So hello, it's me again. I love the reviews I got for the last chapter, so I couldn't help myself from giving you even more of our sexy Eli. Shout out to elisclare who agrees with me on the fact that we truly need more of a controlling Eli in this fandom. I hope you didn't choke too hard on your water.
I'll be posting a poll on my page soon to ask opinions on what should happen at the meeting on Saturday, so look for that because it'll decide how quickly I bump this thing up for you. I'm good at suspense.
This chapter is dedicated to Colleen; aka the best Beta ever.
Read on, loves, and don't forget to review.
xxo- D
I manage to make it to the restroom without spontaneously combusting, and I'm glad to see its one room; I step in and lock the door behind be, bracing my hands on the side of the sink, debating on filling it with water and just submerging my head in it to cool myself off. My skin feels as if it's on fire, and I look at my reflection.
I look… Aroused. If I, Saint Clare, can see that with my flushed cheeks, dark eyes, huge pupils, and short breaths, am aroused, then it's obvious that Eli must have known as well. I lift my hands to my face, looking away from my reflection to drop my head into my palms and groan in frustration. He must think I'm a total fool.
I take a deep breath and look back at myself in the mirror, narrowing my eyes at the horny little wanton in front of me. "Now listen here." I say quietly, and her mouth moves too, her face determined. "You are going to walk back in that room and you are going to act like that didn't even happen. You will go back into that room, and ask him so many questions that his head will spin, and you are not going to lose this job because you have wet dreams about your boss, missy." I step back from the mirror and take a few breaths as I tug at the hem of my skirt and blazer, and try and look as un-sexually frustrated as possible. Nodding once at my reflection, I leave the bathroom with my head held high.
I get a few looks from some of the people by the drink table, holding paper cups and eyeing me over it. I swear one man smirks at me, but I look down. I know how it probably looked when I ran out of that office like a bat out of hell a few minutes ago. I trudge past them, and I swear someone laughs, but I finally make it to the golden door marked "C.E.O." and I step inside.
I don't dare look at Eli, not yet. Instead I turn to close the door behind me, giving me an extra second to pull myself back into Saint Clare mode, the Clare who is ready to work. Turning, I look over at him, and see that he's watching me in amusement; one ankle resting on his other knee, and his elbow resting on the arm of his chair, his hand cupping his face. One dark brown eyebrow is arched up, and I swear that the right corner of his mouth twitches as he stares at me. I tilt my chin into the air and walk over, opting to sit back in my chair rather than go back to my place by his side. I might just melt into a puddle if I have to stand next to him again. "Thank you." I say, and I silently cheer myself on because my voice doesn't shake. "Anyway, back to the topic of this meeting this Saturday. What needs to be done for it?"
His face evens out, and I can tell that Eli is gone, and Mr. Goldsworthy sits before me. "Gold Inc. is trying to buy out a smaller publishing company. We've got the offer all ready, along with the presentation. It's a two day meeting, so I'll need you to book the hotel reservations, make sure we've got a car ready for our departure early enough for us to make it there in time." He rubs the back of his neck with one hand, and makes a face; looking more boyish than ever before, and this look is almost as good as the one he'd given me earlier. It transformed his whole face, and it took all of my willpower not to whimper like a little teenager. "Plus… I'm definitely going to need a wakeup call." He shrugs. "It's going to be a long day, which means waking up real early which isn't exactly my strong point." He stands, and walks around the desk. "Wait here, I'll be right back." He says, and then he's out the door before I can even respond.
His absence gives me the time to truly look around the room. It's big, and very open. The chair I sit in matches the six others that are placed sporadically around the room. There are two opposite his massive desk that takes up the most space, and between the chairs is a small table, with a little potted plant on it. I arch an eyebrow, and feel myself grin. Eli is apparently one for décor. He's also one for dramatics, if the color scheme of his building says anything. The more that I look at this room, the more it looks… Dirty. I stare at his desk, imagining myself bent over it; skirt flipped up, my knuckles white as I grip the sides of the desk, and Eli behind me, thrusting hard and fast-
… "Thanks Rose." Eli enters the room, finishing off a conversation that I didn't catch. I sit up straight in my seat, realizing that while I was having my little daydream I'd uncrossed my legs, and I could feel that my face was hot. In his hands he holds a Mac laptop, and I stare at it in confusion. Why would he go get a laptop when he literally has a computer sitting on his desk? "It's yours." Eli says, and I look up from the laptop to his eyes, realizing that my confusion must have shown on my face. "It's a strict work computer, so try to avoid using it for… Personal use." The way he hesitates before personal use makes my cheeks heat up, and I see some emotion flicker in his eyes, but it's gone too quickly for me to detect what it is. "Take good care of it; you break it, you buy it." He holds it out in one hand, and I'm quick to grab it, not wanting it to fall. I place it on my lap and rest my hands on top of it.
