Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
SIMON
A shley finally left, and as soon as she disappeared, Abi walked into our office. It wasn’t as large or as fancy the space I had back at my own firm, but it was better. Mostly because of who I was sharing it with.
Abi’s desk faced one wall and mine faced the other, with each of us having a weird painting of a mountainous landscape mounted in front of us. A wide window took up another wall and the other held our door. Outside of that, there wasn’t much in the space except for a potted plant on a stand in the corner.
Yet I couldn’t wait for the time I was going to spend here.
And so the ridiculousness continues.
As Abi walked in, I swept a hand toward the desks and grinned at her, leaning against one of the chairs. “It’s the lady’s choice. Which one would you like?”
“Funny, I figured Ashley would have told you which one was better.” She strode right past me and set her laptop bag down on the desk behind me. “You take that one at the door. All the better to flirt with the boss whenever she comes by.”
Amusement flickered to life within me. “Are you serious right now? You’re jealous.”
She narrowed those beautiful blues at me and scoffed. “You wish. I just feel like you should be reminded that she’s not the only one who’s going to be making this decision. You’ll have to rely on more than just your smile with Blake.”
I chuckled. “I plan on relying on more than just my smile with Ashley, too. Regardless of whether you want to admit it, I do have some measure of talent in this business, but if all else fails, I can just look over my shoulder and take your ideas.”
She smiled. “Finally, you’re admitting that my ideas are better than yours any day.”
I rolled my eyes at her and sat down. “I’m not admitting to that. I’m not admitting to anything, actually. How was the rest of your weekend?”
“Fine,” she said noncommittally. “Yours?”
“It went by in a blur, if I’m being honest. Friday was the highlight for me.”
Abi didn’t respond as she took her seat, sliding her laptop out of its bag and setting it up on her desk. When she was done, she finally turned around to look at me again. “We should probably get going. I know it’s not time yet, but I’d like to get to the meeting room early.”
I glanced at my watch. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
“I probably shouldn’t have told you I wanted to get there early,” she lamented, but there was humor in her voice and I chuckled.
“I would’ve noticed before it was time to go.” I stood up and motioned for her to precede me, not in the least so that I could get a glimpse of her ass in her tight pencil skirt.
The black fabric clung to her hips and thighs before flaring out, her toned calves on full display below it. With black high heels on her feet, her legs seemed a mile long and I couldn’t stop myself from noticing the lean muscle in them these days.
Abi had always been the epitome of sexy to me and it turned out that was still true, even if her body was so much stronger. She was still soft, but the running had given her a definition she hadn’t had back when we’d been together, and somehow, the way she looked matched the fire inside her.
I bit back a groan as I watched her go, hips swaying slightly from side to side as she walked. I didn’t know if she was doing it on purpose because she could feel my eyes on her or if that was just the way she moved now, but I really had to fight against the urge to haul her back into our tiny office. We had just under ten minutes left before we had to be in the conference room.
I’d have to be quick, but ? —
“Are you coming, Simon?” she asked, a knowing smile teasing her lips as she glanced at me over her shoulder.
Her gaze caught on mine and I knew she knew I’d been checking her out. Lips parting just a little, she looked back at me and her eyes suddenly lowered, lingering for a moment on my shoulders, my chest, and I smirked.
“I’m not coming yet, but if you’re willing to give me five minutes, we both could be,” I said, finally starting toward the door—and her.
Those blue eyes crinkled at the corners as she lifted them slowly—unashamedly—back to my own. “Need I remind you that this also isn’t a date?”
“Doesn’t need to be,” I repeated what I’d said the other night and her tongue popped out to swipe across her lips, but then she laughed and shook her head at me.
“You’re not going to distract me quite so easily, Simon Astor. Let’s go. We’re wasting time.”
“I know,” I said as I fell into step beside her. We strode down the hallway together and I bent my head closer so I wouldn’t be overheard. “You could’ve been naked by now.”
She rolled her eyes, but I saw the faint, pink flush rising to her cheeks. Yep. She can pretend all day long, but she still wants me too.
Ashley and Blake were already in the room when we walked into the Inspiration Station . Why they’d needed to name their meeting rooms was beyond me, but I kept my mouth shut about it. As we walked in, Ashley flashed me a smile and I returned it, but I was hardly even aware of her.
