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And she was leaving in two months’ time. It would be madness to embark on something she sensed could be so strong when who knew how out of control things could get? No fling—not with him. Slow and steady with someone safe, remember? That was what she wanted.
Chapter Two
GRUMPY from lack of sleep she popped a fizzy vitamin tab into a glass of water and knocked it back. She’d have a more substantial breakfast later.
‘What happened to you last night?’ Gina was sitting at her desk munching through a bowl of cereal, her computer switched on and already running through a complicated-looking search request.
Lissa looked at her in surprise. She was almost certain Gina would have spoken to Karl already. She decided to play for time. ‘I wasn’t really up to it. I sat outside for a while and then went home early. What about you?’
Gina eyed her speculatively. ‘I’m sure there’s more to it, you have a guilty look.’
Lissa felt her face flush but dampened down the feelings of embarrassment and focussed on Gina’s own exploits. ‘Well what about you? You must be feeling pretty happy this morning!’
‘Why? Complete opposite, actually.’
‘Why? It looked like things were going great! You guys looked totally hot for each other!’
Gina looked at her, perplexed. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You and Rory,’ Lissa said impatiently. ‘He couldn’t take his eyes off you.’
‘Rory? He wasn’t even there!’
Lissa’s head snapped back. ‘Yes, he was. I saw him talking to you; tall, dark, wearing a black leather coat.’
‘Oh!’ Gina started to laugh. ‘That wasn’t Rory, that was Karl.’
The earth tilted under Lissa’s feet. ‘Karl? The guy you were talking to? That was Karl?’
‘Of course!’
‘Oh, God,’ Lissa breathed, her heart pounding. ‘Then who was—’ She broke off.
Gina watched her curiously. ‘Who was…?’
Voices came louder along the corridor and Gina hurriedly put her bowl of cereal behind a stack of books on the corner of her desk. Lissa reached behind her to put another magazine on the pile to hide it effectively. They stood side by side as a group of consultants came in with Hugo, the head researcher.
‘Gina, Lissa,’ he began with an evil smile, ‘we have some fresh blood for you. Gina, you must remember Rory—he’s back from the New York office.’
Lissa saw Gina’s sharp glance at Hugo. Hugo was by no means deaf and was fully aware of the numerous times Gina had discussed The Return with Lissa. There wasn’t much Hugo didn’t know. Oh, the joys of working in an open-plan environment.
Then she looked at the tall man stepping out from behind Hugo. Oh. My. God. Tall, devastatingly handsome in a suit and smiling straight at her was ‘Karl’ of the previous evening. He was Rory? Those fabulously unforgettable green eyes were now honed in on her with wicked laughter lurking in their glowing depths. She stared, unable to think anything but that he was even more handsome first thing in the morning freshly shaved and suited.
Hugo was going on to introduce the other men but Lissa didn’t catch any of their names. Her legs were as wobbly as a newborn lamb’s. Finally she dragged her gaze away from him and tried to start breathing again. She smiled in automaton fashion at the others and simply wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. Snatches of conversation came back to her: ‘God’s gift’, ‘when he looks at you…’ Oh, my God, what had she said?
She became aware that they were moving off to inspect the database terminals in the main library area. Lissa stood right where she was, looking down at Gina’s swivel chair.
‘I should have told you.’
She looked up, horrified to see that Rory had not moved away with the others, but instead had moved closer to her, too close. He was still smiling and she watched as he looked over her with a glint of appreciation. A trace of anger flicked through her, raising her temperature even higher. She eyeballed him, refusing to acknowledge the flicker of attraction that also sky-rocketed unbidden.
‘Yes, you should have,’ she whispered.
Annoyingly his smile widened further. Charming, cajoling, overwhelmingly attractive. ‘I’m sorry; it was irresistible.’
‘It was unforgivable. You must have known I’d mistaken you for someone else.’
‘Mmm.’ He looked back at the group of consultants before asking with seemingly genuine concern, ‘Have you got a headache this morning?’
