Everything You Are (3 page)

She giggled
. He had known the girl for three weeks now and she had never even given him a smile, let alone a giggle.

“Where's your car?” Chris asked Ian.

Ian pointed at the Mercedes parked by the pavement across the street, his eyes on his brother. Chris could be very pleasant and charming if he wanted to, and people always opened to him so easily, but in his core, he was a manipulative bastard, who liked to exploit people for his own gain and amusement, caring for nobody but himself. And his family.

“Shall we?” Chris offered his arm to Jane. “How long have you been Ian's assistant?”

“Three weeks.” She took it and together they strolled across the empty street.

Ian pushed his hands into the pockets of his black trousers, sighed, and strode after them. Chris usually ignored his assistants; a side glance and a scowl was the only attention they got from him, so why was he being so charming with Jane? His brother continued to converse with her even after they arrived at the photo-shoot, which was in a condo at the top of a skyscraper.

Two girls and a boy crowded around Ian as soon as he entered the room that overlooked the large terrace. The girls started to tug the jacket off him, while the young man studied him with a pondering expression on his face.

“Girls, girls.” Ian gave them a smile. “Don't be so impatient, you'll see me naked soon enough.”

They giggled. One started to work on the buttons of his light blue shirt while the other hung the jacket on the racks full of clothes, one of four that stood by the wall.

Over the girl's head he searched for Jane. She was three steps away, quietly chatting with Chris, who stood with his shoulder leaned against the wall. A light blush still dusted her cheeks. “Jane,” he called.

She faced him. “Yes?”     

“I need the documents for the Devinli project, if you would be so kind as to acquire them, so I'll be able to read them while they are preparing me.”

“Yes, right away.” She turned to Chris, said something to him, then moved to the far end of the room.

The blond girl pulled the shirt off him and it ended up on the rack beside his jacket.

Ian slipped off the white sleeveless tank top he wore under the shirt and shooed away the woman's hands that had already unbuckled his belt and now reached for his zipper. “I appreciate the help,” he said to the blonde. “But I prefer to slip out of my pants on my own.” His eyelids lowered to half-mast and one corner of his mouth curled in a seductive smile as he cast a glance over the girl's plump chest. “Unless you were planning to pull down the zipper with your teeth.”

Chris walked over to him.

The blonde looked at Ian from under her eyelashes, and smiled as she sucked her lower lip into her mouth then released it. “Maybe later.”

“You are unbelievable,” Chris said.

“I can't help it if women like me.” Ian flashed another smile at the girl, then kicked off his shoes and got out of his pants, to stand there in the middle of the room in only his black boxers and his socks.

“Why did you interrupt my little tête à tête with Jane?”

“Why are you interested in her? You never noticed my previous assistants?”

“Are you jealous?”

“Because you talked to her?” Ian snorted and put his arms akimbo. “Not likely.” He noticed the girls' eyes on his chest and he automatically flexed his muscles. “Your little photo session is taking time away from my work, so instead of going to the office to go through the reports, I'll do that here.” It's not as if he had to prepare himself for the shoot, he just had to stand there, in whatever pose the photographer put him in, looking sexy.

“Don't think I didn't notice how you glared at me.”

“I wasn't glaring at you.” Was he?

“If you say so,” Chris said.

Ian's eyes found Jane, who appeared to be busy with the tablet. Had he really been glaring at Chris? Because of Jane? Nah.

“Unbelievable,” Jane mumbled under her breath, scowling as she observed Ian and the blonde from the corner of her eye. The blonde stylist was practically rubbing her breasts against Ian's arm, something, from the way he smiled down at the girl, he didn't seem to mind one bit.
Men
. Jane snorted. When in close proximity to big breasts, they could become so shallow-minded and easily distracted. She had already acquired and arranged the data Ian wanted but he, too preoccupied with the blonde and her breasts, hadn’t even glanced at them.

“He loves the attention.”

Jane lifted her head to see Chris leaning against the wall beside her. She felt heat crawling into her cheeks. Chris's oval face and narrow nose, high cheekbones and plump lips together formed perfection. But it wasn't just his beauty that made her breath hitch and her cheeks flush, but there was something ethereal about him that made her feel as if she was staring at a real elf. Yet, it was easier to talk with him than Ian, because even though Chris was more beautiful than his brother, he lacked the raw sensuality that oozed out of Ian's every pore. She glanced at Ian, who had already put on his jacket. “Yes, he does seem to enjoy being in the spotlight.”

Ian produced a business card from the pocket of his jacket and gave it to the blonde.

Jane pushed herself away from the wall and put the tablet under her arm.

