International Player(33)

“Ready?”

I jumped when Noah strode in. He’d offered to come in to do a final run-through before I went to Artemis’s offices.

“Well, I would be if you’d sent me the idea you had. It’s freaking me out that this thing isn’t finalized with only hours left.”

He frowned before taking a seat, but didn’t respond.

“Noah!”

“What?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard a word I’d said.

“When I saw you at Abigail and Rob’s on Saturday, you said you had an idea for the Artemis presentation that you wanted to talk to me about.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Saturday. How was your date?”

“It was fine. What was your idea? You said you’d email it to me.” Noah was always on his phone. I didn’t understand why he hadn’t replied to my messages.

“Fine? What does that mean? On a scale of one to ten where was it?”

Why was he talking about Saturday night when he was supposed to be helping me prepare for the presentation?

I wanted to forget about Saturday night. Seeing him just before I was going off to have dinner with another guy had been weird. It wasn’t as if anything was happening with Noah. Sure, there’d been the kiss. And the . . . situation in the changing room. But nothing since. It wasn’t as if he’d suddenly decided I was the woman for him and declared his love for me. In fact it had irritated me more than it should that he’d had almost no reaction to me going on a date at all.

So why was he so interested now?

“It was a solid seven. Now, please, can you tell me what’s wrong with this presentation?” I wasn’t sure seven was an accurate number. More like a five point two, but I figured a higher number would discourage questions.

“Seven. Okay.” He slid forward and took the presentation from me. He rested his ankle on his leg and flicked through the pages, scanning each one from top to bottom. “So seven must mean there’s going to be a second date.”

“Are you playing the big-brother card?”

He looked up at me from under his brow. “I think you know that we’d both be in jail if I was your brother. So that’s a yes to a second date?”

“Why do you care?” I asked. Part of me, a big part of me, was hoping he’d ask me not to go out on any more dates.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” he muttered and leaned forward, smacking the presentation down in front of me and pointing to page three. “There. A missing full stop.”

“Are you kidding me? A bloody full stop? That’s what you had me panicking about?”

“Grammar is important, Truly. And I always had you down as a perfectionist.”

“You’re an arsehole.” I’d already spotted the missing full stop and asked my assistant to make the changes to the copies I’d take with me. Noah needed a new job if this was the kind of thing that was making him call and message me on a Saturday.

He chuckled. “Your mouth has gotten dirtier.” He pulsed his eyebrows up, and I ignored the somersault my stomach did.

I shook my head. “Shall we do a run-through in the boardroom?” I rounded my desk.

He stood and took a step toward me, standing a little too close. “You look pretty today.” He lifted my hair behind my shoulders, exposing my neck.

“Noah?” I stepped back, and his hands fell away. He’d kissed me. That was it. It had been a moment of madness, which was over.

Abigail had been right. I needed to date instead of spending all my time thinking about Noah. I’d been there before.

“Let’s go through the presentation. I can’t afford to mess this up.”

“You know you’re going to be fine,” Noah said as he followed me out. “You’re getting so good at this stuff, you’re not going to need me soon.”

I came to an abrupt halt at the door to the boardroom. “Are you saying you don’t want to do this anymore?”

He stood so near that I could feel his breath on my cheek, and his body heat at my side. “I’m here for as long as you want me.” His voice was low and serious, and a tiny part of me I kept hidden from daylight wanted to believe he meant in my life and not just to help me with the foundation while Abigail was away.

I took a breath and opened the door. “I’m not ready for you to leave. Not yet.”

The problem was, the longer he stayed, the less likely it was that I’d ever want him to go.

Maybe it was time to admit defeat. Or at least come up with a new strategy.





Eighteen





Noah


I liked making decisions, felt comfortable when I was in charge. So it felt good to be back in a suit and behind a desk.

“Is the meeting with the healthcare guys set up?” I asked my assistant. In my head I called him Earnest George, as he had a habit of nodding so hard it made me wince on behalf of his neck.

“Yes, and you have various potential investee meetings.” He pulled out a sheet of paper from his file and placed it in front of me. “In fact, I’ve printed off your calendar for next week and synched it to your phone.”

I nodded, scanning the next week of appointments. Walking away from New York and my company with nothing but fifteen million dollars hadn’t been difficult. There were fifteen million reasons that made it easier. My challenge now was to figure out what I wanted to do next, but I was finding my feet.