Chapter Fourteen
Connor
This was bad, but I wasn’t going to let Sophie storm away without explaining myself. I hated seeing the pain etched onto her beautiful face as she leapt to the conclusion that I was going to fire her because we’d slept together. Not only would that be completely illegal, but I wasn’t that kind of man.
Besides, I fucking loved the woman. Yeah, I admitted it to myself, and the realization wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d anticipated.
The one day and two nights we’d spent apart made my feelings for her crystal clear. I had the perfect woman right in front of me this whole time, and I never even realized it. Now that I knew she wasthe one, there was no way I was going to let her go. But we couldn’t go back to the way things were before, either. Now that I knew what it was like to have her writhing under me, moaning my name as she came, I couldn’t go back to having her...well,under me.
It was a good thing that I already had a plan in place that would fix that problem before we even went to Colorado.
“Move out of my way,” Sophie demanded, her voice harsh and her face flushed with anger.
I didn’t move. She wasn’t leaving until she heard me out. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Her gaze narrowed on me. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I need to show you something.”
“I don’t want to see anything you have to show me,” she replied stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest, which pushed up her breasts.
I had to force my eyes to stay on her face. This situation was way too serious to allow myself to be distracted. “Too bad. I’m still your boss.”
She scoffed but didn’t resist when I took hold of her elbow and started leading her down the hallway. We passed three closed doors before reaching the empty office that was our destination. The only thing inside was a desk and an empty bookshelf. I pushed her inside, then shut the door and leaned against it as I watched her walk inside and look around.
“What am I looking at?” Sophie asked in a stiff tone, without looking at me.
A little of the aggression had bled out of her voice, and I knew that she was at least curious about what was going on. “It’s your office.”
Sophie turned and gaped at me, and I fought back the urge to chuckle. I was sure that she wouldn’t appreciate being laughed at right now.
“What do you mean, my office?” she asked, a skeptical note to her voice.
“You’re not being fired, Sophie,” I said gently. “It’s a promotion.”
Her mouth fell open in shock, and now there was no hiding my grin.
“Are you kidding me?” she whispered, her eyes huge. “A promotion?”
“You’ve earned it,” I said, walking to her with my hands in my pockets. “You’ve been one hell of an assistant but frankly, I think you’re wasted as my personal assistant. You have a mind for business, and I need to put it to better use for the company. So, I decided a couple of weeks ago to move you into an executive position and I’ve been doing things behind the scenes to make it happen. Hiring your replacement was the last thing that I needed to do.”
Her anger melted away until she was staring at me with awe and wonder. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I tipped my head to the side and smiled playfully. “What kind of surprise would that have been?”
Sophie laughed, the light sound tinged with disbelief and joy, and I found myself relaxing at the sound. The storm was passing, but there was still more to talk about.
“I can’t believe this,” she said, taking in the private office once again. “You really think I deserve a promotion?”
“Yeah, I do,” I confirmed. “Besides, I can’t go back to the way things were after what happened at the cabin, now that I know what I was missing out on this whole time. It wouldn’t be right to date my assistant.”
Sophie’s smile was full of happiness that washed away all traces of the hurt I’d seen on her face earlier. I never wanted to see her upset like that again, and I promised myself that I’d do everything in my powernotto cause her that kind of pain in the future.
“You do know that we’re not dating, right?” she asked as she moved closer to me, placing her hand flat on my chest. I could feel the heat of her touch even through my dress shirt, and it caused a surge of the lust that I’d been battling since we were interrupted at the cabin.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said, wrapping an arm around her back and pulling her flush against my body, until her curves matched mine.
My other hand went to the back of her head, fisting her hair as I brought my lips to hers. I felt like a man dying of thirst that had just been handed a tall glass of water.