I resolved not to be so easy next time. But thoughts of next time only added to my sexual frustration, so I focused on the real trouble bothering me.
Preceding him into work, I wasn’t sure what to do now that my office nemesis had been discovered. If only we had a way to learn the identity of the Djinn as well.
We took the elevator, entered the office foyer, and went our separate ways. Him to his office and me to mine. An hour passed before I joined the morning logistics meeting, where several others waited, including Davis with a hateful and battered gaze.
I stared.
One eye had a large bruise under it, and his upper lip looked swollen. He seemed as if he wanted to say something to me but said nothing and remained tight-lipped with animosity.
Jonas shrugged, a glint of humor in his gaze. I studied him out of the corner of my eye while the meeting progressed. Aside from being uncommonly attractive, he didn’t seem any different to me. But I was still surprised I hadn’t noticed his good looks or stature before now.
That didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like the guy had grown and become attractive over night. No one else seemed to notice anything odd about him.
“I’m sorry, Tessa. Are we boring you?” Davis asked with an icy politeness.
“As a matter of fact?—”
“Thank you, Michael,” Jonas finished, glaring me into silence. “I think your take on Surell is what we all had in mind.” The others nodded. “Now, to continue to our newest accounts…”
I made notes for the next half hour. The company would have to take precedence since I had so much work to do and no time to focus on the Djinn.
The day progressed with a disturbing tedium, databases and spreadsheets taking up the majority of my time. I missed lunch, again, opting for a candy bar Jonas had given me, and sat through the last half of my day with him, restructuring our present accounts.
“Storm sure brings us a lot of business,” Jonas said casually before rattling off another stream of data for me to input into the computer.
I stopped typing. “What did you say?”
“Only that Storm is as good as they say.” He studied the papers on his desk, making it difficult to read his eyes. “I didn’t think a hotshot from nowhere would garner us two of the biggest accounts in the northwest, and that was before the Ryders deal.”
“Your point?” I asked, willing him to meet my gaze.
He did but showed me nothing. “You know, when I first assigned you to oversee his accounts, I was hoping for some spark between the two of you.” He must have read my surprise because he grinned and added, “He’s the office playboy. You give off ‘don’t touch me’ signals all the time. I wanted to see what would happen.”
“Jonas?”
“It was presumptuous of me. I’m sorry. But you work too hard. I wanted you to have some fun with life.” He sighed. “I see a lot of myself in you. Maybe that’s why we never hit it off, you and me, I mean.”
“Jonas, I?—”
“Admit it, Tessa. I have women throwing themselves at me all the time, not that I’m bragging.” His lighthearted expression made him seem years younger. “From the minute you started working for me, I felt a physical attraction for you but little else. And you never once gave me any sign you felt anything but friendship for me.”
This conversation had gone way past sexual harassment and HR lectures on professionalism. And they made no sense coming from my boss, who had perfected office relations from the moment he’d started working here.
I wanted to call him on his unprofessionalism, but he’d never opened up to me before, and I wanted to hear him out. I didn’t sense him pressuring me for anything, and I wanted to know more about his fixation on Marcus.
“Jonas, I don’t know what to say.”
“That’s just it. You always know what to say. But lately, with Storm, you’re different.” He sounded concerned. “Look. I wanted you and Storm to hit it off. He seems like a nice guy. He’s smart and supposedly decent if you know which stories to listen to.” He grimaced. “And speaking of stories… Davis won’t bother you anymore. I’d planned to talk to HR about it, but Storm handled it before I could. Are you two, maybe, well, involved?”
It was none of Jonas’ business, yet I found his concern endearing.
He blushed. “I’m sorry for butting in and don’t mean to pry. But I think of you as a friend and someone I care about. In a purely platonic sense,” he added hastily. “I don’t want to see you hurt. And especially not because of something I did. If you like Storm, that’s your business. But if he’s making you uncomfortable, I’d be more than happy to talk to him.”
And Marcus thought Jonas was the Djinn. A man who turned beet-red because he’d set me up with the office playboy.
“Marcus and I are friends, Jonas. It’s nothing to worry about.” I smiled. “Frankly, I had started to buy into the rumors about him. He and I talked about it. If anyone would have talked to me the way I talked to him, I probably would have decked him. But Marcus remained polite while he put those rumors to rest. He’s a real gentleman under that little bit of arrogance.”
Jonas gave me a look that clearly said understatement.
