He was a father.
“Anything wrong?”
The concern in Autumn’s voice sounded so genuine, he nearly blurted out, Everything.
And it was true. His life was in a state of total upheaval right now. Sure, the chaos was the result of choices he wanted to make, but that didn’t make things any easier.
Instead Isaac opted for the answer likely echoed in countless offices across the country on any given morning. Men and women just like him who wished someone would care, but who also realized that most people were too busy just trying to make it in this crazy world to bother.
He faked a yawn. “I was running late and missed my morning coffee.”
Isaac kept his gaze trained on the boardroom window. The mid-January sky was a bleak and dirty gray, the kind that makes you wonder if the sun will ever shine again. For reasons he didn’t understand, he didn’t want to look too deeply into Autumn’s eyes. It wasn’t that he was afraid of what he would see in them, but of what he wouldn’t.
“I don’t drink coffee.”
Her voice wove through his ears, piercing the fog of his thoughts. It was throaty, insistent and knotted with just enough innate sexiness to make his groin twitch in a way that made him glad he was sitting down.
Just to be on the safe side, he rolled closer to the table and turned his head toward her.
“What mortal doesn’t drink coffee?” he said in an incredulous tone. “What gets you up in the morning? Your extremely good looks?”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth that he realized he’d overstepped the boundaries between simple curiosity and workplace etiquette. Rule number one: never acknowledge the physical attractiveness of your coworkers.
He hated the fact that his stomach clenched as he waited for her reaction, but Autumn just sat there with a blank expression on her face.
If Felicia was still in the room, she’d probably write him up. Ever since she tried to seduce him and he’d turned her down, he’d been paying for it. She watched him like a hawk circling prey.
Did she really think he was stupid enough to bed Sterling’s daughter? His working relationship with his boss was strained enough without any additional help from Felicia’s shenanigans. Although Isaac doubted Sterling knew anything about Felicia’s unwanted advances, he couldn’t be sure without actually asking him.
Still, Isaac had a nagging feeling that the partnership he’d busted his butt working for his entire career was now out of reach, and he didn’t know why.
Autumn’s voice broke in on his reverie. “No. What gets me up in the morning is,” she replied, leaning forward, as if in secret. “Pure. Adrenaline.”
Her plump lips, coated with just a hint of pale pink gloss, turned up into a very kissable half smile. She seemed amused rather than offended at his statement, which made her even more attractive.
Her perfume, the scent of a flower he recalled but at the moment couldn’t name, teased his nose. At that moment, he knew he would drive himself crazy trying to remember and wishing he could smell more of her.
Isaac whooshed out a breath of relief. “Ah, yes. I remember those days.”
The times he couldn’t wait to get to the office. He was always the first to arrive, the last to leave and the chump who didn’t mind coming in on weekends and holidays. All B.K.
Before kids.
Thank God, they’d saved him.
Autumn settled back in her chair. “So what happened?”
Isaac’s heart squeezed again at the caring in her voice and he drummed his fingers on the table under her intense gaze. Although the question was a legitimate one, he wasn’t about to tell her—or anyone else—the truth.
“The world’s financial markets collapsed one by one. Making our jobs a whole lot tougher. You need more than adrenaline to survive in this business now. You need a magic wand and the ability to predict the future.”
Autumn’s warm laugh resonated throughout the room and sank into his bones, and for a moment he felt carefree and relaxed.
Her expression quickly sobered. “That’s part of the reason why I’m here.”
He frowned, sorry to see her smile disappear but suddenly knowing why. “Another victim of downsizing?”
Autumn nodded. “We’d lost so many clients that it didn’t make sense to keep all our analysts around. Or at least that’s what they told me.”
He couldn’t imagine being jobless. In the past, it was something he’d never had to worry about. But with the way Felicia was acting toward him lately, he wasn’t so confident. Since she was Sterling’s daughter, nobody at Paxton really knew how much influence she had over him. To be ensnared in her web was one place no employee ever wanted to be.
“Their loss is our gain,” Isaac replied with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
Her exuberant grin was infectious. “Thank you. I’m really excited to be here and to be working with you.”
Autumn tilted her head and he watched her curls skim the edge of her jawline. He wondered what that hair would feel like in his fingers. Her white, long-sleeved silk blouse did not detract his eyes from coveting what was beneath. In his mind, he saw his hands around her trim waist as she hitched up her navy blue skirt.
Isaac’s groin tightened painfully and he shifted slightly in his seat as his body involuntarily reacted to a sudden desire for Autumn that he didn’t understand. But he did know this: furtive glances at her across the cafeteria or in a meeting room would never satisfy him.
He bet that, beneath the stark corporate garb, she was as soft and fleeting as the snowflakes that were beginning to swirl outside. Yet he sensed she was tough to catch and even tougher to hold on to. That’s why he had to stay as far away from her as he could manage.
He picked up her résumé to distract himself. There was no current home address listed, but he assumed she lived in the area. As was his custom, he flipped to the last page so he could review her work experience in reverse chronological order.
Reading quickly, he learned that Autumn had a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics, and a master’s degree in Statistics. All from Yale University. She was an Ivy girl, she was smart and she loved numbers. Plus, she had a killer body. It added up to some serious trouble for a man who was trying not to be attracted to her and failing badly.
“I hope you won’t let our respective universities affect our working relationship,” she said in a teasing voice.
He glanced up from the paper in front of him. “You’re referring to the long-standing rivalry between Yale and Harvard.”
She nodded and crossed her legs, sheathed in sheer hose he yearned to rip away.
He smiled. “A little bit of competition always makes things more interesting, no?”
“Most
