Idolized (Hollywood Stardust Book 3) by Kim Carmichael Page A

him.
    The elevator doors opened and he smiled. Miss CEO and he made a true power couple. Compatible in bed, mind, and prestige, if they put their energy together, they could light up a city. In truth, he wouldn’t mind taking her out on a non-business related function and showing her off.
    He would let her blush and stutter, but in the end he would give her what she wanted, because hell, he wanted it too. For once in his life, he wanted it. Sure it was fast. He blamed it on high-speed Internet access and he was on the fast track.
    A spring in his step, he made his way inside CC Enterprises.
    Instead of the spinner at the door, he was met with a man around his age, tall, with slicked back brown hair, who he sort of recognized from the night before.
    “I was instructed to lock the doors at one minute past the hour. Good job, you’re thirty seconds early.” The man held his hand out. “Rodger, Cora’s secretary.”
    Ryder shook the man’s hand. “Don’t you mean assistant?”
    “Is there anything wrong with being a secretary? That’s what I am.” Rodger led him through the office.
    “No not at all. It’s sort of refreshing.” Ryder filed that little tidbit away.
    Rodger knocked on the Cora’s door, opened it, and tilted his head.
    Ryder gave Cora’s secretary a nod and went inside the inner sanctum.
    The door closed behind him.
    Talk about refreshing. His mouth watered at the sight of her behind her desk with all her monitors, her hair flowing down around her and in a tight, low cut, but work appropriate, knit top. Strange, as powerful and smart as this woman was, he never felt like more of a man these last couple of days.
    “Come here.” Without glancing at him, she held her hand up and motioned him over.
    “You know, one of these mornings it’d be nice to wake up with you.” He crossed the room, took her hand and kissed the back.
    “Well, I’ll take that under advisement.” A small laugh actually escaped her throat. Who knew the woman had it in her? “I want to show you something.” She pulled him down.
    He knelt by her chair. On the screens were Chargge.com as well as the sites of two top competitors to the massive website. All had stories about Ryder and Cora.
    “We have been trending two days in a row.” She clicked to another site that showed a graph.
    “The movie star and the money star, what isn’t fascinating about us?” Though he didn’t really get all the bars on the graph, it seemed impressive, and he nodded. “Seems the public likes us together, I must say I concur.”
    “For once, Mr. Scott, I must say I agree with you as well.” She slid her hand away from his and pointed to the chair on the other side of her desk. “Sit down.”
    Fine, she was going to play it cool. He could follow suit. Rather than complain, he decided to remind her why she conjured him and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, grazing the corner of her mouth, before taking his seat.
    She continued studying the computer screens, clicking her mouse hither and yon, and right before he was about to clear his voice, or say something, she slid her chair over and stared at him.
    It seemed fitting he stared back, only he added a wink and crossed his legs.
    With her eyes slightly narrowed, she picked up a letter opener on her desk, twirled it in her fingers and rocked her chair back and forth.
    He raised his eyebrows. “I did a movie once where the heroine killed the bad guy with a letter opener.”
    “I promise you I would never use such a messy weapon.” A low chuckle escaped her throat.
    “What would you use?” Watching her was better than any action-adventure flick, except for Working Title when it finally made it to the big screen.
    “My mind.” She put the letter opener down and leaned forward. “I can see why you’re a star.”
    The first break in her armor appeared and he could hardly wait to see her crumble. “Aw shucks, ma’am I may make a fan out of you yet.” He used his best southern