Mr. Arrogant: A Billionaire Romance (6 page)

Jonathon blinked and stared for a moment. “Um… okay. That actually is part of what I expect from someone in your position. We might not have had an Ivy Leaguer in here before, though.”

She turned away from him and picked up the phone to make a call. He knew that their talk was over and he was dumbfounded again that she could be so casual and nonchalant around him; that she could speak to him with no hesitation, like she was immune to him. No one was immune to him; they either loved him or they hated him, but no one was immune to him at all.

Naomi stood up and walked past him toward the copy machine and printer where she had just printed out a few things. As she walked past him, a wave of her perfume enveloped him and he breathed it in and closed his eyes for just a moment. Then he turned and watched her walk away, admiring everything about the sweater dress that she was wearing, and the way that it clung to her like a lover, showing off every curve and line like a second skin. He swallowed.

His father’s words returned to his thoughts and he remembered that his job had been on the line. Closing his eyes, he pushed her from his thoughts and headed to the break room to go make himself a cup of coffee. She was a confounding woman; confounding and exasperating.

The two of them continued on in this same manner as each day passed for her first week. He would ask her for coffee each day, and she would tell him no, that it wasn’t her job. He got so frustrated with her that he started calling her Ivy League behind her back. She was so frustrated with him that she went out of her way not to give him even an inch of approval in anything that he did.

She determined that if he wanted her respect, he was going to have to earn it, and he began to see that and feel it in the way that she treated him. She wasn’t unfair to him, but she wasn’t going to let him just have anything he wanted, either.

Two weeks into their new employer and employee relationship, Phillip showed up at Naomi’s desk and when she saw him walking toward her, she knew right away who he had to be. His son was a younger more handsome carbon copy of him.

She gave him a light smile and a nod. “Hello, you must be Mr. Cross.” She said briefly and politely.

He smiled back at her. “I am indeed, and you are?” he asked with interest.

She extended her hand to him and he took it in a firm shake. “I’m Naomi Bradshaw,” she answered in a professional and friendly way. He nodded.

“It’s good to meet you, Miss Bradshaw.” He looked toward his son’s closed door. “I don’t suppose that Jonathon is in his office, is he?”

Naomi shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, he left a little while ago. It’s just me until after lunch.”

He nodded. “Do me a favor please; put me down in his calendar for an appointment this afternoon. I’d like him to come to my office when he gets a chance.”

She agreed and wrote the appointment into Jonathon’s book. “You are all set, Sir. I’ll send him over as soon as he returns.”

He nodded at her and thanked her and then disappeared back down the hallway.

She smiled to herself, thinking about how similar to and how different from one another they both were.

When Jonathon came back to the office that afternoon, she informed him of his meeting with his father and he pursed his lips together and left her, heading upstairs to the old man’s office.

Phillip Cross smiled when his son walked in the door that afternoon. “Hello! It’s a lovely day, isn’t it? How are you doing?” he smiled brightly, and Jonathon knew that there was something up his father’s sleeve.

“Good afternoon, father. What can I do for you today?” Jonathon asked pensively. He never regarded it as a good sign when his father called him in for a meeting. Sometimes it was business, but more often than not, it was to discuss personal matters with him.

“Well, son, I went down to your office today to speak with you and I met your new administrative assistant. She’s a lovely young woman.” He said it almost with a cautious tone.

Jonathon sighed. “Yes, she's great. What can I do for you?” he repeated.

Phillip looked at him with his keen eyes and penetrating gaze. “I wondered just how well things were going between the two of you. She’s a beautiful woman.”

Knowing where the conversation was headed, Jonathon decided to cut it off right where they were. “I suppose so. More importantly, she is a good worker. She’s efficient and helpful, and that’s exactly what I need.”

“Son, I want you to be honest with me. Have you had any illicit interactions with her as of yet?” Phillip asked, his eyes boring into his son’s.

Jonathon had tried not to think about it, but his thoughts had strayed more than once to the swell of her lips, the curves of her body, the scent on her skin that intoxicated him with breathless intrigue when she was close to him, but he wasn’t about to admit it to his father.

“No. There hasn’t been anything between us at all. Nothing whatsoever, and there is less than no chance that it will happen, so please let that go.” Jonathon had begun to realize that there was nothing he was going to be able to say or do that was going to turn Naomi’s head, not that he wanted to, but it had begun to bother him tremendously that she was absolutely unaffected by him in any way. It was an anomaly in his life that there could be a woman who did not want him like she didn’t. He had never had it happen before and it was utterly strange to him.

