Only with You

Page 11

“How interesting, what kind of company?” Sophie asked, settling herself on the corner of Gray’s desk like they were discussing favorite movies. Her hip was inches from Gray’s hand, which he snatched back so quickly he nearly knocked over his coffee cup.
Get a grip, Grayson.
“Oh, just a little set of Hawaiian resorts I started a few years back,” Peter was saying. “I’m getting too old to deal with all the maintenance and taxes. I’d hoped Alistair here would be taking over, but he’s focused on his own career goals.”
Like what, selling hemp bracelets on the beach? Gray wondered.
“I love Hawaii,” Sophie gushed. “What island?”
“Just the prettiest little strip of Maui you’ve ever seen.”
“It must be so hard to part with it,” Sophie said to Peter, laying a hand on his arm.
The move should have seemed calculating and phony, but Gray had to give her credit: She was good. She made it seem genuine.
Peter blushed. “Oh, it’s just business, I guess. The important thing in life is family,” he said with an adoring look at his insipid son.
“Well, you couldn’t choose better hands to leave your business in,” Sophie said as she began assembling plates of food. “I haven’t had the pleasure of working with Mr. Wyatt for very long, but he has the best reputation and is so smart with money.”
Gray stifled the hollow stab of disappointment. He had a fleeting wish that she’d compliment his person. Not his accomplishments or his brains or his résumé. Just him. Just Gray. When was the last time anyone had looked beyond the suit?
And why did he even care?
Lost in thought, Gray barely noticed that Sophie was neatly concluding his meeting for him. In the span of fifteen minutes, she had sweetly trapped Peter into a second meeting next month to further discuss the offer.
She’d been equally adept at evading a dinner date with Alistair, which Gray was grateful for. The last thing he needed was his assistant dating his star client. Even if this particular client had as much use as a third nipple.
Gray shook the hands of both men, amazed at the difference in their mood after Sophie had worked her magic. They were all smiles and agreeability. Sophie showed them to the elevator with promises that she absolutely would check out their resort website, and of course she would read Alistair’s blog.
He knew he should thank her for her interference, but he couldn’t quite find the words. He felt an irritating combination of resentment and appreciation for the ease with which she managed people. And to give credit where it was due, Gray couldn’t deny that she’d very likely saved an important business deal using nothing but perky br**sts and fake smiles.
Was he annoyed or grateful? Or aroused? Shit.
She’d also surprised him by being savvy. And he hated surprises.
He sat down in the ugly orange chair she’d ordered for him and tried to get back to work. Only to realize that he couldn’t focus on work. Instead he was thinking about life. His life. And how it suddenly seemed like nothing but a long series of workdays and lonely dinners.
It was a routine that hadn’t bothered him before.
But now something felt off.
Gray knew exactly who to blame for his discontent, and she was currently tapping away on her computer, no doubt humming a Disney song or making a billion new friends on Facebook.
His eyes kept returning to her desk. Damn this glass wall. What had Martin Brayburn been thinking building an office with glass walls? There was no privacy. No peace of mind.
On his fifth glance, he did a double take.
She was no longer on her computer. She was smiling prettily up at a visitor. Of the male variety.
Gray’s eyes narrowed when he saw that the visitor was Jeff Andrews. The observation shouldn’t have upset him. Jeff was one of his best employees, and Gray himself had requested that Sophie work directly with Jeff on the Landers deal. It made sense that they’d be familiar with each other.
But the way Jeff’s eyes kept dropping to Sophie’s chest was a bit too familiar. He knew Jeff was married, but he seemed to remember Sophie mentioning something about Jeff and his wife going to counseling.
Gray scowled and forced his eyes to his computer screen, but they kept drifting back to Sophie and Jeff. As far as his employees went, Jeff was actually one of Gray’s favorites. Friendly, easygoing, smart…
But he wasn’t feeling so friendly toward his colleague now. Why was Jeff looking at Sophie like that?
