Chapter 11
AJ
“Ican’t lie. That sounds hot,” Georgia mused as I held my phone to my ear while checking under every stall of the bathroom.
All empty, and thank God for that, since I’d just caved and given Georgia a very detailed description of what had happened in the conference room before.
The short version was that I’d brushed past Adam on my way out and gotten a whiff of his cologne.
The long version was that it was two very long seconds of torture, mostly because of how fucking good that cologne smelled, and how annoyingly hot he looked in that suit.
I’d never seen it before but it was dark blue and tailored, and stretched so perfectly across his Superman shoulders that I couldn’t help but relive that night in the hotel room—when he’d worn nothing but a white T-shirt, and I’d gotten a much better look at all that sculpted muscle.
“It was hot, technically, but I’m seriously failing right now at the whole stop-looking-at-him-like-that thing. And it really doesn’t help that I’m currently separated from my good vibrator.”
“The one you got in Chicago? That Adam said made you look ‘thoroughly fucked?’”
“Yes,” I grumbled, standing in front of the sink and staring at my not-so-familiar reflection in Georgia’s soft button-up top and a grey pencil skirt.
With Caspar refusing to vacate our shared home, I’d been staying at an AirBnB since returning to LA, and since I couldn’t get him to leave long enough to grab my things, I was currently living off whatever belongings I’d brought with me to the Palm Beach trip—along with some borrowed clothing from my best friend’s corporate days.
It wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t have time to shop. Also, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t notice Adam’s lingering eye when he first saw me walk in wearing a skirt.
“So, did you guys get to third base in the dream yet?” Georgia asked, making me stamp my heeled foot.
“Georgia Jane. Please don’t make me regret telling you about that,” I said, referring to the realization that my sex dream about Adam was in fact recurring. I’d had it Sunday night, Tuesday night, and again this morning.
And each time, we got a little more naked.
“What? I just want to know if Dream Adam has a nine-incher too.”
“Honestly, I don’t know yet because we haven’t gotten that far, but I’d prefer not to think about it now because—”
My phone buzzed twice to interrupt my sentence, and the second I looked at my screen, my pulse jumped.
ADAM: Where the hell are you?
ADAM: Get in my office
“Shit!” I hissed, looking at the texts then the time and realizing I’d taken way longer than a five-minute break. “Georgia, I gotta go!” I blurted.
I couldn’t even wait for her to say bye before I was bursting out of the bathroom, racing down the hall, and getting into Adam’s office just in time to hear him snap at me.
“Why didn’t you send the research to Knox’s team?”
I blinked.
It was like smacking face-first into a brick wall as I stopped dead in my tracks, my pulse jumping at the look of pure, undisguised fury on Adam’s face.
“What?”
“The research. From the first meeting,” Adam said tightly. “They asked for it on Tuesday. I thought you’d sent it by Wednesday. But they just called right now saying they never got it.”
I stared, the realization hitting me like another pile of bricks. “Adam, I…”
I frowned to myself.
I’d spaced. I realized that as I remembered the email from Knox’s team on Tuesday. I remembered Adam reminding me about it. And then I just… forgot about it.
Fuck.
I hadn’t made a mistake this dumb since my first month on the job and suddenly all I wanted was to crawl into a hole. But I forced myself to get past the mortification so I could remedy the situation.
“I’m so sorry, Adam. It won’t happen again. I’m going to send it right now,” I said, barely finishing my sentence before he cut in.
“Don’t bother. They took a meeting with RTA today.”
My heart sank into my stomach. “As in Roth Talent Agency?”
“What other RTA is there?” he asked cuttingly.
I swallowed.
None.
RTA was the industry goliath that took on any and every client just to keep its monopoly over the sporting world. Like everyone else at Engelman, I hated them.
Of course, my reasons were both professional and personal.
I gulped, feeling several worlds of regret as I just stood there, watching Adam seethe.
“Look, AJ, maybe you forgot, because of all your personal issues during the Palm Beach trip, but this client is really fucking important to me.”
I bristled at his tone. “Trust me, Adam. I want to sign him as badly as you do.”
“Then act like it.”
My temper flared for half a second before I breathed in deep, forcing myself to respond in a strictly professional tone.
“I will. It won’t happen again,” I said respectfully before turning on my heel and heading back to my desk.
I wanted to be pissed at Adam—and I was—but I also knew I had no right. I’d just fucked up. Royally. And for the dumbest possible reason.
