“Yes!” I whispered excitedly.
“No!” he insisted, backing away with a smile. “I just wanted you to feel how much I want you, Chloe. But not like this, darling.” He brought his lips to my ear, whispering seductively. “The things I want to do to you right now require complete consent. You aren’t capable of providing that right now and that’s okay. But don’t imagine for a moment that I don’t want you, Chloe.”
I smiled, nodding, as tears sprang into my eyes. I reached up, snaking my arms around his neck and hugging him close to me. He hugged me back, his massive arms so warm around me I could have melted into them forever.
I sighed as he pushed me away.
“You could just spend the night,” I offered. “We don’t have to do anything…”
His laughter echoed down the hallway.
“I’m not that strong of a man, Chloe,” he said, shaking his head, his gorgeous eyes wrinkling at the corners. “I am only human, after all.”
He kissed me again and then gently pushed me inside.
“Close the door and lock it,” he ordered.
I smiled, stepping back into the apartment, my eyes glued to his. I didn’t want him to leave, but I was beyond impressed with his manners.
“Goodnight, darling,” he whispered, as I closed the door, my heart heavy, my head confused and five stupid words running over and over in my head.
‘Bear will eat you alive…’
Chapter 12
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I cried. Bear stood in the doorway of my new office with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
“I take it you approve?” he asked.
“Like it? I love it!” I said, twirling around in a delighted circle. The room was massive, almost twice as big as my apartment. It was a corner office and made up completely of windows and steel. A huge bouquet of roses was sitting on the credenza behind my desk. I walked over to it and read the card.
Chloe,
The sky’s the limit!
All my love,
~Bear
“Thank you, that’s so sweet,” I said, smiling over at him. He walked in and led me to the window.
“Look,” he said, pointing at the incredible view. “You can see everything from here. There’s the Empire State Building. And there’s the Old Met Life Tower over there,” he whispered, bringing his face close to mine as he pointed them out. I shuddered at the heat rolling off of him. The chemistry between us was flying like sparks and being this close to him was proving very difficult. “That’s the Williamsburg Bridge, it’s my favorite.”
“It’s beautiful,” I said, leaning over and kissing his cheek.
He pulled away and shook his head.
“Not at work,” he said.
“Oh, sorry,” I replied. “I forgot.”
“That’s okay,” he smiled. “I’m glad you like the office.”
“I do,” I said, turning to face him, “but honestly, Bear, don’t you think you might want to hire someone more qualified? Someone who’s done this before?”
“Nonsense. Like I said last night, I believe in you, Chloe. Have a little more faith in yourself. You’d be surprised what you can accomplish when you set your sights high. That’s the only thing separating anyone from success, really—believing that you can do it. Once you have that, and a little bit of courage, you can do anything.”
“I want to do a good job for you, that’s all,” I said.
“Don’t worry about making mistakes. We all do. That’s why you surround yourself with experts, to keep yourself in check. You can run everything by me before you make any major decisions, if it makes you feel better, but I trust you’ll have good judgement.”
“You barely know me and you have such faith in me,” I said. “Why?”
“I think I know you better than you realize,” he shrugged.
I smiled at him gratefully and turned back to the view. I took a deep breath, feeling like I was about to jump off a cliff.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll give it a shot!”
“Good girl,” he whispered, his eyes trailing down my body, sending shivers of delight through me.
I closed the distance between us and I couldn’t resist reaching out and touching his arm. As soon as I did, I realized how much I missed his touch. I vowed to never drink that much wine around him again. He put his hand over mine and squeezed gently, smiling down at me as he nodded encouragingly.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Chloe,” he said.
“Thank you, Bear,” I whispered. “For everything. And for being such a gentleman last night.”
He smiled and lowered his voice.
“Don’t worry about it,” he growled. “I’ll take my frustrations out on you later.”
I swallowed hard and my stomach flipped. I bit my lip and looked back up at him before pulling my hand away from his.
“I look forward to it,” I nodded, as we walked out into the hallway, a perfect picture of employee and employer, nothing more.
“That’s what I like to hear,” he said. “Now, let’s go meet your new assistant. You can look over all the blueprints and figure out what you need. You have a budget of three million dollars. Let me know if you need more.”
I froze in place and he kept walking.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“What’s wrong?”
“Three million dollars, Bear?” I said, my voice high and squeaky.
“I said you could have more if necessary,” he said, with a flippant wave.
“Bear! I’ve never handled that kind of money before.”
“Handle it? You don’t handle it, you spend it. It’s not that hard, Chloe. Money gets easier to spend the more you have, and it’s even easier when it doesn’t belong to you. Don’t worry about it. You’ll probably be begging me for more by the end of the project anyway.”
I laughed and shook my head.
“Come on,” he whispered, his eyes landing on my lips, “before I make you beg for something else first.”
My eyes widened with pleasure and I licked my lips.
“That’s my girl,” he growled, his voice lowering. “Now, listen. Get your self orientated and go home early today because this afternoon I’m picking you up and we won’t be back at work until the day after tomorrow. You can start working after we get back. There’s no rush right now.”
&n
bsp; “Alright,” I whispered, silently cheering that I would get another chance to be with him tonight. “I’ll go easy on the wine this time.”
“Good girl,” he chuckled, “let’s go.” He turned on his heel and walked away.
I smiled and followed him.
I was getting very good at following him.
The view was even better than the one in my office and as I watched him walk down the long, narrow hallway, a secret shiver of pleasure passed through me as I realized just how lucky I was.
Maybe Zoe Rothchild couldn’t handle him, but I had every intention of letting Bear eat me alive anytime he wanted.
Chapter 13
My assistant, Abby, was a godsend. I tried to ignore the look of horror in her eyes when I told her I had a fashion degree and that I’d never done interior design before, but she was so knowledgeable and patient, that by the time I left at noon, I felt like this was something that I might actually be able to pull off.
Not alone, of course. But with Abby’s help and Bear’s input, maybe it wouldn’t be so foreign to me after all. I had a good eye for fabric and reading the blueprints wasn’t that difficult. I felt a lot better after meeting with her and going over everything, so I went home feeling a whole lot better about my situation.
If I could work and be useful to Bear, then maybe it would make everything else a little easier to endure.
Not that I was ‘enduring’ anything. God, that word has such a negative connotation, but I didn’t know what else to call it. It’s not like I’d pursued Bear myself. I hadn’t asked for any of it, it had merely been thrust upon me, so to speak. But now that I was smack-dab in the middle of it, I was determined to make the most of it. I was hardly enduring anything, I was a full-fledged, willing participant.
Especially because I had yet to identify one bad thing about it all.
A free apartment in the middle of New York City? Check!
A challenging, handsomely paying position for a top development firm in our nation’s greatest city? Check!