“Thank you for what, Brooke?” His arm wrapped around my waist and turned me around, pushing me against the wall, his thigh parting my legs in the process. His palms moved up the front of my shirt as his teeth grated my earlobe.
“The contract—I wanted to reciprocate,” I whispered. “You didn’t let me.” I don’t know why it was such a big deal, but for some reason it was. He had made me feel an intense pleasure I had never felt before, and I wanted to see whether I could make him feel the same way.
I wanted to be as special to him as he was to me. I wanted him to surrender to me. To what I could give him.
And where would that take you, Stewart?
Probably nowhere.
“Ah, the contract. You think it’s about giving and taking in equal measures.” He sighed impatiently. His hot breath on my neck made me shudder. “I play by my own rules, Brooke. As they say: sometimes it’s all about you, and sometimes it’s all about me.”
I nodded slowly, wondering where he was going with this. His thumb brushed my cheek a moment before he moved away from me.
“Go take a shower and meet me in my office. I need you to prepare some paperwork for me.”
What the hell?
He was playing mind games or how else could I explain his constant changes? My breath came in ragged heaps as I hurried past him and up the stairs to my room, eager to escape him, if only for a brief time.
***
The shower cleared my head a little. Unfortunately, it didn’t clear my confusion about Jett. I kept telling myself that I only knew him for a couple days, which wasn’t nearly enough to find out how a man ticked. My mother had taught me men were complex, but once you got to their core they weren’t that different from us. Based on my brief encounter with Jett, I begged to differ. In the end he was my boss and not some random guy I dated, I reminded myself. So I didn’t need to understand. All that mattered was doing my job well.
Figuring I had wasted enough time, I tied my long brown hair in a high ponytail, put on clean underwear, a new shirt and slacks, and headed for Jett’s office, not knowing what to expect next.
I found him sitting at his desk, engrossed in a mostly monosyllabic phone conversation with the prevalent words being ‘no’, ‘crap’, and ‘uh-huh’. He motioned for me to sit down on the padded chair opposite him and turned back to the notes in front of him, the frown on his forehead deepening. God, being serious suited him. I discarded the sudden memory flashes of his sexy mouth between my legs, and forced my mind back to reality. He didn’t even bother to look at me as he resumed his conversation. I sat there for a minute or two, trying hard not to tune in, but Jett’s anger was so palpable, it made focusing on anything else impossible.
“Next time, don’t let anyone string us along. Either they sign or they don’t. Have I made myself clear?” Jett said a moment before he slammed down the phone.
Bloody hell, he sure knew how to end a conversation. I definitely hoped I’d never have him on the other end of the line.
“Everything okay?” I asked hesitantly.
“Another fucked-up deal,” Jett replied, massaging his temples. “I swear, at times I’m thinking I might just have to do everything myself if I want this company to stay afloat. It’s hard finding reliable people.” Looking up he smiled, and I knew he was about to change the subject, as though he’d already said too much.
“I need you to go through my correspondence and cancel any meetings, physical or otherwise, I might have this week,” Jett said. “Then clear my schedule.”
“Sure.” I frowned but knew better than to ask questions.
“Good.” He pushed a thick file across the desk. “I trust you’re accustomed with the Lucazzone estate by now?”
The telltale heat of a blush rushed to my cheeks. Oh, I was accustomed with the Lucazzone estate all right, though not the way I’d initially thought. Jett’s lips curved into his panty-dropping grin.
“I thought so. Anyway, I want you to take care of it. Look through each and every note, find a loophole and then get us the estate.”
“But—” I almost choked on my breath. This was a multi-million dollar deal.
Jett pushed back his chair and walked around the desk. Stopping in front of me, he sank into a crouch so I could feel his hot breath on my skin. “James said you were the best. Was he lying?”
God, he was beautiful. His eyes...his face...his lips. I leaned back, as if the little distance could protect me from his magnetism, and shook my head. “No. But this is huge and I—” Didn’t have the experience, I wanted to add when Jett cut me off.