Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,10
was sitting in Dan’s chair.
Nick King.
Suddenly, Cade wandering around in the lobby made complete sense.
“No. This is not happening,” I said.
“Dan says you were looking at the VP job, right?” Nick asked. “Sit. Please.”
I blinked a few times, half expecting Nick to vanish. It was just a stress-induced mirage, as if all that stuff I’d shoved in my mental closet had caused the doors to burst open, filling my brain with fantasies. But Nick sitting in that chair wasn’t a fantasy. It was a nightmare—a deceptively beautiful nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless.
As if on cue, he made an expectant gesture toward the chair across from his desk. “We can do the interview with you standing, but your knees don’t look too trustworthy right now. Then again, I am certified in CPR in addition to my familiarity with the Heimlich maneuver, so . . .”
I cleared my throat and walked across the room in a daze. I sat down in the chair and had to drag my eyes up to meet his. “Mouth to mouth won’t be necessary. I’m fine.” My desire to get as far away from Nick as possible was at war with how badly I wanted this job.
He looked painfully good as he sat there and studied me. His shirt was a dark charcoal gray with a silver tie speckled with teal slashes of color that brought out his eyes. God. Had he always seemed so intimidating? I had to physically force down the urge to fidget in my chair.
Nick carried a presence that I knew I could’ve still felt with my eyes closed. He just looked like he was destined for great things, as if a man so painstakingly perfect couldn’t possibly exist just to have an ordinary life. I hated how small he made me feel. I especially hated how that smallness didn’t also go hand in hand with a sense of wonder.
“I just have one question before we start,” I said. Why didn’t you love me back all those years ago? Why Kira? I mentally willed myself to cool it. Being a hysterical idiot, even if it was only in my own head, wasn’t going to do any good.
“As long as it’s appropriate,” he said.
“What? Why would I ask you something inappropriate?”
He shrugged. “I just wanted you to know it wouldn’t be professional for you to ask me if I was currently single, for example. Then again, we don’t technically work together, yet, so I suppose the line is still delightfully blurry. Scratch that. Ask me anything.”
My mouth was hanging open. “I was—” I clamped my mouth shut. I couldn’t even remember what I’d been planning to ask anymore. Was he actually flirting with me like nothing had ever happened? I bit back the temptation to ask him that. It was a verbal minefield I wouldn’t survive stepping into, and I knew it.
“Yes?” he asked, leaning in.
“I’m not going to ask if you and your brothers bought Bark Bites, because seeing you sitting there makes that pretty clear. But . . . how did you know I was planning to interview here?”
Nick tilted his head to the side as a slow smile spread across his handsome face. He chuckled softly. “Oh, I see. You think this is no coincidence? Wow. I’d say I was flattered, but it sounds more like you’re flattering yourself. You think I’d buy an entire company just so I could fulfill some creepy power fantasy and become your boss?”
I blushed. “When you say it out loud, it sounds ridiculous. I’m sorry, no, that’s not what I really—”
Nick drummed his fingers on the table. “The real question is whether I’d use that power to punish you for vowing to avoid me, or to try to seduce you into breaking your vow.”
I felt thirsty suddenly, and the heat in my cheeks was spreading to my chest. I was appalled at how obviously flirtatious he was being—and also secretly thrilled by it. I wasn’t sure if he was really flirting, though. In some ways, it felt more like he was planning to lure me into a kind of emotional trap.
“Wouldn’t the third option be that you’re not planning on abusing the power you’d have over me?”
“That would be a third option, yes,” he said flatly. “It would also be the least exciting option.”
“So when does the interview start, exactly?”
“As soon as you’re done investigating my personal life. Also, to answer the question you were too afraid to ask: no, I’m not currently seeing anyone.”