Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
“Having a spring clean?” Knox drawled, at the same time as his narrowed gaze took in the chaos that was the reception area of the HERA offices.
They were situated on the third floor of the prestigious forty-floor skyscraper, the impressive Aragon Tower, set in the heart of the New York business district.
The first floor was a selection of coffee shops and bistros, the second floor exclusive clothes shops.
When Knox had opened the door to this office a few seconds ago, it was to see Ellie down on her knees, doing her best to pick up the pieces of broken pottery that had obviously previously housed the many green plants and dark soil that were now strewn all over what he believed had previously been a pale pink carpet.
A young man with blond streaks in his light brown hair and wearing a very fitted dark blue suit and pale pink shirt was following along behind Ellie, attempting to use a long-handled broom to sweep the soil into an inadequately sized dustpan.
Knox recognized him from the company website as being Benny, the Fred and Ginger fan.
He also saw Sally, through the slightly open doorway into the adjoining office. She was collecting the numerous files scattered over the floor before attempting to put them into some sort of order and back into a filing cabinet.
He gave a stiff nod of acknowledgement after she looked up and gave him a friendly wave hello.
She had only worked for him for part of that first day, the efficient Joan taking over later in the afternoon. But Knox would be lying if he didn’t admit to giving a sigh of relief once Sally had returned to work at the HERA offices.
She had been pleasant enough, but she liked to flirt, whereas Joan was completely professional in her attitude, as was Karen. The last thing Knox was interested in was a romantic involvement with one of his employees, even if that employment was only temporary.
Especially when he hadn’t been able to put thoughts of Ellie from his mind for the past two days and three nights!
Ellie’s head had jerked up the moment Knox spoke.
The young man had also stopped sweeping and was now leaning on the top of the broom handle, giving Knox a complete once-over. Seconds later, he gave Knox a nod of appreciation accompanied by a cheeky grin.
Yep, definitely Benny, Knox acknowledged ruefully as he gave the guy a smile and nod at the unspoken compliment.
Ellie sat back on her bare feet, her three-inch-heeled shoes placed near the door, well away from the dirt and chaos in the rest of the room.
The jacket to her dark gray suit was on a hanger on the coat stand beside the door.
Her hair was loose today, a silky straight blonde curtain that fell to the middle of her back.
Her glasses had slipped down her nose, and there was a smudge of dirt on one of her porcelain-pale cheeks.
She was a bit of a mess, but she still looked beautiful to Knox.
Infuriatingly so.
Knox didn’t want to be attracted to Ellie Hall.
He didn’t want to be, but just seeing her again made him realize that he definitely was.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice was sharp with suspicion.
Not the most enthusiastic greeting Knox had ever received. But, to be fair, Ellie hadn’t known he was coming to the HERA offices today. If she had, she would no doubt have tried to put him off, considering the mess he had just walked in on.
Unfortunately for her, Knox really wasn’t in the mood to be put off once he decided he had to see her again. In his need to see her again.
If Ellie, or anyone else, thought he was at all pleased with feeling that need, they would be sadly mistaken. He had stayed well away from any romantic entanglements since the disaster his marriage had become. Ellie was the first woman he hadn’t been able to forget and move on from.
A worried frown creased her brow as she continued to look up at him. “Is Joan not working out for you, after all?”
It was definitely taking a little adjusting to working so closely with someone new, but Joan had been with him for two and a half days now, and they seemed to be establishing a good working relationship.
Unfortunately, Knox’s inner calm, the one that had kept him free from emotional entanglements for the past ten years, had already been completely shot to hell.
Because of one woman.
This woman.
Eleanor Hall.
He had tried putting her out of his mind, had even gone on a dinner date with a beautiful brunette a couple of evenings ago.
For the first time in forever, he’d only kissed that woman on the cheek at the end of the evening before going home alone.
Only to lie in bed, cock in hand, as he thought of Ellie.
He couldn’t concentrate on his work, didn’t sleep, his social life was a non-starter, and sometime during the third sleepless night, he had decided that if he just saw Ellie again, he would realize how ridiculous the attraction was.
