He steps aside to reveal Scarlett hovering in his shadow and my spine stiffens. There’s a tightness in my shoulders I can hardly blame on the financials. Triada had a blockbuster year.
We should be celebrating.
But I’m not in the mood to celebrate. Not when Scarlett’s looking at me like I kicked her damn dog.
Did you really think one meeting was going to change her opinion of you?
No, but I’d hoped for some improvement, however meager.
As usual, her hair is pulled back in a severe bun, and she’s wearing a high-collared blouse with some kind of pattern on it. Her flowing dress pants are the same shade of sky blue as her eyes, and there are about a dozen fine gold chains of varying lengths looped around her neck.
Judging by the firm set of her jaw and the fact that she’s avoiding eye contact, it’s obvious she’s not exactly thrilled to be here. Hell, she looks like she’d rather be anywhere else.
Not that I blame her. The last time she took notes at an executive meeting, she landed herself in hot water.
Miles nods a greeting and slides into his chair, gesturing for Scarlett to take the seat beside him. She follows his lead and keeps her gaze lowered as she busies herself with her laptop.
Are those— Are those dogs on her shirt?
I blink, unable to hide my surprise. Her blouse is covered with poodles of various shapes and sizes. There must be a hundred of them.
How is it possible this woman—who looks like a walking menagerie—can judge me so harshly? Aren’t animal lovers supposed to be, I don’t know—nice?
As if she can feel the weight of my stare, she looks up, her face open and unguarded. Our eyes lock, and for the briefest moment I forget all about making Scarlett eat her words because I’m thinking of much better uses for that lush little mouth of hers. Then she flattens her brows in disapproval, and all thoughts of forgive and forget fly right out the window.
Prepare to eat crow, Miss Evans.
A slow smile curves my lips. “Good afternoon, Scarlett. Thank you for agreeing to take notes.”
She freezes, and I can practically see the snarky wheels of her brain turning, no doubt forming a response meant to put me in my place, but she merely says, “No problem, Nick.”
Given the choice, I’d prefer Rebecca, my new assistant, but she’s struggling to keep up and I’m not confident she could handle today’s meeting.
“Is Beck joining us?” Miles asks, completely oblivious to the fact that he’s just become the key ingredient in a tension sandwich.
Typical.
“I’m not sure. He messaged me earlier to say he was working on a piece of code that was giving the R&D team trouble.”
“Lucky bastard.” Miles sighs. “How does he always manage to worm his way out of these meetings?” He straightens and turns to Scarlett as if something’s just occurred to him. “I’m going to need a list of plausible excuses on file for the next time Nick schedules a two-hour financial review.”
“Consider it done.” She smiles, and that low husky laugh tumbles from her lips, igniting a fire low in my gut.
Because of course I’m attracted to a woman who despises me.
“Remind me to give you a big raise when we do annual reviews.” Miles turns back to me, a cocky grin plastered on his face. “You know, I think Scarlett is going to be my best hire yet.”
Ignoring the dig, I ask, “Have you even looked at the final results?”
Granted, that’s the whole point of this meeting, but as an owner, Miles should know the numbers inside out. He has a vested interest that outweighs the rest of the managerial team.
He rolls his eyes. “Last year’s revenue was 6.9 billion dollars, an increase of one hundred and two percent versus last year. Would you like the profit numbers as well?”
“I would,” I say, straightening my cuffs, “but we have a lot of material to cover, and we need to get started so we don’t fall behind schedule.”
No need to give Scarlett additional ammunition. Or reinforce her belief that I have shit time management skills and am too dim to understand the concept of work-life balance.
“By all means,” Miles says, gesturing for me to kick off the meeting.
