I'm used to rich guys. I worked for more than a few in my past, and Mark himself, my most recent asshole of a boss, was pretty well off.
None of them had anything on this apartment.
Jungkook is right in the heart of downtown, in one of the brand new skyscraper buildings they've been putting up for all the newcomers migrating to the cool city of Busan.
Even from the outside, I can tell he's rolling in it. But when I enter the lobby and find a doorwoman inside, who directs me to the penthouse – "Mr Jeon is expecting you," – I realize I'm on a whole other level with this guy.
"Let me help you," she offers sweetly, as I'm struggling with the two-seater baby stroller I brought for Haru and Areum, which was hell to handle on the bus. She helps guide me over to the elevator, hustles me and the twins inside, and pushes the top button for me, swiping a keypad as she does. "Good luck," she adds just as the doors start to close, and for the first time since I arrived, I feel a spike of nerves.
Good luck?
Why?
Is there something wrong with this guy?
Crap.
What if he's one of those crazy employers who demand insane things from his employees?
Maybe he just invited me to bring the kids and seemed so flexible because he's such a terror that he can't keep assistants any other way.
I bite my lower lip, trying to reign in my nervousness, as the elevator doors ding open.
The elevator opens onto a single apartment, no other door, or lock, or anything.
I guess that's why the elevator had a key card the doorwoman had to swipe.
I've never seen an elevator open right into an apartment like this. I push the babies out into the apartment, and the elevator closes behind me.
I'm busy gawking at the apartment – it's two-stories tall, with an open plan, so I can see straight up over twenty feet to the ceiling, which has huge skylights set into it.
Outside the tall glass windows, there's a wraparound balcony, and beyond the balcony, a gorgeous view of downtown Busan, complete with the rivers and the lush green parks dotted around town, the reason everyone has lately come to love my adopted hometown.
The place is tastefully decorated – not what I pictured if I had to imagine the bachelor pad a man like Jungkook would inhabit.
There are warm paintings on the walls, scenes of farms and really lovely landscapes. a big fireplace in the middle of the room, complete with a cosy little writing or reading nook beside it, and a ton of bookshelves to boot.
Perfect.
I could never like a man who didn't read.
I shake myself, not that I need to like Jungkook.
I just need to be okay enough with him to work for him. And at this point, I could talk myself into working for just about anybody.
That's when I hear the soft sound of a throat being cleared behind me. I jump and whirl around, and I swear my whole body freezes in place.
Jeon Jungkook is even sexier in person than he was in his photos.
He's dressed in slacks and a light blue work shirt, but even through that shirt, I can see the bulge of his pecs, the flat plane of his stomach.
He towers over me, 6-foot-something-I-can't-even-guess. Right now, though, his chocolate eyes are narrowed and hard, almost glaring down at me.
Shit.
What did I do wrong? He told me to bring the kids!
"H-hi, Mr Jeon," I say, barely covering my stammer. "Er. I'm Kim Taehyung, we emailed earlier…"
"I know who you are," he says. His voice is deep and resounding, a baritone that would normally make me weak at the knees. Right now, however, I'm weak-kneed from nerves instead. "Thank you for coming so promptly."
He glances down at the stroller I'm pushing, and for a second, I could swear that glare of his softens, melts into something tender and pining.
I lean closer to him, unable to help myself, there's something longing in his eyes, something soft and vulnerable.
For a second, he seems familiar, like someone I've met before. Someone I could fall for…
"Do you like kids, Mr Jeon?" I ask.
Almost immediately, I could kick myself. What did I ask that for? Why draw attention to the biggest problem any employer will have with me?
His eyes flash back to mine, all business again.
Shit.
That gaze is penetrating.
It's like he's looking straight through me, into my very soul.
"I like kids," he replies, something of a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "Not always sure they like me."
"Oh, I can't imagine why they wouldn't," I reply, without thinking then I flush.
Crap.
Stop flirting.
But I can't help it.
A gaze like that in bed could make a girl go wild… I shiver at the thought of his strong arms around me, wrapping me up, lifting me from the floor, my body pinned against his as he leans in to claim my mouth…
Then I shake myself back to the present.
Trying hard to contain my overwhelmingly active scent glands at the moment.
He seems to do the same. "Through here please, Mr Kim."
I trail after him, a bundle of confusion. He leads me across the open-plan condo – which has warm wood floors and cosily-painted walls, not to mention wood accents everywhere.
The office he takes me into even has an exposed brick wall, and an old-fashioned looking desk.
Not at all the style, I'd expect from a man like Jungkook, but I love it. It's rich but cosy at the same time, fancy and yet you could live here. Not like those stark white insane asylum-looking penthouses you see on TV. He draws to a halt, and I'm so busy gazing around the room that I collide with him.