ME: Hi I just potentially cost us a client because I can’t stop avoiding my very fuckable boss
I sent the text to Georgia just as Kenzie Engelman waltzed by in a crop top and leather skirt. “Adam busy?” she asked.
“Free as a bird,” I lied, if only to give myself a two-minute breather from him.
GEORGIA: Are you okay?
ME: Well I messed up big and he just chewed me out but I still managed to be turned on by how hot he is when he’s mad so I think the answer is no I’m not okay because I’m legit insane.
GEORGIA: No you’re not! Angry Adam is a thing
She had a point.
Angry Adam was indeed a thing coined by the women of this office, because he was generally always smiling and being a smart ass. It was rare that he was ever full-blown mad and when he was, the ladies tended to find an excuse to pass by his office, just to get a glimpse.
Well, now’s the time, girls, I thought as I decided to ignore his latest text of “get rid of her”—as in Kenzie—for just another minute.
GEORGIA: So what are you doing now?
ME: Oh nothing just avoiding his office because of what we did there in my dream
ME: And trying not to picture his dick based on what I felt over the weekend.
I hit send on the last text just as Liza’s voice sounded before me.
“Hey, girl,” she said, appearing so suddenly that I practically slammed my phone face down on my desk. “I’m heading out soon but I need to scan those documents. Did Adam sign them yet?”
“Oh.” I peered over my shoulder into his office.
“I’m not sure, but I’ll remind him and I’ll bring them right over,” I replied as I watched Kenzie lean so far over Adam’s desk that she was practically laying on her stomach.
“I just gotta get that one out of there first,” I said, offering a laugh as I turned back around.
But when I did, I found Liza still gazing into the office, her eyes glittering the way they did whenever she let herself check out Adam.
“Yeah, Kenzie Engelman is the epitome of spoiled and clueless, but I can’t even blame her for this,” she said, her head tilted to the side as she bit the corner of her lip.
“Sorry. I know Adam drives you nuts, but we’ve been discussing him all day in The Pit.
He just looks… so fucking hot today. I honestly don’t know how you do it. ”
I don’t, I thought bitterly, but I smiled through a couple more lines of chit-chat before Liza went back to her desk. And as soon as she was gone, as if on cue, Kenzie came out on her own.
But this time, she stood in front of my desk till I slowly lifted my head and looked up at her and her little scowl.
“He told me to send you in,” she said.
I raised my eyebrows.
Shit.
It definitely said something when Adam was having Kenzie deliver messages to me.
“Okay,” I said awkwardly, watching Kenzie then turn on her heel, walk down the hall and then grab her purse off her desk before leaving for the evening.
Only then did I look around, noticing what time it was and that almost everyone had gone home.
The quiet made me feel especially unnerved as I got up and went into Adam’s office, where I found him thumbing through a report on his desk.
I stood at the door for another few seconds before he spoke without looking up.
“You were at your desk a few minutes ago. Is there a reason you just let Kenzie walk in?”
I drew in a deep breath.
“I’m sorry,” I said genuinely. “I was just trying to… write an email,” I added, but it was such a blatant, half-hearted lie that when Adam looked up at me, his eyes glinted with a mix of scorn and amusement.
“Were you?” he asked, his question sounding so much like a taunt that I felt my tongue naturally gearing up to fire back. But then he spoke again. “Or were you trying to picture my dick based on what you felt this weekend?”
What.
The blood promptly drained from my face as I stared.
How…
The hell…?
My heartbeat was already thumping in my ears as I gaped unblinkingly for another few seconds. Then it hit me. And with a violent twist in my stomach, I realized why Georgia suddenly stopped replying mid-conversation. Because I didn’t send those last few texts to her.
I’d accidentally sent them to Adam.
Fuck.
Blood rushed to my tingling lips as they parted but said nothing. Speechless, I could only watch as Adam leaned back in his seat, his blue eyes glimmering on me as he adjusted the crisp white cuffs of his shirt.
“For the sake of your productivity, I’d be more than happy to show you,” he said, the corner of his mouth twisted up in such a devilish smirk that it took me a second to process what he was offering me right now in this office.
To show me his dick.
I was stunned, every inch of my skin on fire as I simply stared in silence at Adam. He cocked an eyebrow.
“So are you gonna tell me what we did in that dream?”
My mouth pursed into a line as I tried to find my words. It took several seconds, and they were shaky, but it was better than nothing. “I’d rather not.”
“And why is that?”
“Because the last thing I want or need is for you to get hard again.”