“Deal.”
Orchid could finally do something for this entrepreneur who’d given her so much.
CHAPTER12
BRIEF BONDAGE
Phoenix
Two long weeks. Phoenix hadn’t seen Orchid during that time. It wasn’t that Phoenix hadn’t thought about Orchid. Her demands had been clear the first time they’d discussed the ad work.I’m her mentor. Phoenix had played his part. Mentor. Mensch.
The call with Orchid finally broke the frozen glacier of their fortnight of silence.
She was coming to his office so they could work on her brief together. Suddenly, he couldn’t concentrate on his emails. He surveyed the conference room where he was working as she might see it. The disarray of papers and half-drunk mugs needed to be banished. He straightened his notes, then carted the cold coffee to the kitchenette.
As he strode through the empty office, he recognized that he cared what she thought.
His dad’s letter weighed on him. He’d wanted to tell her the truth about how they’d met. Yet if he did, he’d be breaching his father’s final wish to keep the case confidential. Worse, her childhood trauma meant that she didn’t trust easily. If she learned at this late date that their first encounter wasn’t chance after all, would she lose all faith in him?
Something had shifted between them during that trip to the beach.
More than anything, she’d touched him deeply. Her tenacity to thrive despite her obstacles was admirable. Her charm, towards Dex and Tammy, and even Caleb, were evident. Life had buffeted her unfairly.
She’d been explicit about what she wanted from him.Nothing but business.
This was the one thing he could gift this sensitive woman who’d faced an unfairly hard life. He could help her achieve her dreams. His path would be the high road. Phoenix vowed he’d never add to her pain. He couldn’t protect her from the world. He could promise thathe’dnever be the one to hurt her.
To do that, he’d help her with this assignment and then leave her alone. She never needed to learn about his dad’s hand in their meeting. She was too proud to take that secret lightly.
His phone buzzed with a text. Four simple letters, each producing a thump in his heart. “Here!”
He swore. At his own human weakness. At their untenable circumstances. Then, he heaved to his feet and counted his steps to the elevator bank, a handful for every level she ascended. She’d be past three, building management’s floor, and maybe past ten where their partner graphics agency resided. The elevator doors parted. Definitely past ten. Orchid’s pale skin rouged with unmistakable pleasure, and she exited the paneled lift. She must be relieved to have help for the ornery brief.
“Ni hao,” she sang hello, stepping into the vestibule.
“Kai Lan,” he greeted her, his voice husky, as if he’d had no reason to speak in their time apart.
She threw her head back in appreciation. Dark black strands swirled in a chignon against one side of her long neck.
“I miss the blue,” he said, honesty spilling out.
“It’s a whole new me,” she said, sweeping her hand to indicate the silk blouse and pencil skirt.
He reached for the blocky green bag she toted, and she relinquished it to him. “You actually own sensible heels?”
She kicked one ankle up and observed it like a foreign object. “I feel like I’m in costume.”
“This way, Madame Executive.” He executed a mock bow and swept a lavish gesture towards the agency entrance.
Orchid pretend-curtseyed and followed him. At the threshold to the open door, she paused. He turned to view the agency as she must be seeing it.
“Oh,” she said, her eyes round with admiration. It was her first time here.
The area past the receptionist’s desk opened into a waiting space with clean, angular tables and a coffee bar. Modern leather chairs were punctuated with electric-blue pillows that shimmered in the light.
“It’s completely you,” she said.
She followed him past white-brick walls decorated with oversized ads.
