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‘You’re welcome.’ Oh, the soft deepness of his voice.
Marissa’s abdomen clenched in a reaction she wholly did not want to admit was happening. She hadn’t joined Blinddatebrides.com to find Mr Virile and Able to Produce Strong Children, nor Mr Gentle and Sweet With Said Children. She certainly wasn’t looking for those traits in the man before her.
‘The next time you’ll put your head all the way under the water, okay, Julia?’ His smile was gentle, encouraging and, to Marissa, quite devastating. ‘Fishes do that all the time.’
Julia …
The woman smiled and turned her head and the likeness between all three of them clicked it all fully into place.
This child was Julia—a sweet little girl about four or five years old with a shock of dark hair flattened wet against the back of her head and still dry in the front. The woman beside the pool was Rick’s sister. The entire scene was so far removed from what Marissa had expected, she couldn’t seem to find her breath or get her legs to move.
Or perhaps that was simply the impact of so much raw sensual appeal concentrated in the man in front of her, and the crazy twisting of reactions inside her.
And Rick wasn’t involved.
Now she thought about it, hadn’t Gordon said when she’d first started here that Rick was a solitary man and seemed to keep his dating low-key and … transitory?
And hello, that wouldn’t exactly make him a candidate for a relationship. Plus Marissa didn’t want to have one with him. He might be in a swimming pool, but the term ‘corporate shark’ still meant more than a boss doing laps in chlorine-scented water.
Oh, but he hadn’t looked like a boss or a shark when he’d held his niece so tenderly in his arms. Marissa clenched her teeth because she was not going down this track and that was that!
Maybe she made a sound because Rick’s head turned and his expression closed as though she’d caught him at something he hadn’t wanted her to see.
Why would he feel that way about giving a swimming lesson to his niece? Not only that, but surely he’d guessed what Marissa thought about ‘Julia’ and yet he hadn’t said a word.
‘I’m sorry for barging in.’ Sorry and quite annoyed by his hidden depths, whether that made her unreasonable or not. ‘I have an urgent fax and I thought—’ She’d thought he’d be behind one of those closed doors beyond the pool with a lover. ‘Er … I didn’t realise there was a swimming pool up here.’
‘It’s not a problem. We’ve taken enough of Rick’s time away from his work anyway.’ The woman smiled as she wrapped her daughter in a towel and gathered her into her arms. ‘I’m Faith, by the way. Rick’s youngest sister.’
‘Marissa.’ She sought the comfortable communication skills that should have flowed naturally. ‘Marissa Warren. I’m filling in while Rick’s secretary, Tom, is on sick leave.’
‘Ah, I see. For a while?’ The other woman glanced at Rick and her eyes seemed to gleam. ‘That should make for an interesting change.’
‘It’s not for all that long.’ Rick cleared his throat. ‘Didn’t you say you needed to be going, Faith?’
His sister’s mouth softened. ‘Yes. There’s a chance we might get a call from Russell tonight if things with his unit go as planned. I don’t want to miss that. I asked Mum and Dad if they’d like to come over, speak with him and then watch you-know-who while I finish the call. The deployments are hard and he doesn’t have his parents around, but Mum and Dad were too busy.’
Something in Rick’s face seemed to tighten with … sadness? Some kind of regret for his sister? A measure of long-standing anger? ‘What time? Do you want me to phone conference in from the office?’
‘No, that’s okay.’ Faith lifted her daughter higher into her arms. ‘Julia and I will be fine on our own but I appreciate the offer.’
They left after that and Marissa faced the company’s boss where he stood in the water. No tattoo on the right biceps. Just muscles that seemed to invite the stroke of questing fingers. Marissa wanted to stay annoyed at him for concealing the truth about Julia from her. Instead, she could only see his kindness to his sister and niece, meshed with the appeal of a great deal of male sensuality.
Somehow this Rick was even deeper and more difficult to try to ignore. ‘Your niece and sister seem lovely. It’s … er … it’s kind of you to give the little girl swimming lessons.’
‘I’m a skilled diver and for some reason Julia feels safer in the water with a man.’ His closed expression warned her off the topic, yet families were all about being there for each other, right?
Why would he mind her knowing he’d been there for his sister and niece?
Before she could consider possible answers, he climbed from the pool. In the brief time it took him to walk to the nearby lounger, snatch up a towel and wrap it around his hips, her concentration fled completely.
‘I always try to swim here every day anyway.’ His gaze swept, heavy-lidded and resistantly aware, over her. ‘For the exercise.’
‘You look very fit. Exceptionally fit, really. Quite muscularly fit.’ Heat washed over her from her toes to the top of her head as she acknowledged that saying so might not have been particularly prudent. And why was he looking at her that way? He was the half-naked one.
