I glance up from the laptop Rebel let me use to find him watching me with those penetrating midnight eyes. He’s been doing this all morning and most of the afternoon. I keep catching him looking at me. It’s a combination of lust and...I don’t know. Maybe intrigue. Or adoration. I hesitate to label it. All I know is when I look at him, I imagine that I wear the same expression, and that means something.
We’re sitting on opposite ends of the couch. I’m turned so that the soles of my feet are pressed against the outside of his thigh, so every time he turns his head to take a peek at me, I notice. It’s impossible not to. “Stop it.”
“I’m not doing anything,” he says with a sly smirk, then ruffles the Sunday paper and pretends to read. The man is insufferable. I shake my head, smiling as I try, once again, to get back on track. “What are you working on over there?” he asks me a moment later.
“World domination. Care to join me?”
Discarding the paper on the coffee table, he leans over onto his side, sliding into the gap between the couch and me. Shifting to make more room for him, I lift my arm up, allowing him to rest his head on my right breast. The closeness is unexpected and so nice, I’m almost afraid to move or speak in case I shatter the moment. It reminds me of the time I spent with Ransom, only with Rebel it’s even more valuable because it’s not a given. This kind of intimacy is rarely shown by him. I’m learning that Rebel is a very secretive man. He doesn’t allow many into his inner circle, and even fewer ever gain his trust, so to be this close...I must be doing something right. It feels like a victory.
“Are you actually working?” he asks me when he takes a look at the computer screen.
Shaking off my wonderment, I look down at the screen, at the mismatch of developmental designs I’ve been toying with for the new company project. Why am I working on a Sunday he asks? “If I don’t, it won’t get done,” I say, somewhat bitterly. I’ve been trying my best to leave my work at the door each day but working with Jenna is becoming near impossible.
“What does that mean?” Rebel asks as he props himself up onto one arm and looks at me.
“Nothing,” I sigh. “I was just thinking out loud.”
Rebel stares at me for a moment, reading me like an open book. When his brows furrow, I know he’s not going to let this go. “Are you having trouble with someone at the office? Give me their name, and I’ll have a talk with them in the morning.”
“No, there’s no problem and you don’t need to talk to anyone. Although, I appreciate the offer very much.” Sitting up, I capture his lips with a sweeping kiss that’s meant to placate him. It doesn’t work in the slightest.
“If there’s a problem, I want to know about it. Does this have anything to do with Miss Murray?”
Of course, he was there, so he knows that Jenna wasn’t very happy with having to give up her pet project to start work on this one. “It’s not that she’s giving me trouble,” I tell him, jumping to smooth the waters. The last thing I want is to create trouble in the office. I want to maintain a good working environment for everyone. “She’s just eager to get it done so she can get back to what she was working on previously.”
“Those projects have already been reassigned. They’re no longer her concern.” Sitting up, Rebel sets his feet on the floor before bending forward to retrieve his cell phone.
“Who are you calling?”
Rebel’s fingers pause on the screen and for an extended moment, he just stares at it. “I don’t know,” he says finally. “I was going to call her, but I just realized that would be overstepping. Plus, I don’t have her number and that would mean bothering Tracy on her only day off.”
We look at each other for the span of several heart beats, and then burst into laughter. “You are absolutely insane. I can’t believe you were going to do that.”
“Why not? You said she was giving you trouble.”
“I did not. I expressly said that she wasn’t giving me trouble,” I say, rubbing tears from my eyes as the laughter finally begins to subside.
Settling back into his seat, I set my feet in Rebel’s lap and watch as he plays idly with my toes. “So is she or isn’t she doing her fair share of the work? And before you think about glossing over the truth,” he warns, his dark eyes flashing beneath a thick row of lashes, “know that I will spank you.”
“That’s hardly a deterrent.”
“It should be.” Slapping my outer thigh, Rebel demands, “Now, tell me where the problem is.”
“So you can fix it? I’m not a baby, Rebel. I don’t need my daddy to come rescue me every time something doesn’t go my way.”
