Club Destiny 1 Conviction (7 page)

Sam turned back to Deanna as if
waiting for her approval, her eyebrow rising in question, as if to say
“Is
this guy for real?”
Deanna returned her look with a frown and a shrug of
her shoulders.

This man wasn’t exceedingly
pleasant, and Sam was a little nervous about what had put him in that mood.
Again, hoping it wasn’t the job.

“I’m to show you what I do so you
can take over.” Jeff stated rather flatly as he sat down at his desk, which was
cluttered with papers and old coffee cups.

Sam stared back at him
incredulously.
Was he for real?

When she thought about her boss,
James Banten, she couldn’t imagine him looking so defeated or treating someone
so rigidly. Sam hadn’t thought it was possible to deflate her excitement
regarding this opportunity, but this guy was well on his way to making her turn
back the way she’d come and tell Logan McCoy, thanks but no thanks.

Relying on her basic
professionalism and her inability to beat around the bush, Sam didn’t see any
other way to get to the bottom of his apparent hostility than to confront it
head on. Her philosophy had always been to get right to the heart of the
matter.

“Jeff, I appreciate you taking
the time to give me some of the details of your responsibilities. I’m not quite
certain we’re on the same page though. Am I overstepping my bounds by being
here?”

“Whatever gave you that idea?” He
asked without an ounce of emotion, turning to the oversized filing cabinet
standing behind his desk. “I have all of the information on the projects for
the last year in here.” He pointed toward the open file drawer that was in
desperate need of some organization. “All of my soft copies are stored on a
shared drive, and I’ll make sure you get access to them. What else do you need
to know?”

Ummm what?

“Are you serious?”
Wow –
uncontrollable mouth!

The words came out before she
could stop them. She prided herself on her professionalism, but this man was
pushing her to her limits. Sam instructed her lungs to inhale deeply as she sat
her bag on a nearby chair, cluttered with paper. Taking in a deep, cleansing
breath, she turned and faced Jeff.

“I apologize, Jeff. That was
highly inappropriate of me. I think we should just start over. Maybe we should
talk for a few minutes?” She walked slowly to an adjacent chair, and after
moving a couple of binders, she sat down. “Logan tells me you’ve been with the
company for quite some time, and I’d like to get your take on the organization,
the people, as well as the projects. Based on the information I’ve received,
you’re the most knowledgeable in regards to project management and others look
to you for your expertise.”

Ok, so she was laying it on a bit
thick, but obviously this man needed something to boost his attitude. Sam
watched as his eyebrows raised and she thought she could almost see the signs
of a smile tilting the corner of his thin lips.

“I apologize for my attitude, Ms.
Kielty. I don’t mean to be like this. It’s just that I… I don’t want to leave
the company, but my wife is insistent that I do something to help fix our
marriage, and this was her suggestion. She complains that I work too much, and
she feels I put my career before her. I don’t think I do, but apparently,
according to our therapist, that’s his conclusion.”

Well hell.
That was a bit of personal
information she didn’t know if she needed. Sitting up straight in the chair and
crossing her legs, Sam decided she had to appease him.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t
understand the situation.” Sam stated directly, her eyes focused on the hard
lines around his eyes and his mouth. The man looked as though he was under a
tremendous amount of stress.

“I know you didn’t come here to
listen to me whine, but I haven’t told anyone else. The closer I get to walking
out that door for the last time, the harder it seems to get.” He took a deep
breath and then collapsed into his desk chair. “I’ll be honest with you. I love
my job, I love the… I even enjoy coming in every day. This has been my life for
the last twenty years and apparently I have my priorities all wrong.”

Sam heard the sadness in his
voice and could feel the underlying tension in Jeff’s words. He clearly was
making a decision he didn’t feel was the best for him, but since she wasn’t in
a position to help him, she wasn’t comfortable offering empty platitudes just
for the sake of speaking.

“I appreciate your honesty. Have
you spoken with Logan about this?” She asked, trying to indulge him a bit.

She felt genuinely sorry for this
man and despite her need to get the information she had set out to get,
Samantha wasn’t a robot. She couldn’t just jump right into the meat of the
matter when he was so apparently distraught.

“I haven’t. I don’t want to
burden him with my problems. Logan’s a great guy. He’d try his best to do
something to fix this and I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the
company for me to stay at this point.”

They had something in common.
Always looking out for the best interests of others, despite the heavy load
they might burden.

“I don’t know him all that well,
but I urge you to at least share this with him. In the meantime, I’m grateful
for your expertise and the opportunity to pick your brain before you leave.”
Ok, just a little ego boost, and this time Sam definitely saw the lines in his
face shift. “Since we’re officially starting over,” she followed that with a
smile of encouragement, “maybe you could tell me about the people who work for
you?”

The right buttons must’ve been
pushed because Jeff began talking and he couldn’t seem to stop. He offered her
his professional and personal opinion on the people that worked for him,
sounding more and more like a proud parent.

According to him, they were the
most competent group of people within the company. It didn’t hurt that he hired
most of them himself. He didn’t just have praise; he also gave her some insight
into the personal issues he would occasionally encounter with a few of them,
but nothing she hadn’t already had experience with. New families, single
employees who liked to party sometimes too much, one still in school trying to
juggle too many things. Yep, she had seen these before.

They spent the next two hours
outlining the projects, which manager owned each, as well as timelines and
specific requirements. He saved the biggest for last, and just as he started to
give her the details she’d been waiting patiently to hear, there was a knock on
the door. Sam shifted in her chair to look behind her, and her heart almost leapt
out of her chest.

