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  She heard beeping noises as Patrick appeared to be typing on his phone. “I just sent you the number of a woman I’ve worked with a couple of times. She’ll give you her honest opinion about the contract. But call her today, she leaves town again in the morning I think.”

  Holly looked at the contact card Patrick sent her, Austin Yates. “Thanks Patrick. I’ll call her.”

  Austin agreed to meet her at her office and look over the contract.

  “It’s a little unorthodox, especially for Elijah Barrett, but it’s completely legal,” the attorney said when she flipped to the last page. “If you’re comfortable with what he’s asking, I see no reason you shouldn’t sign it.”

  Holly nodded. “Thanks so much. There’s a notary in this building if you want to get it signed with me.”

  Austin grinned. “I would love to. I do some work for Eli from time to time so maybe we’ll see each other again.”

  Holly smiled. She liked this woman and would like that very much.

  When the contract was signed, Holly sat at her desk again and stared at it. The deadline was the end of business on Wednesday. That gave her the weekend and a couple of days. There was nothing stopping her from sending it first thing Monday morning, but she decided it would be fun to make him stew a little bit.

  • • •

  Elijah pressed the intercom button and asked the receptionist down in the lobby if anyone had left a package for him.

  “No, Mr. Barrett. I promise if something comes, we’ll send it right up.” There was a hint of irritation in the woman’s voice. Elijah didn’t blame her. It was at least the fifth time he had called in the last hour or two.

  It was nearly five on Wednesday evening. Holly’s deadline was quickly approaching. Why hadn’t he heard from her? There hadn’t even been a reply to his e-mail on Friday. Was the dinner invitation too much?

  But he refused to contact her until after the six pm deadline passed. If she couldn’t abide by deadlines without prompting, she wasn’t the assistant for him anyway.

  His intercom sounded. “Mr. Barrett, there’s a messenger here with an envelope for you. Should I send him up?”

  Elijah lunged at the phone and pressed the button. “Yes, please. Thank you.”

  Ten minutes later, a knock sounded at his door.

  “Enter,” he called.

  “This is for you, Mr. Barrett.” A young kid shoved an envelope at him and backed out of the room punching buttons on his phone.

  Guess he didn’t want a tip.

  Elijah tore open the package and found his employment contract for Holly on top. He quickly flipped to the signature page. There was her signature. Seeing Austin Yates as the attorney who looked it over surprised him. Maybe Patrick connected them? In the back was a simple note thanking him for the opportunity. His intercom sounded again.

  “I have a Holly Sutton on the line for you, Mr. Barrett. Should I tell her you’re gone for the day?”

  Elijah jogged back to his desk. “No. She’s my new assistant. Please put her through.” There was a grin on his face as he spoke.

  “Miss Sutton,” he said as soon as his phone rang. “Thank you for accepting my offer. I was starting to think I’d scared you off.”

  Holly laughed. “I apologize, Mr. Barrett. I just wanted to make sure everything was in order before I accepted.”

  “Smart girl. Can you start tomorrow? There’s a bunch of HR stuff you have to do before the real work can start.”

  “I have a full day tomorrow, but I could start Friday. I have an engagement for the Sutton Foundation, so I’ll have to leave right at five that day but then I’m all yours,” Holly said.

  Thoughts of her actually being his sent his cock rigid. “I look forward to it, Miss Sutton. What kind of engagement do you have on Friday?”

  “It’s a charity gala. You’re welcome to attend if you like,” she offered.

  Elijah laughed. “I don’t think so, Miss Sutton.”

  “Please, can you call me Holly?” she asked. “Or is that too unprofessional?”

  Elijah smiled. “I prefer Holly, as long as you call me Elijah. I do like a professional environment, but I see nothing wrong with the use of first names. We’re going to be working very closely together on a lot of things.”

  “Excellent. Then I’ll see you first thing on Friday morning, Elijah.”