His father looked at him humorously. “Is that so? Well, I just wanted to remind you of our previous discussion on the matter.”

Jonathon sighed loudly in frustration and pushed himself up out of the chair in front of his father’s desk. “It’s not going to happen, okay? She doesn’t like me, so even if I did want it to happen, which I don’t, it still wouldn’t happen anyway! She is an amazing worker; she is extremely punctual, she’s tidy, she’s detail oriented… she’s responsible and smart and she actually has a good sense of humor… with other people. Everyone else in the office just seems to love her and get along with her really well.” He said with a hint of dejection.

Phillip watched him quietly as his son paced around the room, shoving his hands down into the depths of his pockets. He rubbed his finger over his chin and said nothing; letting his son do all of the talking.

“She is actually a really great woman. I’m quite impressed with her. She’s just… got a wall up with me,” he finished in a low tone.

His father grinned and chuckled slightly, shaking his head. “Well, well. I’m so glad to hear it.”

Jonathon frowned at his father. “Why are you glad?” he asked in frustration.

Phillip stood up and began to walk toward the door in his office. “Because that’s exactly the relationship you should have with her. That’s a professional relationship and an appropriate one. You’ve finally gotten it right, and gotten the right woman helping you make your business work. You’re on your way and I’m so glad to hear it.”

He reached for the door handle and opened the door, looking expectantly at Jonathon. His son sighed and looked away from him for a moment and then taking a deep breath, walked through the door and out of it, paying no attention to his father at all.

It might be the best thing, at least according to his father, and it was true that he was getting more work done in the office, but he was constantly thinking about her, and that part of their business relationship was driving him crazy. It was the thoughts of her that crept into his mind at unwanted moments that was pushing him to distraction.

Every time he found himself with any kind of an idle moment, she was there in his mind. When he was busy and trying to focus on any number of things, thoughts of her were there, when he was trying to fall asleep at night, when he awoke in the morning, when he tried his best to push thoughts of her out of his mind and ignore her, she was there, and it seemed like there was truly nothing that he could do to keep her out. She had gotten under his skin, and nothing he did was getting rid of her. She didn’t like him, and it seemed like no matter what he did, she was never going to like him, and that bothered him more than anything else. That was what had driven her under his skin and into his mind.

Chapter3

Naomi had found a semi-workable way to be around Jonathon, but it was becoming a little more difficult almost every day. She had stuck to her guns about not giving him any respect that he didn’t earn, and she had disallowed herself to give him any kind of leeway or extra grace when it came to him interacting with her.

His looks, which had gotten him far with everyone else, had gotten him exactly nowhere with her. His cool, standoffish, arrogant, egotistical demeanor, which had intimidated countless others, had no effect on her whatsoever. So that was what she showed him, and though he had tried everything that he could think of to make her like him, all of his charms and sweet talking had done nothing to get him any closer to her, and she knew it, and he knew it, though neither one of them said anything about it.

Two months after she had started working for him, they had developed a workable though somewhat twisted relationship. She did what he needed to have done without really connecting with him beyond a professional level; at least, that was what she showed him on the outside, but what she saw on the inside was something that had begun to touch her heart every single day.

He was fallible. He had weaknesses that showed through his facades of bravado and she began to see that the wall of arrogance that he showed to so many others was almost transparent to those who might choose to take a few moments and really look at it. He wasn’t nearly as shallow and vain or egotistical as she had originally believed him to be, but he didn’t let anyone see that in him, either.

His walls of ego and attitude, his arrogance and defiance were defense mechanisms, and they kept people away; even all the women who wanted him were kept away, only allowed to be physically close to him, but never close to his heart, at least, not close enough to hurt him. Two months in, she had begun to feel protective of him, and it amazed her that she could feel anything for him, most especially protectiveness.

He came to her one morning and stood a slight distance from her desk, his eyes on hers rather than on her body. His voice was quiet and respectful. “Good morning, Naomi.” He greeted her with a pleasant smile.

She looked up at him with a smile and her eyes did to his insides what her eyes always did to his insides; it was like a huge hook that caught him somewhere in his torso, between his stomach and his heart, and the hook caught him hard and yanked the inside of him. He took a deep breath and tried to focus.

