Raine (Gods of the Fifth Floor #2) - M.V. Ellis Page 0,34

her mom and dad in bed together.

“Of course not.”

“Well, then snap the fuck out of it. It’s not like you came in and found me sprawled all over your desk. What are you even doing here, anyway? It’s early.”

I could have asked him the same thing, though the answer was somewhat obvious given what I’d seen.

What wasn’t obvious was why he was doing what he was doing in the office. Why didn’t he do that at home, or at a hotel, or something? So many questions that were never going to get answers, because I was never going to raise the subject with him. In fact, I was starting to get pissed off that he was still talking about it, when all I wanted to do was pour a gallon of brain bleach over the whole episode.

“I just wanted to get a jump on the day before it got too busy, is all. And I couldn’t sleep, so I ended up being even earlier than I had originally planned.”

“Fair enough. Well go grab us coffees, and use the time to pull your shit together, then come see me. We have a lot to get done today and seeing as you’re here already, we may as well get started now.” I didn’t move for a while, struggling to wrap my head around his words.

“Hello? Did I say something you didn’t understand? Seems like you need coffee more than I do. Be quick, I need your brain to function today if this thing is going to work.”

“It’s just that I didn’t actually formally accept your offer.”

“What offer?” He looked genuinely confused, so I gathered that he wasn’t just being facetious, or deliberately obstructive.

“You know, to work with you on the campaign.”

“Oh, that? Did I make that seem like a request? Or like you had any choice in the matter? My bad. Sorry, that’s not what I meant to imply. I wasn’t waiting for a response. As far as I was concerned you were on board as soon as I asked you to be.”

Oh. “Ah. Well, for what it’s worth, I was going to accept, so I guess we’re on the same page on that.”

“Why are you still speaking? I don’t have coffee in my hand, and I don’t see you in my office. Both situations are unacceptable. You need to fix them. Stat.”

He really was like a demanding toddler. There was seemingly no reasoning with the man.

“Okay sorry. I’m on it.”

“Good. I got a whole bunch of stuff done when you left last night. I want your opinion on it, and once we’re both happy with it, I want you to get started on the illustrations. Bring both coffees through to my office in ten minutes, I’m going to freshen up quickly.”

“Fuck!”

“What!” I’d been so engrossed in what I was doing that the sounds of Raine’s voice had all but given me a heart attack.

“It’s after eight.”

“What? Really?” I looked up and noted the vista outside the fifth-floor window was indeed dark, with the lights of the city twinkling in the blackness. I’d been in Raine’s office for the best part of the day, bringing my phone and a laptop in with me and working mostly on the Carlisle project, unless anything else pressing came up in my PA duties.

It was true what they said about time flying when you were having fun. I really hadn’t been aware of the passing of the hours as the day had progressed, and Raine had been equally engrossed, though we’d somehow managed to remember to stop at around lunchtime, and a few times throughout the day to feed Raine’s one-hundred and fifty cup per day coffee habit.

He’d also stepped out onto the balcony behind his desk to smoke, which I’d gathered was a courtesy for my benefit, as I got the impression that he’d normally just do it at his desk, workplace regulations be damned.

“Yep, really. You hungry? You should eat.”

Was I? I’d literally blocked out everything except the work, and hadn’t thought about food at all until the mention of it.

“I guess I could eat a little. What about you? I can order us in something. What do you feel like?”

“A drink.”

“To eat, I mean.”

“I know what you meant, but I’m not really hungry.” I’d noticed that food didn’t seem to be a priority for him. He appeared to eat because he had to, not necessarily because he wanted to. Not that it had adversely affected him physically. I recalled the sight of him