Katya is frowning now. More familiar ground. But there’s something else about her, a sort of vulnerability. “What do you think he really wants?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Myles.” She’s still frowning, looking absolutely beautiful while doing so. “What does he want? In a woman?”
I shake my head, slowly. “I honestly have no idea. I haven’t been working with him that long.” Not that any amount of time would make a difference. I think Myles would rather poke himself in the eye than discuss his preferences in women with me.
“I wish I knew.” She sounds wistful, now. “We break up a lot. But he always comes back to me. I just wish I knew how to keep him.”
I gape at her. How anyone who looks like she does could ever worry about keeping a man is beyond me. I close my mouth before she notices.
She shakes herself, a sexy little shimmy, then grins at me again. “Maybe we should have coffee sometime? I would like us to be friends.”
Okay. Maybe I’m still asleep and this is some sort of weird dream. “Uh, sure,” I say.
“Okay.” She pats me on the hand. “Also, can you please put this on Myles’s desk for me?” She hands me the envelope. A faint scent of perfume wafts from it and, when I turn it over, it’s sealed with a glittery wax seal embossed with a ‘K’. Katya winks. “No peeking, now.”
Thishasto be a dream, surely? But before I can say anything else, Katya slides from my desk and wanders off, waving as she goes. I stand there, enveloped in a cloud of expensive perfume, a Louis Vuitton wallet on my desk, as though I’ve just had a visit from a very wealthy fairy godmother.
After a few moments I snap out of it. Maybe she’ll ask me for coffee, maybe she won’t. But it was extraordinary to be around her when she was being nice. For the first time, I can kind of see what Myles sees in her. She must be devastating when she turns her full charm on someone.
I sit down and put the wallet and box in my desk drawer. Then I return to my letter, wondering why my chest aches so much.
ChapterFive
Myles
It’s good to be back in the office. The helicopter got us back in time for Scott to get to his football match, and for me to check in with Zara. I love my job, love the company I’ve built, yet as I round the corner and see her sitting at her desk, light gleaming from her hair, something about being here feels more like home than ever before.
As I approach, she lifts her head, her wide eyes meeting mine. Christ. My conversation with Scott rolls through my mind once more. But, despite how my heart leaps, how my groin twitches at the sight of her, asking her out is a line I simply cannot cross.
“How was the trip?” She smiles, soft and tentative, and I just want to kiss her.
“Fine.” Curt again, as usual. Protecting myself. I pause for a moment. “It went well. Thanks for all the work you did. We appreciated the massages.”
“I’m glad.” She hands me a pile of papers. “These are for you. I’ve sorted and labelled them, but if you need me to go through them with you, I can. You do have a couple of meetings tomorrow, but they’ve been in your calendar for a while, and?—”
“And everything is no doubt organised to a tee. I do need to speak with you, but not about this.” I indicate the pile of paper.
She takes in a breath, then nods. I’m so aware of her, of her blossom scent, the way her chest rises and falls, the curve of her cheek.
“I can come in now.”
“Give me ten minutes to get settled.”
“All right.”
I go past her, into my office, without saying anything more. I hang up my coat, put the papers on my desk. There’s an envelope there, and I sigh when I recognise the curling handwriting. I sit down, pushing it to one side.
I have ten minutes to pull my shit together. I’m not going to ask Zara out. Nor am I going to growl at her, any more than I can help it. I’m not proud of my behaviour where she’s concerned. She’s a damn good employee and, once Eloise comes back, I’d like her to stay with the company. That’s what I want to talk to her about.
But I cannot cross any other line. No matter how much I might want to.
There’s just too much at stake.
It’s been six years.
Scott is right, about so many things. I do want what he has with Sally, want to find that someone. But there’s still a part of me that guards myself, that never goes too deep. I made a vow never to get close to anyone I worked with again. Somehow, without meaning to, that’s spilled over to my private life as well. Now every relationship I have comes with paperwork. Keeps the lawyers happy, at least.