  “Have a good night, Holly.”

  Elijah desperately wanted to invite her to dinner but knew it was completely inappropriate. Once she was his assistant, they would have plenty of excuses to share a meal. He would make sure of it.

  Picking up the phone again, he dialed the HR extension. When Claudia, the head of the department answered, he told her he was sending over a signed employment contract.

  “I need you to fast track this please. She’s starting Friday morning and I want all of her orientation and HR training done by the end of the weekend. I need her all day on Monday and don’t want her bogged down with the formalities of starting a new job.”

  He heard her sigh but new she wouldn’t say no to him.

  “Yes, Mr. Barrett. I’ll make sure it gets done. Let’s try to keep this one this time?”

  Elijah chuckled. “Thank you, Claudia. I’ll make sure your Christmas bonus has a little extra in it this year. And you can relax for at least the next six months. Read the contract. We’re trying something new.”

  The woman laughed and promised again to get everything done with Holly before she came to work on Monday morning.

  The next day, Elijah could scarcely concentrate and Thursday night he couldn’t sleep so he spent most of the night studying sales projections for the next quarter that Patrick had sent him.

  His friend was right, more production space was absolutely needed, or the diamond venture was going to stagnate.

  Getting a list of potential properties to build on for Patrick would be a perfect first task for Holly on Monday. For some reason, he felt the need to test her loyalty and having her work on a project that would directly impact her father would be a good way to test that. Or maybe it was just a dick move. He wasn’t sure. They had to get through her first day before they could talk about any of that though.

  When the sun came up, he drove himself to the office, stopping for a breakfast sandwich and a coffee on the way. The looks he got in the fast food drive through told him the staff recognized him and did not expect him to be frequenting their establishment. It wasn’t something he did often, but sometimes it felt nice to do something normal like eat fast food.

  He handed the girl at the window a twenty-dollar bill and told her to keep the change on a five-dollar meal. It made her beam.

  When he got to the office, he immediately got on the phone with London. It was just after two in the afternoon there and he wanted to make headway on their potential partnership.

  By the time seven-thirty rolled around, Elijah was neck deep in contract negotiations and his blood was pumping. This was the stuff he loved. A knock sounded at his door and he put the English woman he was speaking to on hold. “Come in,” he called.

  The door opened wide and in walked Holly. Elijah barely stifled his gasp. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, but some wispy tendrils still framed her face. She wore black slacks that made her legs seem a mile long and a bright red blouse and red sandal heels. She looked all business, but what he had in mind had nothing to do with business.

  “Good morning, Holly. If you’ll have a seat, I need to finish this call and then we’ll get you down to HR to get started on all your paperwork.” How he managed to sound so professional he didn’t know. But he was proud of himself. What he really wanted was to lock the door and wrap his hands around that ponytail and… he kicked himself beneath his desk when he realized where his head was going. Clearing his throat, he picked up the receiver on his phone again and apologized to Janet in London.

  “I’ve just had my new assistant arrive for her first day on the job, so I need to get her settled and I�
��ll call you back to finish negotiations.”

  Holly held up her phone to show that she had a building directory on her screen and whispered, “I’m sure I can find my own way to HR.”

  Elijah frowned and gave a terse shake of his head. He wanted to take her himself.

  When his call was done, he stood and offered his hand to Holly for a handshake. “I appreciate the enthusiasm, but it would bring me great joy to give you a quick tour while we make our way to HR.”

  Holly smiled and accepted his handshake. “You’re the boss.”

  Damn right he was.

  Elijah walked Holly around his floor, showing her the conference room, her office, and the fully stocked kitchen. Then he led her back to the one elevator—the only one in the building that went to his floor—and led her down four floors to where the HR department had their offices. When they reached Claudia’s office and confirmed again that they were fast tracking all of her orientation, he pressed a card into Holly’s hand with his cell phone number on it.

