She leans against the door and takes a deep breath. “Elena’s here. And she wants to see you.”
My frown deepens, and I tilt my head in confusion for why she’s having such a reaction to the head of our Board of Directors. “Okay, why don’t you let her in?”
“I just wanted to warn you,” she whispers, holding my gaze steady. “She’s in ashitmood, Theo. And that means somethingin regard to her. She just chewed me out for glancing at my phone while she was walking up. I?—”
She stops short when I walk up to her, cupping her cheeks in my hands and tilting her jaw up so I can look into her eyes. “Breathe,” I instruct. Her eyelashes flutter closed, and she takes a deep breath through her nose. “Good girl.”
Her eyes open again and flare with the familiar primal hunger I love to evoke in her. She reigns it in quickly and whispers. “She wants to see you. I don’t know what about.”
“Okay.” I breathe before leaning down and pressing my lips against hers. Some sick part of me finds joy in the fact that Elena is just a few feet away, behind a mediocre oak door, while I’m kissing Whitney until she’s breathless.
And she is.
When I pull away, her chest rises and falls as she breathes in deeply. Her slate blue eyes are sparkling with a newfound desire. While I’d like to clear off my desk and bend her over it, I know this is where I need to draw the line.
At least for now.
With one last peck on those plump lips, I say, “You can send her in.”
I let Whitney go with one last longing glance and turn to head back to my desk. I hear her take a deep breath before disappearing to the other side of my office door.
Not even a whole minute later, Elena is sauntering into my office like she owns it—like she owns me.
She stares down her pointed nose at me with a level of disdain that I think is customary for her. I give her a tight smile and motion to the chair in front of my desk. “Elena, please have a seat.” To my utter surprise, she does, sitting down and leveling the playing field so we’re eye to eye. I fold my hands on my desk and inquire, “What can I do for you?”
Elena reaches into her briefcase at her side and pulls out amanilla folder. “These are the details of your board review and everything we hope to see.”
My eyebrows raise up at this. Is this some kind of trap? I open the folder and stare down at the bulleted points on the sheet as well as the date bolded at the top. I’ll have to make sure Whitney has this date blocked off on the schedule. I narrow my eyes when I see a few extra points on the list that I haven’t yet prepared. “Thank you, that was very considerate of you.”
“Oh, it wasn’tmyidea,” Elena clarifies, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “If it were up to me, I’d let you walk in there blind and let you crash and burn yourself.”
I laugh under my breath. “I bet you would. Tell me, Elena, what is it about me you find so disappointing?”
She tilts her nose up, glaring down at me again. “I do not find you trustworthy, Mr. Hurst. And I do not see you being capable of meeting my personal expectations.”
I clench my jaw as I stare her down.Personal expectations? “Then why hire me in the first place?”
“I was outvoted,” she says matter-of-factly. “As it were, though I do have a lot of sway on the Board of Directors, it seems I don’t have total control. Hopefully, that allows you to sleep better at night, knowing that despite my wishes, there’s a chance you might prevail.”
I fight off the amused smile. She is one hell of an ice queen. Elena glowers at me another moment, likely planning multiple avenues of sabotage. Finally, she stands, smoothes out her dress, and then sniffs. “Consider this your one free chance, Mr. Hurst. We’ll see you in a few weeks. I hope you do not disappoint.”
Elena walks out of the office, her posture just as rigid as her attitude, leaving me reeling in her wake. She leaves my door wide open, and I see Whitney peer her head around the side of the frame.
She gives me a tight smile and says, “I’m sorry.”
I try my best to smile back at her, but something is nagging me at the back of my head. I reach for my phone and dial my brother up.
Chase picks up on the second ring. “Hey, did you know Pinnacle is hiring for an executive position?”
I pause only briefly with the news about Nexus’s top competitor. “No, I didn’t. I have something I need to talk to you about.”
“Okay, shoot.” I can hear my brother shuffling around on the other line and can picture him leaning back in his chair.
“I need you to get a hold of a private investigator to look into Elena Dawson.”
More shuffling noises and the sound of a pen clicking. “As in, Board of Director Elena Dawson?”
“The one and only,” I mutter. “She said something to me today that just kind of had my red flags rising. I think she was involved with Peterson in the embezzling. So I need you to get someone on it. We need to know what happened to that money, where it went, and who it went to.”
