she should be kissed, until she was wild and begging for me. And then I’d kiss her some more.
I blinked and tore my gaze away from her mouth. Thinking. It was just thinking, that was all.
“Follow me,” I told her, my voice a little rough. “I’ll take you on the rest of the tour.”
Chapter 11
Penny
Wes took me to the workshops on the first floor, where the windows to the street were. He took me to all of the offices and introduced me. He even took me to the warehouse, where I got to see the shelves of Kane inventory and the inventory system, run by Sophie.
It was all wonderful, and everyone was nice, but I was a girl who lived and breathed work. “Can you show me my work space?” I asked Wes as we left the warehouse. “I’d like to get started.”
He gave me a curious look I couldn’t interpret. “Sure. I’ll show you your work space.”
“It’s okay if it’s temporary until you find me a permanent spot. I understand. There’s been a lot of change happening.”
He looked at me again as the elevator doors closed. “You think I set you up a temporary work space? Like a cubicle?”
I shrugged. “I’ll figure it out. I’ll go find the office manager and sort out something. I don’t want to interrupt too much of your day.”
“Penny, Penny.” Wes shook his head.
I didn’t correct him about my name this time. I liked when he called me Penny. I didn’t think I was going to correct him ever again. “What?”
“You’ll see.”
Wes was back to wearing a suit today, the mountain man look gone. This suit was charcoal, paired with a blue dress shirt that matched his gorgeous blue eyes. He’d shaved this morning, and he smelled good. I had to blink my eyes each time I looked at him, remembering the man who’d backed me against a wall last night while wearing only boxer shorts.
I’d been so close to him, and we had almost—no. I was at work. At work.
The elevator doors opened on the fourth floor again and Wes led me back toward his office. I glanced around, wondering where I could set up shop and start working.
“The movers just finished the other day,” Wes was explaining. “I hope they did everything right. I had Rhonda, my receptionist, check it over when they finished. She gave it the thumbs-up.”
“Gave what the thumbs-up?” I asked.
“Your office.”
He led me to a door across the hall from his own as he pulled keys from his pocket. He put a key in the door and said something else, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was frozen in place as the blood rushed in my ears. I stared at the nameplate on the door.
Penelope Gold, CEO.
It actually said that. Penelope Gold, CEO.
“Wes,” I said. “What is this?”
“I told you. Your office.” He noticed that I was frozen, and he took my hand and led me through the door.
The office was as big as his, at least. It had a big desk and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, empty and waiting for whatever I wanted to put on them. A sofa and chair in one corner. And windows looking out on the amazing Denver skyline in the snow.
I was pretty sure I was mostly numb as I looked around. “CEO?” I asked him.
“Sure you are.” He grinned at me.
I shook my head. “But you’re the CEO.”
“We both run this company, Penny. We both get the title.”
“But that isn’t how it works.” This was too much, and I had to argue. I just had to.
Wes took a step closer to me, his face serious now. “It works however we say it works,” he told me gently but firmly. “Your father left, Penny, and mine’s gone to prison. They’ve left both of us stranded, and this company is ours. There’s no one to tell us how we can or can’t run it. Did you think I was going to make myself your boss?”
I shook my head again. I’d never thought about it. I’d always wanted to move up in my father’s company, take on more, get recognized for the thousands of hours I put in, but I had never pictured myself as the CEO. The boss who runs everything. At least, not until after my father died, sometime far into the future.
But according to Wes, with this merger I was the CEO. Right now.
I wasn’t just working my way up anymore, hoping to get noticed by my father, trying to prove my worth.