Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,12

Work under him. Why was my mind so quick to twist that into its dirtiest possibility? And why did the mental image of Nick glaring down at me make my stomach twist with warm tendrils of heat?

“Of course. My mistake.” But the look on Nick’s face said he wasn’t buying my story. The frustrating part was that he appeared so convinced I had feelings for him I was starting to wonder if he was right. “Forget I said anything,” he continued. “But I am curious. Why are you here? Last I heard, you were planning to leapfrog your way to the top of Crawford Industries. A VP job at a failing small-scale company like this doesn’t even come close.”

“You weren’t the only one who heard. The guys I was getting ready to leapfrog for a promotion decided it’d be better for everyone if it looked like I’d screwed up our biggest account. And maybe I wanted a chance to work somewhere that actually needed my help, for once.”

For the briefest moment, Nick actually looked sympathetic, but his expression went back to amused so quickly I knew I must have imagined it. “Well, it’s your lucky day, then. Isn’t it?”

I felt my head sag forward, as if my forehead had suddenly developed a magnetic attraction to my knees. “That’s one way to look at this,” I said.

“And how do you look at it?”

“That there’s no room in the business world for personal matters.” I raised my eyes up and stared at him unflinchingly for the first time. “And when you plan to get a job done, you do it, no matter what obstacles get put in your way.”

Nick chuckled. “A bit dramatic, maybe. But I’ll happily be your obstacle, especially if it means I get to enjoy watching you try to crawl over me.”

I thought about objecting but realized I’d only make it worse if I acknowledged his implication. “Thank you,” I said curtly.

“Well. Congratulations,” he said. “The job is yours, if you want it.”

I shook Nick’s hand and left the room. As much as I wanted to portray calm, I couldn’t help fast-walking my way toward the exit. I just needed space. Air.

I stared straight ahead. Confidence, confidence, confidence. It wasn’t fair, but the business world expected an entirely different level of professionalism from women. Men could loosen their ties and joke around without losing the respect of their employees. Women didn’t always have that luxury, so I knew I needed to keep my walls up. Always. The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth. Those same walls were part of the reason my “perfect” boyfriend was no longer in the picture. I’d made my choice, though. I’d been chasing my goals for too long to let anything get in the way. Even Robbie. And now I had a bad feeling if I didn’t plow my way through Nick, he’d be the one doing the plowing.

I cringed. Why couldn’t I stop accidentally turning my thoughts sexual when it came to him? I was supposed to want to punch him in the mouth, not kiss it. A few minutes alone with him was poisoning seven years of painstakingly maintained anger, and I needed to put an end to that before it got any worse. Somehow.

“Hey,” Nick called from behind me. “Wait a sec.”

I turned around and couldn’t help drinking him in all over again. He was like a sweet wine with a bitter aftertaste. The first glimpse made jolts of excitement run through me, but then the past would bubble up and make my stomach turn.

Dark hair, dark-green eyes, glasses, and a heavy dose of brooding. His brothers could’ve been cast as the superheroes in any blockbuster movie, but Nick had a touch of the traits that would’ve made for the perfect sympathetic villain. He would’ve been the kind of villain audiences swooned over and rooted for, even as he was crushing the world under his boots.

Nick had always stood apart from his brothers in more ways than one. It had been what made me develop a hopeless crush on him back in high school. He usually wore an expression like he was trying to think through some impossible problem. The Nick I knew was always struggling to find something worthwhile for that bright mind of his, and whether anyone else wanted to admit it or not, I knew he was the backbone of Sion’s multibillion-dollar success. Nick was the smartest man I’d ever met, and that was part of