Page 7 of Jonas

That had me stopping at her desk.

I’d learned Nat had a lot of first dates, but few made the cut to round two, and there’d only been two that had made it to date three in the six months I’d known her.

Nat was twenty-five, model gorgeous and as previously noted, wicked smart. But that wasn’t what I found most impressive. It was her confidence I was in awe of. She knew her worth and wouldn’t settle for less than exactly what she wanted. Something that at thirty-two I’d yet to master.

“Oh, really?” I drawled. “I didn’t think you were interested.”

She crinkled her nose. “I was being a little judgy.”

In my opinion, judgy wasn’t a bad thing as such, not when it came to the people you allowed into your life. I’d learned the hard way to judge the fuck out of people. There was a difference between judging and condemning. Just because someone did something or acted a certain way that I found unacceptable didn’t mean the behavior was wrong, it just meant it wasn’t something I’d tolerate having in my life.

“How so?”

“Well, he’s a bartender.” She paused and crinkled her nose again. “He’s cute and funny, and we had a really great date but I thought that was all to him. He didn’t talk a lot about himself. He kept the conversation about me. It was sweet. Most guys like to talk about themselves. So, I got judgy thinking that was it, he just wanted to be a bartender for the rest of his life. And that’s fine. But I know myself. I need someone whose ambition matches my own.”

“I take it he doesn’t just want to be a bartender for the rest of his life.”

“No. He just started a master’s program at Northwestern’s Arlington campus for project management and he has an engineering degree with a focus on energy systems.”

“So a good match,” I noted.

“And a lesson not to be so judgmental. Just because someone’s hot with tattoos and slings drinks with a flirtatious smile doesn’t mean there’s not more to them.”

Why did my thoughts immediately drift to that hot guy, Cash, and his quick comebacks and megawatt smile? I’d bet there was something brewing under his wit. Something he didn’t want the world to see. But it wasn’t Cash I’d been thinking about since my meeting with Z Corps yesterday, it was the mysterious Jonas with his dark hair, perfectly trimmed beard, and his dark brows that highlighted his beautiful blue eyes. The man looked rough and ready, like he could take down a threat just by glaring at it.

I wondered if Jonas had tattoos and if he did where they were.

“Hello,” Nat called. “Earth to Amy.”

I blinked away my musings of Jonas and refocused.

“You might be right, but a girl can never be too careful.”

My phone in my purse beeped, the tone alerting me it was my personal phone, the one very few people had the number to. One of those few was Zane Lewis.

“Do you need to check that?” Nat asked.

Hell to the no. There were cameras covering every inch of the Delcon complex. An employee couldn’t make a move without it being recorded. I didn’t dare take my personal phone out of my purse. The phone I used for work was encased in a cherry-red cover. If anyone were to ever look back at the footage, they’d only ever see me using the red cell.

“Nope. I should’ve turned it off before I left my desk. Tonight is a no-phone-zone. I’m taking a bubble bath then binging bad TV with a bag of popcorn,” I smoothly lied.

Though I did wish that was the truth. I couldn’t remember the last time I turned on the TV, never mind taking a bubble bath.

“Night, ladies.” Another co-worker, Seth, called as he strode by Nat’s desk.

“See you tomorrow, Seth,” Nat returned.

I watched the older man give Natalie a tight smile. A prickle hit the back of my neck, a twinge I’d learned never to ignore. Seth was not the tight smile kind of man. He was open and friendly and if given the opportunity would wax poetic about his wife and kids. He was open about that, too, how much he loved his family. He was always in a good mood and had never in the months I’d known him not had a genuine smile on his face at the end of the day when he left work to go home to the family he adored.

“Have a good night, Nat.”

“You, too.”

I quickly caught up to Seth and slipped into the elevator beside him.

“Crazy day,” I mock-complained.

My day had been boring as hell.