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FROM: EmmaR@WWWDesigns.com
RE: Chrystal and that look on your face
First, tell all. You haven’t looked like this since… ever. What’s up? Are you in love? Has it got something to do with that man in your chair who fits your original criteria or have you found a tattoo-wearing, glass-munching man to turn you on?
And Chrystal is floating around extolling advice about wounded men like a Florence Night-in-love. Has Cupid hit?
Em
IT WAS ALL Tahlia could do to sit outside Case’s office and not go inside and taste the magic of his lips again and again and again.
He was like a drug and she couldn’t get enough of him. Last night had been magical in so many ways and she couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid to deny herself this.
Thank heavens that Case had come along and opened her eyes to life, to sharing, to him.
Was this what Chrystal was after by chasing every pair of trousers in the building and what her mother had found in the man she wanted her to meet?
TO: EmmaR@WWWDesigns.com
CC: KeelyR@WWWDesigns.com
FROM: TahliaM@WWWDesigns.com
RE: Chrystal and that look on your face.
I’m not saying anything that will later incriminate me, especially where the ‘office playboy’ is concerned. I will figure out what I’m feeling and in due course share my adventures with my two closest friends.
Definitely not shot by arrow-wielding midget.
T
No way was this love. Her mother and father had had something far more sensible than this craziness she was feeling. Besides, she couldn’t be in love. She wasn’t going to love anyone.
She’d decided when she was twelve that love wasn’t for her—about the moment her mother had told her what had happened to her father, that he wasn’t ever coming home again.
Love was for suckers, for young, naïve romantics. She was a professional and this was just another necessity to attain her true goal in life—a perfect career, because you could rely on work, you couldn’t rely on men.
All men were liars; they didn’t share their feelings or their fears and consequently left the world thinking they had jumped, when they could just have befallen a tragic accident.
So Case had shared his failed marriage with her—it didn’t mean he was the one that she’d risk everything for… Or was he?
She chewed on her bottom lip. He was divorced… What did that say?
She was never going to subject herself to pain, no matter how amazing Case Tantric Darrington was in bed, or how warm his lips were, how safe his arms were or how nice it had been to hear another human being’s heartbeat when she had woken up this morning in his embrace.
Chrystal rushed up the hall towards Tahlia. ‘Is this a good time?’
Tahlia nodded and waved her closer, anything to distract her from the love issue. So Case was incredibly, wonderfully nice—it didn’t mean she liked him. So the guy was great in bed—it didn’t mean she wanted him. So she wanted to spend every moment with him—it didn’t mean she loved him.
Chrystal sauntered up to the desk, her plaid knee-length skirt doing nothing to hide the exaggerated sway of her hips. ‘You won’t believe what I just heard.’
Tahlia sat taller and picked up a pen, spinning it in her hand. ‘What? Tell me.’
The receptionist leant forward, her blouse not as demure as the D cups she owned beneath it. ‘I heard on the grapevine that WWW Designs has just been sold.’
Tahlia gripped the pen tighter. ‘Oh, God. No.’
‘Yes.’
She dragged in a ragged breath. It couldn’t be. It was a mess. Who would want a mess like WWW? The only workplace she’d ever known could be ripped apart, her workmates scattered to all corners of the city, her secure future torn to shreds. ‘To whom?’
‘Some conglomerate, they say.’ Chrystal straightened and examined her nails. ‘I’ll let you know if I hear what’s going on, but someone said it’s one of those companies that owns a company that owns another one.’
‘But who?’ If she knew who was behind it all she’d be able to work out whether they meant to revamp the place and run it, or chop it into little pieces and sell it off to make a nameless profit for a bunch of rich fatarsed shareholders.
‘I don’t know, but the guys in Programming said that the first thing these big guys do is bring an expert in and turn the place upside down, weed out the inefficiencies and re-haul, or dissect, depending on the value.’
‘I know,’ Tahlia said softly, pulling her jacket tighter around her. She hadn’t put everything she had into WWW Designs, years of her life, just so that they could sell it off, chop it up and destroy it. Please, no.
Chrystal shrugged. ‘Nothing to do but give everyone the heads-up so they’re all working to top form. Slackers get the sack.’ She paused. ‘And I’ll let you know if I hear anything about the new owners from the rumour mill.’
‘Okay. Good, thanks,’ Tahlia said, her body numb.
Chrystal swung her attention to Case’s door. ‘Should I tell him?’
Tahlia shook her head. ‘I’ll do it.’ The poor guy was going to be out of his new job if an efficiency expert came in. He’d done nothing except get acquainted with the staff under him, which was all well and good, but if an expert came in they’d want to see him doing the job that he was at least a few weeks off knowing the ins and outs of.
She chewed on her pen. An expert coming in would be perfect to get rid of the Rottie, what with the mistakes she’d made lately, but Case was like a sitting duck.
She stood up. Her promotion would be available again, for sure, if the new owners decided to keep the place running, and poor Case didn’t have a clue.
She tossed the pen on to the desk and picked up the file that she’d been making on Case. Some things were more important than her promotion, like doing the right thing for someone she cared about.
Tahlia froze. Was she falling in love?
TO: TahliaM@WWWDesigns.com
CC: KeelyR@WWWDesigns.com
FROM: EmmaR@WWWDesigns.com
RE: Chrystal and that look on your face.
