CHAPTER TWO
Daidan swept walked into his office suite in the 1930s modernist office building and immediately turned to his assistant. “Where is she?” It was always his first thought on waking and his last before he went to sleep. He doubted he’d ever lose that sense of insecurity. At least now he could ask the question and receive an accurate answer.
“I gave her the corner desk, sir.”
He strode over to the internal window and looked across the open-plan space to where Taina sat. He grunted softly. She looked more at home here than he ever would, despite what he felt. She fitted the building with its clean white lines and beautiful detailing. While he? He might have turned the companies around, made them more profitable than Taina’s father ever dreamed of, but with his dark looks and dislike of socializing he’d always be a foreigner.
“What’s she doing?”
His assistant looked suitably inscrutable although Daidan realized Aarne must be wondering what the hell was going on. But it didn’t matter—he paid him enough not to gossip.
“She asked for some Board meeting documents which I took to her.”
“Hm.” Daidan turned away from the sight of her back—flawlessly clothed in the arctic white she favored. She looked as coolly beautiful as always with her blond hair, slender figure, and exquisite clothes. “What kind of Board papers?”
“Everything from the mining reports to Kielo’s accounts.”
“And has she visited Kielo’s premises—The Warehouse—as I’d instructed?”
“No, sir.”
Daidan grunted. “And does she know about the interview in an hour?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Make sure she’s prepped for it.”
As his assistant went out into the main office, Daidan sat, turned his laptop to face him and began scrolling through his messages. There were emails about the upcoming launch, about the mine, about everything except the one thing he suddenly realized he was looking for—a message from her. He pushed the laptop away and sighed. They hadn’t exchanged two words since their meeting on the island the day before. He’d had a breakfast meeting and hadn’t been here to see her arrive. He wondered if he’d pushed her too hard. But it was for her own good. It was time she realized just how capable and talented she was. So he was going to do to her what his father had done to him when he refused to learn to swim—throw her in the deep end. It would do her good, it would do the company good—he glanced at her as she wrinkled her lovely brow in concentration—and it would give him the pleasure of working with her. Because like it or not, he loved her and always would. He rose, irritated by the thought, and called his assistant over once more.
After an hour of barking instructions at the poor assistant, Daidan felt a little better. At least he’d been able to distract himself from the thoughts that had haunted him all night long.
But suddenly they were interrupted—not by a knock on the door, not by the sound of the phone or someone speaking, but by the drift of her perfume across the room. She’d always worn it and he looked up instinctively as he took a deep breath of her fragrance.
Framed by the pale wood of the door surround, she stood poised and cool, not a strand of her short blond hair out of place. He dragged his gaze away from her eyes that stung him with their distance, and dismissed his assistant with a brisk wave of the hand. “What are you doing here? I understand you didn’t go to The Warehouse to meet the designers.”
She walked across the room and he was unable to take his eyes off her lithe, elegant figure. She’d used to be unaware of the effect she had on men, but he could see from her increased assurance that she was now aware of her movements, even if she didn’t accentuate them. Somehow it made the pain just a little bit sharper.
“I thought I’d update myself on some admin here, first. I’ve been looking through your ideas for the midsummer launch on the island. And the guest list.”
“Does it meet with your approval?”
“Yes.”
He waited but she didn’t elaborate. “Good. And I hear you’ve been looking through some financial papers.”
“Yes. It turns out my father’s instinct about you was correct. Mine, possibly not, but how you’ve turned both companies around in a year is nothing short of miraculous.”
“Miracles? Instinct? No, Taina. Your father knew I was the best person to head the company because of my experience working in the Australian diamond industry and my postgrad research.”
“And you’ve made the company your own, just as you always wanted.”