Mr.arrogant(8)

"Sure, that sounds great. Just go ahead and come in tomorrow. We'll see  you then." And then he thought of something and called out her name. It  was the first time he'd said it. "Naomi!" he called out.

She turned and glanced over her shoulder, not really looking right at him, but rather, looking somewhere near him.

"I just … . wondered … . How was your first day?" he asked in an awkward attempt to make light conversation with her.

She was not impressed. He was trying to chat with her. She was resolute.  She was not going to chat with him like he was a friend, like he was a  confidant. Like he was a lover she could share anything with. "It was  fine," she replied shortly. "I'll see you tomorrow." She disappeared,  closing the door behind her and as it shut, he stared at the closed door  with his mouth hanging slightly agape.

He knew it then. She didn't like him. He was dumbfounded. He wondered  how in the world she could not like him before she had ever met him and  didn't know him. It was her first time meeting him on her first day and  she didn't like him. He hadn't even had time to offend her yet. It was  completely astounding to him.

The result of it was that he could not manage to get her off his mind  for the remainder of the night. Thoughts of her kept creeping into his  mind. Thoughts of the way she had been short with him without actually  being rude, and the way she had been not quite disdainful, but more  indifferent with him.

She was not impressed at all with his looks or his title or his money,  or power, or even with the fact that he was her boss. Nothing about him  seemed to hold any significance for her and it was a totally foreign  experience for him. He'd never been treated with indifference before in  his life.

He made up his mind that he would pour on a little more charm on the  next day. The same charm that he used with the other ladies in the  office, except he would really play it up and then she would like him;  that woman with the full lips and the dark skin and the blue eyes, that  woman in a pinstripe suit and skirt with the long shapely legs. She  would like him. He wouldn't quit until she did. Just like all the rest.



Naomi went home a little nerve wracked but happy. She had been hired at  the job that she wanted and she had made it through her first day there,  despite the fact that she had been hired to be Jonathon Cross's  administrative assistant. She could not wrap her mind around it in the  least and the more she thought of it, the more she thought of him, and  the more annoyed she grew.

She couldn't believe she had given him a double take when he walked into  the room. He didn't deserve that. Sure, he was handsome. One of the  most handsome men she had ever seen, but that meant nothing to her. She  was all about business, and he wasn't, and she was going to make it  clear to him that it was going to be strictly business and nothing else  between them, whatsoever.         

     



 

She made up her mind that she was going to show him just how a  professional woman acted in an office, and she wasn't going to put up  with any of his advances or flirts or even his beautiful looks and soft  voice. There would be only business between them. She would make certain  of that.

Naomi went to bed enormously bothered and irritated, and had a fitful  sleep that night; tossing and turning, dreaming and arguing and fighting  in her dream. She awoke in the morning and told herself that she was  going to be calling the shots between the two of them.

She was at her desk when he strolled into the office the next day, and  he was surprised at her punctuality. She was already working when he  walked up to her desk to tell her good morning.

He wore a button down shirt the same color as his deep emerald eyes,  knowing that they would be complemented by it. He'd paired it with a  dark blazer, and he knew that would make his black hair stand out a bit  as well. It was carefully styled to perfection. He knew that he looked  as if he had just stepped off the cover of a magazine.

Jonathon had made a point of walking through the cubicles in the main  open office area, just to reassure himself that he was looking good, and  just as he had thought, nearly every woman there was staring at him,  admiring him, smiling at him. By the time he reached his office he was  feeling enormously confident.

He smiled down at her, making sure to face his right cheek to her so his  dimple showed. "Good morning … ." he said with a charming manner.

She didn't respond right away. Instead, she gathered up a few small  pieces of paper from her desk and handed them to him, almost without  even looking into his eyes. "You have some messages this morning.  There's a meeting with your father in half an hour, and you need to sign  the paperwork that I filled out yesterday as your new hire." She  reached her hand out to him, thrusting the papers in his direction  without even barely looking at him. He was completely miffed. He  furrowed his brows slightly and pursed his lips. There had to be a way  to get beneath that cool exterior.

"You look nice today," he told her with his dimpled smile, looking down  at her body and admiring the sweater dress and knee high boots that she  was wearing. She didn't respond, instead, she picked up the phone and  began to make a phone call.

He stared at her incredulously as he tried to comprehend the strangest  woman he had ever met. The caller she was trying to reach on the  telephone was not around, it seemed and she hung up the phone.

He was still standing there. He lifted his chin a little and looked down  his nose slightly at her. "Get me a cup of coffee when you get a  chance. Fresh, with two creamers and about eight or nine packages of  sweetener." Jonathon took one step to turn away and she stood up and  faced him. He turned back toward her slightly, believing that she was  unable to resist him.

"You have an email that needs your attention right away, and the coffee  is in the break room. I'm not a secretary. I'm your administrative  assistant. I don't handle coffee. I'm here to help you with your work,  to lighten your load, to handle the small details and big work projects  for you. You'll have to get a proper secretary if you think for a moment  that you might want anyone to get you coffee, because that is not why I  went to an Ivy League college." She turned her back on him and tried to  forget the way his shirt made his eyes stand out, the way he had leaned  so close to her on her desk, and the way that his voice sounded like  melting honey.

He stared at her. "You aren't going to get me coffee?"

She looked up at him and her bright blue eyes were searing. "I'm not  going to get you coffee. I have work to do. I'm sure that you can find  the break room." She was doing it. She was being assertive with him, and  she liked it. It made her feel like she wasn't quite so far beneath  him, and that she wasn't quite in the grasp of his power; his charming  allure and magnetic draw.

Jonathon blinked and stared for a moment. "Um …  okay. That actually is  part of what I expect from someone in your position. We might not have  had an Ivy Leaguer in here before, though."

She turned away from him and picked up the phone to make a call. He knew  that their talk was over and he was dumbfounded again that she could be  so casual and nonchalant around him; that she could speak to him with  no hesitation, like she was immune to him. No one was immune to him;  they either loved him or they hated him, but no one was immune to him at  all.         

     



 

Naomi stood up and walked past him toward the copy machine and printer  where she had just printed out a few things. As she walked past him, a  wave of her perfume enveloped him and he breathed it in and closed his  eyes for just a moment. Then he turned and watched her walk away,  admiring everything about the sweater dress that she was wearing, and  the way that it clung to her like a lover, showing off every curve and  line like a second skin. He swallowed.

His father's words returned to his thoughts and he remembered that his  job had been on the line. Closing his eyes, he pushed her from his  thoughts and headed to the break room to go make himself a cup of  coffee. She was a confounding woman; confounding and exasperating.

The two of them continued on in this same manner as each day passed for  her first week. He would ask her for coffee each day, and she would tell  him no, that it wasn't her job. He got so frustrated with her that he  started calling her Ivy League behind her back. She was so frustrated  with him that she went out of her way not to give him even an inch of  approval in anything that he did.

She determined that if he wanted her respect, he was going to have to  earn it, and he began to see that and feel it in the way that she  treated him. She wasn't unfair to him, but she wasn't going to let him  just have anything he wanted, either.

Two weeks into their new employer and employee relationship, Phillip  showed up at Naomi's desk and when she saw him walking toward her, she  knew right away who he had to be. His son was a younger more handsome  carbon copy of him.