Billionaire With a Twist(22)
I looked down at my ratty T-shirt and baggy jeans, chosen for this walk because they were the most comfortable thing to have an anxiety attack in. Definitely not my most seductive combo, but then, I wasn’t looking to get laid tonight. “Nah, I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry I led you to believe that was a question and not a command,” Martha said, holding the door for me. “If you don’t have anything good, we’ll hit the mall first. We’re taking the Rolls Royce—Mr. Knox lets me use it for emergencies, and believe me, the state of that outfit definitely qualifies as a disaster.”
#
The first few minutes of the drive were spent trying to not scream as I clutched at the seat with white knuckles, Martha laughing maniacally as she gunned the engine.
“Are you trying to exceed the speed of light?” I shouted.
“Hey, if I can time-travel to the start of this party, it just increases the size of my future man-harem. You think I should stop at seven? I’m thinking I could handle nine, but I don’t want anyone to get jealous. Sooo boring.” She laughed wildly, and leaned on the gas pedal.
I hung on for dear life, mouthing prayers to baby Jesus.
Once we got to the interstate, Martha slowed down to something approaching the speed limit and turned down the country music blaring from the speakers. Carrie Underwood’s voice dwindled down to almost nothing as Martha turned to me. “So, how’s work?”
“Ugh,” I said. “Like slamming my face into a shark, but less rewarding.”
Martha laughed, and patted my knee. “Oh, you poor thing.”
“I’m hoping going out tonight will jar something loose,” I said. Maybe I shouldn’t have been confiding so much in Hunter Knox’s assistant, but she was just so laid back, so real, so easy to talk to. Also, the near-death experience of her driving was making me want to get some things off my chest. “Help some of the things rattling around my brain connect, spark something.”
“Speaking of sparks, you and Mr. Knox…” Martha started with a sly smile.
“He told you about that?” I blurted. “It was just the one time, I swear—”
Martha’s eyes widened. “Holy moly, girl, you mean you actually cracked old Stoneface?”
Well, the cat was out of the bag now. I took a deep breath. “One time, like I said. Before I got this job. Before I even knew he was the one who could get me this job.”
“And that’s the reason why you haven’t been making any more moves on him?” She cocked an eyebrow at me, paying an alarmingly low amount of attention to the road. “Girl, your reasoning is flawed. Have you seen that ass? Ain’t no amount of corporate ethics worth passing up that ass.”
I admitted that I had indeed seen that ass, and it was a fine ass indeed. “But I can’t get caught up in some relationship drama. This is my first real big chance to prove myself at work. And he’s got worries of his own; he doesn’t need me mooning around over him. Plus, it was nothing. Just a random hook-up. No big deal.” My attempt at sounding nonchalant fell flat. I’ve always been a bad liar.
“Right.” Martha rolled her eyes. “Look, I can tell he’s into you. I’ve never seen him light up the way he does when anyone mentions your name. And Hunter’s into all that noble ‘proving yourself’ bullshit too. But you’re like the ‘play’ to his all work. And he needs that. So if you ask me, I’d say you two are made for each other.”
I was barely listening to her rattle on, because my mind was stuck on one thing that just didn’t make sense. “Wait a second, Martha. What’s with the ‘proving yourself’ thing? He’s Hunter Knox. What’s he got to prove?” I asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Martha took a hand away from the wheel to gesture, and I struggled to focus on her words instead of on my imminent death as the car swerved slightly. “He spent a couple years after college trying to set up his own business, and it tanked, and Chuck and all the rest of those *s on the board have never let him forget it. They treat him like a total loser, like everything he touches is going to blow up. Never mind that since then he’s actually brought profits up across the board for Knox and gotten up one of the highest employee satisfaction ratings in the country. Never mind how many times he gets on the cover of Forbes or is asked to advise on a government think tank. Nope, who cares about that stuff? For Chuck it’s just a broken record of that one failure, over and over and over again!”
She was practically shouting as she got to the end of the sentence, and she struck the horn angrily as she finished, confusing the hell out of the guy in the pick-up in front of us.
I regarded her thoughtfully. “You’re really loyal to him, huh?”
Martha’s face was serious as she nodded. She took a deep breath, and went on more calmly. “He took a chance on me. My last job before this…I messed up. I messed up bad. My no-good drunk of a dad had cleaned out my savings, and I was barely scraping by, and my boss…he left a bunch of jewelry in his desk, in an open drawer. I saw it, and I thought about all the times he groped my ass or yelled at me for dumb mistakes, and I thought…well, I thought, this is compensation, you know?”
She shook her head, as if trying to shake the memory from it.
“I’m not judging,” I told her.