And why was Sophie leaning toward him?
Surely she wasn’t actually attracted to the man. Gray tried to observe Jeff from a woman’s perspective. The other man wasn’t tall. Definitely shy of six foot. Didn’t women like tall men? Then again, he supposed there were probably women that valued humor over height, and Jeff was one of those obnoxious joke-a-minute kind of guys. Sophie must go for the clown routine, because she was looking at Jeff in a way she never looked at him.
Gray waited impatiently for Jeff to come into his office and talk about whatever it was he’d come up to this floor to discuss. But when he looked up five minutes later and saw no sign of Jeff, his suspicions were confirmed. His vice president of sales hadn’t come up to discuss business with the CEO.
He’d come up to flirt with the CEO’s secretary.
Gray’s mood officially moved from irritable to downright ornery, and he had the irrational urge to bring Sophie’s mood down with him. This was a workplace, not a carnival. She should at least try to show some signs of being professional.
In a rare moment of pique, Gray wanted to get under her skin. To show her that life wasn’t all about bunnies and rainbows and that she couldn’t manipulate everything to go her way.
“Ms. Dalton, can you come in here for a moment?” he called.
She appeared at his doorway. “Sure, what’s up?”
He noticed she didn’t correct him and tell him to call her Sophie. Perhaps she didn’t care anymore.
“When you’ve finished pulling last week’s numbers, I was hoping you could do a quick personal favor for me. I’d do it myself but I’m slammed with phone calls over the next couple hours.”
“Definitely, what do you need?” she asked. Her words were all acquiescence, but her expression had turned guarded.
“I need you to send some flowers.”
“Flowers?”
“Yes, flowers,” he said, feeling suddenly invigorated. “The biggest arrangement you can find.”
“And to whom am I sending this blatantly cliché arrangement?”
“Whom do you think?” He smiled thinly. “Your sister.”
It was a lousy thing to do. He’d had no inclination of pursuing things with Brynn, and now she’d probably get the wrong idea about his interest level.
And the stricken look on Sophie’s face was supposed to make him feel satisfied. Instead he felt…petty.
What am I doing?
Gray had spent the past few weeks making a concentrated effort to separate his personal life from his professional life and now he here he was deliberately entangling the two.
He just hoped he could untangle them before he got in over his head.
Gray watched Sophie walk slowly back to her desk, noting the slight hunch in her shoulders. Something in his chest seemed to tighten at the sight.
Shit.
He was already in over his head.
* * *
Brynn was putting on her well-rehearsed big-sister-knows-best routine, but Sophie wasn’t buying it.
“There’s absolutely no way, Brynn. Why would I want to go on a double date with you and Gray? Hell, why would anybody?”
Brynn carefully folded her hands and placed them in her lap. “You’re always saying how you and Grayson don’t get along. I think spending some time together out of the office would do you both good. Allow you to see each other’s nonwork side.”
I’ve seen his nonwork side. And that charming side of him assumed I was a hooker.
Sophie buried her face in her gin and tonic. “But a double date? What are we going to do, hang out with the high school kids at the ice-cream parlor?”
Will returned from the bar with refills on their drinks and took the seat beside Sophie. “What are we talking about?”
Sophie nodded toward Brynn. “She’s still at it.”
Will snorted and took a sip of Brynn’s drink. “Get off it, Dalton. Only desperate couples go on double dates. If you’re still begging, things with the iceberg must be a mess.”
“My relationship is not a mess,” Brynn said, grabbing her champagne glass out of Will’s hand. “Well, actually, it’s not quite a relationship. But we’re…working at it.”
Will gave her a derisive look. “I thought that nonrelationship was over. What’s the point in giving it a second shot if you’re already describing it as work?”
Brynn fiddled with the small napkin beneath her glass. “Yeah, I kind of thought we’d agreed that it wasn’t going anywhere too,” she said in a small voice. “But then he sent these really beautiful flowers…”
“I sent the flowers,” Sophie said grumpily.
