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‘Please sit down.’ Quiet, firm and with that underlying note of authority.
Her legs moved towards the chairs without her instruction—just following his order. She seemed to have swallowed her tongue. Every sentence, the whole spiel she’d rehearsed as she’d steamed her way over here, had fled from her head. Mute, mindless, she was like some star-struck fan meeting her pin-up hottie in the flesh for the first time.
And then she saw it.
Every word, every angry thought, all of it came ripping back. She inhaled, trying to hold back enough to be able to tackle him with controlled fury rather than blind rage. Even so, she spat the words. ‘Enjoying it?’
‘What?’
‘Your little home movie.’ She pointed.
They were plastered across the screen. Her legs around his waist. Their tongues so entwined it was a wonder they’d ever managed to pull themselves free.
And he was watching it? Had spun the screen round so it was visible from right across the room?
As if the HR woman had just come to give him his warning—she’d come for a laugh, more like. Dani nearly choked on the rage that reddened her vision. Her face was so hot she was probably casting a glow into outer space. But that was nothing on the churning mass of fire in her belly. ‘Why are you watching it?’
He hadn’t known she was coming to see him. She’d only finally made her mind up as she’d walked past the building—had been regretting it all the five minutes since. She couldn’t believe the whole nightmare. ‘How did it happen?’
‘What?’ He took the seat next to hers. ‘The kiss or the recording?’ His mouth lifted at one end in a small smile.
She wasn’t in the mood for seeing any kind of funny side—he wasn’t going to defuse her with his attempt at good humour. ‘The recording.’
‘There are security cameras in all the lifts. Someone saw us, clipped the footage and put it up. As I think you know, it’s been doing the rounds.’
‘Yes, the viral video du jour,’ she said bitterly. ‘Was it a joke? Did you set it up for fun?’
‘Of course not.’ He went rigid. ‘I’m the CEO of a large finance company. I think I have better things to do with my time than indulge in stupid pranks like this.’
He held her gaze a minute longer. Assessing. She withstood the scrutiny, tilting her chin that little higher. Refusing to be intimidated.
‘Where have you been these last few days?’ Assertive, that was how she’d be.
‘Overseas.’
‘How convenient for you—out of the country while the temp gets the boot and then can’t find another job in the whole city.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Give me my job back.’
He shook his head. ‘Impossible.’
‘How so?’
‘You think you could sit there knowing they’ve all watched me kiss you like that?’
Kiss you. The words seemed to whisper over her skin, teasing her into greater awareness. She shifted in her seat, resettling her limbs in an attempt to stay in charge of them—and the whole nightmare. ‘It was only a kiss, Mr Carlisle. It was nothing.’ She shrugged.
His brows lifted for a second. ‘You’re not going back out there.’
Damn it, she needed this job. ‘It was a moment. That’s all it was. So some geek with nothing better to do made a mini movie with it. Not my fault.’
‘You are not working on that floor again.’
‘You’re not understanding me. I need this job.’
‘And I’m saying it’s not going to happen.’
‘Do you know what this is? Unfair dismissal. Sexual harassment.’
‘That was not sexual harassment.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘You kissed me back. You wrapped your legs around me all by yourself.’
‘But because of that video, I lost my job and I need my job. Because of that video, I can’t get another. The world of recruitment agencies is really small here in Auckland, do you know that? The agents all know each other, all swap from company to company. And they send each other emails. Would you believe that?’ Dani inhaled. ‘That stupid kiss has cost me everything and I can’t let it. How come you get to sit here in your fancy office and suffer none of the consequences while my life gets totalled?’ She stood. ‘It’s not happening. This is unfair and I’ll prove it’s unfair. I’m going to a lawyer—see if you can say “impossible” to a court!’
She whirled and marched. She had no idea where to find a lawyer, whether she really did have a case, and she certainly didn’t have the money to pay for it but she was bloody well going to find it somehow.
She opened the door but it was slammed shut again—his big hand spread wide on the wood above her head and firmly holding it in place.
‘You don’t shout at me and walk out without giving me a chance to respond.’
‘Watch me.’ She pulled on the door handle with all her strength. It didn’t move.
‘This is what happens. We talk. We negotiate. You’re not leaving until you’ve let me think of an alternative.’
