CHASING TROUBLE

“First of all, it’s not an act, and Secondly, It is your name, is it not?” Caroline shot back,”

“Actually, it’s my father’s name, and I thought we were past that Caroline. You agreed to call me Nick,”

“I don’t remember agreeing to that. I agreed to use Nicholas, but now that you’re technically my boss, I think I’d rather stick to Mr Connelly from now on.”

“I don’t see why that should be a problem,”

“I never said it was a problem. I just think that certain boundaries should be kept since we work together. I suggest we should keep things… Professional between us,” Caroline didn’t mean to sound defensive, but something about Nicholas made her put an extra wall around herself, almost like she couldn’t trust herself to be around him. Her time with him at the Connelly house had proven that she had little self control around him, and if she was going to keep her job, then she had to keep him at arms length.

Nicholas nodded, “So I see that we’re back to being rude to each other,” he said.

It was more of a statement than a question, so Caroline said nothing. If being rude was going to take these feelings away, then so be it. She wished he’d go away so she’d have some time to pull herself together. She didn’t like how good he looked. She didn’t like how the office seemed to get smaller simply because he was in it, and she didn’t like his perfume clouding her senses. She lifted her chin, proud of herself for holding it together, “If you don’t mind, Mr Connelly, I have a lot of work to do and I’d like to get to it,”

Nicholas got the message quite clearly. She didn’t want to be friendly at all. Well if she wanted to be like that way, then who was he to act otherwise? He dug his hands into his pants pocket and straightened, “Fine,” he said, “I suggest we meet tomorrow at the coffee shop down the road during your lunch break so we can discuss Kay Corp,”

“That sounds fine by me,” Caroline replied, and watched as Nicholas turned and left the office so she could finally breathe properly once again.

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Caroline put more thought into her outfit the next day than she usually did, and she hated the fact that she tired so hard. This wasn’t a date, and she didn’t want to impress Nicholas with her outfit, she told herself over and over again, but it didn’t change the fact that she had put in that extra effort just because of him.

It was even more embarrassing since she’d given him that speech about being professional and here she was, making sure that her outfit would look appealing to him. Why did his opinion matter and what did that make her? A hypocrite. At least she was honest with herself.

It was time for her Lunch break, and Caroline headed out of her office. She didn’t want to be late, but she didn’t want to seem too eager, so she took controlled, but not very slow steps towards the elevator, out the building and towards the nearby coffee shop. She could have taken her car, but she decided to walk since the coffee shop wasn’t so far away.

The coffee shop wasn’t filled up at the moment and as she was about to find a table to sit and wait, someone lifted a hand to call her attention. Caroline’s heart sank. Nicholas had beat her to the place and as she moved towards him, she could tell by his expression that he wasn’t in a good mood.

Nicholas watched Caroline approach, and mentally scolded himself noticing her. Caroline, no matter how beautiful she was, was not his type. Yeah, she was sexy as hell even when she wasn’t trying, but he felt she was too good for him. She was smart, cool, collected and she argued with him about everything. He liked his women submissive. The kind who didn’t ask too many questions and never challenged him, but Caroline was the complete opposite of that.

Why then did he feel like this when she was near? He noticed everything about her. From her auburn hair which was tied neatly into a bun at the back of her head, to the white shirt underneath the blue jacket, to the matching blue skirt that stopped just above her knee, to the white shoes, and to the red nail polish on her perfectly pedicured toenails.

Nicholas had never noticed or cared about the color of polish on a woman’s toenails before, but he did now and it angered him a little bit. She wanted to keep things professional between them, and that was how it was going to be.

“Good afternoon, Mr Connelly,” Caroline said and took her seat, “You’re here early,”

“And you are five minutes late,” he shot back angrily.

Caroline’s eyes met his. She saw the anger in them, but managed to keep her cool, which only infuriated him the more. “I’m sorry, Mr Connelly,” she said calmly in that voice of hers that sounded like sin, “I tried to be here as soon as possible,”

“Well, don’t let it happen again,” said Nicholas, dismissing her statement, “If we’re going to be working together, then I suggest we stick to the agreed time and not a minute after. Isn’t that the professional thing to do?”

Caroline closed her eyes and mentally counted up to ten before she opened them again. The last thing she wanted was to lose a job she’d had for almost three years simply because she gave the boss’ son a piece of her mind, but boy, did she want to say something to him. Nicholas clearly thought he could just swoop in, take over everything and give orders the way he wanted…. Well, clearly he could but that was not the point. She also hadn’t failed to notice the way he’d put emphasis on the word ‘professional’ when he spoke. It told her that he was still mad about their conversation the previous day, and the knowledge that she’d gotten so far under her skin brought her some comfort. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, even if she didn’t mean it, “I’ll try my best to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,”