In that moment I realized that I loved being with him. Mace melted my chocolate heart. That was why I needed to do something about Anke. I knew she could ruin everything.
46
Mace
It was jarring to walk into my office and see Anke sitting at what I thought of as Josie's desk.
"Are you finding everything okay?" I asked her.
"Perfectly charming!" she said in that slight lilting Slavic accent. "I've confirmed the hotel reservation for the conference and made dinner reservations with people Tara mentioned you may want to catch up with over a drink."
"Thanks," I told her and shut the door. As I sat down at my desk, Adrian came in.
"What?" I barked at my brother.
"Josie said she left some notes up here," he stammered and peered into the adjacent office. Anke looked at us and waggled her fingers at Adrian.
"Well go get them," I said tersely. I watched him slide the door open and scuttle inside.
"What can I help you with, darling?" Anke asked sweetly. Adrian blushed up to his forehead. He grabbed a stack of papers and fled.
But then he came up again right before lunch and again that afternoon under the guise of Josie forgetting something.
"Why don't you just take all of her stuff down with you?" I snapped at Adrian. "You're interrupting my meeting."
"It's just Liam," he said.
"Ah, yes, just Liam," my brother said dramatically. "I'm only the person who's investing almost a billion dollars into Harrogate."
"Sorry," Adrian said and scurried out.
"Teenagers," Liam scoffed. Then he smirked at me. "Adrian's got the hots for your newest assistant."
"I think Anke might be a lot for Adrian to handle," I said with a laugh. "Hopefully she goes easy on him."
"She'll chew him up and spit him out, I bet!" Liam said cheerfully. "Speaking of people sleeping with their assistants," Liam said casually.
I glared at him. "Vicious rumors."
"Dude, Remy said she's moved into the house."
"She's not dangerous."
"Hey, no judgement!Tu casa, si casa!"
"That's not even right," I said, crossing my arms. "Did you just make that up?"
"I'm behind on my Dora the Explorer," Liam said, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on my desk. I pushed them off.
"Greg wants us to nail down the factory," Liam said. "You know he didn't like the idea of the factory out here to begin with. He's thinking of nixing the whole thing, pulling the investment money."
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "We'll figure something out."
"You better do it soon," Liam warned. "You know how Greg gets." He stood up and grabbed his bag. "I'm off to look at some other property in the next county over."
"That's not going to work," I said. "It's too far away."
"Keep an open mind," Liam said, shrugging on his coat. "It led you to great things with Josie."
