I couldn’t help but smile. Of course he was aware of his reputation as a shark. And it was really hard for me not to make a crack about sushi.
He walked over to the fridge—and I told myself not to gawk, but my greedy side ogled him: the way his suit pants rippled as he walked and how broad his shoulders looked in that perfectly cut suit jacket when he bent over.
Sydney kicked me under the table so I was innocently picking up my chips when he turned around. And I might’ve peeked at what he had in his lunch—a takeout deli salad.
Which he apologized for. “I was supposed to meet my sister for lunch, but she had some crisis in PR so she’s placating me with this.” He sighed. “I’d really hoped for something more substantial.”
“Me too, but the lunch fairies are stingy today,” Sydney said.
She always knew what to say.
But the CFO paid no attention to her. He zeroed in on me. “You know where my office is?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Jenna will see you up there in an hour.” Then he strode off.
I crunched a chip.
“Lennox.” Sydney leaned forward and whispered, “I think he likes you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I always say the wrong thing around him.”
“I’ll bet he asked for you specifically to assist his admin.”
“Unlikely.”
“I’m going to ask Lola if he requested you.”
I grabbed her arm. “Don’t you dare. I don’t want Lola to think I’ve got a crush on him. And that’s exactly what she’d think if I ask her if he was asking about me.”
“But it wouldn’t be you asking her. It’d be me.”
“Same difference.”
“Fine,” she huffed out. “But you have to tell me if he sticks around to flirt with you while you’re working.”
“He’s a busy man. I doubt he’ll even be there.”
So I could admit some disappointment when the hottie CFO with the killer smile and dreamy blue eyes was out of the office for the afternoon.
Jenna, his admin, was great, though—everything I aspired to be. I marveled at her ability to do twenty-seven things at once while she answered her headset every thirty seconds.
At one point she took the headset off and tossed it on the table. “Calls can go to voice mail for a bit so we can get this done.”
We worked in silence for a while. Then I said, “It’s pretty cool that you’ve got a secretary.”
“I haven’t always had one. When Mr. Lund became CFO, there was so much paperwork that no one had looked at in decades, but we still needed to archive it. It was a full-time job just sorting that out, so he had to rely on Anita to do the day-to-day secretarial stuff for him for a few months.”
I bit my tongue to keep from blurting out a question about Attila.
“Meanwhile,” Jenna continued, “an incoming CFO has twice as much work as a CEO because they have to justify spending across the board. Although this is a family business, no one cut him any slack. Not that he would’ve stood for it if they’d tried it. He is the most single-minded man I’ve ever met.” She peered at me over the top of her glasses. “And my husband is an engineer, so I don’t say that lightly.”
I grinned. In addition to being a whirling dervish, Jenna had a great sense of humor.
I definitely wanted to be her when I grew up.
*
Friday afternoon I was back on the forty-fourth floor helping Jenna compile more packets.
I must’ve sighed loudly because I heard a deep male chuckle behind me. I whirled around and saw Mr. Lund lounging in the doorway, looking as if he’d just stepped off the cover of GQ. Looking at me with a sexy smile and a twinkle in his eyes. My heart rate sped up so fast I felt the throbbing pulse in my eyeballs.
Mr. Lund sauntered forward, his gait loose and measured. His hands were tucked into his pants pockets. “Is everything all right, Lennox?”
How was it fair that he seemed hotter looking every time I saw him? And why were my reactions to him either tongue-tied or snappish? I could do this. Be normal around the smartest, sexiest man in the company.
“Everything is fine except for the fact you tend to sneak up on me and scare the crap out of me every time we cross paths.”
He seemed to be measuring me in the resulting silence.
Drop your pen and hide under the desk, you idiot. I rather loudly stacked a pile of papers. “I’m sorry, Mr. Lund. Did you need Jenna? She went to track down missing covers.”
“No. I don’t need her for anything specific. I was just wandering, trying to clear my head, and noticed the door was open.” He sat on the edge of the conference table, close enough that I caught the scent of his cologne. He angled his head toward the stack of reports. “I’ll bet you’re wondering why we don’t outsource a project like this to a printing shop.”