Chapter 8 #2
“What was your job before?”
“I was an executive assistant. Why?”
“Olaf’s gone to law school, and we haven’t found a replacement yet.” Rafe shifted his gaze to Kayn. “My other assistant is going on maternity leave soon.”
“Great idea. My sister’s the queen of organization.” Her brother grinned. “I’ll bet she’d give even Olaf a run for his money.”
“What do you think?” Rafe asked Ahri.
“What about your HR people? They’re going to want my birth certificate and stuff to prove I can legally work in the US.”
“Bill, do you think we can trust Orianna with it?”
“Yes. She wouldn’t be in her position if she didn’t have great discretion.”
“All right then.” Rafe looked back at Ahri. “You can start when you’re ready. It’s just a temp job, if you want it.”
“Yes.” She had to force herself not to throw her arms around his neck.
“Yo, Rafe, wait up.” Kayn jogged up to him outside of the complex entrance.
Rafe stopped, his hands in his pockets, and waited for the inevitable.
He’d expected some kind of response after the way Kayn had been staring at him.
The simple act of warming Ahri’s hands had been in response to the way she’d kept rubbing them together.
It’d been obvious to him that she’d needed physical contact at the moment, and her brother hadn’t been providing it.
It’d have been presumptuous to lecture Kayn about it, not knowing what kind of home they’d been raised in. Having grown up with a cold father but a loving, demonstrative mother, Rafe knew how to recognize a need for touch when he saw it.
While he hadn’t expected the physical jolt it’d given him, it hadn’t surprised him either. He’d been attracted to Ahri since the first time he’d met her just before she’d gotten engaged to Zed.
Rafe hadn’t really thought about what he’d meant by warming her hands.
He knew it was a tough time for her. He had no intention of taking advantage of her vulnerability, but he’d been thinking about her a lot.
Three years ago he hadn’t been ready, but his mother was right.
It was time to move on from that disaster with Tess.
When Ahri was in a good place again, he wasn’t going to hold back this time.
“What’s up?” Rafe asked.
“What was that you were pulling with my sister?” Kayn’s tone had a joking quality to it, but it also had an edge.
“You mean offering her a job?” Rafe kept his face neutral.
“Don’t play stupid with me.” Kayn grasped his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“I was just warming her hands. Nothing’s going on.” Rafe paused before adding, “Yet.”
Kayn gave him a flat look.
“And nothing might happen, so don’t worry. For right now, all I want is to be her friend.”
“For right now. That’s good since you’re going to be her boss.”
Rafe frowned, having forgotten that little problem.
It’d been an issue for his mother and Alex too.
He’d been one of the professors she’d worked for.
At the college, they didn’t allow supervisors to date anyone under them, and neither did REKD Gaming.
It was good policy. Rafe couldn’t take special privileges for himself just because he was the CEO, especially not for someone under his direct supervision.
For a second, he wished he hadn’t offered her the position. But no. She needed time to heal anyway, and the temporary job would be perfect for that.
“Come on,” Kayn said, interrupting, “what’s going through that brilliant brain of yours?”
“First of all, regarding your sister, it’s premature. Her husband hasn’t even been buried yet.”
“She’s been falling out of love with him for a couple of years. She only hung in there so long out of loyalty to the vows she made, not to the man.” Kayn’s expression had turned so earnest, that Rafe laughed.
“A minute ago you were challenging me for being interested in your sister and now you’re telling me to go ahead?”
“Oh, shut up. It’s timing and you know it. There couldn’t be a better man for her than you.”
“Timing. Yes, that’s exactly what I was trying to tell you.
” Rafe held up his fingers as he spoke. “First, she has to bury her husband. Second, she needs time to recover from this. I have no intention of being a rebound. Third, there’s the issue of me being her boss.
It’ll be good that we’re friends first. Once Cass comes back from her maternity leave and this whole thing with Zed is resolved, Ahri can get another job.
By then, she might be open to dating me.
And if she’s not, we’ll still be friends.
It wouldn’t be the first time a woman didn’t want me.
” Rafe pinched his lips closed. He hadn’t meant to say anything about that.
“Why do you still let that bi—” Kayn bit back the word. “I know you were into Tess, but all of your friends—your real friends—saw what she was doing.”
For two years, Rafe had refused to talk about her to any of them. He hadn’t wanted to dredge up the pain. Thinking back to his mother’s admonition, he realized that getting it in the open would be a step forward.
“And what was it you saw her doing with me?” he asked.
“Tess was never serious about you. I overheard her once at the campus bookstore just before she dumped you. She said she was ‘slumming it’ with you.” Kayn shot him a sympathetic glance. “She played you and threw you to the curb like so much trash.”
“Slumming it?” Rafe said, feeling a little numb. “She actually used those words?”
“Man, I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”
Rafe rubbed the bridge of his nose. It hurt to hear it, but he wasn’t surprised. A memory came back to him of the day the sale of their first game had hit the news, and they’d been labeled the Harvard Billionaire Boys.
“What are you grinning at?” Kayn asked.
“Did I ever tell you that Tess called and wanted to get back together?” Rafe gave a dark chuckle.
“Don’t tell me it was after you got rich?”
“Yup.” By then, he’d known what she was.
“I’d like to have been there when you had that little conversation,” Kayn said a little too gleefully.
“Let’s just say that the idea of getting back together with her stuck in my throat like a hair in a biscuit.”
Kayn burst out laughing and clapped him on the back. “Good. As for you and my sister, I guess I’m okay with that. I wouldn’t mind having you as my brother.”
“You’re jumping the gun.” It was Rafe’s turn to give a flat look. “We don’t even know if Ahri will like me like that.”
“All I saw was the look on her face when you were warming her hand, as you called it. I think when the time is right, there won’t be any question about her wanting to date you. See ya.” Grinning, Kayn jogged ahead.
Rafe watched him go, bemused. Maybe he was being an idiot to think of getting involved again.
If his mother hadn’t been pushing the issue, he might not have considered it.
But there was also Ahri herself. He couldn’t get her out of his thoughts.
Once she’d moved to his mother’s place, it’d been all he could do not to run out there every day to see how Ahri was, what her day had been like, to spend time with her.
Rafe hadn’t felt that way in a very long time, and he liked it.
He tried to be pragmatic. They had time to see how things would play out.