  “Text me when you have a break. If you don’t mind, I would like to have a working lunch.” He could see the disapproval in Claudia’s eyes. Lunch breaks were not for working. But she was smart enough not to say anything.

  Holly just nodded but returned the card as Claudia began snapping forms onto the desk in front of her. He gave her a puzzled look. “I already have your number, remember?” she said with a wink before turning her attention to the paperwork in front of her.

  Elijah smirked as he turned and walked away. She was again subtly chiding him for not calling her all those months ago.

  At noon his phone buzzed.

  I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting such a mountain of paperwork to start a new job. I’m officially on my lunch break.

  Elijah hit call and said, “I’m having lunch brought into my office. Go ahead and come up. I just wrapped a meeting with one of my marketing teams.”

  Five minutes later, Holly was in his office and he led her to the small seating area where a variety of food had been laid out.

  “I wasn’t sure what you might like for lunch, so I had a bunch of stuff ordered. Don’t worry about any of it going to waste. Whatever we don’t eat I’ll send downstairs to one of the other departments. They’ll devour it.”

  Holly smiled as she selected several items for her plate.

  “What kind of working lunch did you have in mind, Elijah? My brain is overflowing with a wealth of information already. You have a very innovative company and a very thorough human resources team. I feel very comfortable here.”

  Elijah smiled. “Good. I wanted to show you what you’ll be working on when you’re finished with orientation. I apologize for making you rush through that and do it on the weekend by the way. I just really need to get you integrated and fully at my disposal by Monday.”

  Holly waved her hand as she ate a piece of shrimp. “Don’t worry about it. I’m ready to get started so I don’t mind at all. I did have to rearrange some things so I could meet my final obligations at the Sutton Foundation, but Claudia was very helpful, and we got a schedule worked out. I’ll be all yours on Monday.”

  He fought the urge to reach out and touch her when she winked at him. To put some distance between them for a moment, he crossed the room to his desk and picked up a binder that outlined the expansion needs for the new diamond production lab.

  “You might enjoy this project because you’ll be working closely with your brother. I got the impression you haven’t spent a lot of time with him in recent years.”

  Holly’s eyes lit up as she accepted the binder. “Our family is complicated, and Patrick hasn’t been home since he left for college, so I don’t get to see much of him.”

  Her long delicate flingers flipped through the information in the binder. The beginning was all sales projections and estimated space needs. The middle was a variety of real estate information, and the final section was the section Elijah most worried about.

  How would she react to seeing the market share projections and the predictions of how much damage the expansion would do to Nicholas Sutton and the other mined diamond dealers in the world? He poured himself a glass of whiskey as she read and offered her one, but she absently declined as she continued to skim the contents of the binder.

  When he saw her flip the third tab, he took his seat again and watched her closely. Her mouth formed an O shape as she realized what he was asking of her.

  “I did not realize lab produced diamonds were such a direct competition of mined diamonds. It seems like you would market to two different groups of people.”

  The FTC petition was addressing just that, but she didn’t need to hear all about that right now.

  “Is this going to be a problem?” Elijah asked before swallowing down the last of his liquor.

  Holly took a deep breath and snapped the binder shut. “Not at all, Elijah. I’ve never had a vested interest in the diamond portion of my father’s business.”

  Elijah blew out a breath. First test passed. Excellent.

  “I’m glad to hear it. You’re more than welcome to take that binder home with you tonight, but I know you said you had a function so don’t feel obligated.”

  As an answer, Holly smiled and slipped the slim binder into the messenger bag she was carrying.

  “What else would you like to cover today? I’ve spent the morning learning about company policies, but I would love to hear more about day-to-day routines and what you’re looking for from me as your assistant.”

  Elijah poured another drink. “Essentially, I want you to learn how to be me in my absence.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t pull off a tie quite the way you do,” Holly teased.

