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‘Why would they? Besides, I think they took out all their frustrations on you.’
‘Did they ever.’
He dropped his hands and stood, his sudden proximity making her rethink her choice of seat. The wide, stuffy leather chair in front of his desk had seemed perfect while he was seated, but now, with him towering over her, it wasn’t so appealing.
‘Thanks for stepping in and saving my butt.’
Oh, no. She wouldn’t think about his butt… wouldn’t go there… wouldn’t remember how she’d made a grab for it last night in that fit of insanity.
Grateful she could blame her flaming cheeks on exercise rather than embarrassment, she cleared her throat. ‘You’re welcome.’
‘Now that you’re here, it’s time we had a chat.’
‘About?’
His eyes bored into hers, challenging, determined, as he gestured towards a document on his desk.
‘Your employment contract, of course.’
CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_968da3e0-6dc2-55fe-b61f-3bd382880527)
‘PARDON?’
She tapped her ear, just to make sure she’d heard correctly.
He picked up the document and offered it to her. ‘Take a look. It’s your employment contract.’
‘You’re kidding, right?’
She stared at the document as if it was her marching orders to walk the plank. ‘I’m on holiday. A well-earned holiday, I might add. I helped you out of a tight spot back there, but that’s it.’
He threw the contract back on the desk and perched on the desk in front of her—way too close for comfort.
‘I understand how you feel, but I need your help. You’d only have to take two classes a day. In return, you’ll be well paid, and it won’t interfere with your holiday at all. You love your job, don’t you?’
‘My job?’
A puzzled frown knit his brow. ‘You said you’re a qualified fitness instructor?’
‘I am.’
But that wasn’t her job. Her job entailed wearing boring business suits, cataloguing boring artefacts and devising boring staff rosters.
Okay, so she did love her job, and it wasn’t always dull, but after she’d been passed over for the Egypt trip she’d started craving more, needing more, and—strangely—the opportunity now came from the most unlikely source. She stared straight at him.
Right then, it hit her like a meteor from Mars.
She needed to build her confidence this trip, and wanted to try new things in order to do so, but still she felt stifled by her conservative nature.
So what if she stepped into a new role? Became the type of person she’d like to be if she had more nerve? Besides, it wasn’t as if she was lying. She was a qualified aerobics instructor. She just didn’t do it for a living.
And who knew? Maybe doing this would give her the ability to form a coherent answer without wanting to duck her head in embarrassment every time he smiled her way?
‘Let me take a look at that.’
Trying to hide a triumphant grin and failing, he handed her the contract.
‘I took the liberty of contacting Madigan Shipping, the company that owns the Ocean Queen. I explained the circumstances and they approved a temporary employment contract—particularly when they heard the Rocks were onboard. They’re influential people in shipping circles.’
‘Do you always organise other people’s lives, or will I actually have a say in your grand plan?’
His grin broadened. ‘You’re here, aren’t you? And I’m giving you the option to sign on or not.’
‘Yeah, right.’
Skimming the contract, she nearly fainted when she spied the remuneration—on a par with her monthly salary.
For taking two lousy classes a day? Too easy. And there was that new futon she’d coveted for the spare bedroom in her flat. Not to mention the slight shoe fetish she’d developed thanks to Beth’s cast-offs. This extra cash would come in mighty handy for a pair or two of her own.
‘What do you think?’
‘I think I’m nuts, but why not?’
She picked up the pen he’d discarded earlier and signed the contract. ‘There.’
‘Don’t forget I owe you.’
His eyes glowed, magnetic and enticing, and she suppressed a shiver at what her payment might entail.
‘Don’t worry about it.’ She tugged at her ponytail, twisting the ends around her finger in a nervous habit she’d had since childhood. ‘This is turning into some holiday. The ship’s amazing, the ports are interesting, and that kiss last night—’
She bit her tongue and mentally slapped herself for running off at the mouth and thinking out loud. That kiss was history, remember? Forgotten. Never happened.
His gaze focused on her mouth, and her lips tingled as his blistering stare remained riveted. Surreptitiously she scratched behind her ear, where her skin prickled the most.
What had happened to the woman who’d just instructed an aerobics class for the first time and nailed it? What had happened to her newfound bravado? It looked as if it had deserted her, along with her common sense. Imagine thinking she could sign on as an employee and keep her distance from Zac.
She fidgeted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, then rubbed the nape of her neck, wound her hair around her finger.
His gaze finally lifted from her mouth, only to lock onto her eyes, and all that endless blue was enticing and intense. She looked away first and gestured to the desk.
‘Don’t you have work to do?’
‘It can wait.’
She couldn’t stand all this tension, the air practically crackling between them, and she backed towards the door. ‘Well, I need a shower, so I’d better go.’
He stalked towards her, like a powerful alpha wolf shadowing a helpless, quivering rabbit.
‘But what about working out what I owe you?’
She waved her hand, fluttering. It was ineffectual at keeping him at bay. ‘The payment’s all there in the contract. Clearly spelled out in black and white.’
Stopping less than a foot in front of her, he leaned forward and she gasped.
‘Nothing’s ever that clear. There are many shades of grey here I think we need to figure out.’
Her breath caught as his head lowered, her heart pounding as if she’d just taken ten aerobics classes back to back.
‘Like?’