Poor Chrystal—if she had her sights on Case she’s out of luck. Case is interested in someone else… (Hey, Tahlia—how’s it going with lover boy?). After all the work she’s done too. Hope she doesn’t fall off the virgin-wagon when she finds out… She’s so much nicer like this. Liam certainly thinks so. He’s kicked those nerdy spotty shirts and gone for pastels and got contacts and a haircut.
Em
Tahlia froze at Case’s doorway, looking out through the full-height windows to the balcony, the existence of which she usually managed to block out.
The sliding door was open.
Case was out there.
Fear ripped through her like cold steel. ‘Case,’ she croaked, her voice closing over.
Case turned. ‘Miss Moran. Come to share the glorious morning with me?’
‘Yes,’ she breathed, dragging her feet like lead weights across the floor, focusing on the amazing man who had awakened her to so much. Not the windows, not the height, not the balcony. ‘But inside, okay?’
His brow furrowed. ‘What is it?’
‘Please.’ Tahlia glanced around her, dropping the file on a chair. It was so high up she could see cars in the distance that looked like toys ants would play with. ‘I don’t like heights.’
Case walked back into the office, sliding the door closed behind him. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’
She shook her head, the memories pressing in on her, the scream, the silence and the sirens.
He took her hands and directed her to the chair closest to the wall. ‘I did notice you didn’t have a window in your office.’
Tahlia nodded, fighting the logic of how many people could guess her fear, and hating herself for it. Her father’s face leapt to her mind.
She lifted her chin, meeting his warm gaze. ‘It’s not something I talk about.’
‘Sometimes it helps to share problems.’ Case knelt in front of her, holding her hands in his warm ones. ‘I’m here for you.’
She couldn’t help but smile. How could she not share this with him after he had shared so much with her? ‘My father…died.’ She sucked in a deep breath. ‘He fell from a balcony…there was a loose rail.’
‘Oh, God, Tahlia.’ Case’s voice broke. ‘I’m so sorry. I had no idea.’
‘Losing my father was tragic for me, for my mum and me, but listening to the whispers was shattering.’
‘Whispers?’
‘He’d been drinking. He had financial problems. And he was fighting with my mum.’
Case rubbed her hands. ‘It was an accident.’
‘But you wonder… I wonder…if I could have been a better daughter. If I had better marks at school. If I hadn’t nagged him to play checkers with me, then he wouldn’t have been up there—’
Case swept her into his arms, holding her against his chest. ‘Oh, hell, Tahlia.’ He stroked her hair back from her face. ‘It was an accident,’ he said quietly.
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘That’s what they all said, but—’ She had heard the whispers.
‘Hey, of course it was an accident. He loved you and your mother very much… He probably just wanted to protect you from his business worries; he didn’t want you to think he wasn’t the strong, capable man you thought he was.’
She nodded. ‘He fell.’
‘Yes, and anyone who says he jumped is a fool, who doesn’t know how beautiful and loving you are…who doesn’t know how much he was loved.’
She nodded. He was right. It wasn’t what happened. It was the meaning she placed upon it. She’d spent far too long listening to whispers that didn’t matter. She had loved her father and her father had loved them and it had been an accident, a tragic accident that had stolen her father from her.
‘Has anyone told you how wonderful you are?’ she asked, sucking in a deep breath. Or how easy it could be to fall in love with him?
‘Not lately.’
She rested her head on his chest, which held a heart so warm and loving to offer her such understanding and kindness about her father.
Case held her close, staring out of the window, breathing in her sweet scent, feeling her breath slow down, become deeper, her body relax.
He’d never felt so close to another human being than at this moment. Tahlia had finally let another layer slip away. She’d let him in. He’d never known a feeling like this.
It was incredible.
What he’d thought had been love with Celia had obviously just been infatuation, followed by a hefty dose of ego-induced denial. He had never liked admitting mistakes. And marrying Celia had been a whopper.
Working so hard to save their marriage had probably been more for the sake of the marriage than for them—to show himself and his mother that he wasn’t his father. He could change.
He had changed. Now he knew what love was. Sure, it was early days, but he knew, deep in his chest, that he couldn’t live without Tahlia. She was air to his lungs, reason for his being, the future mother of his children.
It was her.
He should tell her the truth about why he was here, who he was and exactly why he’d lied, before this went further.
‘Tahlia,’ he murmured softly. Was now the time? She was obviously vulnerable just now.
Hell, to lose her dad in that way… He ached to fix the past, go back and save her father, so she didn’t have to deal with it, feel that pain.
She stepped back, sucking in a deep breath. ‘Oh, gawd, I totally forgot why I came in,’ she said strongly, sounding more like the Tahlia he knew.
‘Understandable.’
She shrugged, swiping down her white blouse and short office skirt, taking his attention to her legs, firing his body with memories of the feel of her wrapped around him, of making incredible passionate love to her.
‘I need to talk to you.’
He nodded, watching her move to his desk and sit down opposite his chair as though nothing had happened, all cool and collected. She glanced at him and the soft look in her eyes clawed at his gut.
It was time to tell her. There was only one person who knew who he really was and he wasn’t about to let Raquel come between them.
There was no reason to wait until after this little assessment was done. Waiting wasn’t worth the risk of enjoying anonymity any longer.
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