Only to have taken one look at Ellie, down on her knees with patches of dirt clinging to her cheeks, and realized that his fascination to be with her still very much existed and wasn’t going to go away any time soon.
What was even more infuriating was that he knew he wouldn’t get any sympathy from his closest friends, the four members of the Wynter family who owned the security company.
Three of them, also confirmed bachelors, had met and instantly fallen in love with the women they were now individually married to. Linus was the only one who hadn’t fallen into the trap yet, but Knox had no doubt that he soon would.
And that love-at-first-sight thing wasn’t confined to just the Wynter family. Declan Quinn, one of the leaders of the company’s security teams, had also fallen instantly in love six months ago and would soon be married to the lovely Fawn.
Not that Knox believed he was in love with Ellie—not yet—but he was certainly so obsessed with her that he couldn’t think of anything or anyone else but her.
He had thought maybe if he could just see her again, it would break the spell.
But no, one look at Ellie, bent over and collecting the broken pottery, and his head had instantly been filled with images of her bent over her desk in that very same way, her skirt pushed up to her waist and her panties around her ankles, while he stood behind her and tightly gripped her hips as he plunged his cock inside her channel.
Over and over again, until they both exploded with pleasure.
The same cock that had gone hard the moment he walked into the room.
“I think the more urgent question should be what the hell happened here?” Knox now demanded as his gaze roamed pointedly over the smashed plants and scattered papers covering most of the floor space.
Even the pictures and diplomas on the walls had been knocked to the ground. “Did you have a break-in?”
“It was—”
“Yes,” Ellie spoke firmly, over whatever Benny had been about to say, at the same time as she rose to her feet.
“Did you call the police?” he rasped.
“We—”
“Nothing was taken,” Ellie cut in again, this time over Sally, who had now come to stand in the adjoining doorway watching the exchange.
“That you’re aware of,” Benny rebuked.
“That I know of,” she conceded irritably. “I— Where are you going?” she demanded when Knox strode across the reception area. He gently moved Sally aside, opened the door more fully into the adjoining room, then stepping inside.
Knox stood in the middle of what he assumed must be Ellie’s office, slowly pivoting until he had looked at each of the four walls. Each one had a different word sprayed-painted on the pale pink walls. Bitch was the least offensive.
Ellie now stood in the doorway watching him, her face pale. “Maintenance has agreed to come up and paint the walls this afternoon.”
Knox was so angry at what he was looking at, he literally dared not risk speaking just yet.
He wanted to strangle someone. Rend them limb from limb for daring to call Ellie these highly offensive names.
“I’ve seen the security recordings for last night,” Ellie announced in a rush at his continued—furious—silence.
“All it shows is two men dressed in black, both wearing balaclavas, entering the building, then taking the elevator up to this floor to enter the HERA offices. The security cameras in here showed they proceeded to do all this.”
“The police,” he managed to bite out from between gritted teeth.
Her shoulders straightened. “Have far more important things to deal with than a couple of teenagers breaking into an office and having a little fun before leaving again.”
Knox frowned at hearing this description about what he was looking at.
The incredulous expression on Benny’s and Sally’s faces said they didn’t agree with Ellie’s assessment either.
The way the two now avoided meeting Knox’s gaze also told him that their loyalty to Ellie prevented them from saying so.
The HERA offices were on the third floor of the building. Meaning that those “teenagers” had ignored the previous two floors housing the cafés and exclusive clothing shops in order to break into these specific rooms.
Ellie’s explanation in no way covered the absolute destruction and disgusting insults that Knox was looking at spray-painted on the walls.
Which was why, on his way out, he was going to speak to the security guards—unfortunately, not Wynter Security employees—he’d seen downstairs when he entered the building.
He also wanted to go to the main security office, probably situated in the basement, and speak to the guards who kept an eye on the security feeds twenty-four-seven for all parts of the building, including the roof, and ask to see those recordings for himself.
He was trained to notice things that Ellie, looking at the security recording in a state of distress, probably wouldn’t have noticed about the two men.
If Ellie wasn’t willing to call in the police to follow up on this deliberate destruction of her offices, then Knox intended to look into the situation himself.