Rather than go to sit behind his desk again, he walks over and stands in front of it; leaning back and shoving his hands into the pockets on his pants. Seeing him lean against that desk is definitely not good, especially with the things my mind decided to think about that desk earlier… "I honestly can't think of anything else to tell you about your position, it's honestly pretty straight forward." He chuckles, and I try to shake off my sudden dirty thoughts, although not the first ones, that I have about this man. "Would you like to see your office?"
"I get my own office?" I ask, my face surely conveying my disbelief. Since when do assistants get an office to themselves? I can see that I'm correct in this thought when he winces; a crease forming between his eyebrows as he hisses air in through his teeth.
"Well, it's not your own office, but it's a desk, and it's enclosed from the rest of the floor." He shrugs, and steps away from the desk. "Here, I'll show you." He says, and holds his hand out to me. I blink, stunned at the chivalrous act, before gripping the laptop with one hand and placing my hand in his.
It's then that I realize that this is the first skin to skin contact we've had. Earlier, he'd touched my shoulder, but that was through my clothing. His hand was rough, and calloused, like he's used to manual labor, although I can't see how in his profession. It was also big, his fingers engulfing my whole hand in his grip; he had painter's fingers, long and lean. "Clare?" he asks, and my eyes shoot up from his hand to his eyes.
Or, they almost made it to his eyes. For some reason, they got caught on his lips. The lips I'd noticed were so perfectly shaped, and just staring at them now made me want to press my own against them, and feel his hands on my skin while I explored his mouth. I wonder what he'd taste like; earlier when I was closer to him, I thought I'd caught a waft of mint when he'd spoken so closely to me. Would he taste like mint, or maybe something more? Maybe something sexier, like chocolate, or-
"Clare, what are you staring at?" I finally look up at his eyes and see that they're full of confusion, his eyebrows low over his eyes as he scowls at me. I lick my lips, and I swear that his own eyes drop to watch the motion, but he's back to staring at me before I can truly tell.
"Sorry, I- I think I zoned out." I stand, and immediately release his hands. I grip the laptop to my chest and nod towards the door. "Let's go see this almost-office of my own." He smiles at this, shaking his head slightly on a laugh. He opens the door, and stands back so that I can walk ahead of him. I try not melt into a puddle of Clare goo as I brush past him, but my hand tingles from the short contact with his skin, and I swear it's almost like we're still touching.
He walks around to take the lead, walking a half step in front of me. He waves at Rose, who's standing at the fax machine. She waves at him, and gives me a small wave of my own. I wave back, and give her a smile of my own before she turns back to the fax machine.
Eli's head whips around and he stares at me in disbelief, stopping in his tracks completely. I come to a stop beside him, and arch an eyebrow in question, wondering what's going on. "Rose likes you?" he asks, sounding like he can't believe it, and I'm not sure whether I should take this offensively or not.
"Well, I don't know. We had a conversation in the elevator this morning. It's not like we're long term best friends." I can hear the bitter tone in my own voice, offended by his assumption that I'm practically unlikeable. How rude of him to assume that.
"No," he runs a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. "It's just, Rose isn't one to take to people. The only person she really talks to in the office is me." He shrugs, and looks at me intently. "How peculiar." He says finally, his voice hushed, and I swear I can almost hear awe in his voice.
With that, he starts walking again, and I realize that we're not going very far. The wall of his office ends, and branched off from it is another cubicle wall; leaving only a small space at the opposite side between another wall and it for someone to walk through. Now I see how he meant my "own office." It's basically its own little room, only it lacks a door.
He walks ahead of me and steps behind the walling. I follow his lead, and I see that it's small; a black mahogany desk pressed against the wall of his office and the cubicle wall, and a rolling chair pushed in. There's a lamp on the desk, and a calendar, with a few dates already marked in neat script that I assume is the old assistant's.
That's not what makes my mouth drop, however. It's the wall behind all of this. It's made entirely of glass panes. From here I can almost see all of Manhattan it feels like. I realize that I'm gawking at the view, because Eli says, "It's quite the view, I know. If you're the queasy type, don't step towards the window."
I close my gaping mouth and nod at him, walking over to the desk and placing the laptop on top of it. I see that the New York meeting is circled on the desk calendar. "It's nice." I say, and look up at him, smirking. "The best not-office I've ever had."
He smirks back at me, and arches an eyebrow up. "Why, Ms. Edwards, I didn't know you had a sense of humor." He teases, and when he jokes, I swear he looks like he's no more than seventeen.
"Well, Mr. Goldsworthy, there's a lot you don't know about me." I say, and give him a pointed smile. He holds up his hands in surrender, and laughs.
