The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 21

He studied her again, longer this time, in much more detail, and Kat had no chance against her visible embarrassment, the red rising first to her ears and spreading across her face faster than she could look down. He continued to stare at her in silence, his smirk widening, and Kat began to feel as if she may faint, as if all her body's precious blood was otherwise occupied with reddening her face instead of pumping through her veins.

"Um," she finally said after the silence had stretched longer than she could stand. "Um, I."

"Alright, alright," said Jove with a laugh, "My bad. I just wanted to see if you'd eventually say something. Girls like you are so fascinating to me."

"I," Kat began again, giving up after her 4th stammer.

Jove's smirk morphed to a grin, a bit more lighthearted mirth visible at its edges.

"Shy girls," He clarified. "You're always so funny. Why can't you say anything?" He looked at her more pointedly. "Huh? Are you nervous?" His voice turned cloying, and even in his jest Kat felt something stir within her as it dropped to a pitch similar to the one growled in her ear in her dream. "Why are you nervous?"

"I'm, I'm not," Kat finally forced out, the embarrassment of the recalled dream snapping her out of her stupification. "I'm not."

He raised an eyebrow, the grin still on his face. "If you say so," he surrendered with a shrug, crossing around to his desk chair. "You can sit," he said with a gesture.

Kat selected a chair as well and perched on it nervously as he settled into his, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" he said without opening them.

Kat felt her heart sink. He didn't even remember meeting her, didn't even remember that a new assistant had been hired.

"I'm your new assistant," she said quietly, trying to avoid taking advantage of his momentary sightlessness to stare at him. He was painfully attractive, and Kat felt she had to avert her gaze for her own sake. "I was hired about two weeks ago."

He opened his eyes and slowly leveled his gaze to hers. "I know who you are, Kat. I asked what you're doing here."

A jolt of electricity shot through her at hearing her name leave his lips and she began to stammer again, unsure of how to go about answering the question.

"What?" she finally decided.

"Why are you here, in the office?"

"I'm," she blinked hard, her brain working overtime as she tried to determine exactly why she was there. "I'm supposed to be here, I work here. You told me to answer your calls."

"And have you gotten any calls?" He asks.

"Well , no."

"So, why are you here? Why not just collect the check and stay home?"

"Well, I'm," Kat stopped, realizing that more was at stake here than just her embarrassment. She had to be careful not to let the way he affected her cause her to slip up, she had too much at stake. She took a deep breath, collecting herself. "I'm supposed to be here, that's what they told me to do," she answered quietly.

"Yea?" Jove replied, staring her down steadily. "And let me guess. You always do what you're told, don't you."

The sultry tone of his voice made Kat's blush deepen and she cursed her skin for betraying her emotions so readily.

He laughed, clearly amused at the way she was reacting to him, and held his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, alright, my bad. I'm being a dick, aren't I? You're nervous."