What on earth was Jack thinking? He was not only the owner of the company that I worked for, but he had been my boyfriend’s stepdad. He came right out of the left field with those comments. And yet, I didn’t find them necessarily creepy. I enjoyed hearing them. I wanted to hear more of it. Oliver had never praised me like that. He rarely ever told me any compliments. There was a lot of growing to do when it came to Oliver. He would still be a boy in many ways, even though he was twenty-five. Sometimes Jack’s fifteen-year-old daughter seemed more mature than he was. But I digress. I had a job to do whether or not Jack had come on to me. I was his personal assistant. Sure, I was a little weary that he would come out of left field and try to get me to suck his cock again, but I was on the fence. Neutral like the Swiss. Barron Luxury Resorts headquarters needed to be a safe space for me at that time.
9 am hit the following day, and Jack entered his office. He flashed me a charismatic smile while holding his coffee.
“Good morning, Isabella. How are you today?” It was at so nothing had happened between us. I enjoyed that, but at the same time, it felt somewhat anticlimactic. Maybe some of me wanted him to continue to say what he had said. I couldn’t tell. I was an emotional wreck after being broken up with Oliver; all I was trying to do was throw myself into work. But my work had a man who called me beautiful. He made my curves seem sexy. No one had ever made my curves seem sexy before. Oliver had always made me feel fat in a way. He had never said I was fat but made me feel like I was.
“All right, look,” Jack said it’s he sat down at his desk. “I don’t want to live in the past and allude to yesterday. Yesterday happened, you were broken up with me, and I said some things that were out of line. But I must tell you that I’ve given Oliver a leave of absence. One of my brothers will be taking over human resources for the time being, and you won’t have to deal with Oliver for a while. I want you to be comfortable at work.”
I pursed my lips while somehow smiling. Seeing him go above and beyond to make me feel that way was nice. I wondered whether or not he was just trying to save his ass, though. “Will you get in trouble for unjustly removing Oliver from his position?”
He chuckled while sipping his coffee. “He’s family and my son. But this is also my company. I can do as I please. It’s not as though he didn’t do anything wrong at the end of the day. He unjustly fired you. And it’s clearly based on a romantic relationship. I never want a romantic relationship to get into anyone’s job description. Work and pleasure should remain separate.”
Oh, how I wanted to roll my eyes. It was like he was convincing himself that he hadn’t said what he said the day prior. Or maybe he was trying to convince me that he wasn’t just a hound dog who thought I was beautiful. If only I had a wake of knowing what his true intentions were. Did I only have a job because he didn’t want me to complain? Or did he feel bad for me that I had been broken up with? I tried my best to keep my focus on work, but it was hard.
“Well, I must admit that I’m happy that I won’t have to see Oliver for a while. I just need some time to get over how he treated me. We had been really close despite our ups and downs. I didn’t want things to end the way that they did. But I didn’t have a choice. He made his bed, and I will never get in it with him again.”
I watched the wheels spin in Jack’s head. He was probably thinking about getting in bed with me. I couldn’t blame him. My guard was lowering just a little bit.
“Look, I know I was unprofessional yesterday, but maybe I can take you out to show you that I’m not a creep.”
“After work?”
“If you’re free.”
I smiled.
Jack took me to a Tex-Mex place. He had asked beforehand where I had wanted to eat, and I told him how much I loved Tex-Mex and how much Oliver hated it. It was crazy to think that at 42 years old, Jack had never even had Tex-Mex. In some ways, at my ripe young age of 24, I felt like I had a lot to show the man. But even that felt wrong. It felt wrong he was admired by someone twice my age.
When we sat down, there was a spark between us. I felt the attraction instantly. Jack had dark hair that was in a faux hawk style. He had stubble on his face but a goatee that centered it. The goatee was peppered with gray, making me feel like I was sitting across from a silver fox. He wore his collared shirt unbuttoned at the top; over his chest was a medallion that I couldn’t quite make out and didn’t want to stare at. The last thing I wanted was for him to know I was attracted to him. I tried to keep my cards close to my chest. The jacket he wore was silk which kind of looked like wool at the same time. Whatever it was, it was crazy expensive. And I could smell his cologne from across the table, but this is a good way. It tickled my nose with spice.
The way that he looked at me, it was like I was staring down into a lion’s eyes. His face was always so serious, yet he was equally as charismatic. “Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked me.
I was completely caught off guard. “Looking at you like what?”
“Looking at me like you find me attractive.”
And there it was. There was a sentence that could change everything. But how was I going to answer it?