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I laughed shakily, waving a hand around. “This place?”
Lincoln’s smile grew, and he waved a manicured hand for me to follow him back toward the elevators. I felt Amon watching me skeptically, but I ignored him, collecting myself.
“You’ll have to excuse the mess,” Lincoln told me as the doors closed. “These offices are relatively new, and it’s still a work in progress.”
“I don’t see a mess,” I admitted, half-thinking of my little studio apartment and what he might think of that.
Lincoln pressed twenty-nine on the board and faced me, his emerald gaze sliding up and down my figure, heat rising to my face.
“Kai and Pax are waiting for us. We’re in between meetings this morning, and we don’t have a lot of time,” he told me, fueling my nervousness again. “But I don’t believe in wasting time.”
“That’s good,” I offered, unsure of what else to say.
“You probably have better things to do on your day off than hang out in a stuffy office building, anyway,” he added.
“Not really,” I mumbled honestly.
He chuckled as the doors opened. It was the fastest elevator ride I’d ever been on in my life. The doors seemed to open almost as soon as they’d closed. The floor was bustling with bodies moving every which way, no one paying any attention to me as Lincoln led me toward the back, glass offices gliding past us as I hurried to keep up with his long stride.
“Do you see the mess now?” he teased without turning.
There was much more chaos here than there had been on the main level, but it was still organized in my eyes. It reminded me of a busy time in the café, everyone in their respective places, but too much to be done.
“Compared to rush at Teatotler’s, this is the Pentagon,” I reassured him, and he laughed again.
We finally stopped before a set of double glass doors, and I saw his two companions from the previous day, sitting inside a massive office on leather sofas. Empty coffee cups sat in front of them both, and they looked up to see us entering. If they had been talking, they fell silent when we entered.
“Boys, you remember Ms. Lynn from the café?”
Both men nodded, rising to extend their hands. Lincoln gestured toward the shorter one, the blond with incredible, piercing azure eyes that bored into me.
“You weren’t properly introduced yesterday, but this is Kai Evans, COO and tech genius of Silverpiece. The brains of the operation, as we call him.”
I took his hand, and he squeezed it quickly, releasing it as the other one grunted. “I resent that.”
“And this ray of sunshine is Paxton Webb, Vice President and resident curmudgeon.”
Paxton snorted in amusement as I took his hand, my own grin widening.
“Curmudgeon,” he chortled. “I’m much too young for that.”
“Aspiring curmudgeon?” Lincoln joked as Paxton released my hand.
They reclaimed their seats and gestured for me to sit, too.
Awkwardly, I perched at the edge of the couch, the soft feel of leather on the back of my thighs foreign and comfortable.
“I again want to apologize for what happened yesterday,” Lincoln told me, pulling his phone out of his breast pocket. His gaze moved toward the screen, but he continued talking to me as he multi-tasked.
“It—that wasn’t your fault,” I reassured him. “We deal with all kinds in there.”
Out of nowhere, a young woman appeared in the doorway. “Yes, Mr. Ray?”
“Can you get us some coffee? And maybe some scones or donuts? Mylee, what do you like?”
I balked, wondering if this was some kind of test. “I don’t really eat breakfast,” I sputtered. “Coffee is fine.”
“Coffee then. Espresso? Cappuccino?”
