Sandcastle Beach (Matchmaker Bay #3) - Jenny Holiday Page 0,141
I hired you to do a job.”
“Is this why you keep asking me how long until the project is over?”
“It is.”
She laughed—hard—as she flopped back down next to him on the sofa. “Well…” She stretched the single syllable out like she did sometimes. It drove him mad. “I can report that the Decorators & Designers Association of Canada has an extensive code of ethics, including a section about interacting with clients. It’s all about protecting client information, not agreeing to things you’re not qualified to do, how to handle disputes.” She spread the fingers of one hand and used the pointer finger from the other to tick off the ethics violations as she listed them. When she was done, she lifted both palms into the air and said, triumphantly, “Nowhere does it say anything about…” Her hands came down and sort of fanned the space between them.
“About what?” He knew exactly what she meant, of course, but he wanted to hear what she would say.
“About wanting to jump your clients.” She grinned. “Or about actually jumping them.”
Well, hot damn. “Are you saying you want to jump me?”
“Why is it so easy to be honest with you?”
“I don’t know. I am known for my low bullshit threshold,” he said.
“I’m not usually like this.”
“You mean you don’t usually proposition your employers over Battleship?”
“Okay, you’re not my employer, but we’ll argue about that later.”
He got a little thrill—an actual physical shiver—at the prospect that she was planning to mount a defense against his stance that they couldn’t hook up until they were done working together.
“And no, I don’t usually proposition anyone, over Battleship or anything else. I’m usually kind of…passive.”
“Says the woman who turned her back on everything that’s been given to her in favor of charting her own path. The woman who marched into my lobby and insulted it.”
She nodded. “I think that answers my question about why it’s easy to be honest with you, even though in some ways it feels like that’s unusual for me. Everyone else in my life knows me from way back. You met me just as I was becoming someone else.”
It made sense, but he did take issue with her terminology. “I don’t think you’re becoming someone else. I think you’re just becoming more yourself.”
She smiled. She liked that analysis. “So you’re really not going to…look at my samples?”
He sighed. “Look, I know it sounds overly rigid, but I just think it’s suspect. Maybe I’m not technically your boss, but I hired you. I can fire you. You’re at a delicate point in the life of your business, so I should keep my hands to myself for the time being.”
“That’s very responsible.”
“I notice you’re not rushing to agree with me.”
“I don’t agree with you.”
He chuckled. “I know it sounds uptight. I’m known for my low bullshit threshold, as I said, but I also get called uptight a lot. I’ll own that.”
“It doesn’t sound uptight.” She heaved a big sigh. He loved how heavy with disappointment it was. “It sounds disciplined. Smart.” She rolled her eyes like she was disgusted with her own conclusion. “So what do we do?”
“We sublimate until the job is done.” He opened the Battleship box. “And you get ready to have your armada sunk.”
Chapter 4
The next week was the longest of Elise’s life. Also the happiest. And it wasn’t just due to Jay. As his office and lobby neared completion, a growing sense of pride in her work took root. She’d gotten two additional jobs in the building as a result of her work on the Cohen & Smith project, and Jay swore up and down that he hadn’t put anyone up to it, that her work sold itself.
But okay, her happiness was mostly due to Jay. It was a strange position they were in. They had basically admitted that they were going to have sex. Just not yet. Which made for a heated dynamic. He kept calling himself uptight, but honestly, it was sexy as hell, both the waiting itself and watching him exercise such relentless discipline. Because she would have crumbled the moment he crooked his finger.
There was just something so incredibly hot about that kind of control. It literally made her feel weak in the knees sometimes.
“How many more days?” he asked gruffly, turning from where he’d been standing by his door. They’d just received delivery of the guest chairs, and he’d been seeing the delivery guys out. “You said two months, and it’s been two months.”