Naked (26 page)

“How is your father doing? I haven’t seen him around much lately,” Lewis asked, probably just because he felt the need to make conversation.

“He’s great. Taking it easy now that I’m back. As he should.”

“Of course. Your father is the hardest-working man I know. He deserves a break.”

Violet followed Lewis into the unit. Hammering and sawing filled the space and a flurry of workers performed various tasks in order to get the suite ready for move-in day.

She made her way to the window to admire the view. She looked out over the city, not down. Her father loved Toronto, and almost every one of his high-rises was built to maximize the view. He never chose a piece of property where there was potential for another builder to obstruct the view. Which was why their purchase price was a little more expensive than the rest. But people paid a premium for that.

“Noah,” Lewis yelled as he waved his hand for the man to join them.

Just the sound of his name made her skin prickle. Her neck heated at the memory of his lips. She’d left him behind. She’d promised to leave him behind. But that was obviously harder than she’d expected, considering he’d been in the back of her mind all morning. Just the mention of his name and wham! Flustered city.

Get a grip, Violet.

She heard hands clasping in a handshake behind her. But when she turned, the older gentleman she had expected wasn’t standing in front of her. No, this man was familiar. This man was the very same one she’d ogled for three months before he’d decided to fake an injury by jumping off his roof so that she’d have sex with him.

Noah had been smiling when she’d turned around, but that smile faded quickly, and so did the color from his face when he registered who she was. The woman whose ass he’d licked only two nights ago.

Fuuuuucccckkkkk.

She couldn’t look him in the eye. Mostly out of shock, but there was also the fact that he looked damn good. Like mouthwatering good. He wore black boots; one of the laces had come undone. Blue cargo pants with a white shirt peeking out of blue long-sleeved T-shirt. His hard hat was black and his work gloves matched his outfit in a blue-checkered pattern.

She couldn’t look up. She didn’t want to look up. If she did, then this was real. If she looked at him, she was acknowledging that she had once again made a colossal bad decision.

“May I introduce Violet Walker? The new CEO of Walker Industries.” Lewis gestured between them. “Violet, this is Noah Young.”

“Noah,” she blurted. “Young.”

This wasn’t happening. This was
not
happening.

She still hadn’t looked him in the eye, but Noah was obviously a better actor than she was.

He took off his glove and held out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Walker.”

Her brain short-circuited. Those hands were good for more than just handshakes.

Like spanking. Like hair pulling. Like rocking your world in bed.

She suppressed the shiver that ran up her spine. Luckily she was fully clothed so they couldn’t see the way her nipples hardened at the thought.

Christ, her nipples were getting hard thinking about an employee.

Worse. He was her subordinate.

Everyone is your subordinate, Violet.

This was a nightmare.

She cleared her throat, peeking up at him. “Great to meet you.” She held out her hand to grasp his. “I hear you’re quite skilled.”

She cringed, and not only on the inside.

“I mean, in construction.” She felt the rush of blood settle in her cheeks. This was going so well. “Both Lewis and my father speak highly of you.”

“That’s very kind. Lewis has been my mentor for many years.”

“You’ll be working with Noah closely when I’m not on shift.” Thank goodness for Lewis, the buffer. “Part of the reason for the new associate position was so there would always be someone on call.”

Working closely. Late nights. Sneaking glances across the construction site.

What the hell was going on? Not once had she ever had these thoughts at work. Not once. Not with any worker on-site. Not with any employee at the office. But just the sight of Noah had her thinking about his head between her legs. And maybe some role-playing. Like how it would feel for him to call her Ms. Walker in bed.

She was in so much trouble.

“Yes, well…” She needed to get the hell out of here. “I look forward to working with you, Mr. Young. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you.” She turned to Lewis. “Mr. Bender. I need to head back to the office. Lots to do.”

She gave him a half smile and didn’t even bother to acknowledge Noah on her way out.