“I’m not trying to be anyone’s father, but I can see that you’re stressed and that sends up red flags. Don’t forget that this is company time and money, too. We’re just as invested, if not more so, than either of you. So, if your partner isn’t pulling her weight or is cutting corners, I want to know about it.”
He has a point, and I don’t like keeping things from him. It feels dirty somehow. But I also don’t want to get Jenna in trouble if it’s not one hundred percent warranted. Everyone is entitled to an off day, and I understand how she might be distracted or not fully invested. However, all the understanding in the world isn’t going to give me the help that I need to meet this deadline. I need help, and Rebel is offering that to me. Whether or not he’s my boss, he is the owner of the company, and he’s entitled to know what’s happening.
“Jenna just isn’t feeling it. I think she might be a little resentful that Florence forced her onto it with me. I mean, she’s a senior designer, and I just graduated college.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with anything,” Rebel says, cutting me off. “You’re smart and you’re dedicated.”
“But I’m new.”
“Which is just another way of saying you’re fresh. You probably have more ideas than any of those people in that room because you’re new. Don’t let your inexperience on the job be misconstrued as ignorance. Do you have a learning curve? Yes, absolutely. But I’ve had a chance to review the Dominic’s website, and I like where you were going with it. Sticking to the classic Italian theme was smart.”
Lowering my chin, I reply, “It was predictable.”
Curling his finger beneath my chin, Rebel tips my head back. His obsidian stare is powerful and earnest. “It. Was. Smart.”
I feel a pang in my chest at the intensity of his statement. With the sureness in which he speaks. He actually believes in me. I’m not sure what to do with that.
Releasing me from his hold and his stare, Rebel turns the computer around to face him. “So what is it you’re having problems with? Be specific.”
Drawing in a breath, I resituate myself so that I’m sitting parallel to him. From this position, we’re both afforded a view of the computer screen. “Well, as you can see, the new website as it stands now is pretty dull. I’ve tried to fancy it up with the header a bit, but I wanted to keep the look simple and clean.” The overall color scheme is a soft pink with the owner’s signature scrawled beneath the thick, bold letters of the shop’s name.
“Where did you get the photos from?” Rebel asks, studying the few that Jenna inserted into the pages.
“Some are original from the client, the rest are stock images. Jenna thought it would take up too much time and resources to have the company hire a professional photographer.” The face Rebel makes pretty much sums up my feelings on that subject. “Yeah, that was my initial reaction, too.”
One dark brow arches up. “So you don’t agree with her then?”
“Hardly,” I scoff. “I liked the idea of hiring someone to take pictures of each product so they would be true representations of what the shop has to offer, but Jenna shot it down pretty fast.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”
“Because I didn’t want to step on toes?” I say. “Like I said, I’m new, and I didn’t want to take over the project or act as if I were better or more knowledgeable than her while doing it.”
“I hate to break it to you, pussycat, but that’s exactly what you are. Being a team player is just another way people like you dumb themselves down and prevent themselves from getting ahead. And you know how I feel about that.”
Right. I seem to recall him mentioning that once. Right around the time he picked me up off my feet and told me he liked me just the way I am. I grow flushed at the memory. “Well, now you know what’s been going on,” I say, getting my thoughts back on track. “What do you suggest I do?”
Studying the screen, Rebel grows quiet as he considers this. I wait him out, curious as to what he has to say.
“I don’t want you to do anything. I’ll call a meeting tomorrow morning and broach the subject of bringing in a photographer, and we’ll take it from there.”
“I don’t want anyone mad at me,” I tell him, worried that this will somehow get back to Jenna, and I’ll have to deal with some bullshit fallout that I’m not prepared to deal with. Nor do I want to. I just want a quiet, enjoyable place to do what I’ve always dreamed of doing: practicing my art.
Closing the laptop, Rebel sets it on the table in front of us then clasps my thigh just above my knee. “I’m not sure that’s entirely avoidable.”