“Thanks, Mom, I’ll throw a party,” Ares smiled.
Harper grinned back, her eyes lighting with mirth.Xander created a calendar app that launched his empire, but Harper Blake was the best thing that ever happened to him.
“I’m starving.I’m going to run out.Can I get you anything?”Ares checked his watch.
“I called for lunch from Josie’s,” Harper flashed him a grin.
Merely hearing her name dissolved his grumpiness.“Thanks Harper.You think of everything.”
“It’s my job.Xander figured Drustan’s meeting would go long, and he’d try to take us out.So we ordered in.”
“Excellent.”He swiped his portfolio from his chair and walked out of Xander’s office.
He heard laughing from Gardenia’s open door and paused to stick his head in.
Dax, the leader of their offshore operative team, was nuzzling Gardenia’s neck.
“Hey.”Gardenia backed up onto her desk, her face flushed.
“Hey Ares.I’m here to consult with Ryder and had to stop to see my wife.”Dax slung an arm around his wife and hugged her close.
“Glad I caught you.”He exchanged a grin with Dax while Gardenia blushed.
“I’ll see you at the meeting Mr.Montague.”
“Take your time, Gardenia.”
He spun on his heel, whistling as he walked out of Gardenia’s office and out of the executive floor offices and took the elevator to the main floor.
The thought of seeing Josie made him feel lighter, easing the burdens on his shoulders.He wanted to see her cute smile.The way she blushed when he looked at her with heated appreciation.
The main floor of Axis Management hummed with an energy of anticipation like it did when they were about to launch a new project.Ever since they hired Jillian, Harper’s assistant, and opened the downstairs, he enjoyed coming to work in this glass and steel building that his brother wanted so separately.
Ares couldn’t deny that Xander’s plan worked.The public facing side of Axis Management was all about technology innovation and bringing innovators of new designs to market, like the anti-breakable glass that was soon going to be on every laptop and smartphone that Laurent Technologies produced.
That deal was a long time in the making and hadn’t been announced yet.
Axis Management housed a lab, recruited the best scientists and engineers in the world, and, besides technology and fabrication, had their hands in medical and biochemical industries.
“Hi Meg,” Ares said to the head of their tech department.
Meg pushed her glasses up on her nose.“Good morning, Mr.Montague, we’re just setting up the showroom for the presentation later.”
“I know we’re in capable hands,” Ares said.
He bypassed her, then pushed opened the door of the conference room.Another one of Xander’s quirks, it featured an oval kitchen table from when they first started and had at the house they rented space in, before Xander decided to build this piece of glass and steel architecture, that stands impressively modern in the downtown.
Ares poured himself a cup of coffee from the waiting carafe and scrolled through his phone.He wanted to text Chef McNabb, but he stopped himself, knowing he was going to see Josie in a few minutes and he’d ask her himself.
When the chef bemoaned his lack of skilled chefs at the last poker game, Ares had to toss out Josie’s name.
Over the years, he had thrown her as much business as he possibly could, but didn’t feel it was enough.The last time he saw her was at Kayleigh and Erik’s wedding, where they shared a quick dance.He wanted to spend the whole night with her and invited her to dinner again, but once again, she’d brushed aside his request.
But he wasn’t going to give up.
Not in a creepy, stalker way, but he was sure Josie was nervous around him and he wanted to reassure her.
If she said that she wasn’t interested in him, well, he was man enough to take the hint.And it’s not like he didn’t have women throwing themselves at him wherever he went.