“Because Grayson told you to,” Brynn said pointedly.
Sophie took another sip of her drink, trying to wash away the sting of the memory. She didn’t even know why Gray’s request bothered her. It wasn’t like she thought Gray would actually be interested in her. They might have enough sexual tension to burn down their entire office building, but he didn’t even pretend to like her as a person. She’d forever be the slut in the elevator.
So of course she’d known that he wouldn’t choose her.
But did he have to choose Brynn? They had about as much chemistry as two ice cubes. She thought that dull nonrelationship was over.
On the plus side, whatever dopey affection Gray apparently felt toward Brynn didn’t seem to be mutual. Sophie had been watching her sister carefully all night.
It was tricky to spot the differences between Happy Brynn and Worried Brynn. They both wore the same smile, never frowned, and never rose their voices. But unbeknownst to Brynn, she had a tell. She chewed her right ring fingernail when she was worried about something.
And right now, said fingernail was a mangled mess.
Trouble in boring land, Sophie thought with a little thrill of glee.
Still, denying Brynn such a simple favor felt…wrong. Spending an evening with Gray and Brynn together would be painful, but it wouldn’t kill her.
Heck, it might even help dissolve whatever weird pull the man had on her.
And she and Will had pretended to be a couple plenty of times in the past for family parties and work events.
She could do this.
“So if we do this,” Sophie said slowly, “what and where are we talking about? Just like dinner or drinks, right?”
Will groaned. “Don’t cave, Soph. This entire conversation feels like something out of a teen movie.”
Brynn gestured toward a group of leggy brunettes in the corner. “Speaking of teens, that little group of chlamydia carriers over there is making come-hither glances at you.”
Will turned to look at the girls in question before giving a slow smile. “Very nice,” he said with an appreciative second glance.
“Don’t let us keep you,” Brynn said with a wave. “In fact, since you’ve been such a good friend to Sophie all these years, I’ll even give you a five-minute start before calling the cops and letting them know that there’s a child predator buying appletinis for high school sophomores.”
“To be fair, I think they must at least be juniors,” Sophie mused. “Look at the one on the end; she has boobs.”
“Damn fine ones too,” Will said with a wink as he stood. “Much as I’m enjoying this riveting talk about that piece of granite you two call ‘lover’ and ‘boss,’ I’m sensing far more beneficial company over in that corner.”
“That’s disgusting,” Brynn muttered as Will grabbed his beer and wandered away.
“Oh, come on,” Sophie chided. “They’re not really teenagers. They can’t be much younger than us.”
Sophie frowned when Brynn didn’t respond. “Everything okay?” Sophie asked, noticing that her sister’s eyes had gone from murderous to sad.
“I guess,” Brynn said, not taking her eyes off her glass. “Just a little headache.”
Sophie eyed Brynn’s champagne. Alcohol surely wasn’t going to help a headache, but she didn’t say anything. Bossy, judgmental comments were Brynn’s territory, not Sophie’s.
“Are you sure you really want to date Gray?” Sophie asked, trying to keep her voice gentle.
Brynn nodded enthusiastically, but her eyes looked a little…numb.
Good lord, it’s like she’s a Stepford girlfriend, Sophie realized in horror.
“I think things could be great!” Brynn said woodenly. “Did he tell you I bought him a tie? He said he wore it today.”
Sophie’s heart twisted, but she pasted a smile on her face. Maybe things were more serious than she’d realized. Then again, Gray hadn’t mentioned it, and Sophie certainly hadn’t noticed anything special about today’s tie.
She seemed to vaguely recall monochromatic stripes that looked like every other tie he owned.
This is your sister, she reminded herself firmly. Be supportive.
“Totally. It was just Gray’s style,” she said, patting Brynn’s hand reassuringly.
“What was just my style?”
Sophie’s head snapped up as she stared at her boss in confusion. “What are you doing here?”