Board shorts and a towel. The man is perfectly adequately covered. This was quite true. The problem was that the board shorts had clung, hadn’t they? And the towel still left a lot of skin on display. His waist was trim and his shoulders were stunning.
‘Your hair wasn’t wet yesterday.’ The blurted words were an accusation, as though, if his hair had been wet and she’d worked out he’d been swimming, she would have felt more prepared for the sight of him this way. ‘And you didn’t smell like chlorine. I have a really good nose for that sort of thing.’
‘Today’s the first day Julia’s allowed me to put my head under the water, and I shower afterwards.’ His hair fell in a dripping mass over one side of his forehead and was pushed back from the other.
Spiked lashes blinked away the droplets of water that clung to them. ‘I want her to like swimming so I have to accommodate her fears. With her father away, she needs someone …’
‘I … er … it must be difficult for your sister, having a husband in the armed forces and unable to do the daddy things at times.’ Did the words even make sense? How could she concentrate, with every ounce of her so aware of the sight of him this way?
Not only that, but her hormones insisted on pointing out that Rick had seemed quite appealing indeed in the daddy role. Well, uncle, but it was the same general kind of thing.
Not really.
Yes, really.
She had to get over this idea of wanting a baby!
She had not thought that in association with Rick, anyway. She’d merely had a brief moment of considering how, in a bygone time, as in at the dawn of time, women may have reacted to strong men by wanting to … um … mate with them.
Which Marissa did not want to do—at all, whatsoever—with her boss.
It seemed expedient to get out of here. But she couldn’t quite recall how to bring that about. ‘Um … well …’
‘Yes?’ Rick’s gaze locked with Marissa’s. He felt worked up and overwrought for no reason he could explain. Other than to name the reason ‘Marissa’ or, at the least, ‘his reaction to Marissa’. That was something he didn’t want to do.
Her fingers tightened around the papers in her hands. ‘The fax.’
‘Let me see what it says.’ He took the pages from her, careful not to touch her. Bent his head to read while she finally looked everywhere but at him.
The knowledge of that belated restraint absurdly made him want her all the more. ‘I’ll need the files on this from the Civil Engineering department. Go straight there, will you? See if you can catch someone before they close for the day but tell him or her they don’t need to hang around. This is something I’ll have to address myself.’
‘I’ll go right now.’ With relief evident in every line of her body and expression on her face, Marissa took the fax, wheeled about and escaped with it.
Rick watched her go. She seemed more than glad to get away from him now. Which was, of course, exactly as he wanted things to be …
CHAPTER SIX
From: Englishcrumpet
Just let Tony down gently.
From: Sanfrandani
Better to tell the man so he knows where he stands.
From: Kangagirl
I know you’re both right. I don’t want to hurt his feelings, that’s all. Tony is a really nice guy. Maybe I shouldn’t have met with him twice so close together. We had lunch the day after I found my boss giving his niece a swimming lesson on the top floor of our work building, and then we had dinner tonight. If I’d given myself more time between …
From: Englishcrumpet
Do you really think seeing Tony this Saturday or next would have made any difference? What exactly did you say was wrong with him, anyway?
From: Sanfrandani
No spark, wasn’t it?
From: Kangagirl
Yes, and that’s enough about me and my evening. Tell me about your dating efforts.
‘This is a very tall building.’ The words passed through Marissa’s lips despite herself as they travelled up the outside of the building-in-progress in a cage lift.
It was Monday morning. She’d survived the disappointment of yet again finding ‘no spark’ during that second date with Tony, had also survived an entire week of working for Rick Morgan.
Had survived by the skin of her self-control, actually, and, really scarily tall buildings should be the least of her concerns.
For the real challenge, try genuinely not noticing the boss who’d taken her to the scary tall building in the first place, rather than merely pretending not to notice him. He superimposed himself on the Blinddatebrides men’s profile pictures when she viewed them, took over her brain space during her dating efforts. Marissa felt a spark all right—towards completely the wrong man!
Her fingers tightened their death grip on the handrail inside the cage. ‘And the lift is very fast.’
Dizzyingly so now she’d made the mistake of watching things whizz past. She’d thought that might save her from looking at Rick.
‘We’re quite secure, despite the fact you can see everything around you.’ He took her elbow to help her off as the lift stopped. Held on while she came to terms with the height. Held on and her skin tingled while his expression deepened because of their nearness. ‘Don’t worry.’ His voice seemed to come from deep in his chest as he placed his body between hers and the outside of the construction so she only saw him. ‘I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you.’
She’d been half okay until he said that. Now she had to add chivalry to his list of attributes.
‘Thank you, but I’m sure I’ll be quite fine now.’ She forced herself to step away from him, did her best to ignore the ache that doing so left behind.