“We need to go out of town on a business trip.” He set a folder down on her desk and she opened it and glanced over the papers inside, and then looked back up at him expectantly.

“We’re both going?” she asked in surprise. Her first thought was that he was going to try to seduce her while they were out of town, but then some kind of common sense pulled her attention away from those thoughts and she felt like scolding herself for even thinking it.

He nodded. “We are both going.” He told her as he looked away from her. The idea of going out of town with her had led to more than a few fantasies about what could happen between them if given the right circumstance and chance, but he knew they were nothing more than fantasies, and he kept them hidden deep within himself.

“I’d like you to book the trip for us. Everything you need to know is in that file. We’re meeting Anthony Bryan and I’d like to meet him at the hotel if we can arrange it. Please see what the space availability is there; we need something private and professional.” He told her thoughtfully, considering what might be the best possible scenario for their business.

She agreed, and wrote down what he wanted as she made a few extra notes. “I’ll let you know when it’s booked for us.” She looked back up at him. She had come to like the look of him; he felt like he was hers without any of the weird commitments and dramatic nonsense. Just… friends… somehow, and she liked it. Part of it had to do with the slight distance that he kept from her, giving her some personal space and some respect, and some of it had to do with a feeling of trust that had begun to develop between them.

Naomi booked their rooms: two separate rooms on the same floor in the same hotel. She felt a little strange about going out of town with him, but she knew that it would be a good trip and that if the business worked out for them, it would do a lot to help the company and his relationship with his father.

Jonathon knew the subtle changes in their relationship were a step in a positive direction, though he wasn’t sure what direction it really was.

She booked it right away, and then she was left to wonder what to pack and how it would be. She was left to prepare them for their meeting with Mr. Bryan, and she was left with time to think about what it would be like to travel anywhere with Jonathon Cross.

In the first two weeks after she started working for him, there were small office rumors that centered on what the relationship was between the two of them, but as each day passed, everyone around them saw that it was entirely professional and completely platonic, and no one would ever have supposed otherwise.

That was a great comfort to her, though the more time she spent working with him, the more things between them felt like they were blurred. The definitive lines between work and friendship, between closeness, trust, and business, and something undefined, something deep and strong that was like a current moving so far in the depths of them that it was almost undetectable.

She didn’t spend much time thinking about what any of it was, or what it might have meant, but she did know that things were changing between them slowly, quietly, and in good ways.

The trip began simply. He sent a car to pick her up at her apartment and he met her at the airport. They were seated beside each other in first class, and they were amiable as the plane took off. It felt less constricting being around each other out of the office. It felt like the rules had changed as they climbed higher in the sky and somehow many of the unspoken boundaries and behaviors between them began to relax a bit. It felt more personal to them both, and less like business; less like four walls and a rule book.

They checked into their hotel and he called her to make sure that she had everything in her room that she might have needed. She told him she did and when she hung up the phone, she smiled at his thoughtfulness, and at his protectiveness of her.

The two of them met for dinner and when she walked into the restaurant in the hotel where he had reserved a table, he was left speechless by the dark red stretched satin dress she wore. It was conservative, but the material held her so closely that her form was completely evident. She wore her hair down, and the long wavy curls reached down her back almost to the lower curve of it. Jonathon watched her almost in a trance, trying not to look, trying not to stare. She came to him at the table where they were meeting Anthony Bryan and Anthony’s assistant Shane Redding.

They sat down to dinner, the four of them, and all throughout the meal, Naomi had the distinct impression that no matter who was talking, no matter who was looking, no matter what was going on, Jonathon was listening to everything she said, even if he was turned away from her, and he was looking at her out of the corner of his eye every chance he got, when he thought she wouldn’t notice it.

It felt to her like no matter where she went during the course of the evening, he was always keenly aware of where she was and he was monitoring her to make certain that she was okay. It felt comforting to her, and she nestled into the feeling, loving it all around her like a cocoon.

When they ordered wine, he remembered her favorite kind, and when they had dessert, he suggested the chocolate cake and she grinned at him and leaned over to him, close to his ear.

She whispered, “I love chocolate cake, it’s my favorite.”

He smiled at her and nodded slightly. “I know, that’s why I suggested it.”

Naomi looked at him in surprise. “How did you know that?” she asked incredulously.

He shrugged. “I pay attention.”

She felt her insides go warm all over, and a smile spread across her face. She felt like she mattered to him, and that was one of the best feelings she had ever known.

