Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3)(42)

Finally, they sat for dinner. They got to pick their seats, so Marcus invited a couple of admin assistants to join them. He started gossiping with them immediately, effectively excluding Krista because she could nowhere near keep up, and definitely didn’t want to.

Instead, she people watched. It was out of boredom, sure, but she needed to get to know her enemies. She needed to figure out what she was up against, and come up with a way to effectively work around them. Or go through them. Or over them. Or stab them. Whichever worked.

The first thing of note was that many of the mangers knew each other. They talked sports and sometimes about golf or cigars. There was a defined pecking order. A few guys got deferential treatment, many were their groupies, and a few others were obviously the nerds and mostly ignored. They stood around in groups (girls would call them cliques) talking and laughing, and unconsciously complementing each other on being men.

As Krista watched, she noticed quite a few men were self-conscious—looking around, fidgeting, and following the conversation rather than an active part in it. Even more were trying to puff up for the passing admins, thinking with their anatomy instead of their position. It was gross. And not professional.

Sean was working his way through them, acting like the ambitious new guy everyone wanted to measure up. As such, they were vying for his attention like a bunch of girls. Women and men both turned to look as he approached, eager to meet him and exchange a few words. He was smiling and confident, enthusiastically shaking hands and being the man’s man they expected. He was having no problems fitting in.

Wanting someone to talk to, Krista turned back to Marcus, but he was leaning the other way, whispering something conspiratorially to the three women he was talking to. With each word, he transformed further into just another admin assistant, effectively closing off the manager he’d walked around with earlier. He was doing his job. Part of Krista wished he wasn’t so great at it.

In a quick depression, she stared at her wine and thought about ways to further improve her department. As she was doing a quick rundown of numbers in her head, she noticed the seat in front of her disturbed. She figured it was Sean, but her quick glance told her she was wrong. Instead, it was a guy over six feet tall with wavy dark-brown hair and deep blue eyes. He was attractive, if not gorgeous, and had a lean body. Besides that, there was something about him that was sexy as hell.

“Hello,” Marcus said as the stranger sat down.

Oh, sure—when a hot guy comes over he makes conversation my way!

The man’s blue eyes shifted from Krista to Marcus. “Hey, bro. Blake.”

“Marcus. Nice to meet you.” Apparently Marcus also thought their new visitor was sexy as well.

Blue eyes met Krista’s blue-gray and waited.

“Krista,” she supplied.

Blake quirked an eyebrow. “Which region are you from?”

“L.A. You?”

“New York. I saw you over here looking bored. Thought I might entertain you. I wondered how I got so lucky that you weren’t with the other admins…”

Krista’s butt actually clenched. Possibly to keep her jaw from doing so. “I’m not part of their club.”

“Oh? And which club would that be?”

“The administrative club.”

“Oh, so you’re the female manager out of Los Angeles that took Phil’s spot?” Blake was obviously surprised. He knew there was one, so what type of woman was he expecting? Older, perhaps? Manly, maybe?

“That’s me.”

“Huh. I heard she was a bitch.”

Oh. Apparently Krista wasn’t wearing her bitch face. She might remedy that...

“Relax,” Marcus breathed quietly. Blake’s eyes flashed.

Krista didn’t need the reminder. Hot guys trying to get a rise out of her was as familiar as sexual harassment. She was on home turf. She also needed to stop meeting guys in bars.

“Biggest bitch of the company, in the flesh,” she said, confidence purring under her words. “Most effective, as well. I don’t have a penis to get in the way of my decisions.”

Blake smiled silkily at the jest and smiled. “A pleasure.”

Krista’s sexy parts purred to match her voice.

The chair moved to Krista’s side. On her other side, Marcus smiled.

“Hi Blake, nice to see you,” Sean’s deep voice greeted pleasantly. There was a warning in that voice. Subtle, but powerful.

“McAdams. How are you finding the job?” Blake didn’t sound pleased to see Sean.

“It’s great. I’ve settled in nicely.”

“Oh yeah? I heard it was a rough start.”

“Changing things always is.”

Blake looked at him in silence for a second, and then smiled as he turned his eyes back to Krista. “Krista, it was a pleasure. I’ll talk to you again. Enjoy your dinner.”

Krista sighed as Blake glanced at Marcus and smoothly got up. She watched him walk over to a table across the floor holding one of the heavy hitters—a large statured man who had already proven to be in the upper tier of the many cliques. With him were three other serious-looking silver haired foxes. If ego was an air-freshener, that table would be polluting the whole place with its stench.

Blake wasted no time checking out the clusters of young admins. The slut was joining the table of egos to learn a thing or two.