With Abi next to me, my thoughts were consumed by fantasies of bending her over this table and?—
“Well, well,” Ashley said, saving my mind from the gutter as Karen and Jeffrey walked in behind us. “It looks like you’re all eager to get started. So let’s get to it, shall we?”
“For your first project, you’re going to create a commercial for us,” Blake said, his tone as no-nonsense as it had been since we’d arrived. He definitely wasn’t the sibling who’d inherited the charm in their gene pool. “We’re going to be pairing you up for it. I’ll pick the teams at random and you’ll work with whoever you’re teamed up with to create your commercial.”
“We’re sponsoring a huge fitness expo in Florida,” Ashley explained. “Whichever team has the better commercial will get to travel there with us. That team will also be responsible for creating and marketing our booth at the expo, and of course, you’ll be attending the event on Fit Gal’s dime. This is a huge opportunity.”
Blake swiped an upside-down football helmet from the table behind him. “We’ve written down all your names and put them in here. This is as fair as it gets, right?”
He stuck his hand in without any further ado and held our gazes deliberately, as if to ensure that no one could accuse him later of having peeked. Lifting out a scrap of paper, he glanced at the name and then turned his gaze toward us.
“Abigail Walker, you’re on Team One with…” He stuck his hand back into the helmet and read out the next name he’d pulled. “Simon Astor. That leaves Karen and Jeffrey on Team Two. Would you look at that? Our offices mates are also teammates. That actually worked out really well. It sure will be a lot more convenient this way.”
I grinned, but Abigail sent Blake a polite smile. “Can I request a different partner?”
He looked back at her, his gaze firm on hers and his voice confident and clear. “If I could partner up with you, I would have, but unfortunately, I can’t get on one of the teams, so I’m afraid you’re stuck with Simon.”
Whoa. Hang on a fucking second here. Did he just hit on her in front of everyone on day one? My grin went straight and my eyes narrowed. He sure did. He hit on her on our first fucking day, in the conference room, in front of us all, and he did it without any hesitation.
Ashley glanced at me in that same way that had been making my skin crawl since I’d first noticed it. “Take the rest of the afternoon to get settled into your new offices and to start planning your commercials.”
“They’re due for presentation on Friday, along with your first mock pitch,” Blake said, finally looking away from Abi to meet the eyes of every person around the table. “We want to see you all work together, but this will also be the starting point for each company individually.”
“I thought we’d be doing the mock pitches today ,” Karen said almost indignantly. “We were told to have them ready today.”
Oh, god. Give her a minute. She’s going to ask for the manager any second now.
Blake shut her down before she could go there. On the other hand, he and his sister were the managers around here and she already had spoken to them. A conundrum, I’m sure.
“We asked you to have those ready so you could pour all your energy into the commercials this week. If your pitch still needs some refining, then you now have extra time to do it, but since we only paired you up today, we wanted to give you as much time as possible for the commercials. We’re expecting to be wowed by those.”
“The expo is a big deal for us,” Ashley pitched in, the smile on her face slightly colder now. “We’ve invested a lot of money into the sponsorship, and since the winning team will also be designing and marketing our booth, the return on our investment will very much be determined by the quality of the team that comes out on top.”
Karen kept quiet after that, and a few minutes later, the meeting was over. I darted out of the room after Abi and shut our office door behind us. In the tiny space with the mid-morning sunlight shining in through the window and barely four feet of space between us, the chemistry in the room was palpable.
Abi stood at her desk and I stood beside mine, our eyes locking as she turned to face me. My pulse spiked, my libido on the verge of spinning out of control with the rich, spicy vanilla scent of her drifting through the air.
“So, any ideas in that brilliant head of yours?” I asked, clearing my throat in an attempt to dispel the tension ratcheting between us. As much as I wanted to bend her over her desk, it probably wasn’t the best idea to act on that urge right then.
Although —
She grinned at me, stopping my thought in its tracks. “All I know is we have to include that their secret ingredient is bat turds.”
I laughed, once again reminded that this woman always knew how to lighten me up. This was why I’d always had so much fun with her. Why she’d been my best friend for so damn long. I could be horny as hell, bone tired, or even grieving, and yet somehow, Abi always could manage to put a smile on my face. “We are not doing that, but I promise we’ll find a way to incorporate it somewhere. Especially if we lose.”