"Bloody hell!" I stared down at the hot coffee spreading quickly across my suit. It was quickly soaking my shirt and the front of my pants, making look like I'd peed my pants. And it was hot coffee.

This was not how I planned to start my day.

"Oh, sir, I am so sorry. It's totally my fault. I didn't see you."

I narrowed in on the top of someone's head as they patted at my clothes, trying to soak up the coffee. I knew most of the people who worked for Silver Spoons Inc., but I didn't remember anyone who had sandy brown hair with blond highlights.

I'm pretty sure I would have remembered.

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Crosby."

"Its fine," I found myself saying, which was pretty much my against my nature. I didn't think I was outright rude to people, but I'd been told I was somewhat brisk.

I simply could not stand incompetence, and being the Chief Risk Officer of Silver Spoons Inc., I ran into a lot of it. It was kind of in the job description. It was my responsibility to go in when there was trouble with our acquisitions and find solutions so those troubles went away. I could be quite creative when the need called for it.

I'm not sure that was what was called for at the moment.

"It's fine," I said again.

"I really am sorry, sir." The man's head lifted until I could see his face.

I caught my breath.

Eyes as blue as the waters off the Bahamas stared up at me through thick-rimmed glasses that rested on a straight aquiline nose. He had a square chin and wide mouth with lips that were just a little too full. Wispy bangs of sandy blond hair fell across his forehead.

My gaze was riveted on his face and then moved over his body slowly. I paused briefly when I saw the bowtie before moving over his thin tie, white dress shirt, and dark blue suit jacket. I looked down his crisp dark blue slacks to his black dress shoes.

And then it went back to the bowtie.

There was a tingling in the pit of my stomach.

My eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Who are you?"

The man's mouth curved into an appealing smile. "My name is Jefferson, sir. Jefferson Davis. I'm the executive assistant for Mr. Burke."

"What happened to Nina?"

I hadn't been gone that long.

"I am not privy to that information, sir, but I can ask Mr. Burke."

"No, I'll ask him." I started down the hallway toward Burke's door.

"Sir, sir, Mr. Burke isn't in his office."

I stopped before I reached Burke's door and turned to look at the man. "Where is he?"

"He hasn't come into the office yet."

My eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Burke isn't in the office yet?"

He was always in the office. The only one who usually got to the office before him was Newt and Knox. I was just glad my actual work hours were so fluid. Granted, I put in as many hours as they did, but they were almost all out of the office and different time zones.

"No, sir. He said he'd be late to the office today."

Huh.

I turned without another word and started for the elevator that would take me back up to my penthouse. Not only did I need to change my clothes, but I wanted to find out what the hell was going on. I had really expected Burke to be in his office.

I rode up the elevator to the floor I shared with my best friends from college, Alexander Burke and Colton Knox. Way back in college, we'd gotten this crazy idea to open our own business without the help of our families. It had taken a few loans, some hard planning, and a whole lot of luck, but we'd pulled it off and now we were all richer than Midas.

We also shared the top floor of our business building. It was divided into four parts. One lobby where the elevator was located and three penthouses. Mine was on the far right, Burke's penthouse was in the middles, and Knox had the penthouse on the far left. There were walls between each penthouse that recessed into support walls to open all three penthouses up to each other. It was helpful for when we had joint parties.

Although, it had been ages since we'd done that.

Knox had recently come out as gay and married his executive assistant. Burke had recently found the man he'd fallen in love with several months earlier. I knew he'd found him, but I hadn't had a chance to talk to him about what had happened after that. I didn't even know if the guy was still around.

I had been called home a couple of weeks ago to attend their engagement party, but I'd been delayed with yet another problem at the clothing manufacturing plant we'd purchased in Northern England. I'd pretty much spent the last few months there trying to iron problems out. I still wasn't sure they were all solved.

After getting off the elevator, I let myself into my penthouse and headed straight to my bedroom. I had actually come straight from the airport and gone to Burke's office because he had been the one to call me home and I wanted to make sure everything was okay, so I hadn't had a chance to come up and shower and change.

Maybe Burke's new assistant had helped me out.

I glanced down at the bulge in my slacks. Maybe I could get him to help me out some more. I snorted as I shook my head and peeled my wet clothes off. I had a hard rule about not messing around with people we employed. Kept me from having headaches when I was home.

Besides, I had a steady string of guys in and out of my bed spread across several continents. I did not need to be dipping into the office ink, no matter how sexy that stupid bowtie looked.

I took a quick shower before pulling on a clean suit. As much as I was suffering from jet lag, it actually made me feel a whole lot better.

Sexy little bowtie had done me a solid.

I dropped my dirty clothes and the towel in the clothes hamper then made my way out to the living room where I stopped and looked around. Something felt off, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Nothing looked out of place, but I couldn't help feeling that it was.

I shook my head. Jet leg was seriously getting to me.

I went to the small digital consul on the wall and hit the button and then waited for the wall between my place and Burke's to slide into the wall. I spotted Burke as soon as the wall slid away.

"Hey, man," Burke said as he turned. "Good to have you home."

"Good god, man, what is that attached to your chest."