“I didn’t know you were here,” I greet him, my way of letting him know I haven’t intentionally avoided him, even if at times that would be my preference. Josh is a handsome man who personifies tall, dark, and good-looking. The kind of man who wears a suit like the cover of GQ magazine, but still not as well as Tyler. Josh is a woman magnet—a fact he embraces a bit too well. He takes liberties he believes this earns him. In other words, he can get as handsy as he does cocky.
“Is Malcolm here?” I ask of his client, hoping for the buffer between Josh and me Malcolm always proves himself.
“It’s his mother’s sixtieth birthday this weekend. He took her to Paris.”
“That’s amazing of him,” I say, and even now, as a grown adult, there are times when I hear something like this, and I feel a twist in my heart at the loss of my own mother despite that being a lifetime ago. Since I was a kid, actually. “He’s a good guy in a swarm of bad ones,” I add, reminded of the whole “am I bad?” exchange with Tyler.
Josh steps to the railing beside me and I rotate to face him again. He’s close, too close to be professional, but the barriers of decorum are rarely barriers to him at all. “You look beautiful tonight, Bella,” he says, his voice warm when it should not be.
I laugh off the compliment. “Thank you, but you say that every time you see me.”
“And you say that every time you see me. Take the compliment, Bella. It’s deserved.”
“So is Malcolm's success. How are you feeling about Tyler taking over Hawk Legal?”
“Sympathetic to the mess he has to clean up, but if you’re asking if I’m concerned about his ability to manage it, no. Jack was never the person anyone believed was running the show, no matter how much he wanted us to believe otherwise.”
“So you came to show Tyler support,” I assume.
His eyes light with mischief. “And you. We’ve got big things ahead this year. Why don’t we go to have a drink and celebrate?”
And here we go, I think. “I thought that’s what we were doing here tonight?”
“Alone,” he says, and then his hand is on my waist, his head dipping low, near my face. “You have no idea the fantasies I have about my hands on your body.”
I reach for his solidly placed hand and try to push it away. “This is not okay, Josh. Please remove your hand.”
“You heard the lady. Remove your hand or I will.”
I gasp and look up to find Tyler standing beside us, tightly controlled but obvious anger burning in the stare he’s focused on Josh.
Chapter Nine
Bella
“If you’d like my hands on you,” Tyler replies, when Josh has yet to move away from me, “I’ll have no problem with making a scene.”
Josh’s hand falls from my waist and he places space between me and him. And it seems, Tyler, who is now standing beside me, faces Josh. “What is between me and Bella is not your business, Tyler.”
I bristle. “There’s nothing but business between us, Josh.”
Tyler replies with a laser focus on Josh, “Bella is my business. It would be a mistake to assume otherwise.”
There is something wholly possessive about the way Tyler says those words, but I tell myself this is about my job and my role as his employee, rather than me, myself, and my womanhood. However, all of this feels quite personal with both men.
“I think it’s best if you leave, Josh,” Tyler adds tightly.
Josh dares to step closer to us again, to Tyler specifically. “Malcolm won’t like the way you’re talking to me.”
“Malcolm is a valued client and a friend,” Tyler rebuts. “If you don’t know we grew up next door to each other, or that he was one of the first people to call me when my father died, you don’t know your client well. If anyone parts ways with Malcolm over this, it’s you. He won’t like what I have to say about it. And he knows Bella opened doors for him, others will not.”
“We’ll see about that,” Josh replies, and he steps around Tyler and starts walking.
Automatically, Tyler and I rotate to watch him weave through the crowd. When he disappears from sight, Tyler pursues him. My heart leaps with concern, and I’m instantly on his heels, still there as he exits the room and steps into the hallway. I catch the door that would shut in my face and find only Tyler in the hallway. The elevator banks are empty, which indicates to me that either Josh got lucky, and the doors were open, allowing his quick escape, or he took the stairs. He was running from Tyler while I am not, despite him commanding me to do just that.
The door shuts behind me and Tyler turns to face me. “My office, Ms. Bailey,” he states flatly.
“Ms. Bailey?” I challenge, with this new formality between us.
That’s all he says before he strides toward the elevators and punches the button. I’d think I was about to be fired if he hadn’t just assured Josh I’d be working with Malcolm, just not him. The elevator doors open and Tyler glances over at me. “Are you coming?”
He told me to run away and now he’s inviting me into a tiny little car, alone with him. It’s not as if I’ve never been in an elevator with him before this, but it’s never felt quite as intimidating. But then, I’ve never allowed myself to crumble beneath a veil of intimidation and I won’t start now. I march toward Tyler and since he’s holding the door, I pass him and step inside the car. I don’t make eye contact. I’ll save that part of my grandstanding for after we’re in the little bitty box that moves up and down and allows no escape while doing so.
Tyler joins me and punches in the office floor, which is on a lower level, the earthy, masculine scent of man and cologne recreating those damn butterflies in my belly. We stand there, side by side, staring forward, and watch the doors shut. The tension between us crackles and while I intend to say nothing, that never really works out for me.
I rotate to face him. “Shouldn’t we be downstairs attending to our clients?”
He steps around and faces me. “We’ve both made ourselves available for hours. The staff will wrap up the night. We are done.”
“Are we going to lose Malcolm as a client?”
The elevator halts and dings before he says, “Mark my words that it would be a bad decision for Malcolm to leave us when his manager had his hands all over you.” The doors open and he motions for me to exit.
He’s angry and I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen Tyler angry. For a moment, my feet plant with my resistance to our little meeting in his office but whatever this is, wherever it leads, it’s inevitable that we see it through. And not in an elevator with cameras.
I force my feet from the ground and exit the car. To the right are the main offices. To the left, are Tyler’s private offices, which are locked up behind glass doors. I pause, waiting on Tyler, and he moves ahead of me. With unexplainable weak knees, I walk with him and then wait as he unlocks the door, which he holds open for me to enter the lobby first.
Tyler watches me with veiled lids, and I feel his attention with a rush of heat over my skin, which is enough to tell me everything about me and Tyler feels different. And I react outwardly as well, and no doubt, he notices my quick inhalation of breath, the tell-all sign that I’m nervous for no good reason. I’ve had confrontations with Tyler. I’ve been to his office and even been there when it was only the two of us. And yet today, as I walk past him and enter the lobby when I would normally charge ahead to prove I’m in charge of this battle, I do nothing of the sort.