Honestly? Yeah, it was all he had.
Isa knew about his injury—and now knew about the incident behind it since she’d found his journal entry. And yet, where he should have raged at her for spying and fired her immediately, he hadn’t. He was glad she knew and touched when she’d asked who they were. She felt like a safe space in that intimate moment, and he’d opened up to her—definitely something he hadn’t done in a long, long time.
Crystal had accused him of being “walled up,” which he took responsibility for now—too late to save their relationship, but that dab of insight could save a future one. Eli and “open” weren’t exactly synonyms.
Isa, though…she knew he was closed off and angry, that there was a part of him trying to spook her. The thing that killed him was she hadn’t shied away. Even after she’d found the journal, she hadn’t run away. He hadn’t been “more than she signed up for,” that was for damned sure.
His GPS took him to a business district and announced he’d arrived outside of Sable Concierge. A sign hung over the door, another in the window announcing, “Professional assistants for your every business need.”
He pulled into the lot, noticing one other car there. Isa’s.
What the—
He climbed from his car and caught sight of her stepping from the office in a blindingly gorgeous short, bright dress. She turned to lock the doors behind her.
“You didn’t have to get out,” she said, dropping her keys into a small clutch.
Goddamn she looked gorgeous. She wore a hot pink strapless dress that matched the kerchief in his tux pocket. The dress stopped midthigh and hugged every one of her generous curves on the way down.
“That is a dress.” His throat was almost too full to push the words out. He walked to her door and opened it and again she told him he didn’t have to. Before she lowered into the seat, he caught her elbow and tugged her closer. “You deserve to be treated well. Let me do it and stop protesting.”
Her lips curved, her long lashes dipping as she looked at her shoes. Tanned, smooth legs led to spiked heels the same shade of pink as her dress. His mouth literally watered.
He blinked out of his scattered thoughts. “You’re going to need a coat.”
“And hide this dress? Forget it. We’re valet parking. I’ll be fine.”
“You can wear my jacket.” The air had a crisp bite to it tonight. He wouldn’t let her be cold.
“I never suspected you as the chivalrous type, Eli,” she told him, her grin parting bright pink lips.
She settled into the seat and he closed the door and rounded the car, noticing he smiled during that short walk. When he angled himself into the driver’s seat and caught sight of the building in front of them, the lust-fueled smog cleared from his brain.
“Why am I picking you up at work?” he asked, but he’d already started suspecting. Isa behaved like no other assistant he’d ever had. She acted more like a boss. Or a business owner.
“Oh. Um. Would you believe I was working overtime?”
“Maybe,” he conceded. “If I hadn’t seen you with keys to the building.”
She bit on her lip and flashed him a guilty grimace. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
“You own this company, don’t you?” Isabella. Sable. His brain shoved those two pieces together like twins separated at birth.
“Yes.”
“And you kept it from me.”
“I didn’t want you to view me as a challenge. You’d only fight me harder.”
His nostrils flared as he took in a frustrated breath—her spicy perfume tingling his senses.
“You would have,” she said quietly.
He would’ve. Again it struck him how she knew him and how his normal reaction to her breaching his walls didn’t occur. He didn’t want to argue about this. He just wanted to be next to her.
“I thought it’d be simpler if you thought I was an employee who wouldn’t stop showing up.”
“You mean you thought I’d underestimate you.”