‘Certainly not.’ Irritation caused her to raise her voice louder than she had intended. She looked across to the others and saw Gina was watching, round-eyed.
‘You’d better go and join the others.’ Her body chose that exact moment to reminisce on how well his frame had melded to hers. She felt the fire in her cheeks and swallowed hard. She began to realise the full implication of his true identity. The situation had taken a total dive. He worked here. She couldn’t avoid him and she really needed to. She couldn’t be into this guy, not if he worked here, not at all.
‘I’ve only been away six months,’ he replied. ‘I think I can still find my way round the library OK.’
‘Well, I have work to be getting on with.’ Too mortified to be able to see even the smallest funny side.
‘Please don’t let me stop you.’
Miraculously she gained the use of her legs and marched over to her desk and sat down, hating the fact that he was there to see that she hadn’t even turned her computer on yet.
He leaned nearer. She felt his closeness with every cell. It was almost a pain. Her body yearned for him to reach out and touch her.
‘Bye, beautiful,’ he whispered.
Flushed with anger, embarrassment and desire, she stared at her computer screen as she felt him rise and walk away. She could just picture his grin.
Rory only just managed to stop himself running his fingers through her hair by jamming his hands into his pockets and striding back to where Gina and the new consultants stood. He couldn’t help the grin on his face, though, and knew it was wholly because of wicked thoughts, not excitement about new computer systems.
First day as partner and all he’d been able to think about was getting to the information centre as soon as possible to see if she really was there; if she was real.
Well, now he knew. Definitely real. Definitely gorgeous and definitely ought to be off limits. He yanked his mind back from its determined wanderings into extremely dangerous territory and thanked God she’d been wearing trousers. He rolled a pen between his fingers, trying to stop the memory of the sensation when he’d crossed from stockings onto bare skin.
He was on the fast track, just made a partner and had worked damn hard to get there. The last thing he needed was distracting by a lust-on-legs temp.
Then again, just because he had career ambitions didn’t mean he had to live like a monk. It wasn’t as if he were thinking anything serious here. Marriage and kids were in the long-term plan, but short-term? Hey, he was a man, after all.
Office affairs did get complicated, though. He’d seen it a million times. Never got involved himself as a result—part of his unwritten code. Work was for work, play came after.
But she was a temp—and a New Zealander at that. She’d be onto another temp job or another country in no time. Perfect match for a full-throttle, fast-burning fling.
A partner and a temp, though? Dodgy waters.
He smiled his thanks at Gina—absolutely none the wiser about any of the new databases she’d just run through for him.
‘Tell. All. Now.’
One look at Gina’s face and Lissa knew she couldn’t fudge it. ‘I thought he was Karl.’
‘What?’
‘Rory. I thought he was Karl. At the party.’
‘At the party?’ Gina echoed. ‘Rory was there?’
‘On the balcony.’
‘You didn’t come in?’
‘I went home early. He gave me a lift.’
‘O-K…’ Gina stood, positively agog. ‘So what happened?’
Lissa felt the heat in her cheeks again. She fussed with her mouse. ‘I, er, told him I wasn’t interested.’
‘What?’
‘I thought he was Karl and that you’d set him up to come flirt with me, so I told him I wasn’t interested.’
Gina started to laugh. ‘And a fat lot of notice he took of that! I knew it would happen like that. Man, that’s why I wanted Karl to keep you out of the way so I could have just one chance with Rory before he saw you.’
‘What?’ Now it was Lissa who couldn’t keep up.
Gina sighed. ‘Look, babe, I’ve known Rory for ages and he’s never shown a flicker of interest in me or any other girl here. We all drool over him and he’s just Mr Charming to everyone. I was hoping that maybe when he got back he’d see me in a new light. I wanted Karl to eliminate you from the scene.’
‘Eliminate me?’
Gina rolled her eyes. ‘Look at you. Tall, legs that go for ever, curves in the right places. Long, beautiful hair. Frank and funny. You’re a bloke magnet. Look how many of the guys have tried to chat you up and yet you won’t go out with any of them. You’re the female equivalent of Rory. Gorgeous and unattainable. It was obvious you two would hit it off.’
