Chapter Four
Lauren
Trent sits down,his straight brown hair wild and messy, fitting his mad scientist persona to a T. He places his hands behind his head and kicks back in the chair. “How much do you loveme?”
I take a deep breath and count to three. I’m not in the mood for his flirtatious banter this early in the morning. But then again, I never am. “We’ve been over this before. You need to knock before entering my office. Strolling in like you own the place isnotacceptable.”
Trent never did fully grasp the boundaries I’d put in place after we broke up. Being the CEO and his boss hasn’t earned me an ounce of respect in his eyes either. He comes and goes as he pleases, no matter how many times I’ve reminded him he can’t just breeze into my office like we’re still acouple.
“Come on, Lulu.” He gives me the classic Trent“I’m the man”chinlift.
I hate when he calls me Lulu. He gave me the nickname a few months after we started dating, and it always gave me the creeps. For being such a brilliant man, at times, he’s completelyclueless.
“What do you want?” I try to keep the anger from my voice, but I failmiserably.
He shows off the dimple that I used to adore but now despise. “You lost your sparkle, sweetheart. What’swrong?”
I rise from my chair, stroll to the front of my desk, and lean against it. “Skip the bullshit, Trent. It’s not going to work on me anymore.” Crossing my arms, I stare down at the man I once thought I loved. “What’s wrong with thedesign?”
He smiles smugly. “Nothing. It’sperfect.”
It’s hard to imagine a time when I believed Trent was charming, but I fell for him hook, line, andsinker.
My mouth falls open, and my arms drop. “It’sdone?”
That damn dimple deepens. “Yep.”
“You did it?” I whisper, gripping the edge of my desk, unable to believe what he’s tellingme.
I shouldn’t be shocked that he found a way to make the engine work. It’s the reason I never fired him. Trent isn’t just a genius; he has the ability to rank right up there with Albert Einstein if he’s only given achance.
He squares his shoulders and puffs out his chest, because Trent wouldn’t be Trent without his cockiness. “Idid.”
“Do you know what thismeans?”
The enormity of this moment isn’t lost onme.
My heart beats wildly as my mind reels from thenews.
Hedidit.
Wedidit.
Interstellar pulled off something no one ever thought possible, and Trent made it happen. Suddenly, I’m thankful I never fired him even if he’s a daily pain in my ass. I’m all about taking one for the team, especially when they come through in a bigway.
He stands and invades my personal space with his aquamarine eyes gazing into mine. “That I’m a legend.” He moves closer, and I lean backward, trying to put more space between us. “Bound to be remembered foreternity.”
He cages me in, but in this moment, I’m not angry. How can I be after he just delivered the most amazing news? “Yeah, Trent, you will.” It’s true and ridiculous all at once. “But this means that we’re going to crush the bastards atCozza.”
“It’s what you always wanted.” He starts to stroke the exposed skin on my arm. “We make an amazing team,Lauren.”
Team?We haven’t been a team in years, and even then, we were two entities that spent time together but didn’t gel as one. I was too busy busting my ass to climb the corporate ladder, and Trent, well, his brilliant mind never seemed to stay focused long enough. When we were a couple, he never paid as much attention to me as he doesnow.
The man doesn’t understand boundaries. Not only does he breeze into my office whenever he feels like it, but he touches me more than I’d like. By that I mean, if he touches me once, it’s too much. But I can’t knee him in the balls in my office. Even if he doesn’t act professionally, Imust.
I dig my fingernails into the wood on the underside of my desk, and I narrow my eyes. I grit my teeth, but keep my voice down so the rest of the office doesn’t overhear. “Get your hands offme.”
His thumb brushes against my flesh, too close to my breast as he ignores my request. “The new engine is my gift to you. Someday, you’ll come back tome.”