"True, true. Alright, I'll leave you to it… You think you'll be all set?" he asks, getting back to business, and I find myself missing the playful Eli, but of course that's preposterous.
I nod at him, and take a seat at my desk. "I'll work on editing the things in my email, and booking the hotel and such for Saturday." I salute him, before continuing. "You can count on me, chief."
He nods, and touches the phone that sits on the corner of the desk. "The extensions are all on here," I see that there's a list above the dial pad, and I thank the Lord that I won't have to remember them all on my own. "If you need anything, just call." With that, he walks away.
I sit and give myself a minute to collect my thoughts. It seems like I constantly need to do this after talking with Eli. Maybe it's the way his skin feels, or the way his lips are shaped… Or maybe it's the way his smirk looks, or how sexy his laugh sounds. Whatever it may be, I know one thing for sure.
"I'm so in for it." I sigh aloud, before opening my laptop and booting it up. On the screen is a Word Document that gives me instructions for my new email through the company, and how to get into it.
I open Google Chrome, and log into Gmail through the company, and see that Eli had already been in here earlier, because I see that the documents he'd clicked on were already un-highlighted. I also have a new message from Eli, himself.
To:
From:
Subject: Logging In
Ms. Edwards, once you log in, change your password, and then proceed to correct the documents discussed earlier. Also, don't forget to book the hotel and make sure a car is here in time on Saturday. I'm always punctual.
E. Goldsworthy.
I read through it, and then delete it, following his instructions to change the password, and then I get to work on fixing up the documents. If there's one thing I can tell, it's that Eli is actually very good when it comes to grammar. He punctuates correctly, and there are very few things that I have to fix. Still, it's time consuming work.
I work for the rest of the day, stopping only when Eli comes by to ask for lunch. It's a relief to see that I really won't have to spend that much time with him. After what I've experienced so far, too much contact with Eli might put me in an insane asylum. I go get him food from a Thai restaurant down the street and then it's back to work. By the time I look up again, the sky is a deep shade of purple, and I quickly look to the clock to see what time it is. It's after eight, and I feel my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Gosh, where has the day gone?
I go back to the document that I'm working on, trying to find a good stopping place. I'm about halfway through, and I'm touching up a paragraph on the efficiency of merging companies- it seems a little pretentious in its phrasing- when Eli walks around the side of the cubicle, looking at me in disbelief even though he'd come looking for me.
"You're still here." He says, and nods his head towards the floor. "Everyone else is gone; usually I'm the last one here at night. I'm going to close up." He smiles apologetically at me. "Looks like you need to pack up, too."
I nod, and finish up the sentence I'm working on as he says he needs to check the floor to make sure that no one else is still here. I close my laptop and put it in my briefcase, putting it in my mental to-do list to buy myself a laptop bag to carry it around in. Once I'm done, I stand, and walk out of my not-office, making sure to turn the light off afterwards.
I head over to the elevator and hit the button, waiting for it to arrive, which can take a while considering that you never know what floor it's sitting on. I feel rather than hear Eli come up behind me, and a shiver works its way down my spine. "Looks like we're the only stragglers." He says quietly from behind me, and I realize that he's closer than I originally thought. I don't think that my mouth can work, and I'm surprised that I'm still standing somehow. It's a mystery to me how it's even possible, but I thank God that it's at that moment that a chiming signals the arrival of the elevator.
We both step inside, and he presses the number for the first floor as he walks over to stand beside me. I tell myself that this is going to be completely fine, but of course that's before the doors close. It seems like the space gets even smaller, and I can feel the sides of his fingers brush mine, and it sends tingles through my veins.
"How'd your first official day go?" he asks, and gives me a polite smile. I look up at him, and try not to cave in on myself, because his eyes are dark; maybe from the darkness of the elevator, or maybe for another reason entirely.
"It was… Fine." I can hear how breathy my own voice sounds, and I bite my bottom lip, unable to break eye contact with him. He loses the smile, and he stares at me intently as the silence stretches between us. I don't know who leans towards who-maybe both of us- but somehow he's barely an inch away from me. I let my eyes slip from his to focus on his lips; lips that are so close to my own that I can almost feel them brush mine every time I inhale.
"… Clare?" his question is a whisper, and it asks more than it reveals. When he speaks, his lips brush against mine, and my own lips part, a barely audible moan slipping from between my lips. His eyes turn into green fire, and I feel his hand touch my waist and I close my eyes and purse my lips in waiting.
The elevator dings, bringing me back into reality, and I spring away from him, seeing that he does the same. We stare at each other from each side of the elevator, breathing hard. He opens his mouth as if to speak, then closes it again.
"I-" he begins, but I don't hear another word as the elevator doors open and I make my escape.
It's then that it occurs to me that I spend more time running away from Eli than I do being his assistant, and I feel as if this is an omen. I shake the feeling and hurry from the building.
