Page 23 of Matteo

“So you keep telling me.” Paul doesn’t even look at his son, but smiles at me in a way that unsettles me even more.

Matteo’s face contorts, erasing my impression of the wonderful guy I just met. “Why the secrecy? I didn’t even know you were hiring and I’m the CTO.”

“And I’m the head of this empire.”

I swallow, caught in the crossfire, my heart beating wildly.

“You don’t trust me to do my job?” Matteo growls.

Paul’s eyes narrow. “Are you questioning my authority?”

Matteo presses his lips together, flexing his jaw muscles, as he looks away. I feel for him. I feel his pain. Fragments of our conversation come floating back, but I try to bury them somewhere deep inside me. I’ll put the pieces back together later.

“Everything is set up and ready for you,” Paul says, his tone changing, not softening, just changing. “You can set down your bag and get settled.”

The tension between father and son is so palpable, the air feels prickly. Paul sits down, clasps his hands loosely over his stomach and stares at me expectantly.

My mind is in disarray. My heart is thumping like I've run ten miles. I'm supposed to give my presentation now and all I want to do is vanish into thin air.

Everything I've practiced, the way I’ve polished my performance, has slipped away. Being trapped in the elevator didn't help and now, discovering that the man I thought was in maintenance, the hot guy with the rough, tousled hair and tattoos, the guy who stroked my wrists and made me feel all sorts of weird and wonderful, is the son of Paul Knight.

He's in charge of cybersecurity here, and he didn't even know about me. This is the third time I've been here and I've never seen this guy until now.

How can the man in charge of the department I'm supposed to be working for not have any idea about me?

And thinking he was the janitor. I hang my head in embarrassment. I offended him. He’s seen me at my worst when I was panicking, and talking about my past. I gave him personal information I don’t usually share, and now he knows more than I want him to. I’ve ruined my chances because he’ll now have an opinion of me that’s not going to help, no matter how well I do with my presentation.

But now I’m not even sure I want to work here, even if I were lucky enough to get it.

“Something wrong?” Paul asks, sensing my hesitation.

I open my mouth, try not to look at this son, sitting on the other end of the table. The guy I didn't know was going to be sitting in on my presentation. “N-no.” I try to swallow, because my mouth feels like it’s full of sand.

“How rude of me,” Paul says, then quickly gets up and walks to the door. “You've been trapped in an elevator. I'll get my assistant, Patty, to bring you some water. Would you prefer something stronger? Tea or coffee?”

“N-no thank you. Water will be fine.”

I try to get settled. Pulling out my laptop and setting it up, even though I’m still recovering from the shock of the situation.

Paul steps out and I hear him talking as he leaves the room to speak to his assistant. It's just me and the guy-who-isn't-in-maintenance. He gives me a withering look that makes my insides shrivel.

“I wish you wouldn't stare at me like that,” I murmur, turning my back to him as I switch on my laptop.

“I had you down for being an intern.”

“I had you down for—” I stop. No need to remind him. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“Would it have made any difference?”

We gawk at one another silently.

“And now my old man's gone and poked his nose into my business,” he mutters to himself, tapping his pen on his notepad.

“I didn't know that you didn't know.”

“He's gone looking for an outside consultant without my knowledge.” He stops the pen tapping. “I shouldn't even be telling you this.”

I let out a heavy exhale. I had a feeling that rich people were messed up anyway, but witnessing what I just did tells me that this family has more issues than most.