For a second, I feel his body heat against mine. He catches my arm as if worried that I'll fall, and I feel the burn of his palm against my skin long after he lets go and brushes off his coat like he's dusting me off of him.
My face is flushed as I look around the office once more.
He points to the desk. "These are my files," he says, his voice curt, orderly. Snapping me back to reality. "I think you'll find they are in presentable order – I just need them refilled into this drawer here, and my calendar updated and synced to my digital planner…" He leans over to turn on a computer, which unlike the rest of this office is not an antique.
He leads me through the tasks he'd like me to do – refile a stack of papers that are already meticulously organized, and copy his online calendar onto a hanging wall calendar, which he wants me to set up in his own office, adjacent to this one.
All the while that he's speaking, I can't help sneaking glances around the room.
It's so neat and orderly in here.
There's nothing out of place, and his files don't need updating or anything. Why did he hire me? Normally if someone is looking for a PA, their life is a hot mess and they need things tidied up.
Just another mystery to add to the long list of things I can't figure out about this man.
I sneak a sideways glance up at Jungkook as I reach into the carriage to pat Haru's stomach.
He's giggly and happy, and now and then interrupts Jungkook with a loud laugh. His laugh is contagious, and soon enough he gets his sister started too.
They're both giggling, and Jungkook cracks a smile – the first I've seen from him all day.
He leans over to stroke Haru's hair, and my heart does a spinning leap in my chest.
Shit. He's hot and bossy and he likes kids?
I'm doomed.
"Taehyung?"
Crap.
What was he saying?
He's standing so close to me, his masculine, deep scent flooding my senses.
It's hard to concentrate on anything else.
He takes another step closer when I don't reply, and I catch my breath, counting the inches between us, watching his muscular chest, hoping he doesn't notice the way mine is rising and falling faster as I try to control my breathing, which is suddenly desperate.
"Mmm?" I ask, hoping that'll cover.
I was a bit distracted staring at the way his muscles ripple underneath his shirt. He's still got a hand resting on Haru's carriage, and there's something so sexy about that, the way he hangs out with the twins like it's nothing, takes them in stride.
His hard eyes stare dead into my own. "I said, take all the time you need to care for the babies in between this filing. None of it is particularly urgent."
His breath ghosts over my cheeks as he speaks, and it takes my brain a second to register what he said. The excuse he just handed me. Is he this nonchalant about a job he's hiring a PA for?
My eyes widen.
Seriously, did he just pop out of my imagination?
"Are you sure? I don't mind if there's something you want me to focus on right now…"
"Just get acquainted with things. We'll start on the bigger tasks next week. I don't want to rush you."
He rests his hand on my shoulder, for just an instant, and every nerve ending in my body fires.
We're just inches apart.
So close I can feel his heat on me.
I fight an insane, stupid urge, this stupid pull to throw myself at him right here and now.
I haven't gotten any action since giving birth to the twins – actually, no, since before I was even pregnant with them.
My sex drive had been idling in the background, mostly forgotten, while I was swept up in parenting and all the crazy problems that come with it.
Now, though, it returns, roaring with a vengeance.
There's something about this man.
His body, his looks, his piercing gaze…
Not to mention how Fvcking good he smells.
Or the way his gaze seems to drop and take me in, studying my body the way I'm studying his, before he recovers himself and snaps his eyes back to mine, pretending nothing happened.
All I can think about is his tight body, the way he could lift me right now and bend me over this desk before I'd even have time to react.
I think about him pushing the slim-fitting work pants I'm wearing down my hips, tearing off the panties I'm wearing beneath, his fingers expertly sliding under to yank them down around my knees. He'd undo his pants, run his cock over my bare ass, teasing me, toying with me, totally in control…
I shiver.
What is wrong with me! I force myself back into the present.
"Thank you, Mr Jeon," I reply, and startle when he shakes his head, hard.
His hand tightens on my shoulder. "Call me Jungkook."
"Jungkook," I repeat, and his name tastes delicious on my tongue. "I'm Taehyung."
There's that smile again. Not quite a full-on smile, more a teasing little smirk.
Just half of his mouth, like it's smiling against the permission of the other half.
"Taehyung. It's a pleasure to meet you."
For a long moment, we stare at one another, his eyes boring into mine. Then, without warning, he touches my shoulder again, his palm warm and reassuring before he lifts his hand away once more.
Already I miss the warm pressure, the feeling of his palm through the thin fabric of my dressy work shirt.
"I'll leave you to it, Taehyung. Thank you again for taking this on."
He's gone without another word, and I'm alone in the room with the paperwork and my babies.
Areum starts to fuss, and I slip her out of the stroller to bounce her on my knee while I wade into the first stack of papers in front of me.
As long as I can keep my imagination just that – in my imagination – this job will be a piece of cake. Everything I could ask for.
I just have to avoid screwing it up by fantasizing too much about my sexy new boss…