“Ms. Jennings, do you happen to know anything about the…” Gray broke off and gestured at the walls surrounding his desk.
“Ah yes,” she said with a resigned sigh. “The trophies.”
“Is that what you call them?”
“It’s what Martin called them. I call them atrocities.”
Gray was inclined to agree with Ms. Jennings’ assessment. His successor had failed to mention that he’d be leaving his wall decorations behind. The CEO office of Brayburn Luxuries looked like a menagerie. No matter which direction he looked, Gray found himself staring at an elk, a moose, a bear, and some animal he didn’t even recognize.
Between the hunting trophies, the rocking chair–style desk chair, and the fact that he was pretty certain there were occasional safari noises coming from somewhere, Gray’s nerves were starting to fray.
The first day on a new job was stressful enough without having to work in the middle of a zoo in an unfamiliar city.
With an assistant he’d accused of being a damn streetwalker.
As if reading his thoughts, Ms. Jennings brightened. “Perhaps your new assistant can take care removing Martin’s decor and finding something more your style. She starts today, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well I’m just glad you were able to find someone else so quickly! It’s a shame about Laura not working out—we all liked her when she came in for interviews.”
Gray might not be great with people, but he didn’t miss the slight censure in the HR manager’s tone. She hadn’t been happy about having to do rush paperwork for an employee she’d never even met. Apparently Martin Brayburn had been a fan of “group hiring” to make sure everyone had good rapport.
Gray wasn’t even sure he knew what “good rapport” meant.
“I appreciate you helping establish Sophie into the system so quickly. I know it’s not common procedure.”
He tried for a grateful smile and was relieved when she softened slightly. “No problem. I’m sure she’s wonderful if you hired her on the fly.”
Wonderful?
Sophie was definitely not wonderful. She was more like…
Well, there really wasn’t a word for Sophie Dalton.
When he’d seen her that night in Las Vegas, she’d just been so damn inappropriate. The hair, the sparkly eyelashes, the endless display of creamy skin. Those friggin’ thigh-high boots that practically begged to be wrapped around a man’s waist…
And the not-so-minor fact that she’d been the spitting image of the woman who’d broken his heart.
You stomped all over a stranger’s dignity because of a woman you haven’t seen in over a year. Well done, sir.
So Vegas had been a disaster.
And the train wreck that was the Dalton family dinner hadn’t been much better. Gray had already been annoyed at himself for letting himself get talked into joining Brynn at her parents’ house. He’d been having a brief wave of loneliness and she’d caught him at a bad time.
But he would have endured a lifetime of solitary evenings not to have to seen the horror on Sophie’s face when she’d walked into the room and seen him.
Hell, he should have been feeling horror as well. Instead he’d felt dismay.
Dismay that the Las Vegas showgirl he’d been fantasizing about for the past two weeks was really an all-American girl next door. And sister to the woman he was seeing.
Not that he and Brynn were serious. Not even close. Hell, when she’d called to invite him to dinner, he’d barely been able to picture her face.
But that didn’t mean he was okay with being attracted to her little sister. And he was definitely attracted.
There would be no more of that.
He’d learned the hard way that charming, manipulative women like Sophie were not for him.