Violet rode back to the office in the town car. Her head was spinning a mile a minute. She wanted desperately to believe that the last hour hadn’t happened. That she had not just met the new associate foreman of Walker Industries and it had not been her sexy neighbor.

Of all the shit luck in the world.

She’d made the decision to make one more bad decision. And that bad decision was now following her. It was going to haunt her until the current project was complete. How in the world could she even consider him as the new foreman for the residential project if it went through?

Back at the office, she shuffled past her assistant’s desk. “Mal, hold my calls for the rest of the day.” She breached her doorway, but stopped short and turned. “And if you want, take off early. I don’t think I’ll need you for anything else today.”

Violet had hired Mallory three years ago, fresh out of university. Although she only had an assistant’s position, Violet had been grooming her for communications, but that had been put on hold the moment she’d had the accident. Now that she was back, that plan could get back on track.

She made her way to her desk. Just a few weeks ago it had been bare, but now Mallory had piled it high with work. And it was a complete mess.

Pretty soon this office wouldn’t be hers. She’d have to move into her father’s office. Which was three times as big and offered an even better view of the city. The same view as her condo. Right now, though, she was content to huddle in her familiar space.

Mallory had followed her in, a pad of paper in one hand and a stack of messages in the other. “Violet?”

She listened with one ear as Mallory rambled on about her messages, leaving the stack on the side of her desk. But when she heard the word “party” she perked up and paid attention.

“What party?”

Mallory clicked her pen in her hand. “Your mother’s planned a retirement party for your father. It’s on Wednesday night.”

“How did she…” Violet shook her head in disbelief. A party was not a good idea. Her father was probably furious.

With a flip of her blond hair, Mallory said she’d see her in the morning. Just before stepping out, she turned. “Oh, and Violet?” She smiled. Her blue eyes were the color of the Caribbean ocean, an aqua-blue that made Violet want to lie on the beach and sip a margarita. “The party is a surprise, so don’t tell your dad.”

Violet slumped in her chair, a panic attack threatening. It was stressful enough just walking into the building this morning, but combine that with the revelation that Noah worked for her and now her father’s retirement party, and she was about ready to collapse.

She was supposed to never see him again. Now every time she looked at him she was going to assume he was trying to figure out just what his hands were touching when she’d let them roam all over her chest and breasts.

Now that he knew who she was, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out what she’d been hiding underneath her scarves.

Whether she liked it or not, Noah Young was her employee. And for a woman who had every intention of reminding the men in this business that she wasn’t just a pair of breasts, an affair with an employee was not the best way to get that point across.

She’d been adamant that they keep their histories off the table, but now that he knew her true identity, she had no doubt he already knew all about the accident. However, there was a silver lining to that.

The intimacy between them had progressed to heights she’d never anticipated, and she’d nearly disclosed the truth about how she felt. Whatever knowledge Noah did have, it would have been as a result of the rumors that had spread through the office.

And the truth was always more devastating than fiction.

Chapter 21

Noah hadn’t stopped thinking about Violet since he’d woken up at five that morning. He’d driven to work, happy. Happy that he’d taken the plunge and engaged Violet, because what resulted was four weeks of the most fun he’d had in a very long time. And not just in the bedroom.

But that happiness had a dark side. The side that hadn’t wanted to say goodbye.

Skip to Violet showing up on his job site and being introduced as his new boss.

He had no idea how he hadn’t put it together. But he had no reason to believe that Violet Walker, the daughter of Ward Walker, would move to a small town. If he’d bothered listening to the rumors, he might have pieced it all together.

But there was only one conclusion that could be drawn from this turn of events, despite the warning bells going off in his head: They were meant to finish what they’d started.

Which was why, when he’d left the site for the day, he found himself driving to midtown. Then getting on the elevator to the thirty-second floor to the offices of Walker Industries in order to find the woman he should be staying far away from.