  A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, but he did his best to contain his amusement. “What I mean is, I’m being pulled in a lot of different directions and I expect you to help me out by representing me for some of these projects. At first, we’ll work together on most stuff but once you get your legs under you, I’ll give you some freedom to do things on your own.”

  Holly seemed satisfied with that answer, but he continued.

  “Of course, a lot of it will be answering phone calls and directing traffic, not to mention keeping my paperwork in order. We sign a lot of contracts both temporary and long term. I have to keep all of that organized and you’ll be helping me with that.”

  Holly gave him a curt nod and looked at her watch. “They gave me strict instructions not to let you distract me and to be back downstairs by one-fifteen sharp for a sexual harassment seminar. I should probably get going.”

  Elijah stood and grinned. “I would tell you I’m the boss and can cover for you if you’re late, but I’m making Claudia work the weekend so I’m not going to cross her.”

  Holly laughed, that low melodic laugh he loved, and Elijah thought he could get used to it. Hopefully he would have that chance.

  Chapter Nine

  Holly woke on Monday morning with a sense of excitement she hadn’t felt in a long time. Over the weekend, she had gone through all the orientation modules for being an employee at the Barrett Corporation during the day and had spent her evenings going through the binder Elijah had sent home with her.

  The project he had given her was a simple one, research potential sites for expanding production on Eastman Enterprises’ lab made diamonds, but she took it seriously and wanted to do a good job.

  By six-thirty, Holly was in her car and on the road. Traffic patterns meant she would not get there until nearly seven-thirty even though she’d hoped to be there early. When she pulled into the parking structure, she noticed that Elijah’s space was empty. Just then, a sleek BMW pulled in behind her and whipped into the space.

  Holly couldn’t help but grin. She was going to walk into the office with her new boss on her first real day. Stepping out of the car, she smoothed her palms down the front of her dress and grabbed her messenger bag and her gym bag. She had every intention of making use of the company work ou
t facilities.

  “Miss Sutton, on time again. I’m impressed,” Elijah said as he stepped out of his car. Holly smiled in response and walked toward him.

  “Good morning, Elijah. I’m eager to do something besides listen to HR warn about the dangers of hugging in the office.”

  “Well, you’re in luck because Mondays are busy. In fact, we need to hurry or I’m going to be late for a conference call with London. We’ll have just enough time to get you set up in your office with my calendar.”

  Elijah strode toward the entrance that led to the lobby of his building, motioning for Holly to fall into step beside him. His legs were long, and Holly had to scurry to keep up with him. Inside the spacious lobby, Holly flashed her new employee badge at the security guard, but Elijah did not. Everyone knew who he was. At the bank of elevators, Elijah chose the one farthest from the building’s entrance—the only one that had access to his floor. It opened immediately and they both stepped inside.

  As the doors slid shut, the space seemed tiny. Elijah dominated the space. Holly felt her pulse picking up speed as he tapped his badge on the pad next to the bank of numbers. The top floor button lit up with the scan of his card and the elevator began the slow ascent to Elijah’s kingdom.

  Holly looked down at her shoes and did her best not to blush. A moment later, she cleared her throat and raised her head, but he was staring at her intently, so she quickly dropped her gaze again. Damn it, why did she have to be so attracted to him?

  “So, you still feel it too,” Elijah murmured as he tapped his card on the elevator wall again. The car came to a stop and Holly jerked her head up. What was he doing?

  “What did you do that for?” It came out a whisper.

  “We clearly need a minute,” Elijah said, closing the space between them.

  Holly stuttered and gave up trying to speak as Elijah brushed one long index finger across her lips.

  “We’re attracted to each other, sweetheart. I can’t get the image of you coming for me out of my damn head. Every time I look at you it’s all I see, and I want it to happen again. It’s problematic. But I want you to know that I’ll always keep it professional. If you noticed, I don’t have an office fraternization policy here, but I also don’t try to sleep with my assistants.” He paused and tilted her chin up. “Unless the feelings are mutual.”