Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“So,” Gabriel said as we walked into the office the next morning. “You wanna hear the hot gossip I heard from Meg in accounting?”
“She slept with Cassidy again?”
Gabriel chuckled. “Nah man, this is about you.”
I paused in the hallway and raised an eyebrow. “What about me?”
“Well,” Gabriel said, clutching his briefcase. “Apparently Samantha Doyle went on quite a rant about you in the parking lot yesterday.”
I scoffed. “Is that really any surprise?”
“Yeah but get this. She referred to you as ‘pretty boy’.”
“Pretty boy?”
Gabriel almost flat out giggled on the spot.
I scrolled through the morning news on my phone as I let the report sink in. “So what, Gabriel.”
“She clearly thinks you’re attractive, then.”
“Oh, please. She means like, boy band member with a massive ego who uses too much hair gel, or something like that. Don’t overthink this.”
Gabriel grabbed my arm and stopped me in my tracks. “She’s pretty hot, Johnathan. What if she’s…I don’t know…the one?”
I froze and looked at Gabriel bemusedly. “The one, Gabriel? Are you fucking kidding me? You sound like the…that candle thing from Beauty and the Beast.”
“First of all, his name is Lumiere, and second, you need to keep an open mind. I keep telling you.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned around and headed towards my office. “Bye, Gabriel.” I said with a sardonic grin.
“Later, lover boy,” he said, and then, thankfully, he got to work and left me alone.
I was taken aback when I got to my office, however. Instead of Sabryna sitting alone with her tea, she was chatting with a tall blonde woman who was perched daintily on the edge of the desk. They appeared to be deep into a political conversation, and the blonde woman froze as I entered.
“There you are Johnathan,” Sabryna said. “I’d like you to meet Amy, she’s Samantha’s assistant.”
Amy stood up and sauntered over to me, and I shook her hand, which was luxuriously soft and adorned with a French manicure so neat you’d think she had been born wearing it.
“Johnathan Torver,” I said, smiling.
“Amy,” she said in a deeper tone than I had been expecting. “Pleasure.”
I could barely take my eyes off Amy as she turned around to once again perch herself gracefully on the edge of the desk.
God, she was hot. She reminded me of a sort of naughty Audrey Hepburn—she somehow managed to emit elegance and sensuality with every step she took.
It was tempting to keep staring, but I quickly jumped back to reality.
“How are you ladies this morning?” I asked.
“Just fine,” Amy said with a smirk, and I watched her eyes shamelessly travel slowly up and down my body with deliberate intensity. She smiled back up at me, and my heart jumped in my chest a little bit.
It was only then that I noticed Sabryna was beginning to look uncomfortable. “Johnathan, remember you have a meeting with Ms. Doyle in an hour. In the conference room?”
“You got it.”
Amy slid up from the desk and spun gracefully towards the door. “See you around, Sabryna.” She smiled towards me. “Mr. Torver.”
The second the door closed behind her Sabryna looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. “Want me to book you two a room?”
I scoffed and let out a laugh. “Not necessary,” I said, but Sabryna had always been too smart for me. To be honest, that’s why I needed her. She always stopped me before I made any mistakes too big to take back.
“Torver, you lay one finger on her and Samantha Doyle will have your head, you know that right?”
I put my hands up. “Okay. Fine.”
“You heard about that rant she went on in the parking lot yesterday. You’re walking on hot coals here.”
I shook my head. “Why am I always the last person to hear about office gossip? I mean…I’m the boss.”
“It’s because you’re the boss, you loon.” Sabryna said laughing. “Just be careful, okay?”
“Will do,” I sighed, and sat down to check some emails before the meeting started. I shivered. I could still feel Amy’s eyes raking me over, slowly and methodically, and I smiled.
I was definitely going to sleep with her.
* * *
An hour later I was waiting in the conference room, contemplating the impossible task of trying to get Samantha Doyle to tolerate me. I looked out the window at the beautiful day outside and groaned. I would have done anything to run out of this ridiculous meeting and go out on my boat and-
“We’re leaving,” I said the second Samantha opened the door. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Samantha demanded as she ran after me towards the elevator. “What are you doing?”