Rick’s hand dropped slowly to his side as though he too hadn’t been ready to lose that contact.
Had touching her jolted him the same way? The answer was in the lock of his muscles, the tightness of his jaw and the way his lids lowered as his gaze drifted from her eyes to her mouth.
Then suddenly he turned to greet the site manager and the construction boss led them over every inch of the building.
Marissa composed herself and gave the tour her determined attention. This was a genuine meeting, the kind that should happen, not the sort where a man went on about turning a bridge into something completely made-over when that simply wasn’t possible.
She took pages of notes of specifications that Rick would expect her to incorporate when he worked on his department memos after the visit and decided she was okay with this. She had it all under control now. All she needed to do was keep her attention on her work, not look at her boss any more than she had to and not think about him at all.
Yes. And that worked really well when they were in constant communication at point blank range, didn’t it?
‘Overall, the project looks good at this stage.’ Rick nodded his approval as they finished their discussion at ground level almost an hour later.
‘I’m happy enough with things so far.’ The site boss pushed his hard hat back off his head. ‘But we have two more days of work, maximum, before we need that shipment of materials from the Melbourne supplier. If we don’t get it by then, we’re stalled and that’s going to cost us in time and wages.’
‘And you think the reason for the delay is related to underlying union issues at their end?’ Rick nodded. ‘Let me look into this. I’ll see if I can get things moving for you. Do you have a copy of the order?’
‘Right here.’ The site boss removed it from his clipboard.
Rick took it, glanced at it and passed it to Marissa. ‘At least you won’t have to note all this down.’
Their fingers brushed. His words brushed across her senses at the same time. Just words, but his gaze searched her face, took her in as though he didn’t realise he was doing it. As though he couldn’t stop himself from doing it.
‘I hope we can get back to the office soon.’ She needed the security of her desk and at least some semblance of routine. She needed Tom to get better fast and come back to work so she could hide in Gordon’s office.
More than that, she needed to stamp the words ‘dating website’ on her forehead so she remembered what she was supposed to be doing.
Not supposed to. Wanted to. Must do. Was doing! ‘So I can get to work on this transcribing.’
They made their way back to work with Rick dictating on the way. Once at the office, Marissa worked on his department memos and, because they were so pushed for time, they ate lunch at their desks. The busy afternoon that followed shouldn’t have allowed time to feel anything but the strain of hours of hard work, and yet she felt a great deal of other strain.
Marissa wished that strain away as she made yet another phone call for her boss. ‘This is Marissa Warren. I’m filling in as Rick Morgan’s secretary and need you to supply me with a list of names of all the people who’ve worked on the Chartrel project.’ She clasped the phone against her ear and smelled Rick’s scent on it from when he’d taken a call at her desk minutes earlier.
Marissa closed her eyes and inhaled before she could stop herself. When she lifted her lids again, Rick’s gaze rested on her from the other room, deep grey eyes honed on her.
She forced her attention back to her work, buried herself in it. Maybe she should never emerge again. That might fix things. When Rick came to her desk an hour later, she knew it hadn’t fixed anything at all.
‘I need you to take these to the departments personally, Marissa.’ He held out several signed memos. ‘I know we’re busy, but I want you to wait for their responses.’
‘All right.’ She agreed without hesitation. Eager to please him. No. She wasn’t overly compliant or willing to go the extra mile. She certainly didn’t think they were equals in this and would both be rewarded at the end. The roles were clear. Hers and his. This wasn’t the same as the past.
Rick wasn’t using her to try to make himself look bigger or better.
Maybe not, but he was still using her in his own way. He’d swept her into working for him without giving her a choice.
Your employment contract states: ‘and other duties as required’. He didn’t ask you to do anything you’re not obliged to do.
Fine. The man had every right to commandeer her. He was still too similar to Michael—all business orientation and focused on his work goals. Marissa held the thought up like a shield, and added another. She wanted to find a safe man, an ordinary man, and yes, okay, maybe she did want to get married and fulfil the promise of the Blinddatebrides.com website.
She was almost thirty. Surely a desire for genuine commitment was acceptable at that age? Her mother had been married a decade by then, with a child—what if Marissa could only have one baby, like Mum had?
Didn’t it make sense that Marissa might be thinking of getting started on that? That was nothing more than a logistics thing.
She wheeled about. ‘When I get back, I’ll do something about the explosion out here that was once my … that is … Tom’s desk.’
Not her desk.
Tom’s desk.
Tom’s chair.
She was keeping it all warm for Tom and nothing more. On this fortifying reminder, she left. Graciously and calmly, as befitted someone totally in control of her life, her hopes, her dreams and herself.
