Talking Dirty with the CEO - By Jackie Ashenden Page 0,60
folded her arms. “Ring him. Tell him Christie St. John is here to see him. He’ll be annoyed if he finds out I’ve been turned away.”
The blonde eyed her. Then, clearly viewing Joseph’s displeasure as the lesser of the two evils, she picked up the phone, spoke a few words, then ushered Christie toward one of the elevators.
Christie wasn’t relieved. If anything she felt sick, her determination seeping away. Because it meant Joseph was here and maybe he’d had his phone with him, and had seen every single one of her desperate calls. Her desperate texts. Had seen them, then ignored them.
Nausea turned over inside her as she stepped into the elevator.
No. Of course he wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t that type of guy. Perhaps he’d been in meetings all morning. Been in meetings for the last three days. Yeah, that was it. Perhaps he hadn’t had time to check his messages. Or something.
In which case her turning up out of the blue was going to look really pathetic.
Christie swallowed, debating whether or not to just turn tail and leave. But then the doors closed and she was heading up.
Right. So she was committed now. But that was okay. There was the whole being-in-love-with-him thing and he needed to know that. Yeah, he did.
She didn’t know what to expect when she stepped out of the elevator. Maybe a huge corner office, a monolithic desk, and at the very least a piece of minimalist but heinously expensive sculpture.
But what she got was a large open area with long desks, beanbags scattered everywhere, people hanging around chatting in huddles or working together at the desks. Some had laptops, some had desktops, and some were fiddling with touch-screen tablets.
The whole place had a real energy to it. A buzz. Kind of like Joseph himself in many ways.
She was shown to his office by a guy wearing a Led Zep T-shirt and skater shoes, who left her outside the door with a low, “I’d watch it. He’s in a bad mood,” warning.
Christie set her shoulders, bracing herself. Yeah, well, she was in a bad mood now, too. So he could damn well suck it up.
A rhythmic thumping noise came from inside the office. Odd. She took a breath and pushed open the door.
The only thing about Joseph’s office that met her expectations was its size. It was, indeed, large. His desk sat in one corner, facing away from the huge windows, the top of it scrupulously neat. As though no one ever touched it. A treadmill stood set up in another corner. In the middle of the room sat a huge, squashy black couch with a coffee table next to it, the detritus of a whole day’s worth of coffee mugs on it.
Joseph was over by the windows, walking back and forth, talking on his phone. In jeans and a black casual shirt, he had a small red rubber ball in his hand and as he walked, he bounced the ball off the back wall of his office, caught it, then bounced it again. Over and over.
Christie stopped dead, watching him.
Oh, he was so damn gorgeous. Pacing up and down with all the lithe, animal grace of a big cat. Magnetic. Charismatic.
His blue gaze glanced over and she met it, felt the charge between them like a power surge.
Her breath caught, her mouth gone bone-dry.
Joseph didn’t take his eyes from hers as he continued with his phone call for a few moments. Then he ended it, put the phone in his pocket, and tossed the ball in his hands while he looked at her. The expression on his face told her nothing.
“So, what did you want to see me about?” The words sounded flat.
“I-I-I…” Crap, the stuttering was back. She swallowed, tried again. “Y-you’ve been a bit quiet these past couple of days. I wondered where you’d gotten to. I sent some texts…”
“Yeah, I got them.” His phone pinged and he pulled it out of his pocket again, glancing down at the screen. “Hey, look, can we talk about this later? I’m kind of busy here.”
He did look busy. Busy and distracted.
Doubt suddenly descended like a ten-ton weight, her earlier determination deserting her.
He had a point. What was she doing here? He’d gotten her texts and clearly he was too busy to answer them. Maybe she should just go back to work and wait. He’d get to her when he was ready, right?
Her jaw tightened. “Oh…um…sure,” she said. “So you’ll call me tonight, then?”
He