Prologue
Dyson Energy CorporateHeadquarters
Anchorage, Alaska
Seven months ago
Olivia
I glanced at the clock on the wall of the conference room. It was ten minutes past noon.
He was late.
The other men in the room were talking quietly amongst themselves, but I was too nervous to make chit chat.
Today I was going to meet the legendary Noah, aka Ark, Aikens. I had been studying his work for years. Had, in fact, taken this job just to have the chance to work with him, and now I was finally going to meet him. I lifted my hand to bite down on the pad of my thumb, a nervous habit I’d never been able to break, but stopped myself in time.
Noah Aikens. My own version of a Hollywood crush.
Except he was late. I knew he was flying in from Hope’s Point today so there could have been a delay, but the anticipation was making me crazy. My palms were sweaty and, as surreptitiously as I could, I rubbed them on my skirt.
Then I heard a commotion from outside the conference room. It sounded like a storm was about to blow in, and when the door flew open and Noah Aikens barged in, I realized I wasn’t far off.
He was wearing jeans, a flannel shirt and a Dyson Energy ball cap. He was also sporting some ridiculously heavy boots. I knew this when after he took his seat, he plopped one, then the other on the table.
“Okay boys, you hauled my ass down for this, it had better be good.”
I swallowed. And then coughed a little to make him aware of my presence across the table.
“Sorry,” he said. “And lady.”
I sat up in my chair, smiled and tried not to gawk too hard. I’d expected to be a little fan girl. I hadn’t expected my immediate reaction to him.
Holy shit, he was hot. Tall, thick chested. He looked more like a lumberjack than an engineer.
Hot, clearly cocky, he all but screamed MAN! I squirmed a bit in my chair. After working in the slick, sophisticated offices of the EPA in D.C.—with men who matched those offices—it felt like I was being introduced to a new species of man altogether.
The corporate bigwigs at Dyson I understood.
This creature…I didn’t know what to think of him. Other than I was looking at his bare forearms where he’d rolled up the sleeves, and I had this crazy urge to run my hands up and down them.
Probably not a good idea at our first meeting.
“Ark, good to see you.” Frank Sales, current CEO of Dyson Energy, leaned over to shake his hand.
Noah had the graciousness to remove his boots from the conference table, before reaching over to take the man’s hand.
“What am I doing here, Frank? You know I get claustrophobic when I’m in corporate headquarters.”
Frank laughed like it was an old joke between them.
“Ark, we called you down here to introduce you to Dyson’s newest engineer. Olivia,” Frank said turning to me, “why don’t you make the introductions yourself?”
I stood then, a little too abruptly, but the man sitting across the table from me had done nothing to ease my nervousness. If anything, his appearance only made it worse.
Still, I was a professional.
“Hello, Mr. Aikens. I’m Olivia Sampson. I’m a graduate of the University of Washington with a double engineering degree in both petroleum and chemical—”
