Chapter 11:

*Three weeks later*

A few more minutes into the meeting- that I really was not really paying attention to- I was shocked when Mr. Hale spoke and I heard my name. "Embre what do you think?"

Uh-Oh.

"About what sir?" I ask, hoping he will tell me again and I didn't have Miss Jones to help me anymore.

"What do you think about this plan?" He asked me pointing to the board, I look over the PowerPoint slide. The plan looks like he is trying to see which one offers the better deal, out of two companies.

"Well if you want to use the right resources I would go with the Brewers Publishing." I tell him my opinion after throughly going over what was being written down on the board.

"Okay so does anyone agree with Miss. Daniels?" I look up to see half of the people raise their hands, leaving me in shock. I actually made the right decision?

"Okay then so we will go with the Brewers Publishing. Please contact Mr Brewers about this and tell him we have a deal. You are dismissed." We were in a meeting with his

I am the second to last one. "Miss. Daniels I will like to see you in my office please." He tells me, walking directly to his office

I sigh, what did I do now? I made the right decision, didn't I?

~

Walking into his office, he follows behind me once allowing me to enter first. I turned to face him trying to remove the annoyed look I had on my face.

"Have a seat Embre." He gestured.

"Yes Mr. Hale?" I asked once situated.

"Landon." He tried to correct me.

"I dont think that will be a good idea, Mr. Hale."

"And why is that?" He sounded genuinely curious as to why now I was changing my approach towards him.

"Well for starters, I'm your personal assistant and I don't think it would be good for the job." I informed him of my thoughts.

"And a couple of weeks ago you thought it was okay to call me by my first name?"

"Because you allowed me to." I corrected him.

"You didn't have to do anything you didn't want to Embre, I am firm in that belief."

"And I'm firm that I want to keep things professional between us." No I wasn't.

"What isn't professional?" He caught me. "I haven't acted out of character with you yet Miss Daniels so please enlighten me."

"We're always having stare contest like we're kids and for fact not one-"

"You aren't." He agreed with me. "Continue."

"And I don't know.." I sighed. "It's not hard to read someone that's interested in another."

"So I'm interested in you now?" He looked amused as he sat back.

"No?" He quirked a eyebrow up at me. "Yes? I don't know." I sighed. "Look let's just forget this ever happened, I'll do my job to the best of my ability and you continue to do a great job at yours okay?"

"No."

Excuse me?

"No?" I'm not going to lie and say my heart didn't pick up a few notches, I was going to get fired.

"You heard me correct." He sat up. "Embre I'm going to be frank with you okay? I like you, yes. I don't how but you seemed to have wandered your way in."

"Wandered? I haven't done anything-"

"I've noticed you Embre." My cheeks felt flushed. "So tell me you haven't noticed me?"

"Mr Hale-"

"Landon." He addressed me again. "I'm not a man to repeat myself, and I'm also a man that knows what he wants, and you are exactly what I want."

"Me? For what?" There was nothing going on for myself.

I felt his eyes roam me. "Are you finding it hard to believe that you can be liked?"

"Uh.." Trick question? "It's not that, it's the simply fact that I could be sleeping with my boss and that's not a great thing to be proud of."

"Unless it didn't turn out.." He didn't finish his sentence before I became flustered with his thought process.

"That's not... okay." I sighed. "Listen, I'm not a bimbo chick that you have probably dealt with in the past, I'm not some groupie. I am a woman first and I am looking for something real not just temporary so if you're just looking for a bone-"

"And who said I wasn't?" He interjected. "You're going to have to excuse my bluntness from time to time."

"Understandable."

"You feel it." It was a statement, of course anybody in the room could feel the tension between us- words from Miss Jones. There was no sense of denying it since we were being real about it.

"I do." I fumbled with my hands, I was beginning to grow nervous. "I might as well quit right now-"

"You're not leaving."

"Excuse me? Says who?"

"Your rent and bills, that's who."

Touché.

"Then how is this suppose to work?"

"I would just go with it." He suggested. "Or we can try your option and see how long before one of us cracks."

"I can control myself." I've been doing it for 23 years now.

"But I can't, I'm not going to lie to you to make you think I can when in reality I know it's bullshit."

"That sounds like a personal problem." I joked and he cracked a smile before leaning forward.

"It will be." He hinted and I wish I could take the joke back.

"You're the worse." I laughed before rolling my eyes. "So professional?" I held my hand out to him. He didn't seem to like that idea one bit but nonetheless he stood up, rounding the table.

He held out his hand to me and reaching to take it, I was stunned to meet a hard chest and blazing eyes.