“Trust me, you’ll like this. It’s a surprise.”
Samantha looked at me skeptically. She looked tired, and stressed too.
Her pantsuit still looked as polished as always, and her brown hair was still coiled around her head in a perfect knot.
She looked like she needed a break. And hell, I could use one too.
I smirked to myself as the elevator doors opened to the ground level.
I had found the perfect way to charm the pants off Samantha Doyle. Not pants, but…you know, never mind.
The Uber I had called pulled up, and I held the door open for Samantha with a smile. “Ready?” I asked, and gave her my most charming grin.
Samantha looked at the interior of the car with a glare of disapproval. “You’re not taking me to a dark alley to murder me, are you?”
“I’m far more of a hired assassin kind of guy,” I said, helping her into the car. “Don’t like to get my hands dirty.” Samantha let out the tiniest of smiles.
I slid down into the seat next to her as the driver made his way to the Seattle harbor. The minivan that had picked us up was less than stylish, and soon the atmosphere was filled with stifling silence and the stench of a cheap cherry-scented air freshener.
“Could you turn on the radio, please?” I asked the Uber driver. He obliged, and I groaned internally as a pop song came through the speakers that was just a bit too saccharine for the current situation. I’ve always been far more of a classic rock sort of guy.
Samantha was furiously typing into her phone, looking as if she might spontaneously combust at any moment. She finally looked up at me, still deeply suspicious.
“Any hints? Twenty questions? Anything?” she asked, with the fire of a well-trained interrogator in her brown eyes.
I smiled. “I hope you don’t get seasick.”
I heard her swear under her breath as the driver turned the volume knob up.
Ten minutes and three sickening pop songs later, our driver pulled up to the busy yet blissful calm of the Seattle harbor.
I jumped out of the car and grinned at the beautiful day before me.
The water sparkled in the mid-afternoon sun, and a light breeze was rocking the boats rhythmically back and forth.
The boardwalk was peaceful at this time of day, as lunch vendors made their first batches of food and families cruised in between stands with their strollers.
The sight of this kind of day would have almost been enough to forget who I was forced to share it with.
“So,” I said, helping Samantha out of the back of the car. “How would you like to have a meeting on my boat?”
“You have a boat?” Samantha said.
“Well gee,” I said playfully. “You don’t have to say it like that.”
Samantha forced a smile, and followed me down the pier with the look of a woman walking into a dentist’s office to get a root canal.
“It’ll be fun,” I said. “My boat is a far better place to have this meeting than the conference room, I promise. It’s a nice boat.”
“Of course it is.” Samantha sighed, and this time I just ignored her.
I walked up to my boat and smiled proudly, looking back towards Samantha.
“Here she is.” I had a bad habit of bringing women I wanted to impress onto the Cassatt (named for my mother’s favorite painter) and being anything but modest about it.
As awful as it sounds, there’s nothing better to a guy than showing a beautiful woman the expensive boat you bought with your own hard-earned money and seeing the glow in her skin when it registered with her: Holy crap, he’s rich too?
So, although my intentions with Samantha were quite different, you can see how I would think that bringing her on board the boat would instantly impre—
“Ah, so you’re one of those men who refer to their boats using feminine pronouns,” she raised an eyebrow. “Never would have guessed.”
I tried.
“It might be kind of hard for you to board in those heels,” I said, laughing.
“I guess you’re right,” Samantha admitted, and began to peel them off her feet. I could barely believe the sight of her, wobbling on one foot, her pantyhose-sheathed feet smooth against the dirty pier. She looked entirely out of her element already.
Samantha followed me onto the boat and looked around.
My boat was the first luxurious purchase I had made after the Torver Group had really taken off.
It could either be called a really nice boat or kind of a crappy yacht.
Either way, the Cassatt was my escape, my sanctuary from the stress of the corporate world.
There was nothing I liked better after a long week at the office than flying across the water and watching the sunset dip below the mountains.
Hopefully, Samantha would feel the same.
I walked over to the controls and took a seat. “So,” I said smiling. “I figure we drive out a little bit, towards Mount Rainier, and then we can stop and have the meeting while we take in the view.”