“Excuse me. I didn’t mean to
interrupt, but I wanted to see if I could borrow Ms. Kielty for a little
while.”

“Yes, sir.” Jeff stated with less
tension in his voice than he had just a couple of hours before. “Sam, I look
forward to talking to you later. We’ll need some additional time to go over the
upcoming project, but I think we can cover it in a couple of hours.”

“Thank you for your time this
morning, Jeff. Will this afternoon work for you? I promise not to keep you too
late.” She smiled back at him and noticed his eyes brighten a little. “Then,
tomorrow you can introduce me to the team, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to
go over some things with them.”

“I’ll make sure to set aside the
time.” Jeff stood from his chair and took Sam’s outstretched hand, shaking it
firmly. “I’ll see you this afternoon. She’s all yours, Logan.”

Oh hell
. Sam felt her face redden from
the comment even though Jeff had meant it in the most innocent of ways. She
worked hard to get Jeff over his current anger and moving on to the task at
hand, and she felt as though she had been successful, but the last comment
wiped away all of her confidence in one fail swoop.

 “Thanks, Jeff.” Logan motioned
for Sam to precede him out of the office. As she headed toward his office, he
cleared his throat causing her to turn to look at him.

When their eyes met, Sam felt the
heat envelope her from head to toe. They were the sexiest eyes she had ever
seen. Intense, intelligent. Eyes that made her want to just lean into him and…

“I was thinking more of a lunch
meeting. Are you hungry?” Logan asked as he motioned in the opposite direction
of his office.

“I could eat.” She commented and
then turned to follow him. Good grief, what the hell was she thinking? “You
lead the way.”

~~  ** 
~~  **  ~~  **  ~~

Logan found it difficult to keep
from taking sideways glances at Samantha Kielty. She had fallen into step
beside him, and despite their height difference, she managed to keep up with
his long stride. Making a conscious effort to slow down, he let her get a step
or two in front of him as they descended the stairs.

Admittedly, since he’d seen her
that morning, Logan had found everything difficult. He couldn’t focus; he’d
barely suffered through the last three meetings he’d been in. This woman
managed to do what no other had done in years. She’d overwhelmed his mind since
their conversation last week and that was before he’d seen all of her. When
he’d gotten a close look at her in the hall that morning, Logan had been doomed.

Samantha Kielty was – what was
the word he was looking for? Hot? No, that sounded too immature. But, it was
one hell of an adjective.

Of course, there were other
attractive women who worked at XTX, some who even made Sam look almost plain,
but none that he had ever encountered turned him on like she did.

He wasn’t just captivated by her
looks. No, with Samantha, it was more the whole package. Maybe the first hint
of attraction had been when he saw her on the vid-con call, but the second she
opened her mouth and he got a hint of her intelligence and wit, he knew he was
a goner. Now, he had the pleasure of being in her company and no matter what
mental lecture he gave himself about right, wrong, or indifferent, he wanted to
spend more time with her. Just to get to know her better.

Looking at her was just an added
bonus.

When they made it to the lobby,
he motioned to the front doors which would lead them to the parking lot. As he
held the door open, she barely brushed up against him, obviously not intentional
because she flushed beautifully.

As he looked down at her, he
grinned. Sam wasn’t tall, but she wasn’t short either. In those three inch
heels that made her legs look incredibly long, not to mention sexy as hell, she
came about chin level. She’d fit perfectly against him, and wasn’t that the
most inappropriate thought he’d had in quite some time. Well, maybe not too
long ago. Shit, he’d been thinking about her naked all weekend.

That was before he’d seen her
body. Now he was still picturing her naked – except she was still wearing those
sexy red heels.
Damn it
.

Making their way down the front
steps, Logan caught a few other men who took second glances and despite his
desire to shoot daggers from his eyes, he couldn’t blame them.

The short, black skirt she wore
accented her well defined legs and her luscious ass. And honestly, her skirt
wasn’t all that short, coming to the top of her knees, but she was every man’s
wet dream.

Fuck
. He had to get his head back in
the game and off of this woman’s smoking hot body. This was his job, his life,
and he didn’t have time to be entertaining any ideas about someone who worked
for him. Not to mention, it wouldn’t look good for him to be eyeing her as he
walked through the building.

When they approached his car,
another man’s head turned, this time lingering a little too long for his own
preference on her legs. His reaction was anything but professional. More
possessive than anything and he knew when it came to this woman, he would make
sure everyone knew she was off limits.

Especially to him
.

He realized they’d walked the
last few minutes without saying a word and he felt like an ass. Here she was,
visiting the Dallas office as she pondered over a job offer he found himself
hoping she would take and he was eyeing her rather than telling her as much as
he could about the ins and outs of the corporate headquarters.

He clicked the key fob to unlock
the doors on the black Cadillac CTS parked in the first row of the parking
garage, and motioned for her to step in front of him. It took more will power
than he thought he possessed not to let his eyes travel down the length of her
backside, but somehow he managed.

He opened the passenger door and
waited for her to get seated inside. Before shutting the door, he smiled again.
Damn, this was going to be one hell of a lunch.

Once inside the car, he finally
managed to find his voice. “So, what sounds good for lunch?”

He risked a glance in her
direction, and when their eyes met, he could have sworn, for a brief second, he
saw the same burning intensity in her gaze that he felt in his blood. But it
could have been his imagination because just as quickly as he’d seen it, it was
gone. He had to get his hormones under control. This was just business. He was
taking her to lunch to get to know her a little bit better – strictly from a
work perspective.