“You’re here late,” he said by way of greeting. I was a known regular at the bar, and Jerimiah and I had formed a friendship of sorts, although I wouldn’t say we were close. But he was the one who’d pointed Oliver Kempton my way, so I owed him.
“Some problems at work. I need something strong.”
He smirked and walked away. Moments later, he came back with a bottle of old scotch in one hand, a glass in the other.
“I got you the good stuff. On the house.”
I looked at him, my eyes narrowing. This must be some favor if he was willing to part with even a glass of his famous house scotch for free.
“What?” I asked.
He smiled. “I need a favor.”
“Depends on what it is.”
“My sister just graduated from school, and she’s coming back home.”
“Okay,” I said evenly, still not sure where he was going with this.
“She graduated at the top of her class with a degree in architecture designs from Yale.”
Impressive. Still, I shook my head. “I don’t hire people. That’s all on HR.”
He laughed. “That’s not what I’m asking. She would kill me if I even tried. She already got a job.” He paused, and when I didn’t say anything, he continued. “She got the job at Anderson, Thompson, Cooper, Grayson, and Hamilton Architectural Firm.”
“My company?” Jerimiah nodded, his expression solemn. “Are you asking me to look out for her?” I supposed I could do that. Make sure she was treated well.
Jerimiah surprised me when he shook his head. “No, man. I’m asking you to stay away from her.”
“What?”
“I’ve seen how you work. You’re here at my bar almost every weekend, and every weekend, you leave with a different girl on your arm. Lily’s not like that.”
“You make me sound like some sort of monster,” I grumbled, though what he’d said was true.
“Not like a monster. I’m only saying this because I know you. After all, I’m the same way. But Lily is different. She is… she’s just different.”
I shrugged. “What makes you think I’d even be interested in her?”
He pointed to something behind him. No, not something. Someone. I turned and found a petite girl with long black hair in a fitted server’s uniform. Her back was to me as she bent down and placed the drinks on the table.
The patron she was talking to eyed her up and down hungrily. I didn’t miss the growl coming out of Jerimiah. I didn’t blame the man. If I had a little sister and someone was looking at her like that, the man wouldn’t be standing.
She straightened and pressed the drink tray to her stomach, saying something to the man before she turned, giving me a full view of her face for the first time.
Fuck me.
I froze in my seat, unable to move as the girl effortlessly walked across the bar, easily garnering the attention of every single male in the room.
She had a heart-shaped face, a slender build, and impossibly beautiful gray eyes.
I felt my heart stop before it beat again, hard and fierce.
I was wrecked. Ruined. Completely and utterly destroyed.
Done for.
“Fuck.”
2
Lily
I was late.
Today was turning out to be the worst first day ever.
I hated being late. Not only did it look unprofessional, but my senior project manager in designs, Josephine Tracy, was a mean, no-nonsense lady that, frankly, scared the shit out of me.
I’d met her only three times before I got the job, and two of those times were for the extensive interview she ran. Nothing during those meetings told me she would be a kind boss. Or a kind person for that matter. Yet I envied her. I might not like her as a person, but I admired the career woman in her. Something I was determined to be, even if it killed me.
And that started with not being late on my first day of my first professional job.
Running to the building, I was glad to see the elevator door opened, but not for long. I yelled for someone to hold the door, and to my relief, he did.
“Thank you,” I gasped out, once I was safely inside and the elevator started to move.
“Welcome” came the gruff reply.
I turned around to look at the owner of the voice and stuttered in my steps. I would have fallen had the large man not placed his hands gently around me, keeping me upright. My God. He was beautiful.
“Careful,” he said softly. “Wouldn’t want you to fall.”
I pulled back a little and looked up to meet the brightest green eyes I had ever seen. “T-thank you.”
A lock of the man’s brown hair fell into his face, and I had the sudden urge to push it back for him. Until I remembered it was my first day on the job, and how inappropriate would it be, to be seen in the arms of a strange man in the elevator? So, with an awkward cough, I pushed away and stood in the far corner of the elevator.
My whole body tingled from where he’d touched me.
I couldn’t get over his looks, or my body’s reaction to him. He was tall, at least a head taller than me, with broad shoulders, amusing eyes, and a playful smile that seemed to be perpetually fixed on his face. His lips were full, and he had the scruff that I wondered what would feel like against my palm, along with short brown hair, though it was a little long on the top, which told me he was overdue for a haircut.
Yet I quite liked the look of his hair. Not too groomed, just enough to make him look presentable in the business world, but wild enough for any woman who looked at him to think of nothing but a messy, passionate time.
I knew from before when he’d had me in his arms that he was fit. Briefly, I wondered what the man would look like shirtless. My mouth practically salivated at the innocent imagery, which quickly turned not so innocent when