She turned to glare at him and discovered he was way too close. Right beside her, so all she could see was his body—the jacket of his suit pulled wide by the way his arm was stretched out, revealing the breadth of his chest in the crisp white cotton beneath. His physicality was so potent, all she could feel was the warmth of him reaching out to her. The temptation to step closer was almost crippling—and totally wrong, wrong, wrong.
‘What kind of alternative?’ The woolly feeling was seeping into her head. She lifted her chin to be able to look into his face and the brain lethargy only worsened. His eyes were looking very green.
‘Sit back down and I’ll explain. If you want we can get my HR manager to sit in on the meeting.’
Reality returned with acute vividness. That cow? ‘That won’t be necessary.’
His lips twitched. ‘My PA, then.’
Nope, not the boarding-school matron, either. ‘Look, you and I both know that if you lay a hand on me, I’ll be screaming the place down.’
His face suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree and his smile went so wicked she wouldn’t have been surprised if he had a doorway to a den of sin hidden behind his desk. Or maybe that was wishful thinking—because when he looked like that all she could think about was bad, bad behaviour. Then she mentally replayed what she’d said and suddenly felt a need to clarify. ‘Screaming in horror.’
‘Ri-i-ight.’ He nodded as if she were a delusional diva he had to humour. ‘All outrage rather than ecstasy.’
She opened her mouth but before she’d thought of a comeback he’d lifted his hand from the door, and was holding it and the other up in the ‘don’t shoot’ position, his mouth in a smile too cheeky to resist.
He’d be dead if her eyes had ammo. Sadly her eyes were too busy gobbling up the gorgeousness before her to execute the death look. Her failing brain managed one last attempt to control the weakening of her body and she tried the door again. It still didn’t move. She glanced down. His foot was jammed against it.
‘I really have been overseas. I left the afternoon we were in the lift. The trip was unavoidable. I expected to see you when I got back. To talk to you.’ His hands had dropped to his hips. She couldn’t stop looking at his long fingers.
‘What were you going to say?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ His fingers curled into fists. ‘What matters is that I found out about the clip this morning and I found out about you being dismissed two minutes ago.’
She took a step back from the door so she could look into his face from a safer distance. ‘You didn’t know?’ He hadn’t ordered it?
‘No. The clip was taken from the security camera in the lift. I don’t know who did it yet, but when I find out you can be certain that that person will be in danger of dismissal.’
That sharp edge sliced back into his eyes for a second. She wanted it to stay—wanted him to truly understand the impact. ‘It’s had hundreds of hits. It got sent to the agency. I got a warning for it but by some great coincidence they can’t complete the necessary verification on my paperwork.’ Shaking her head, she walked into the middle of the room—the greater the distance between them, the better she could think.
‘I know.’
‘So what are you going to do?’ It wasn’t the unfairness of the ramifications that had brought her here, it was that she needed help and had nowhere else to turn. And she hated it.
‘I’m not sure yet.’
That wasn’t good enough. She spun and saw the wicked smile was back on his face. He thought this was funny? He still didn’t get how serious it was for her? She walked back to stand right in front of him, whipping the words out.
‘Thanks to you I have no job and no hope of getting another one. Thanks to you I am flat broke. I’m in a strange country, I don’t know anyone and suddenly I’m starring in some local sex clip and all you want to do is laugh it off.’ Breathing hard, she glared at him—her eyes filled with the ammo they’d lacked before.
His grin was wiped. ‘I don’t think it’s funny.’
‘Oh, really? So that’s why you’re smiling like some satyr and watching replays like it’s the joke of the century.’
‘It wasn’t a joke.’ His eyes bored into hers so intently she couldn’t move. His face hardened in the long seconds of silence. She sensed the rest of him becoming tense too—his body sending such strong vibes of tightly leashed energy that she could feel them pressing on her.
For a second her instinct screamed at her to run, but just as fast the urge was squashed. Other urges began to surge instead—and she needed a strong leash of her own to control them. Her whole body was aware of him, her whole focus was on him. His gaze dropped to her mouth and she felt it like a physical touch. He was remembering—as was she, and the fire arcing between them threatened to burn through her control. But she wasn’t going to let this raging attraction muck up more of her life. She wasn’t going to lose the little credibility she had left by letting it happen again.
She made her body move—away—a few steps back towards the door.
‘You really can’t get another job?’ His voice sounded rusty.
‘You really think I’d be here if I could?’
His brows drew closer as he regarded her. The angles of his face became more pronounced. Suddenly, sharply, he moved. Walking to the window, he glared through it—she figured the glass would melt in moments if he still had that heat in his eyes.
