NATASHA OAKLEY – At The Boss's Command: Taking on the Boss / The Millionaire Boss's Mistress / Accepting the Boss's Proposal (страница 15)
‘My goals?’ She couldn’t help but stare at the guy in the big black leather chair that was going to be hers, the office that ought to have her name on it, the walls she was going to hang her photos and qualifications on and the bank of windows that she’d been ready to hang vertical blinds on. What could she say?
He leant forward, his eyebrows rising slightly. ‘You do have goals?’
‘Of course I have goals,’ she bit out. How dared he? ‘I’ve had goals since I was twelve, when I decided I was going to run a kick-arse company like this one, and not for one minute have I ever questioned that I was going to make it. My aspirations? To sit at the head of this company and run it properly and squash all the rumours.’
‘Rumours?’
Tahlia bit her lip, breathing slowly, willing her blood to cool and her heart to slow. ‘There have been a lot of rumours about the company lately,’ she said more carefully. Had she messed up? ‘You know, about how much financial trouble they’re in.’
‘Oh?’
She shrugged. ‘I’m surprised that a man as smart and as finger-on-the-pulse as you would want to get on board with a company obviously in trouble. There’s even a lawsuit going because Raquel messed up.’
‘That’s been settled.’
Tahlia frowned. ‘How do you know?’
‘I…’ Darrington rubbed his jaw ‘…heard it on the grapevine.’
‘Okay,’ she said slowly. ‘And why did you come here?’
He leant back in his chair. ‘I like a challenge.’
‘You’re not worried?’
He shook his head and stood up. ‘No. Are you?’ He moved around the desk and leant on the edge, looking down at her, his arms crossed. ‘Why would you stay on if the company is in trouble?’
Tahlia looked up at her boss, appreciating his move to that of dominance, and his wide shoulders. He was looking down at her with his dreamy blue eyes, his profile all power and his lips so enticing… It was a good move, to show who was boss.
‘I’ve got friends here,’ she said evenly. ‘They need their jobs and I figure I’m helping by staying, you know.’ She shrugged and stood up. Had she been too honest? ‘I’ve put a lot of work into this place; it would be hard to walk away.’ Incredibly hard, but if she had to go she was determined on doing her bit first.
She was close, just having the height advantage due to the fact he was leaning his cute butt on the edge of his desk and she was wearing heels.
She took a step closer, her brain stumbling for what she could do to soften the guy up. ‘So I’m here and eager to do whatever I can to get the company back on track, on plan, on the path to success and happiness for all.’
Case stood up. ‘Well, we’ll do our bit as best we can then, yes?’
Tahlia looked up into his face, fixing her gaze on his sapphire-blue eyes that were looking down at her, slightly narrowed as though trying to make her out. ‘Sure, but there’s one thing I have to know first,’ she said.
‘Yes, what’s that?’ he asked, his gaze dropping to her mouth.
Her mind went blank.
He was so close.
Her heart thundered in her chest. She moved, stumbled, reached out and touched his smooth silk tie and his hard chest underneath, looking up.
Their lips met.
His mouth quivered beneath hers, softened, yielded, and danced with hers.
He tasted as sweet and spicy as he smelt, like cinnamon toast and coffee… and his lips weren’t firm, they were soft, hot and intoxicating.
Heat rushed through her body and the urge to deepen the kiss, wrap her arms around his body and drown in the man almost swamped her.
Tahlia pulled back, letting the silk slide through her fingers. ‘O-kay,’ she breathed. ‘Thank you.’
His eyes glittered. ‘What was that?’ he croaked, his voice husky.
‘I’m…I’m pretty sure it was a…kiss,’ she offered softly, staring at his mouth, her own tingling with a need for more. The crazy desire to push up against his body and try that again throbbed deep inside her.
‘Yes.’ He straightened his tie and tightened the knot, smoothing the silk flat against his shirt. ‘Why?’
Her mind clambered for an answer. She had no idea how it had happened. Who had kissed whom? Oh, gawd. How had that happened?
‘Just checking,’ she said as casually as she could, swinging around and striding to the door on legs that felt spongy. She had to save this embarrassing situation and turn it around to her advantage.
‘Checking what, may I ask?’
Her mind spun. What? How he kissed? That he was willing? That she could rise to any challenge for the job? That she was a babbling klutz around the man? She touched her tingling lips.
She couldn’t help but smile. ‘That
TO:
CC:
FROM:
RE: Men
Rub your good luck in, why don’t you? And I’m not protesting, I’m explaining. A girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do.
Tahlia
Chapter Eleven
Sagittarians—watch out, you may get more than you bargained for.
CASE sagged on to the edge of the desk, gripping the edge of the timber tightly. What in hell—or heaven— was she doing to him?
He rubbed his jaw. Reading his mind? Doing what he’d decided wasn’t a good idea? Taking the plunge and finding out if the feeling was mutual?
Hell, yes.
He had no idea how that had happened… Had he kissed her? Hell, he’d wanted to. He may have leant that bit closer, made it happen.
What a kiss!
She was more than a breath of fresh air—she was a spring breeze, warm and sensuous, encouraging a clean break from the past, the promise of something new and exciting.
He stared at his office door, his heart still pumping hard, his blood hot, his whole body still in reaction to those sweet soft lips that had teased him with a hunger that he longed to sate, slowly and sensually through the night with her.
And what a night it would be…exploring the magic that sparked between them like electricity, short-circuiting sense and setting off fires.
Case stood up, raking his hands through his hair. Dammit. This wasn’t the time.
He tried to laugh. That kiss had been one hell of a surprise. And he’d brought it on himself. He should have learnt by now that rash actions, like sending those flowers, led to trouble. Beautiful, radiant, curvaceous and irresistible trouble. A woman who he shouldn’t be engaging until after the staff assessments were done.
A relationship was built on honesty and how could he be honest when he was pretending he wasn’t himself?
Sure, she saw him as an almost-equal, saw him as he was…him. Hell, she would probably be perfectly suited to take over this position herself once he was done here.
He loved the way she talked to him—no airs, not a grace in sight and enough blunt barbs to sink a ship.
Would she be the same if she knew who he was? That he owned this company and several more? That he was so much more than the executive-on-the-way-up that he pretended to be? Would it matter to her?
It had mattered to Celia. She’d totally conned him into believing she loved him. That she couldn’t get enough of him, that she’d die if she wasn’t his for ever.
He’d never had anyone feel like that about him before, had been convinced it couldn’t happen if he didn’t have that same intensity and commitment. Had married her anyway and had done all he could to live up to her adoration.
He had been such a fool.
The fax machine bleated. Case ignored it. He knew who it was from, same time every day.
He hadn’t had a clue with Celia. Not when the ‘simple’ wedding to seal their love had turned into a three hundred guests media extravaganza because it was her ‘special’ day. Not when the Melbourne penthouse hadn’t been big enough and a twelve-room mansion on the park was what she wanted, because they did want to start a family. And not when her desire to see the world didn’t include him, because he had to stay at home and work for their future.
He had been an idiot. He’d rushed into Celia because she hadn’t wanted him to think straight. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake again.