calloused fingertips over his palm. A reminder of why he didn’t deserve softness beneath those hands. Not after what he’d done.
She cleared her throat and clasped her hands in front of her. “Is there anything you’d like me to do?”
“Answer the phone when it rings,” he said, distantly aware that his tone was harsher than was called for in such a neutral scenario, unable to correct it. “You can sit at my desk.”
“And you’ll sit?”
“Elsewhere.”
“Okay.” She moved over to his desk and sat, rolling the chair forward, looking very clearly confused.
He picked up his iPad from the desk, then walked over to the other side of his office and sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall.
She looked up but didn’t say anything before looking back down. She wasn’t going to betray the fact that she thought his actions were odd, and he wasn’t going to explain.
He looked down at the tablet in his hands and started going through his email. He preferred email because it put the control for the pace of interaction in his hands. Phone calls were not something he enjoyed, but he could handle them. Though having Addison do it instead would certainly make for an easier day.
He stood after a few minutes, pacing the length of the room, restless energy fueling his veins while Addison sat at his desk, hands folded on the polished surface as she stared straight ahead. Rigid. Unmoving.
The sight of her made his clothes feel heavy. Made the weight of being civilized feel too damn intense.
She was such a stark reminder of what was expected of him. Of people like them.
Of all he couldn’t do.
The phone rang and she reached over and picked it up. “Mr. Black’s office. Yes. He’s here.”
Well, damn, that negated her presence. He didn’t want the phone passed to him.
He arched an eyebrow and she gave him a befuddled look. Then she cleared her throat. “Um…is he free to meet with you? Downtown? I don’t…uh…”
He took the phone from her. “Black.”
The voice on the other end was familiar, a contractor he’d been working with on his newest project. Converting a row of brownstones into a luxury boutique bed-and-breakfast.
“Mr. Black, I want you to come down to the site, if you’re available. There are some things I need you to see.”
Logan shifted, imagining what it would be like to go down to the brownstones today. No. The decision was made that quickly.
“I am unable to make it today,” he said. “We can hold a video conference if that suits you.”
“There’s a lot of damage to the pipes. We’re going to need to replace some. I thought you should see it for yourself.”
“I am busy,” he repeated. “It will just have to be handled.”
He hung up the phone and turned back to Addison, who was looking slightly shocked now. Finally he’d succeeded in rattling her cool.
He wondered how long it would take before he scared her off completely.
“What did I say about phone calls?”
“You said I was supposed to field your messages. You didn’t say anything about what I was supposed to do with the calls.”
He held in a growl and turned away from her, prowling across the length of the office. “Always say I’m too busy to take a call, even if I’m sitting in the corner playing a game on my phone.” Not that he even had games on his phone. “I don’t like to talk to people until I initiate it.”
He turned back to her, expecting to find an expression of wide-eyed fear on her face. Instead he saw nothing but serenity.
“Okay,” she said, keeping her hands folded in front of her, her shoulders straight.
“I don’t like things to be unpredictable,” he said. “I make the phone calls. People come to me. I prefer to do business on my own terms.”
“Doesn’t everyone?” she asked.
“What does that mean?”
“Everyone prefers to do business on their own terms. I mean, everyone prefers to live life on their own terms, but that doesn’t mean it’s possible to do all the time.”
“It is if you’re rich enough,” he said.
“Was that important?” she asked.
“Why?”
“It was someone with direct access to you, which I get the feeling you don’t give easily,” she said. “That leads me to assume it’s someone who might have important business with you.”
“And if it was?”
“Are you too busy to see him?”
“You’ve been here for two and a half hours. And for two hours of that time you were taking a nap in your room. What makes you think you’re qualified to comment on how I run my business?”
She lifted a shoulder. “I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to comment. Or ask you what’s going on.”
“You want to play question and answer?” he asked. “We can do that. But you’ll play too.”
“Well, that would be one way for us to get to know each other,” she said, smiling brightly. Too brightly in his opinion. Her top layer was starting to show cracks.
She was a funny creature, Addison Treffen. She made him want to tear the facade from her. She made him want to see what she was beneath the polished exterior. He had a feeling there was steel beneath the cream and silk on the surface. He wondered if anyone else knew, if anyone else had seen it. He wondered if Addison herself even knew.
He was fascinated.
And he was so rarely fascinated by people anymore.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Right now or philosophically?” She unclasped her hands and traced a circle on the wooden surface of his desk with one slender finger. “Right now I would actually like a coffee. On a broader scale? To make it through this. To come out the other side with some idea of what I’d like to do. I have almost finished my degree. Maybe I could be successful in this industry.” What she said about the industry seemed false. He doubted she cared at all about business. Not right now. What she’d said about surviving…that he believed. That he recognized.
“A dry goal. Survival.” She was so well trained. So bound by the chains of life. He knew what that was like. And he was free of them. Of course, now he was bound by chains of another kind.
Crushing guilt. Regret. Anxiety. Darkness, hot and wet with blood and sweat. Tears.
