But how could I when those stormy grays stared at me like I was the only person around him in the entire office he could see?

“Hello, Emerald,” he said, a formal smile on his lips.

Emerald? No Rosebud now?

Ignoring him, I turned to Caleb. Seeing my questioning stare, he nodded, confirming his cousin’s statement. Of course he’d know. He was the CEO after all.

Then something hit me. “You’re the CEO of this company, that means—you transferred me here on purpose, didn’t you? And how did you even know I was one of the newcomers?” Everything turned more vogue for me. What was happening here?

He shifted, glancing over my shoulder. “The decision to transfer some staff was totally for official reasons. You were about to be transferred to another city. But when your papers caught my attention, I thought, why not bring you back to the city? As we have one branch over here. And you’ll also be comfortable staying close to your family.”

His reasons didn’t convince me. And the burning stare at the back of my head didn’t let me concentrate either.

“Such a coincidence, isn’t it?” Was he telling the truth? But why would he lie to me?

He coughed. “Yeah, it is. But I’m happy you’re here. Tess was missing you.”

“I hope you got your answers, Ms. Hutton?”

I turned around. The side of his lips twitched, gray irises twinkling with something. Ms. Hutton? Was he playing with me right now? Because I could see it in his gaze. They were weaving some web, but what? I couldn’t figure it out.

He took a step closer and tucked a strand behind my ear. “Did you like the office, Rosebud?” his rough voice whispered, stormy grays roaming my face.

My breath caught in my throat.

First Emerald, then Ms. Hutton, and now back to Rosebud. What was he doing?

I slapped his hand away and stepped back before I lost my sanity. “It doesn’t matter if I liked it or not. It’s not that I’m working here, anyway.”

I ran away from my home to New York just to stay away from him. I hurt my family and friends just to be away from him. And now my fate has brought me here, in the company his cousin owned. I couldn’t let this happen. Though it wasn’t his company, it was one of his family member’s. Avoiding him wouldn’t be an easy thing for me if I stayed. And considering his weird behavior towards me recently, I didn’t believe he’d keep his distance.

He tilted his head, giving me a challenging look. “And who told you so?”

I raised my chin, even though that didn’t help with his over six feet height. “I did. I won’t work in this company. I’m going back to New York.”