Was that a thing the human body did?
“I picked a Halloween party because it’s my favorite holiday,” he said.
I nodded at his answer, not really sure how to feel about it.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay… what?” he asked.
“Okay, I’ll be your date.”
A grin spread across his face. “Good. I’ll hammer out the details with you later.”
“I’ll be on the lookout for them.”
“I meant face-to-face, Olivia.”
“Then, I’ll be on the ear-out for them,” I said.
He smiled brightly. “Forever keeping on my toes. You always did that, you know.”
“Don’t worry, there were plenty of things you did back then that haven’t changed one single bit.”
“Like…?”
Like the weak feeling I get in my limbs whenever you’re around.
“Like that wolfish grin you enjoy bestowing upon other people. You really should tone that down, you know. People might think you eat others for a hobby,” I said.
“I eat many things, but other people isn’t a main course I’ve developed taste buds for.”
I swallowed thickly as his eyes dropped down my body again.
“I’ll speak with you soon, Olivia.”
“You too, Brett.”
And as he walked back around to sit at his desk, I quickly backtracked from his office. Anything to put some much-needed distance between us and the tension I knew he felt growing, too.
6
Brett
It had been a couple of days since Olivia had agreed to go to the Halloween party with me, and I was swamped with work. I’d had three of the four meetings with the potential female investors, and all of them had gone splendidly. Unless the fourth one was an absolute toad of a woman, I had a hard decision ahead of me. And that was just one facet of the whole “going international” plan. It was fucking insane. Even before I secured the funding, I needed to tweak my schedule. It wasn’t detailed enough for the investors, and that made them nervous. Not to mention setting up the required meetings for the first two places I wanted to land in, London and Paris.
I needed phone conferences with my connections in both of these areas even before scheduling to fly out there and see shit in person. I needed an international headquarters, but more than that I needed support from those I had befriended in their financial sectors. If I wanted to dip into the whole of the European Union, I needed to get in well with London. That was a given. And having good relations with Paris not only eased me into the EU quicker, but it aided in bolstering my reputation for those shaky economies I wanted to help stabilize. Because Paris, as a whole, had been there for them in their time of need. The banks of France had helped bail out Greece and Italy during their economic crash.
I needed their good graces in order to do what I wanted to do with my company going forward.
“Mr. Greyson?”
I reached over and pressed my intercom button down. “Yes, Katherine?”
“Miss Masters is here to see you.”
“Olivia’s here?” I asked.
“Yes. For the scheduled lunch meeting to talk about her ideas.”
“Her ideas.”
“Yes, sir. The ones she ran by me a few days ago,” she said.
“Oh, oh, oh. Yes. Tell her to come on in.”
“What would you like me to order you two for lunch?”
I looked over at the clock. Holy shit, it was lunchtime already? I’d gotten into work that morning at five. How the hell had I worked seven hours and not even noticed?
“Olivia says her suggestion is hibachi from the place up the road,” Katherine said.
“Yes. That’s a good idea. Get whatever she wants, get me a steak and shrimp dinner platter, then have them deliver it here. Charge it to my account,” I said.
“Will do, sir. I’ll send her on in.”
I leaned back in my chair and ran my fingers through my hair. I hadn’t even looked at my schedule for the morning. I’d told Katherine to rearrange everything so I could have a morning in my office. It didn’t occur to me that she had planned something for lunch. But the second Olivia walked into my office, it didn’t matter. She had on this pale pink button-up blouse tucked tightly into another one of her pencil skirts. It was black, with blush pink and red roses dancing all over it. Fucking hell, it looked incredible on her.
Then again, she could have worn a dirty bedsheet and I still would have stared at her.
“I’m sorry if this is blindsiding you. I can come back, if you want,” she said.
“Nonsense. Take a seat on the couch. I’ll be right beside you,” I said.
“Long morning?”
“Very much so. Got in around five,” I said as I stood.
“Five this morning? You hardly look like you’ve moved.”
“I feel like I’ve hardly moved. But your suggestion for lunch was spot-on. I can’t wait to eat.”
“Let me guess. You didn’t have breakfast this morning,” she said.