“It was nice meting you, Jane.” Chris offered her his hand.

“Yeah, you too.” She shook it, focusing her gaze on the point between his eyebrows, avoiding his eyes, embarrassed by the way her cheeks glowed with heat.

“Jane,” Ian yelled from across the room.

“I'm coming.” She gave Chris a small smile before she wiggled her hand out of his and hurried after Ian, who was already halfway to the door.

They went out of the apartment and crossed the hallway to the elevators.

Ian pressed the button for down then turned to her. “Do you have the documents?”

“Yes. Here.” She gave him the tablet.

The elevator came and they went inside.

Ian leaned back against the wall and occupied himself with the reports.

She secretly observed him. She had assumed that he would look good shirtless, but until the photo shoot, she had never known that he was built like a statue of Hercules. Would his abdomen feel like that too? She slightly shook her head, smiling to herself. That sounded like something Mark would ask. He would probably have darted over, and with an expression full of wonder and his eyes innocently blinking asked if he could touch.

“What's so funny?”

She lifted her head. “Nothing.”

“What did you and Chris talk about?”

“About books.” And his friend Suzan’s performance in
Pride and Prejudice
.

The elevator stopped and a man stepped inside, then it resumed its way down.

“What kind of books?”

“Jane Austin's books.” She crossed her arms.

“What's so special about them?”

The name of a side character in
Pride and Prejudice
was the same as hers, but since he probably didn't even know who Jane Austin was, there was no point in explaining that to him. “Have you gone through the numbers for the warehouse project?”

“I'm going through them right now.” His gaze returned to the tablet.

“You have a meeting with the project leader at the site at two.” Which was two hours away.

“I'll go through all the documentation at lunch. I noticed that there's no quote for the equipment.”

“I'll get on it right away.” She pulled a phone out of her handbag and started to browse through the address book, searching for the Thornton accounting department's phone number.

They arrived on the ground floor and the man walked out while they continued their way to the second level of the underground garage, where Ian had parked his car.

“I'll need you to go through all the costs and sort them by phase of construction. You can do that while we are at lunch.”

In the three weeks she had been working for him, his days had been filled with meetings and reading reports, and he used lunches to socialize with his business partners. She had participated in one of them, sitting off to the side, providing him with information when he needed it, which made her feel more like his secretary than his personal assistant. Today, surprisingly, he didn’t have a lunch appointment. “We?”

“Yes.”

“As in having lunch together, just the two of us?”

“Yes.”

The elevator reached their destination. The door opened.

“Really?”

“Yes.” He stepped out into the garage, his steps echoing among the concrete walls.

She was right behind him. “I can't. I have to be in Personnel at twelve-thirty.”

He stopped.

She bumped against him, losing her balance.

His hand shot out; he grabbed her forearm and drew her against his chest. His strong arm wrapped around her waist. “Are you okay?”

She felt his hard body against her side, her fingers touched his abs. They really were as hard as they looked. What did the guy eat? Bricks? She glanced up at him.

He was grinning, his eyes glittering mischievously. He had such a vivid eyes, blue as a summer sky. He raised one eyebrow. “Do you like what you are touching?”

She hauled her hand away and heat rushed into her cheeks. “I don't know what you are talking about.” She wiggled out of the embrace of his arm and occupied herself with adjusting her glasses.

He chuckled, then the smile faded off his face; he replaced it with a frown. “Don't you plan to stay?”

“What?”

“You said that you have to be in Personnel at twelve-thirty. A few minutes is more than enough to sign the employment contract.”

“Is it?”

“I assumed you plan to stay. Was my assumption wrong?”

“I thought you were against me working for you and that you preferred somebody you'd have chosen yourself.”

“I thought that too, but your efficiency has changed my mind.” He smiled, a fondness in his voice when he spoke. “It seems my father is much better at recognizing potential in people than I am.” He rubbed his chin. “Not that I didn’t already know that.”

She gazed up at him, charmed by his smile and the look of affection in his expression. He must love his father very much. When she had started working for Ian, she thought that he was a cold, entitled jerk, but he was actually a warm and kind entitled jerk, popular, not only among women, but with men too. In three weeks filled with his company, she had grown fond of him too.

“So?”

“What?”

“Are you going to stay on as my assistant or not?”

Even if he were a cold insufferable moron, the pay and benefits were too good for her to refuse the job. “I'm going to take the job.”

“Good.” He nodded, shoved the tablet under his arm and pushed his hands into the pockets of his black trousers.

