Chapter 2

CHAPTER2

“God, I love bacon,” his new assistant murmured with a happy little sigh as she nibbled on what looked like an egg sandwich with an unhealthy amount of bacon while Devyn stood there, wondering why his new assistant was sitting outside at six-thirty in the morning.

“What are you doing here, Miss Dawson?” Devyn drawled as he gestured for the security guard manning the front desk to let them in.

“Besides enjoying a delicious bacon sandwich to start my day?” she asked, grabbing her bag and moving to stand up only to murmur, “Thank you,” when he reached down and took her small hand in his and couldn’t help but notice just how soft her skin was as he helped her up.

“Besides that,” Devyn said, glancing back down at the email that he was trying to make sense of as he opened the door for her.

“I don’t like to be late,” Andi Dawson, the woman that he’d been forced to hire after the last assistant the temp agency sent over decided to have a mental breakdown, murmured absently as she continued nibbling on her sandwich as they made their way to the bank of elevators.

“And?” Devyn asked, reaching over to press the call button before swiping to the next email.

“And I have questions,” Andi murmured, finishing off the last bite of her bacon sandwich with a heartfelt sigh that drew his attention to find the small woman that had been extremely overqualified for the entry-level position that she’d applied for, looking up at him expectantly.

“And what are those questions, Miss Dawson?” Devyn asked, gesturing for her to join him in the elevator.

“Why didn’t you tell me who you were?” Andi asked as she joined him.

“Why didn’t you ask?” he asked, taking in the small woman that probably wouldn’t last the day, from her beautiful brown hair swept up into an elegant bun at the back of her head with strands that looked like silk teasing the back of her neck, mischievous baby blue eyes, an adorable nose, and a plump bottom lip before his gaze lowered to the baby blue blouse that loosely clung to generous curves, the short skirt that ended just above her knees, and the short, but very shapely, tanned legs that ended with a pair of black tennis shoes with Mickey Mouse on the sides that had his lips twitching before he shifted his attention back to the emails waiting for his attention.

Nodding, she murmured, “Fair enough. Then maybe you can tell me what job I was interviewing for?”

“I need a new assistant, Miss Dawson,” Devyn said as he leaned back against the wall.

“And you decided that the best way to go about that was to hire a woman that you knew absolutely nothing about?” she asked, making his lips twitch.

“I know plenty about you,” he assured her as he swiped to the next email.

“I could be a serial killer,” Andi pointed out.

“At this point, I’m willing to take the chance,” Devyn said, willing to do almost anything at this point to fix this mess.

Since he took over as CEO of Carta Hotels a year and a half ago, he’d been fixing one mess right after the other, working his ass off to bring the company that had been on the brink of bankruptcy back to its former glory and doing everything that he could to meet all the requirements of his contract. He’d been given two years to turn this mess around, and so far, he’d been able to surpass every expectation, but now that his contract was set to expire in a few months, Devyn was having a hell of a time getting anything done with every assistant that he hired quitting and making his life a hell of a lot harder than it needed to be.

“That bad?” she asked, looking thoughtful.

“Could be worse,” he admitted as he considered her. “Are you going to take the job?”

“That depends,” Andi said as she reached back into her bag and pulled out a small apple juice.

“On?” he asked, wondering what he was going to do if she didn’t take the job. Probably lose his fucking mind, Devyn thought, watching as the small woman that would probably be better off turning him down and going back downstairs to inquire about the other job took a sip of juice.

“What happened to your last assistant?” Andi murmured, looking thoughtful.

“She decided that the position wasn’t a good fit,” Devyn said, deciding against using the reason Miss Jenkinson gave when she quit since most of it had been mumbled incoherently, and the rest…

Probably wouldn’t help this conversation.

Nodding, Andi said, “She was the woman who made the security guard cry, wasn’t she?”

When he didn’t say anything, she cleared her throat and murmured, “I’m probably going to need a raise.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but…

“Probably.”

* * *

This wasn’t goingto end well, Andi thought, but then again, did anything in her life ever end well? Deciding to see where this went, she followed the large man that apparently had a history of breaking his assistant’s will to live off the elevator and onto a very quiet floor that was tastefully decorated.

“The rest of the executive offices and the boardrooms are on the floor beneath us. The employee cafeteria is on the fourteenth floor. The executive lounge is on the fifteenth floor. Human Resources is on the fifth floor if you need them,” Devyn MacGregor, her new boss and the man that she’d spent most of the night googling, absently explained as he continued looking down at his phone as he led her to a large desk covered in folders, stacks of papers, and…were those empty Kleenex boxes?

Yes, yes, they were, Andi thought, shifting her attention to the man that became all business as soon as the elevator doors slid open, but that wasn’t really surprising given what she knew about Carta Hotels’ youngest CEO. From what she’d been able to find out, which admittedly wasn’t much, her new boss was a workaholic and had brought Carta Hotels from the brink of bankruptcy to being one of the leading luxury hotel chains in the world. He had a reputation for setting impossibly high standards and expecting his employees to do whatever it took to meet them, and as long as he didn’t try sticking her in the accounting department, that was fine with her. More than fine, in fact, she welcomed a challenge, and this job was going to give her exactly that.

She’d never planned on applying for any assistant jobs, never had any interest in doing it, but now that she was here, she was looking forward to trying something different. She could do this, Andi thought, taking in the large desk covered in folders before following Devyn’s gesture as he absently pointed out the kitchenette, the breakroom, the file room, the supply closet, and his office, which was behind the large double doors to the right of her new desk. When he was done, he headed towards his office, his gaze never leaving his phone as he said, “There’s a list on the desk to help you get started.”

And with that…

He was gone.

Curious to see what was expected of her, Andi walked around the large desk and dropped down on the large leather chair with a satisfied sigh, absently noting that the chair was quite comfortable and, after a quick search, found the list on the desk marked “Daily List” and went over it, noting that there was a lot to do, but it really wasn’t that bad. He needed her to fill out an employment packet for Human Resources and call the extension that he’d provided when she was done so that they could send someone to pick up her paperwork.

After that, he wanted coffee, regular with two sugars, one cream, and two shots of caramel syrup, brought to his office every two hours and a bottle of ice-cold water brought to his office every hour on the hour. Still, not that bad, Andi thought, continuing to read through the list as it moved on to things like organizing the folders on her desk, logging in the information from the reports that should be in her in-box, and then taking care of the folders stacked on her desk.

“This isn’t so bad,” Andi murmured to herself, wondering why he was having such a hard time keeping assistants.

She could handle this, Andi thought as she continued reading the list, noting that unless he had a business meeting, he took his lunch in the executive dining room every day at noon, liked to keep his phone meetings in the afternoon when he could, and expected a daily summary of what she’d accomplished, issues that she ran into, and things that required his attention on his desk by five p.m. sharp every day, ensuring that he wasn’t disturbed during the day.

Again, nothing that she couldn’t handle, Andi thought as she got to the end of the list and…realized that there was a second page. She turned the page and found herself frowning as she went through the rest of the list and decided that perhaps she should just get started when she realized that there was a third page. She flipped back to the first page, scanned the list, and decided to start by learning how to make coffee.