I shake my head, "Not relevant."
"Hmm," his eyes narrow and soften. "Family?"
"My dad died when I was too young to remember him. My mother raised us alone. I have four older brothers. I wasn't treated any differently because I was a girl, but my mother swears I was harder to raise than all of them put together." I roll my eyes like it was totally an exaggeration, but it wasn't.
Bastian gives me that cute smirk, knowing it's the truth.
Then his office phone intercom buzzes once and goes live. He puts his finger to his lips for my silence.
A deep, booming female voice says, "Sebastian, don't sit in your office sulking. Chad said his goodbyes to us this morning and complained bitterly that he still hadn't found a suitable man as his replacement and was going to lose his severance package."
So…Chad didn't add the words at the end, Janet did.
"Let me loan you Barbie from my department. She's really well organized and would be thrilled to work one on one with you. She's named appropriately, by the way."
A spy, a saboteur, and gator bait all rolled into a nice convenient pipe bomb package.
She pauses, but Bastian doesn't respond. Instead, his eyes are glued on me. Her insolence, combined with her patronization, has pissed me off. I've worked for women like her before.
I mouth, "Janet?"
He nods with an uncertain but curious expression on his face. I rise and walk around his desk to handle her.
She continues, and her tone changes from coaxing to accusatory. "Sebastian, I'm only being helpful. You should be thankful I care aboutyourbusiness so much." She takes a deep frustrated breath and blows it out loudly. "Fine. In our meeting this morning, I stressed how important it is to approve The Wizard, and Chad told us, you're the one holding up the production on it!"
I lean over the phone and speak clearly and directly into the speaker as if I'm speaking to an insolent, spoiled child. "Janet, this is Sam Mathieson. I've filled the position. In the future, please buzz me first." I push the button and disconnect her. Then set his Do Not Disturb feature for her incoming line.
I glance at him as I walk back around the desk to sit in the chair and continue our getting acquainted interview. He's leaning back in his thick, expensive leather chair with a shit-eating grin like he just stole a handful of cookies out of the jar and gotten away with it.
"My mother was right, after all." He chuckles, "By the way, we're having lunch with her today at three."
"I look forward to meeting her." I pull the company cell phone that Chad left for me from my bra and ignore the lust that falls on Bastian's face. I ask, adding the lunch to our calendar. "Place?"
"Michael's Pizzeria," he smirks.
"Will I need to arrange transportation?"
"I have my own car. Cars actually. My daytime driver is Oscar."
"Standby," I tell him as I text Oscar the new appointment. He acknowledges with:
Pickup 2:3o.
"So, who's your nighttime driver? Let me guess." I look away and tap my finger on my lips, "The talkative Uber that took me home from the bar, Reno?"
He grins, "Affirmative."
I hold up two fingers. "Two new questions. One, you're former military?"
"Affirmative, Air Force." Damn, she's sharp.
"Two, you know where I live?"
"I do. And I don't want you taking the subway again. I'll have my fleet available to take you whenever you go anywhere."
Shocked, I blurt, "That's NOT necessary."
His head tilts. "Yes, it is, Samaera. I am a billionaire. That alone makes your security vital to my company and me. But add in, I'm a bachelor who runs the sixth largest publishing house in the world that is regarded as a book sex shop because we're the first to publish romance books that sync with adult toys giving our clientele the whole ultimate fantasy experience. To the millions of lonely, horny women of all ages across the globe, I'm a rock star."
