Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
In my car, I squeeze the steering wheel hard, trying not to grind my teeth. Aaron has made it clear he won’t wait forever. If I don’t give him what he wants, Grandma will—
I cut that thought off too.
The site is a low-income housing project. Dominic Vale is famous for these. He has a reputation for spreading himself thin, never splurging on expensive offices or appearances. He takes the money earned on big contracts and gives it back to the city.
I park and go to one of the two trailers being used as offices on site. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see a woman sitting behind a desk. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, with long, colorful nails, eyebrows to match, and beautiful bracelets jangling on her wrist.
I’ve never been overly self-conscious, but I have to admit… women like this make me feel a little strange.
“Hey, darling,” she says. “Izzy, yeah?”
I smile. “Yeah.”
She nods to a chair on which a utility vest and a hard hat are resting.
“Good luck out there,” she says with a smile as I put it on.
I return to the site. The housing comprises four squat units, condos, surrounding a plaza, which will eventually have a garden. One unit is almost completed, the basic structure, at least.
I stand on the edge of the site, watching as men hurry here and there. Somebody cracks a joke and everybody laughs. It probably has nothing to do with me, and yet the thought still taunts me.
“Ten fucking days?”
I turn toward the yelling. Dominic Vale stands in front of a partially built unit, his phone looking tiny in his big hand. I’ve seen him on the cover of magazines, tall and broad, with striking dark, intense blue eyes, and black hair with subtle threads of silver in it. He’s thirty-three, but he carries himself like a man with much more experience.
He hangs up as he glares around the job site. Curls of black hair poke out from under his hard hat.
I watch as he strides across the site. Men move instantly out of his way. When I was researching his low-income-housing projects, as well as his donations to charity, I expected somebody less… terrifying.
Is that the right word?
Something warm coils in my belly as I stare at his suit jacket pulled tightly across his wide back, emphasizing his sheer size. The man is enormous. He walks into the other trailer on site and slams the door.
A whistle drags my attention away. I turn, spotting a group of men standing about twenty feet away. They’re looking anywhere but at me, as if they just catcalled and then glanced in the other direction.
Or it was an unrelated whistle that had nothing to do with me. Maybe working at Pike Construction has messed with my head.
“Izzy?” someone says from beside me.
I turn to find a young man standing beside me. He’s on the thicker side, with a mop of brown hair poking out from his hard hat and curling around his ears.
“Yes,” I murmur, looking at his name tag. Ethan Carter, Dominic Vale’s executive assistant.
“Hi.” He offers me his hand. “Ethan Carter.”
“It is nice to officially meet you,” I say as I shake his hand.
“The boss likes his coffee black, no sugar. Me? I’m not as masochistic. I’ll take cream and three sugars. We’ll be in the big boy hut. Good?”
He walks away without waiting for my answer. I don’t even know where the coffee-making facilities are. Maybe they’re in the main office, but if that were the case, everybody would be walking in and out of there all the time.
A man walks by me, holding two giant sacks, the fabric wrapped around his fists. “You lost, darling?”
Whenever anyone calls me darling or something similar, I remind myself they mean nothing by it. At least, I hope they don’t.
“I need to make Mr. Vale some coffee.”
He nods to the almost-completed unit. “Just behind there.”
“Thank you.”
I locate the machine and make the coffee as quickly as I can, more nervous than I’d be if this were just another job. I wish all I had to worry about was getting the coffee order right. Not hunting for information that will tear down this company.
Standing outside the office, I take a deep breath.
When I saw Dominic Vale on the cover of a magazine, my first thought was, Whoa, he’s hot. But then Aaron gave me my twisted mission, and I knew I could never think that again.
I knock on the door with my elbow.
“Yes?” Dominic barks, sounding distracted and angry. “Come in!”
CHAPTER 2
DOMINIC
Izzy Jenkins walks into the office, balancing two coffee mugs. She’s an attractive woman, no doubt about that. Short with curves that show through the high-vis and the chunky jeans and boots she’s wearing. Her eyes are bright, somewhat withdrawn, but intelligent.
She places the coffee in front of me. I smell her perfume, then push that thought away. I am not the sort of man who notices my employee’s perfume.