Dinner with Anthony and Shane had been a prequel to the meeting. The day following their dinner out, Naomi and Jonathon met Anthony and Shane for their business agenda. Jonathon was interested in buying Anthony’s business, but Anthony wasn’t completely sold on the idea of letting go of a business he had worked so hard to build. Though Anthony could see the benefit, he was sentimental and leery of change.

When the meeting was over, it remained unresolved, and Anthony said that he needed more time to think about it all. Jonathon waited to hear from Naomi about possible dinner plans, and when he didn’t hear from her at all, he went to her room and was just about to knock on the door when she opened it and walked right into him. He caught her in his arms and looked down at her, staring into her sky blue eyes, feeling the familiar pulling in his chest.

She caught her breath and for a moment forgot how to breathe. As his hands loosened around her back and shoulders, he let her go and she took a step backward from him. Her scent was lambent on the air around him, and he breathed it in and didn’t want to exhale.

Jonathon looked down at her and saw that she was in a vanilla colored sweater dress; a thin fine material that did little to hide the body beneath the sheath. He could not help himself from dropping his gaze down the length of her and raising his eyes slowly back up, but as he caught sight of her breasts again, he saw that her nipples were hardened and pressing firmly against the soft fabric that covered them.

He swallowed with difficulty and raised his eyes to meet hers, feeling a heated stirring deep in him. She looked as if she wasn’t breathing very well either, and she looked as if she was hardly aware of anything around them for a moment; her lips parted slightly, her eyes locked on his.  When she drew in a sharp breath, her breasts pressed even further against her dress, and Jonathon had to look away from her for a moment, for the desire that was trying to overtake him was becoming difficult to manage.

“What are you doing here?” she finally breathed as she found her voice and stared into his eyes.

He looked around himself, noticing the doorframe before he looked back into her eyes. “Well, I was thinking that we could have dinner together if you would like to.”

She bit her lip and he had to look away again, wishing that it were him who was biting her lip.

“Well, I can’t really. I’m going out to dinner with Shane,” she said quietly.

Jonathon stared at her in surprise. “You’re… you’re going out to dinner with Shane?”

She nodded subtly. “I am.” She could not place or explain the sudden ache in her heart.

He felt like all of the breath in him had been punched out of his middle. “Oh… is it… like a date?” he asked, hoping with everything in him that it was a fluke.

She nodded. “I guess it is.” She could see the pain that flickered in his green eyes and she felt horrible about it. 

He tried to draw a breath into his chest, but it was difficult. It felt as if an anvil was crushing him. He nodded and gave her a half-smile, and then took a few steps back. “Oh… I didn’t realize that you two… were…” he paused and shook his head. “I’ll just let you get going then,” he said quietly. She nodded and grabbed the keys, heading out of her room.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” He looked at her with a pained smile. They were leaving to end their trip the next morning, and he had assumed that she would, of course, be having dinner with him. It had not occurred to him that she might not want to have dinner with him, or that she might have other plans.

She gave him a sympathetic smile and he waved and turned back toward his own room, trying not to listen to her walking to the elevator, and yet walking slow enough that the elevator doors closed before he reached his room.

As Naomi waited for the elevator doors to close, she watched him walk away and everything in her began to ache for him. She wanted to open the elevator doors back up, and then she wanted to run down the hall to him and wrap him in her arms as tightly as she could, but she knew that he didn’t feel that way about her, and she could not jeopardize her job or their working relationship.

She felt like her heart was expanding with sadness and need far beyond any capacity that she was able to handle, and she closed her eyes, willing herself to breathe normally and to let go of the ache and need that she felt for her boss.

The feelings in her chest that were constricting her would not stop, and it was in that moment that she realized that she was falling for him, and that the emotion in her ran much deeper than a crush. It was much stronger than anything she had ever felt for anyone before, and she knew that there was no way to stem it, and no way in the world to stop it.

A hot tear escaped her closed eyes and the elevator doors opened to the hotel lobby.

* **

Jonathon spent a sleepless night trying to distract himself from thinking about Naomi being out with Shane. He tried to keep away the mental images of her in her vanilla colored sweater dress and thoughts of the heated moment when they had met in her doorway. More than anything, he had wanted to reach out to her and pull her to him in that moment; kiss her, taste her, and feel her body against his, but he had held himself back, and the moment had passed. Try as he might, she would not leave his mind and nothing he did could get her out of his thoughts.