She was everything he wasn’t looking for. Everything that had kicked him to the curb all those years ago.

He couldn’t get involved with that again. His heart wouldn’t be able to take it. But he wasn’t using his heart when it came to Violet. He kept that safely guarded in his chest.

He’d never experienced a woman so intoxicating, so willing to let go. Wanting to help her continue on her journey of self-discovery, of becoming “Just Violet” as she had said, had nothing to do with wanting to prove he was good enough to roll with the CEO of a large construction firm. And it had nothing to do with distracting him from making a decision about his future. It was all for her.

It was already dark when he stepped off the elevator. He knew the odds of Violet hunching over her desk were high and anyone else being in the office were slim. Which was exactly what he wanted. He knew if she had the opportunity to turn him away, she would.

He found her office and knocked on the closed door.

Her soft voice directed him to enter, but she didn’t look up until he said, “So you’re not a dancer.”

Her face fell. “What are you doing here?” Her palms went flat on the desk and she looked around. But she was alone in her office; there was no one to witness this encounter. “You can’t be here.”

“There’s no one in the office.” He closed to door behind him. “We’re all alone.” He flashed her his best smile.

“We have cameras.”

He shook his head. Was someone really going to be viewing footage?

“We can’t be seen alone together. What if people find out?” Real terror had darkened her gaze.

“So…”

“It’s inappropriate.” Her voice wasn’t its usual sensual timbre. It had gone up about eighteen octaves in fear. “I’m the CEO. I can’t be seen dating my construction workers.”

“Associate foreman,” he corrected.

She waved him off with a wide gesture of her hand and groaned. “It doesn’t matter.”

Of course it mattered.

“You know…” He walked toward her desk, unable to suppress the cockiness he felt at knowing a different side to this CEO. “It all makes sense. And now that I know who you are…” He stepped around the desk to the side she was sitting on. “I know what you’re hiding.”

She sucked in a breath. “You…do?”

“I know about the accident.” What he didn’t know was why she was working so hard to cover up the aftermath. Once again, she had a scarf tied around her neck like a flight attendant.

To his surprise, some relief washed over her. “That’s public record. Everyone here knows.”

But did they know why she wore a scarf every day? His hands had felt firsthand the scars of her tragedy and he knew how much she must have suffered.

“When you’re ready to tell me the truth, all of it, I’ll be here.”

“There isn’t going to be a time when you’ll learn the truth. You’re my employee, and you don’t know anything about me.” She slammed a stack of folders, moving them from one spot to another, for no apparent reason.

“I see you.” He sat on the glass of her desk and leaned forward. “I’ve seen all of you.”

She wasn’t able to hide the reaction she had to his nearness. She couldn’t control that shaky breath or shiver of her body.

“That’s not me. I’m not
really
that girl.”

“So it was all pretend?” He’d be lying if he said that response didn’t kick him in the gut. His time with Violet had been the most real relationship he’d ever had.

“No, I wasn’t pretending.” Her head fell forward and she hid her face in her hands. Talking through her fingers, she mumbled, “But this is reality. You and I would never work.”

He kicked out one foot and crossed it over the other, curling his fingers around the edge of the glass. “You’re too good for the help?”

“You’re not the help. It’s just…Look, things with my family are complicated right now. And I’ve just taken over this company and I need to prove I’m serious. It’s hard enough as it is for me as a woman in this business without bringing a relationship with an employee into the mix.”

That was a valid point. He’d heard some of the guys talking around the site. The comments about her body and her beauty. Couple that with the fact she just inherited the empire her father had built, and she had a long road ahead of her.

But there was no way he was giving up a chance to continue fucking her. A chance to coax out even more sexual experiences that he knew she’d never had before.

“Don’t make me show up at your house, take off my clothes, and demand you sit on my cock.”

Her head shot up, but her eyes had changed. The distance between them had vanished and was replaced with longing.

“Although I don’t think it would take much coaxing.”