The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 46

The next day, after turning down a morning trip to Rises with Emma, Kat was at the office earlier than ever. She'd taken special care with her appearance as she had the day before, but still fussed at herself in the elevator mirror, flipping her hair first over her shoulder and then back, looking at herself from every possible angle.

Remembering the cameras in the elevator she froze, feeling silly. Her actions were in no way suspicious, but the idea that someone may be watching her primp and preen herself for an encounter with her boss, her mind clearly on how attractive she could look for him, was humiliating and made her want to sink into the floor. She knew she was projecting, that more than likely no one was watching her, that no one was coming to the conclusions she assumed they were. No one but her.

She was acting in a way she found beyond embarrassing, pathetic almost. She was acting lovesick, lovesick for someone she wasn't even in a relationship with. Lovesick for a terrible man, a man she claimed to hate. It was getting harder to think of him as terrible, harder to associate the evils and greed of Tillibenton industry with the man sitting in front of her.

He was kind, and he was sweet, and he was funny, so funny. She loved to talk to him. She felt comfortable with him. She felt a spark with him. More than a spark, she knew that. A shock, a jolt, a full on electrocution, her last meal offered and rejected just to more quickly feel his electricity pulse through her body.

You still havent done anything wrong, she reminded herself as the elevator neared 55. You still haven't crossed any line. Just. stay. Focused. She pressed her eyes shut as she came to a stop and the doors slid open. Please stay focused.

She opened her eyes to find the office swarming abloom as if in springtime, vases crammed with bursting bouquets of eye-catching lilies on every available surface, some even lining the floor across the right wall. The room was filled with a near overpowering floral scent, filling her nostrils and making her blink hard, partially to question if she was really seeing what she thought she saw.

She stepped out of the elevator, head turning slowly. It was more flowers than she'd ever seen, more flowers than the arrangement on the ceiling of the B even, and the floor was almost unrecognizable to her, looked far more akin to a gaudy parade float than the space she'd been working in for the last few weeks.

She walked further into the room, still marveling. On closer inspection, each vase had at least three distinct types of lilies, the combinations and variations apparently endless. Some of the vases were tied around the middle with thin, permeable pink ribbon, and each lily was more delicate than the last, the colors more vibrant, the shape more remarkable. A vase of lilies even sat on her chair, and she stared at it, paralyzed by indecision, wondering if she should move it.

"Kat, is that you?"

She turned to see that Jove had just opened his door, outfitted in a dark navy suit that set off his eyes, making them even more hypnotizing.

"What are you doing here so early?" he asked.

"I was gonna." Kat stopped, realizing asking him the same question in return would be fruitless. "What is all this?" she finished instead.

"Lilies," he said. "You said you liked the ones from yesterday."

"Jove I," Kat stuttered at a loss. "Jove, it's too much."

"I wanted to show my appreciation," he said with a smile. "Maybe I just appreciate you too much."

Kat blushed.

"Jove," she started, relishing the feel of his name on her tongue. "Jove, it's nice, I do like it, I love lilies, but it's too much. I don't even want all this, I can't appreciate it. And it's all gonna die and then it was a waste, you know? I think one vase is so pretty," she rambled on, avoiding his gaze. "Two, three, even. But this has to be, her eyes darted around as she did quick calculations. This has to be like 60."

"65," he offered, a smile still on his face. "My florist called it his tour de force, he had photographers in here this morning and everything."

"I don't want you to be offended," she said, swallowing hard. "It's just it's." She paused, her heart in her throat. "It's just really bad for the environment."

She looked up, surprised to find him still smiling at her.

"All right," he said lightly. "65, bouquets, 55 floors, I'll have someone come and take one to every receptionist and the extras go to the lobby. You pick your favorite."

Kat turned in a circle again, surveying the room and eventually selecting a vase of white calla lilies that were similar to the first ones Jove had left her a few days ago.

"These are my favorites," she told him with a smile. "The first ones you got."

"See?" said Jove, turning back into his office. "I know how to make you happy. C'mon."

Kat, relieved at the lack of confrontation, followed him into the office, her briefcase pressed under her armpit and the vase in both hands. She set the vase on the side table then joined Jove at his desk, spinning his laptop to face her as if she'd done it hundreds of times and pulling it open.

"Password?" she asked unassumingly, hoping to make him smile.

Jove laughed. "What if I told you it's password?" he replied, spinning the laptop back to face him and quickly typing out a long series of numbers and letters that couldn't have possibly been that simple.

"I'm your assistant, what if I need it for something?

"I'll give you anything you need," he replied with an inviting, thrilling smirk, his eyes growing unreadable. "Just ask."

Kat grabbed a curl and spun it in her fingers nervously. "So," she redirected. "Where were we yesterday?"

"Not sure," Jove replied, still looking at her in the same way. "We kept getting distracted."

Kat sat up, that word like a trigger for her recollection of her mission.