I asked. I fought the urge to reach for her, to pull her closer to me and breathe in the smell of her shampoo.
“A little overwhelmed,” she admitted. “But ready to make a difference in the company.”
“My company,” I said.
She hesitated a moment, realization dawning on her, and then she smiled. Her smile spread across her face, slowly and beautifully, like a sunrise, and lit up her features.
“Of course,” she breathed.
“Come,” I said. “I’m in charge of showing you to your desk.”
She nodded, and we walked to the elevator together. When the doors slid closed, I was hyper-aware of her standing next to me. The elevator was small, the space pushing us closer together. I studied her features, staring unashamedly. Her porcelain skin was smooth, her hair seemed to be the same deep red I remembered, and she carried herself with fluid grace, standing upright and confident next to me.
She glanced at me when I wouldn’t stop staring. Her cheeks pinkened.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s just… crazy. That you’re here,” I said.
God, could I sound like more of an idiot?
“Yeah,” she said. “Crazy.”
The atmosphere shifted a little and I wanted to say something else. Something personal. Like, that it was amazing seeing her again. Or that she looked incredible. Or that the past five years had been empty, hollow, and for the first time I felt like maybe this was why.
The elevator pinged and the doors slid open before I could do something stupid. We stepped out.
Carey’s new office was on my floor. It wasn’t protocol for new employees to start up on the top floor, but I didn’t care. I wanted her close by, where I could see her.
“This is… nice,” she said when we walked into her office. “Really nice.”
I smiled and watched her as she turned around, taking it all in. The office was big, with a beautiful view of the city and a splash of the ocean on the horizon. Her furniture was new, and I’d left a catalog on her desk so she could choose decorations and ornaments and paintings, or whatever her heart desired to make the space personal to her.
“I know Austin hired you to work on a campaign, but there’s been a change of plans. I’m going to need you to help me with a new product line launch.”
She blinked at me. “A what?”
“I’m launching a new product line and it needs to be ready to get out there in as little time as possible. We’re talking all the way through from conceptual designs to marketing.”
She shook her head, paling a little. “I can’t do that. I’m not qualified to oversee something like a launch. I was a freelance graphic designer, Nolan. I didn’t even finish my degree.”