Damn.
She hesitated for only the slightest of moments.“Yes.”
His eyebrows lifted, and she shifted in discomfort when he leaned closer.She’d roused the wolf.
“Can I see?”
She clutched the stack of proposals.Absolutely not!
Although the temptation to share was stronger than she’d expected…
Things at Underhill had gotten so strained, nobody was willing to even brainstorm.She’d tried to run the idea by her father, but he was too busy to listen.With every percent the company lost in market share, his mood became darker and terser.She’d feel so much better proposing her idea tomorrow if she knew it had legs, and the man across the desk from her had the sharpest mind she’d ever encountered.
But he was the enemy.
She shook her head.“You can review it tomorrow along with everyone else.”
“Can’t I even get a peek?”
Her stomach gave an unfamiliar little squeeze.“No.”
His dark eyes glittered, and a flush ran through her.There was a reason people called him Ruthless Rowe.He saw things others overlooked.Loopholes, redundancies and weaknesses were annihilated the moment they came to his attention.She wasn’t weak—and neither was her department—but she wasn’t stupid.It was better to stay out of his crosshairs entirely.
So why did she feel she was suddenly lined up in his sights?
His fingertips drummed together as he rested his elbows on his knees.
“So let me see if I understand correctly.In addition to your already heavy workload, you’ve been staying late to work on a secret project.”He glanced at the can of Diet Mountain Dew.“With only caffeine and ’80s pop music to keep you going?”
Lexie fought not to nab her personal items and shove them under her desk.What was she supposed to say?This was normal for her.
“Meanwhile, your brother took the afternoon off to play golf.”
She blinked.It wasn’t the direction she’d expected him to take.“Well, yes, but with a potential client.”
“Client, my ass.We both know that was an old college buddy.”
Wariness made her skin prickle.She was well aware of the situation, but she was not one allowed to question.Landers was the golden boy in her father’s eyes, although his sales team propped him up like a Herculean army.
The hatchet man’s eyes narrowed.“And I’m pretty sure Tara spent the day at the spa across the street.”
That pinched-balloon feeling returned.Carefully, Lexie put her calculator back into its case.This was not a subject she wanted to get into with him.Not now.Not ever.“What is your point, Mr.Rowe?”
“The name is Cam.Don’t you think it’s time you started using it?”
His unexpected flare of irritation made her toes clench inside her loose shoes.She looked at him and found impatience in his eyes.Impatience and something more… The tingle in her toes ran up her legs.
He sighed and rubbed his jaw, making the five o’clock shadow rasp.“Why couldn’t you just be more like the others?”
Lexie went still.“Excuse me?”
“Not like… Damn it.”His head fell forward.After a ten count, it lifted again.“What am I supposed to do with you, Lexie?You work too hard.”
Because she had to.Always had.Always would.But she’d never had to defend her work ethic before.She wrapped her fingers around her warm soda.It was an old wound he was poking at, and an easy target.“There’s a problem with that?”
“It makes what I have to do difficult.”With a sigh, he looked out the wall of windows to his left.Her office was the smallest in the management suite, but its view of the city’s night lights was riveting.To some, at least.She tended to stay as far away from the window as she could.From their perch on the twelfth floor, Cobalt City appeared to be covered with a blanket of black, yet colors glinted like gems, sparkling softly in shades of red, white and yellow.Rowe didn’t seem to see any of it.
“UAI is a family-run business,” he said.“Trouble starts when you treat one family member differently from the others.”