She thought he would have made another comment, but he didn't. They got into the car and she used the drive to call the accounting department. Before she went to Personnel, she had enough time to sit at Ian’s computer and gather and organize the data they had sent her, then forward the spreadsheets to Ian's email so that he could access them with either his phone or tablet.

The Personnel department was three floors down, and it only took her a few minutes to get to the head of the department's office at the end of a long hallway. ‘Mrs. Anita Gloucester’ was written on the door.

Jane knocked and then peeked inside.

A black-haired woman occupied the seat behind the table. “Miss Bennet?”

“Yes.”

“I have been waiting for you. Come in.”

Jane walked inside.

“Sit down, please.” Mrs. Gloucester gestured at the chair.

Jane sat.

Without further ado, Mrs. Gloucester opened the folder and pulled a few papers from it. “This is the employment contract. It includes the same conditions as the probationary one. Read it and sign all three copies, please. One copy is yours.”

Jane skimmed through it. Yes, it included the same conditions, but it offered more benefits. She signed all three papers and gave two copies to the woman. She was ready to stand up and leave, when Mrs. Gloucester pushed another batch of papers toward her. “Read and sign, please.”

Frowning, Jane took the papers and read the first page. “It's a non-disclosure agreement.”

“Yes, it is. All the female employees working directly with Mr. Thornton Junior have to sign it,” the woman said, her eyes glancing down Jane's body, as much of it as was visible over the desk. “Not that it's always needed, like in your case.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Jane asked, careful to keep her voice low and soft.

“You're neither blond nor...” Mrs. Gloucester's eyes lowered to Jane's chest.

Jane scowled, but she made no comment on Mrs. Gloucester's words, not to the woman herself. As soon as she stepped out of the office, though, she called Mark and told him what had happened. “The nerve.”

“She's probably just jealous because she's not on a first-name basis with the hunk like you are.”

“Do you know what that means?”

“That she has a crush on him, like the rest of your new co-workers.”

She rolled her eyes and shifted the phone into her left hand as she strode down the hallway, toward the elevators. “She implied that the company shouldn't worry about non-disclosure since I'm not blond and don't have large breasts. And?”

“Yeah?”

She arrived to the elevators and punched the button. “What's Ian's type?”

“Oh.”

“Which means what?” Jane asked even though she knew the answer.

“That they have a non-disclosure contract in place because he probably has a habit of sleeping with his 'blond and well-endowed' employees.”

“Something like that.”

“Do you think that he slept with his previous assistants?”

She remembered his flirting with the stylist just an hour ago. “If they were his type, most likely.”

“So he sleeps around, huh?”

“As if you didn't know that.”

“Do you think I would have a chance, you know, with a stuffed bra and a blond wig?”

“I don't know.” Jane grinned. “Maybe you should try it.”

Mark chuckled.

“Hey, I met Christopher Thornton today.”

“Who's that? His cousin?”

“His brother.”

“What? The Viking god has a brother? And I didn't know. What's he like?”

“Beautiful and really elfin.”

The elevator came. Jane stepped inside, joining the three people that already occupied it. “I'll tell you everything about him when I get home.”

“You better, or else...” Mark said in a menacing, dangerous voice.

“Or else?” she said, a small smile playing on her face.

“I'm going to eat the strawberry muffin I was planning to buy for you on my way home.”

“From Erin's Bakery?” Those were delicious.

“Yes.”

At just the thought of that muffin, her mouth started to water. “When do you get off today? At five, like always?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. We’ll see each other then,” she said, turned off the phone and put it into the pocket of her sweater. A few seconds later, the elevator reached her floor. She strode out and across the hallway and the empty anteroom into Ian's office.

Ian half-lay on the same spot on the couch as she had left him, his jacket tossed over the back of the chair nearby. At the sight of her, he straightened and leaned his arms on the back of the couch. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Did you sign it?”

She pinched her eyebrows together. “Which one?”

He scowled. “The employment contract, of course.”

“I signed it.”

“Good, good.” He nodded and stood. He lifted his arms above his head and then lowered them behind his back and laced his hands. He pushed them backwards and up.

Jane stared at the white shirt that stretched over his shoulders and chest, highlighting the muscles beneath it. How did a businessman whose days consisted of meetings and reports get so toned?
From all the sex
, a small voice, so similar to Mark's, muttered in her head.

#

“Where to go next?” With his hand hooked around Jane's, Mark drew her closer to him as they made a detour around the chatting group of people who occupied the pavement as if they owned the spot before the entrance of the Mexican restaurant.

“What about the Bones?” Jane pointed at the bar, one of many that lined the street in the old town. This one had a skeleton beside its door.

“They give you those test tubes with coloured drinks after every third round, right?”