It came out a squeak, and she darted a glance to the door handle a few inches from her hand. She should grab it, twist it, make a run for it. But she couldn’t, was trapped beneath that disconcerting stare, overpowered by his sheer masculinity as he towered over her.
For one insane second she almost wished he’d kiss her again and get it over with, but instead he straightened, ran a hand through his hair and gestured towards his desk.
‘Like a stack of paperwork, tax forms and so on that you need to fill out. How about you go take that shower and meet me back here in half an hour?’
She almost collapsed against the door in relief—or was that disappointment?
Buoyed by the fact she’d just had a lucky escape, she saluted. ‘Aye-aye, sir.’
With her hand on the door handle, she couldn’t resist a parting shot, considering he’d had the upper hand ever since she’d set foot in here.
‘You know something? I’m looking forward to being your colleague. You might actually let up on me if we’re co-workers.’
She closed the door as Zac sank into his chair and stared at the contract she’d signed, the fine print blurring.
Colleague.
Co-worker.
Lana Walker, the woman who was slowly but surely driving him crazy, was now his colleague, his co-worker, neatly circumventing his golden rule of never getting involved with a passenger.
Hell.
He leaned back and closed his eyes. It didn’t help, as an instant image of pert breasts, narrow waist, toned abs and slim legs covered in Lycra haunted him. She wasn’t tall, yet her perfect proportions gave the illusion of height—and he ached to touch her, every tempting inch.
Dammit, why couldn’t she have stayed hidden behind those loose dresses and revolting pants she wore? First the wet one-piece and now this: tight candy-striped Lycra bike shorts, and a T-shirt fitted enough to highlight the curves he’d love to run his hands over.
He’d snuck back to the gym, watched the last few minutes of her class. And he had been blown away.
In a whirl of high kicks, arm twirls and jiggling breasts, she’d morphed from shy innocent to action goddess, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t wipe her from his mind.
This teasing was getting out of hand. It had been fun at the start, amusing to get a smile out of that prim mouth, a rare fiery flash from those sombre hazel eyes. But some-where along the way the lines had blurred, and what had started out as a bit of harmless fun to get a subdued woman to lighten up had morphed into his wanting her.
Seriously wanting her. His thoughts consumed by her day and night.
That kiss on the beach last night had changed everything.
He’d given in to temptation unprepared for the ferocity of her response—a response that had kept him up all night wishing he hadn’t let her flee.
First her astounding response. Now her metamorphosis from shy and nervous to bouncy and brilliant.
If he hadn’t been intrigued enough before, he sure as hell was now, and despite the importance of keeping his mind on the job this cruise, he had to know more.
What was it about her that had him coiled tighter than an anchor chain?
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, but it did little to erase the beginnings of a headache building behind his eyes.
She was forthright and tetchy—not his type at all. Yet she was so delightfully unaffected, with an underlying hint of vulnerability that tugged at his heartstrings no matter how hard he tried to ignore the fact he still had a heart.
But he couldn’t get involved. At least not emotionally. Not now.
Besides, how would she feel if she knew he’d conned her? He hadn’t placed any call to head office. He didn’t have to. One of the perks of being the boss.
Speaking of which, he needed to get back to work. He was close, so close, to discovering the saboteur who was plaguing the company.
While Shelley’s fall might well have been an accident, there had been a couple of other incidents that weren’t as easily dismissed. His uncle’s suspicions that the Ocean Queen would be the next target had been well-founded. And the sooner he found the person who hadn’t disclosed a reckless disregard for everyone’s safety and comfort when boarding, the easier things would be for his uncle.
He owed Jimmy and, as he’d told Lana, he always paid his debts.
What would she think of the purely carnal payback system he’d like to instigate with her?
Lana stood under the shower, cool water sluicing down her body. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, enjoying the spray peppering her face, though it did little to wash away the memory of that damn kiss.
She was determined to forget it, to relegate it to the back of her mind alongside other horrific moments, like the time she had walked in on one of her students with the museum taxidermist in a decidedly unstuffy moment in the archive room, or the time she’d bawled when she’d got her first promotion.
Truly shuddery, forgettable moments—just like her response to that kiss last night.
So why couldn’t she wipe the memory, however hard she tried?
As she tipped her head forward and tied a towel turban-style around her dripping hair, she had a vision of Zac’s hungry stare as she’d left his office. Not that she’d wanted to provoke him—far from it. But he delighted in rattling her, in teasing her, and she’d wanted to get one back.
It hadn’t worked. The desire in his gaze had been real, potent, and oh-so-scary for a novice like her. Old Lana would have jumped ship and swum back to shore before he could wink. But she wasn’t the old Lana any more.
The old Lana wanted a husband, a family, a house in the suburbs to come home to every night after another satisfying day at the museum.
The new Lana still wanted all those things, but for the first time in her life she was experiencing the flicker of excitement that came with self-assurance—the heady rush of having a guy like Zac pay attention to a geek like her.
She’d never had that. Jax had faked a few compliments, fuelled her need to be noticed by a guy—any guy—and had reeled her in as part of his plan. He had used her before saying she was frigid when she couldn’t deliver what he’d wanted. His disdain haunted her to this day.
She knew his accusation was why she didn’t date very often, why she froze when a guy got physically close.
So why had she combusted in Zac’s arms during that kiss?
Subconsciously she knew.
She wanted to feel alive, wanted to tap into the passion simmering deep inside, wanted to be bold and brazen and beautiful rather than a mousy, boring workaholic.
