Thoughts of touching those thighs, feeling how soft her skin is, fill my mind. I grab onto the gear shift with a vice grip and hope to god she doesn’t notice that it’s an automatic.
I park away from all of the work trucks and cargo vans – just in case – and hop out of my seat before making my way to open Rowan’s door and help her out of the car.
“You weren’t kidding about the gentleman thing,” she teases with her hand in mine as she gets her feet on the ground.
God, her skin is so fucking soft.
Upon entering the building, we’re approached by one of my contractors, wearing a wide smile. His eyes travel up and down Rowan’s body as he walks toward us and it sets my teeth on edge.
“Mr. Fowler, what’s up?” His hand reaches out to shake mine, before moving to Rowan. “Logan.”
“Ro,” she says, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Logan’s a good kid, he’s got a good head on his shoulders. Great at his job, reliable. He’s got to be smart, to do what he does. He’s a hell of a lot closer to her in age thanI am. But the way that he’s looking at her right now suddenly has me feeling protective over her and I don’t want him to touch her, don’t want him to make her one of his one-night flings and forget about her in the morning.
“Rowan is my assistant,” I say, throwing authority into my voice with a hand between her shoulder blades, “she’s here to take down some notes for me.”
“Rad, sure,” Logan nods, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “Davis is back in the office space.”
“Good.”
I lead Rowan away from him, steering her toward the space that will eventually hold a decent-sized administrative office.
“You don’t like that guy,” she whispers.
“I like him fine.” My voice is more clipped than I intend it to be, and I can feel her immediately tense under my touch.
“Sorry,” she mumbles, and now I feel like an asshole.
Davis stands in the empty space, hands on his hips, as he slowly turns to take in the wallpaper design we’ve chosen: a deep red background with slightly lighter damask printed over it, the design metallic, making it pop against the matte of the background.
“Good shit, brother,” he says with a nod.
“We saw the trucks outside, is everything ready for install today?”
“Yeah,” he tells me, “we’re right on track to open.”
Rowan clears her throat from behind me. “Sir,”Jesus, don’t call me that. “Should I be taking those notes now?”
“Uh,” I stammer, “yeah. Go ahead and log what all is being delivered today. For my records. Thanks, Rowan.”
I’ve never pulled such a bullshit task out of thin air before. I don’t actually have anything for her to do, I just wanted to have her here. She doesn’t even question it, she just takes her little tablet and sweeps out of the room, readyto do as she’s been told. I could swear she exaggerates the movement of her hips as she leaves, as if she can feel my eyes on her.
As if she wants me to watch.
When I return my gaze to Davis, he stands with his arms crossed at his chest, arching an eyebrow with a knowing smirk across his face.
“Shut up,” I order him, holding up a finger.
“I didn’t say a goddamn word,” he tells me. He saunters past me, then stops to point toward the door. “But you better get out there before Logan decides tohelpher.”
Ah, shit.
I hurry out of the room to find Rowan looking around, tapping occasionally on her tablet. She bites at her bottom lip – either from focus or from my snapping at her; I can’t tell which, and that feels like shit.
She bends to look at the packing slip on a box, tapping away at the screen of the tablet to take down a list of its contents, then snaps a picture of the label before standing. When she does, she leans against a nearby table and sets down the tablet before pulling her hair back behind her ears.
“How’s it going?” I ask, trying to keep my approach casual.