‘Unattainable?’
‘Yes, and even if you aren’t that’s the vibe you give off.’ Gina looked at her slyly. ‘But I just saw the way he was looking at you and, let me tell you, I’ve never seen him look that way at anyone before. And I’ve never seen you look flustered before. And you definitely look flustered.’
Lissa put her elbows on the desk in front of her and rubbed her temples.
Unattainable? She hadn’t exactly been unattainable last night. She’d been easy, almost. Until now her desire to be unavailable in the office had succeeded. But Rory had shown that shield to be worthless. He’d shattered the illusion just by looking at her. This couldn’t be happening.
He wasn’t Karl the flirt. She needed to snap out of it and fast. He was a partner—one of the bosses. Been there, done that, and complicated wasn’t the word. She’d had one of the best graduate jobs on the market and had ruined it by having an affair with her boss that had turned really nasty.
She forced herself to concentrate, and like the others worked through lunch. Come two o’clock everyone was beginning to flag.
‘Coffee?’ Lissa asked. ‘I’ll go.’ She was eager to stretch her legs.
Both Hugo and Gina looked up; Lissa grinned at the desperation on their faces. ‘I’ll be back in ten.’
She braced against the chilly wind and got there in record time. Glancing around as she entered, she froze on the spot as she saw Rory with two consultants sitting on the far side deep in conversation and coffee. As she looked across his head lifted and their eyes met. His were glittering green and she felt lanced by them, feeling the impact all the way through to her marrow. She told herself the heat in her cheeks was from the cold air not that hot look.
Placing the order quickly, she stood determinedly watching the barista do his stuff, trying not to listen to any sounds from the seated area behind her. Once she had the coffees she couldn’t help a swift glance to the corner where he’d been sitting with the others. To her immense relief, the chairs now stood empty. Breathing out for the first time since she had entered the shop, she left it.
He was waiting by the door. She hadn’t seen him and nearly dropped the coffee when he said straight into her ear, ‘Let me carry those.’ He had the tray from her before she’d computed what he’d said. She had no choice other than to turn and fall into step with him.
‘Have you forgiven me?’ He was watching her with those dancing eyes.
She said nothing.
‘Are you going to talk to me?’
She stopped and growled at him. ‘No and no.’
He smiled back at her. She looked away crossly and continued walking. Damn him for having such a gorgeous smile. It made it hard to stick to her resolve—impossible, in fact. ‘You should have told me who you were.’
‘Probably,’ he admitted. ‘But it was so much fun not to. It was very enlightening.’
‘Gina will never forgive me. I hadn’t told her everything.’ The last part came out as a mumble and she was annoyed to feel the tell-tale heat rise in her cheeks.
‘And I won’t either,’ he said easily. ‘She never needs to know. Have dinner with me.’
The change in tack was a surprise. ‘No.’
‘Lunch?’
‘No.’
‘Coffee?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t do office affairs.’
‘Neither do I.’
‘Then why are you asking me out?’
‘I’m willing to make an exception in your case. Anyway, who said anything about an affair?’
She bit back her smile. She’d walked into that one. She didn’t blame him. Different time, different place, she might have been saying yes. But not in this universe. He was a workmate, more than that, he was one of the bosses. But she didn’t want to drag up old issues and decided to deflect him with a different excuse. ‘I don’t like office gossip.’
He laughed aloud. ‘What? You told me a fair bit last night.’
That one hurt because she knew it was true. She battled to bolster what she knew was a weak argument. ‘I thought we were discussing a mutual colleague. I said nothing malicious.’
He stared at her thoughtfully. She bore the scrutiny as long as she could before glancing around, unable to take the heat and promise that glowed in his eyes. ‘No one has to know,’ he said softly.
For a moment she was tempted. Then reality slammed back. No, the best thing was to stay as far away from this man as possible. His gaze didn’t leave her face.
‘That would be impossible.’
