CHAPTER TWO
“Mr. Knight will see you now.”
Sophie flickered a nervous smile at the immaculately dressed woman in front of her. She’d spent most of the day at work running through potential answers for possible questions that might be thrown at her, but one glimpse of the glossy, black Knight Inc. Building had chased all of her carefully memorised words out of her head. Its predatory presence on the busy road intimidated the hell out of her, and she’d seriously considered turning away.
She already had a job. She didn’t need another one.
Then she’d caught sight of her reflection in the mirrored glass. Kara had been true to her word and waved her magic wand yesterday, leaving Sophie barely able to recognise the sexy, sophisticated woman gazing back at her. The jacket of the dark business suit nipped right in at the waist and then followed close against her curves. The pencil skirt ended just a hair’s breadth from being too short, and her Mary Jane high heels added at least three inches to her legs. Kara was a designer clothes junkie, and she’d turned up with an armful of work clothes that were a world away from Sophie’s off the peg, ordinary attire. The moment she’d slid into the deep inky purple suit, something extraordinary happened. She wasn’t just Sophie, the local builder’s PA any more. She was an enhanced version of herself, someone sassy and sophisticated. Someone brand new, open to endless possibilities.
Much of that confidence had drained away as she’d sat in the reception on the top floor waiting to be called through, and she could just as easily have bolted as follow the woman along the plush carpet of the corridor.
She felt physically sick.
But then they came to a halt in front of a door at the end, and after tapping it once, the woman opened it and stood aside so she could go through.
Sophie swallowed hard and stepped inside.
In the usual course of things, Sophie didn’t lust after other men. But from the moment she stepped inside that room, she couldn’t take her eyes off Lucien Knight.
This wasn’t the usual course of things.
Tall, dark and handsome was nowhere near the mark. He was tall, definitely, but with dirty blonde hair and flint blue eyes that were now fixed on her with a predatory look of interest. He wasn’t exactly in business dress, either. He might have been, earlier in the day, but right now he was down to a close-fitting charcoal shirt with the cuffs turned back to reveal strong, tanned forearms. He’d loosened his equally dark tie and popped his top button, and if he’d put his feet up on the desk and produced a glass of whisky, Sophie wouldn’t have been altogether surprised. He looked like he’d tumbled out of a club, or stepped straight from the centre-fold of a glossy hipster magazine. Or in fact, make that a top shelf one.
“Come in, Ms. Black. I won’t bite.”
She walked across the room.
“… unless you want me to?” he murmured as an afterthought, and raised an eyebrow at her as she took a seat opposite him at the desk.
It certainly wasn’t a question Sophie had devised an answer for in her interview preparation. Was she supposed to respond, or pretend she hadn’t heard? Thankfully, as she considered it, Mr. Knight moved on.
“So, Ms. Black. Why do you want to be my PA?”
Phew. Safer territory. A question she had prepared for.
“Well, I’ve been in my current position for several years, and I feel like I need a new challenge.” She watched him watching her. Her words seemed to amuse him.
“I see,” he nodded. “But why here, specifically? Why Knight Incorporated?”
Sophie crossed her ankles and knotted her fingers in her lap to stop them from fidgeting. “Well… because it’s very different from what I do at the moment.” Hah. That was the understatement of the year. He was still watching her intently, but his expression gave nothing away. “And because… because, well, to be perfectly honest, I’m bored, Mr. Knight.” His eyes flickered, letting her know she’d finally said something that surprised him. A silence stretched out between them as he seemed to weigh up her words.
“Do you know why I called you in for interview?” he asked, eventually.
Sophie stalled. “My CV?”
He nodded. “You sealed it with a kiss. I wanted to see the lips that made that mark.”
His answer knocked the breath clean out of her lungs and sent hot prickles shooting up her neck. This was beginning to feel less like an interview and more like someone coming on to her in a bar, and that hadn’t happened to her in some considerable time.
“You blush too easily, Ms. Black.” He twirled a pen in his fingers. “Trust me, that’s not a good thing in this industry.”
His mouth twisted to one side, that assessing look still in his eyes. “This isn’t an industry for shy girls.” He leaned forwards on his elbows and steepled his fingers. “Are you a shy girl, Sophie?”
Jeez this was ridiculous. Sophie couldn’t tell if he was making fun of her, and a fair part of her brain was shouting at her to hightail it out of the building back to the safety of her ordinary, mundane life. But something held her in her chair, and that same something gave her the boldness to meet his challenging look and answer his question.
“No, Mr. Knight. I’m not especially shy.”
“It’s Lucien.”
Lucien. Crap. Even his name was sexy.
“Okay Sophie. Here’s the deal. I need someone who can do all the usual PA stuff. You already know what that is so I won’t bore you with a list, but it includes making a decent cup of coffee. Is that a problem for you?”
Sophie shook her head and laughed, almost giddy with relief. Emboldened, she replied, “That’s a little chauvinistic of you, Mr. Knight.”
“Lucien.”
“Okay, well… for the record, yes. I make a mean cup of coffee, Lucien.” Sophie tasted his name for the first time and felt as if she’d said something far dirtier.
“I’ll need you to accompany me to meetings, exhibitions, the odd commercial trip. I keep odd hours. Will that bother you?”
He was all business now, and the look on his face brooked no argument. Sophie frowned. Her first thought was for Dan, but then didn’t he give exactly the same service to his boss without a thought for her?
“Not a problem,” she said smoothly.
“So far, so good.” He nodded in approval, and scrubbed a hand over his chin for a few seconds as he studied her.
“I don’t know, Sophie. You tick all the boxes, and yet…”