‘I might have another job for you. But not here. I don’t think that’s something you or I or anyone would be comfortable with.’ He turned. It seemed he’d taken the time to ice over, for his face was schooled into blandness. ‘Look, let’s get out of here and go talk somewhere more relaxed.’
He opened the door and waited for her to pass through. Dani hesitated—relaxed might be a really bad idea. But if he could do cucumber cool, surely she could do better than melting jelly.
CHAPTER THREE
DANI kept three feet behind Alex as he strode past the PA.
‘Please cancel that last appointment and take messages, Kelly. I’m out for the rest of the afternoon,’ he said without slowing his pace.
‘Certainly.’ No surprise, no questions. The PA gave Dani a coolly professional smile but Dani was still too rattled to be able to match it.
Alex glanced at the lift. ‘Shall we take the stairs?’
Dani was already at the door to them—hoped the PA hadn’t heard his question. He’d laced it with the faintest hint of irony and if Dani were to look at him now and see him smiling she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions—aggressive energy seemed to be bouncing round her body.
‘Where are you staying?’ He thudded downstairs swiping a security card to get them into the basement.
She gave him the name of the hostel and saw his frown appear.
‘You don’t know Auckland, do you?’ He sent her a sideways glance. ‘Because if you did, you’d know that’s in a really dodgy part of town.’
It was a cheap part of town.
He unlocked the car—sleek, attractive, outrageously powerful, just like its owner. Dani got into the passenger seat. In seconds they were out of the garage and driving down the congested inner-city streets in awkward silence—he’d quickly cut the music that had roared louder than the engine. Dani wished he’d kept it on—better to listen to that than the silence between them or the voice in her head telling her how much of a mess she was in. The weather had turned, the rain drizzling and dampening her spirits further.
‘Um…’ he was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel ‘…I…’
Dani waited, surprised by his sudden attack of the fidgets.
His fingers abruptly stopped their beat and gripped the wheel. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Your name.’ He kept his eyes on the road ahead. ‘I don’t know what it is.’
‘You don’t know my name?’ Stunned, Dani stared at him. ‘How can you not know my name?’
‘We never finished our introductions.’ His high cheekbones were streaked with slashes of colour. ‘I have a lot of employees.’
‘Oh, and I was just one of the temps.’ OK, so she was. But she hadn’t been just one of them—he’d kissed the hell out of her. She’d felt him and he had her—intimately. Or did he do that with all the girls? Anger roared through her again—vicious, wild anger. ‘You could have found out.’
‘I don’t use the HR files for personal reasons.’
‘No, you just use the temps.’
He braked sharply at the traffic lights. ‘I didn’t use you and you know it.’
Dani shook her head, stupidly hurt by his admission. ‘No, I don’t.’
She wanted to get out of the car and away from him right this second. It was beyond humiliating—she’d gone to him because she had nowhere else to go for help, using her anger to mask the hope that he’d actually feel some kind of responsibility. Buried right beneath everything had been the teeny, tiny hope that he might have actually liked her. What a fool. The whole thing had been so meaningless for him that he hadn’t even bothered to learn her name. He could have found out—his HR dragon or his oh-so-efficient PA could have told him. But he hadn’t asked—he hadn’t wanted to. So while she’d been blown away by that kiss, he hadn’t given it a second thought, other than to be a little annoyed about the resulting clip—or perhaps amused was what he’d been. But the video didn’t affect him the way it did her—all it did for him was enhance his reputation as some kind of playboy sex god. But for her it ruined everything—her prospects, her plans, her reputation. ‘You know something, Mr Carlisle, I don’t care how good a job you can offer me. I don’t want it.’
‘Look—’
‘I’m serious. You can drop me at the corner.’
The locks in the car clicked on. She shot him a venomous look.
‘I’ll take you to the hostel.’ He looked angry, which was so wrong because he was the one who had been insulting, not her.
They were almost at the hostel already—Dani recognised the landmarks. He must have intended to take her there anyway. So much for a conversation somewhere more relaxing—so much for the possibility of a different job.
She was out of the car as soon as he’d pulled over and released the locks, felt her tension yanking tighter when he got out of the car just as quick. ‘You don’t need to see me in.’
‘The least I can do is see you safely home.’ He glared at the hostel’s sign, his frown saying all that he thought about her home—all that he thought about her.
