Big Ben (See No Evil Trilogy #1) - Nana Malone Page 0,22
even willing to give you something for the drive.?I took a look at your resume. I don’t know why you’re hiding out here as Kennedy’s executive assistant, but you need to be in operations.?Your resume warrants it.?You’re good at what you do, and I’ve looked at your employee evaluations.?Kennedy has nothing but amazing things to say about you, so how would you like a job working for me??I need a new operations director, a right hand. Not to worry, there will be no hint of impropriety. You’ll report directly to Jessa Ainsley, so you don’t have to worry about all your fantasies about where you would have let me touch you.”
She stared at me.?I would have expected most people to jump up and down, be thrilled, be excited.?Not Olivia Ashong. She stared with a gaze so intense I started to shift in my discomfort.? “I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you’re not that good. I’ve already forgotten the whole thing. But I am curious, why would you give me this job?”
Oh, but I was that good. “Because until Saturday night, I didn’t even know you worked here,?which means that you’re invisible.?You can’t get promoted if you’re invisible.?I don’t know exactly why you took this job with Kennedy, but you are capable of doing so much more, and I can offer you that opportunity.”
“So, just like that, without a proper interview or anything, you would give me the kind of job that pays a ridiculous amount of money to get that thing back?”
“Whatever you want, yeah. How about it?”
“I say until you can tell me what it is, or why it’s so critical, or even better, why I shouldn’t turn it into the police, my answer is no.”
Livy
Ben had been right in my office that morning when he’d talked about my wet panties. They’d been soaked. He’d been so damn smug. No way I was letting him know he affected me. And besides, I was with Dex. Ben Covington was merely a little harmless fantasy.
Right. So that’s why you’re running to Telly’s for a second opinion?
To be fair, it wasn’t the only reason, even though I knew what I was doing was a mistake.
Well, I’d made a series of them starting with turning down flipping Ben Covington for a job. I was out of my mind. The series of decisions I’d made since going to that stupid fundraiser had sent me on this path, and I wasn’t sure I could course correct.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Of all the stupid things you’ve ever done, Liv, this takes the cake. But like my mother always said, some mistakes had to be made.
It wasn’t like I didn’t know I was making one.?I knew the moment I made a copy of the flash drive.?Even when I’d brazenly told him he couldn’t have it, I’d known I was going to give it to him. But he’d used me, and I needed to know why and how much trouble I was in.
When I saw him in my office, some primal, feminine part of me had wanted to preen. He was dangerous with a capital D. And I was going to need to stay the hell away. But boy had I wanted to lean into his sandalwood scent.
I’d wanted to do other things to his towering frame too. I was pretty sure I needed a grappling hook to climb that mountain, and there was a part of me that was totally into that.
Nope. Stop it.
I had to stop thinking about him. Those ice-blue eyes. The charcoal vest over the crisp white shirt. The swatch of cerulean silk in his tie that accentuated the color of his eyes. God, I had problems. One, I had a boyfriend. Two, Ben Covington was possibly the most handsome man I’d ever seen on the planet. Three, he’d used me.
There was a reason he’d done it, and I needed to know why. I couldn’t explain it, but I hoped knowing would buy me some assurances. He was willing to give me a triple-pay upgrade. He owned the place, but no one did that unless they were desperate.
As I furtively glanced over my shoulder, I skipped up the stairs of the waterfront flats toward Telly’s place.?She basically lived above Vauxhall tube station. After work, I’d taken the tube from Soho and headed straight to her place, knowing with every step that I was making a grave error.