“What the heck is wrong with you?” I slammed my stapler down and stalked toward him. I shoved his chest enough that he took a step back. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”
“Oh, please.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you? Twenty-four? Everyone needs a kick of adrenaline now and then.”
“Twenty-five and I get my adrenaline rush doing things I want to do, not having someone frighten me in the dark.”
His lips curved up like a joker and he rocked back on his feet as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “What things normally get your adrenaline going?”
My mouth, I’m sure, opened to say something, but he stood there tall and sinister in the bluish glow that highlighted all his best features. The way his muscles bunched under that shirt, the way his hair was mussed just right, the way his eyes sparkled midnight blue … I couldn’t form words.
I cleared my throat and pointedly turned toward my desk to search for my phone. When I found it, I switched on the flashlight to gather my things. “I don’t have time to make small talk with you tonight. You don’t have time, either, as it seems the electrical in Stonewood Tower is down.”
“Shame.” He didn’t sound regretful at all.
Approaching the brink of cracking that contract only to have my momentum stunted by a blackout frustrated me. I lashed out because of it.
“‘Shame’? Not really, Jett. I don’t think I would enjoy making small talk with my new boss, although it isn’t like we’ve tried it. Instead, I’m completely ignored throughout the day and given elementary tasks as if I don’t have a college degree. Even though I got put in the damn all-star room where the sky’s never the limit for anyone except me. I’m limited to getting freaking coffee for Gloria.”
His teeth shined like a wolf’s in the night. “If this job isn’t what you pictured it being …”
I sighed and tapped my stiletto toe on the tile. “I just don’t see why I was put in this room. You could have put me anywhere. You have a whole legal team on the twenty-third floor.”
“Gloria normally assigns desk areas to new employees.”
“So, she wanted me in this room?”
“Nope.” He popped the P and stalked toward me. “I put you where I wanted you, Victory.”
“I’m useless here.” I motioned around the space. “Bob’s going to figure out the contract that I can’t change tomorrow, and I’m going to go back to getting only Gloria coffee because Josie will freak if I get anyone else a beverage.”
“Bob already looked at it.”
“What?” I recoiled at his words.
“He doesn’t know what to do with it either.” He shrugged, his large shoulders bunching.
“That’s not what you said.”
“I know what I said. I did it to motivate you.” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The Armanellis are going to be a bitch to get under the right contract.”
“That’s the Armanelli contract? It says Benson.” My voice went high.
He nodded slowly and sucked on his teeth. “That’s confidential.”
“Why wasn’t I made aware when I was working on it?”
“That’s the meaning of confidential, Pix.”
I pulled a little at my sleeve, not sure I wanted to say what I blurted out next. “Legally, Stonewood Enterprises needs to make me aware of that. I have a right to know. I could hold you liable for putting my life in danger.”
“I’m not putting your life in danger.” His eyebrows slammed down.
“They’re a freaking mob family,” I leaned in and whispered like someone could be listening. For all I knew, someone was.
He rubbed his forehead. “That’s debatable.”
“If you’re trying to get a written contract with them, that means—”
“It means we get a written contract with them and protect Stonewood Enterprises from whatever they do outside of it.”