Precious Surprises. Andrea LaurenceЧитать онлайн книгу.
him.
“Nothing,” she insisted. Even if she had found something of concern in the financials, she wouldn’t mention it to anyone until she was absolutely certain. You didn’t pull the fire alarm until you saw the flames. Right now, this was just a little smoke. No one was stupid enough to do something that obvious. Smart people took money in small chunks. There had to be an explanation.
She took a deep breath to steady herself and looked back up at Jonah. There was something different about the way he carried himself today. Emma couldn’t quite put her finger on it, exactly, but something had changed. Perhaps it was the sly twist of his full lips and the knowing twinkle in his eye. She had no idea what would have pleased him so greatly this afternoon, so she chose to ignore it and the deep-down pangs of desire it caused inside of her.
“Well, I just got off the phone with your boss.”
At the mention of her supervisor, the desire immediately melted away like an ice cube dropped into boiling water. “You spoke with Tim? Is there a problem?”
Jonah shook his head. “No, not at all. He was just calling to see if you had settled in okay.”
Emma held her breath as she listened to his response. Tim never just called to see if an employee was settled in. He didn’t care that much. Knowing him, Tim was calling to see if Emma had fallen for Jonah’s charms yet. “And what did you tell him?”
Jonah pursed his lips for a second, drawing out her torture with obvious pleasure. “I told him that you were the most polite and professional worker in the building, myself included. Why? What did you think I would say?”
Emma shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Hopefully nothing related to the supply closet.”
At that, he chuckled and gripped the door frame of her office, flashing his tattoo at her. “I didn’t build a successful company by being a fool, Emma. And despite what you seem to think, I’m not out to put your job in jeopardy.”
She expelled a sigh of relief that was premature.
“It did occur to me,” he continued, “that your boss seemed like a bit of a hard-ass. I get why you’re so concerned about appearances. And that’s why I’m offering you a compromise.”
Emma tried not to frown. There was nothing to compromise over.
“You don’t want to be seen with me because it’s inappropriate. I get that. But I am going to take you to dinner one way or another. So I can either find a way to blackmail you into having dinner with me here in town, or you can accept my offer of having dinner with me out of town, where no one will find out.”
Blackmail? Emma leaped up from her chair. “I don’t know what the hell you’re playing at, Jonah, but there’s nothing to blackmail me with.”
He didn’t seem fazed by her sudden bravado. “So you say. And maybe that’s true. But there’s nothing stopping me from telling Tim some fabricated misdeed. He’ll believe me over you, don’t you think?”
Emma’s jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t. Why would you even consider such a thing?”
Jonah crossed his arms over his chest, wrinkling the fabric of his flannel shirt. “Because I get what I want, Emma. And I want you to have dinner with me. If I thought for one second that you weren’t sincerely interested, I would let it drop. But you can’t fool me with your tight hair buns and your formal demeanor. The woman that was in the supply closet with me wants to have dinner. And who am I to deny her?”
“You don’t know anything about me, in or out of a closet, Jonah.”
“Don’t I?”
His blue eyes challenged her, and that made her instantly nervous. She self-consciously reached for the collar of her blouse and pulled it tighter to ensure she hadn’t given away her identity.
“I certainly don’t want to take it this far, which is why I’m offering you an alternative that will make everyone happy. Tomorrow night, meet me at the Wall Street Heliport at six sharp. From there, I will whisk you away to a location where we won’t run into anyone we know. We can have a nice, private dinner without you needing to worry about your job. You can just relax for once and enjoy your time with me.”
It wasn’t an ideal scenario, but it was certainly better than losing her job over a lie. She couldn’t believe a man that high profile could just disappear like that, though. “And what about your little paparazzi friends?”
Jonah shrugged. “They only take pictures when I allow them to know where I am. When I want privacy I’m more than capable of arranging it. I assure you that no one will know where we’re going tomorrow night, even you.”
That was one less concern, but it still left several on the table she wasn’t ready to discuss with him. Like how being alone with him turned her knees to butter and how if she fell prey to his charms, she’d run the risk of him finding out all her secrets. It was too soon for that. But did she really have a choice? “And if I go to dinner with you...just dinner...you’ll leave me alone?”
“If at the end of the evening that’s what you want, then yes.”
Emma would make sure that was how the evening ended, even if she regretted every word out of her mouth. While she didn’t anticipate much to come out of her attraction to the infamous CEO, she didn’t want even a whisper of it to happen before her job here was completed.
“Okay, fine,” she said in a huge rush of breath before she could change her mind. “What shall I wear?”
Jonah grinned wide with unmasked pleasure. “Excellent. Now you might be surprised to hear this, but I plan to take you somewhere that requires a jacket and maybe even a tie on my part.”
Emma’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You mean you own a suit?”
“I own several. I’m not antisuit under the right circumstances, despite what my mother would say if she were asked. I just don’t need them to feel important or in control like some people do. I like to be comfortable and a T-shirt with a video game reference on it is far more representative of my personality than a boring old pin-striped tie.”
Emma tried not to get excited by the idea of seeing Jonah in a suit. He obviously underestimated what a sharp suit on the right man could do to a woman’s resolve. “Then I’ll meet you at the heliport tomorrow at six.”
Jonah gave her a curt nod and disappeared from her office. Once he was gone, Emma was finally able to take a deep breath and realized what she’d just agreed to. She peeked out around her door, and when he was nowhere in sight, dashed down the hallway to Harper’s cubicle.
“Help!” she said as she rounded the corner.
Harper looked up with wide, surprised eyes. “What’s the matter?”
“I’ve got a date tomorrow. With him.”
“Him?” Harper leaped up from her chair. “I thought you refused to go out with him right now.”
“I know, but he shot down every excuse I could think of. I agreed to it this time on the condition that he would leave me alone after that if I asked him to.”
Harper just shook her head. “How could you ever ask a man like him to leave you alone?”
“Well,” Emma sighed, “at the moment, I have bigger problems than that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I have no idea what I’m going to wear. Most of my clothes are somewhere between business casual and business professional. I need date clothes. You’re the fashion diva. I need you to go through my closet and tell me what to wear.”
“I doubt there’s much in there we can use,” Harper said with obvious dismay. “Especially with junior playing havoc with your waistline. I think we need to go shopping.”
Emma frowned. “I don’t think I