But I didn’t feel the typical excitement I normally did.
More business meant more work, and more work meant a greater budget, making my life easier. I normally thrived on the high stress of my job, but knowing my career sat on the brink of destruction and that evil, real evil, could descend upon me at any time was taking its toll.
Not to mention the acid in my gut every time the flinty Judy Meyers tittered about Marcus’ latest conquests and his gorgeous blue eyes.
Judy was old enough to be Marcus’ mother. With her help, we’d taken three staffers from Marcus’ team just a few days ago. Funny how the woman seemed to have forgotten that fact. Now Marcus could do no wrong—as if he needed the encouragement.
To make matters worse, he’d been surprisingly distant since I’d returned to work. No more kisses or sensual caresses. Oh, he was cordial and not unpleasant at home, but he avoided me outside of family meals with his brothers.
It made me wonder if our brief time together meant anything to him.
Affai. Ha. Obviously, he’d said it in the heat of the moment, the scare of Sin Garu magnifying our attraction.
How foolish to be hurt by his indifference. We barely even knew each other.
The old me would have confronted him and settled things. But I had too many distractions of my own to handle. I didn’t have the energy to deal with the questionable issue of “us” right now.
If we didn’t talk about our relationship—for lack of a better word—I didn’t have to face the sorry fact we had no future.
“Ah, any chance I can get those papers back in one piece?” Jonas asked.
While I’d been stressing over Marcus, my boss had been patiently waiting, studying my too-expressive face.
I blushed and handed him the documents, not sure what to say to explain being such a scatterbrain. I’m worried about a magical prince’s feelings for me didn’t seem like a plausible excuse.
“Thanks.” Jonas smiled. “I know I don’t need to remind you we have a budget meeting at eight tomorrow morning concerning our yields for Surell. Davis is point on that.”
Nooo. I’ll be here all night.
“You do know Davis has been angling for your job since you took the position,” Jonas said. “Of course, that’s not all he’s been angling for. But you’ve shown yourself a woman of good taste, so enough said.”
I rolled my eyes, annoyed with Davis, as usual, but pleased to have Jonas at my back.
As I looked at him, an odd shadow shimmered behind him. His eyes seemed to glow as he stared at me.
“Tessa?”
I blinked and saw nothing there. Great. Now I was jumping at imaginary shadows.
“Get cracking, Amazon,” he teased. “I’ll make sure to keep Storm busy and out of your way.”
I studied my boss, but no. He seemed perfectly normal.
“Thanks.” I put effort into appearing pleasant, driven, the ideal employee.
He left, shutting the door behind him, leaving me alone with a mountain of work and relentless thoughts about Marcus Storm.
The idiot I was falling head over heels for.
Chapter 26
Tessa
I scowled at the computer, distracted by rumors I’d heard this morning about Marcus in a meeting with Sheila Covington, the woman so infatuated with him she’d lied about sleeping with him.
Instead, I forced myself to work. If I didn’t get started, I’d never leave.
Five hours later, after dealing with my old accounts, I took a look at the two new ones. I had a feeling Ryders would turn a bigger profit than Portlin Paper, but under Marcus’ touch anything was possible.
