by Louise Clark
“Absolutely,” he said. “So tell me about yourself, Faith. Do you have a dark underside that remains hidden from the rest of us?”
For a moment she couldn’t breathe. Forcing herself to be calm, she dipped her spoon into the soup. “What you see is what you get,” she said, keeping her eyes on the bowl.
“Well, that looks pretty good to me,” he said.
Faith glanced up quickly. His eyes were warm and there was a caress in them that almost covered the question that lurked beneath the friendly expression.
Somehow she had to get rid of that question. Cody Simpson was an attractive guy, but she was here because Ava Taylor had pressured her into accepting a date. She had to remember that and remember too, that no one at work must know about her special ability.
How did she deal with a question that couldn’t be asked and shouldn’t be answered? With a response that said nothing, but seemed to tell all. “I have to confess, Cody, that I spend way too much time at work.”
He grimaced. “Me too.”
She nodded in a companionable way, two workaholics commiserating. “So when I get home I usually do my chores then read for a while or watch TV. Not long ago my sister wanted to go out to a club for the evening, but I just didn’t have the energy. She thinks I’m a total loss.” She smiled then waited, sipping her soup, pretending to be perfectly calm.
Cody nodded. “Sounds reasonable to me. I’d rather clean toilets than go solo to a club.” He stopped abruptly, a sudden, guilty look on his face.
Faith laughed. “Is that your version of a deep, dark secret, then? That you aren’t a party animal?”
The server came to clear their plates, replacing used cutlery with fresh and refilling their wineglasses. He was silent as the man moved unobtrusively around the table. When he had gone Cody said, “Actually, I have to confess that I hate housekeeping and I’m lousy at it.”
“Get a cleaning service,” Faith said. “That’s what I do.” Their entrees arrived with a flourish along with Mel to explain the special nuances of each dish. When Faith tasted her braised lamb shank she sighed with pleasure. “This is wonderful!”
Mel beamed. “You are too kind!” He turned to Cody. “My friend, keep this one around. She has taste as well as beauty.”
Faith could feel the blush rush into her cheeks. She would have stammered something incoherent, but Cody smiled at her, then winked. Relief flooded through her. Mel might be flowery and continental in his manner, but Cody wasn’t taking him seriously and she didn’t have to either.
Mel departed to make pleasant conversation at another table. Cody zoned in on the comment she’d made just as their meals arrived. “You have a cleaning service for your house?”
“You bet. There’s a team of three. I don’t make much of a mess, so I only have them in once a month. They vacuum, dust, do the bathrooms, all the heavy stuff. I keep the place tidy and do the dishes and the ironing, that sort of thing.”
He fiddled with the steak on his plate. “You have a big yard. Do you have a landscaping service too?”
“Of course.” Faith laughed at the amazement on his face. “Hey, I’m much better at organizing people than I am at doing all the little bits and pieces of life. I figured out long ago that if I found the right person to do a job, the results would be much better than if I tried to do it myself.” Cody’s amazement had given way to a frown. That didn’t make sense to Faith. Her cheerful confidence slipped a notch. What if he was the kind of guy who figured that there was something faintly sinful about a woman who is not the primary cleaner of the household?
Then he wasn’t for her. She lifted her chin. “I’ve found that what works in the office also works at home.”
The frown disappeared and that sexy, half-smile quirked up the edge of his mouth. Despite herself, Faith responded to that look. Butterflies took flight in her stomach and a tiny, but unmistakable shiver of anticipation swept through her. She took a sip of wine, hoping it would calm her, but his eyes followed her as she brought the glass to her lips. Instead of cooling her response, his gaze added fire. The tingle became a full body flush.
“You have no idea how empowering I find this conversation,” he said, still watching her intently as she lowered the glass.
“Oh?” As comebacks went, this was pretty weak, but it was about all Faith was capable of at that moment.
He nodded. His little smile grew wider. “I’m not the tidiest male in the world.”
“And that relates to my using a cleaning service in what way?”
“It makes you less intimidating.”
Faith stared at him. “Intimidating? Me?”
He laughed, his eyes warm. “You have a fearsome reputation, lady.”
Putting her hands on either side of her plate, she leaned forward. “Let me get this straight. You find me intimidating.” He nodded, amusement in his eyes and a rueful curl to his lips. “And that is because…?”
The quirk broadened into a grin and he laughed outright. “I told you. I’m not a tidy person. I file by pile, so my house—particularly my kitchen—is cluttered.”
Understanding dawned. “And my kitchen is the exact opposite.”
He nodded. The amusement was still warm in his eyes.
Faith basked in that warmth as she thought for a minute. There were things going on here that she had to get a handle on. She said cautiously, “Your office wasn’t full of piles.”
He shrugged, serious now. “Work is different. Most of my archive material is backed up onto a separate hard drive and I don’t bother to keep paper files. Sue Green does. If she thinks we need a paper track, she prints the document out and puts it in a filing cabinet somewhere.” His rueful grin flashed again. “Since she’s been off I’ve been using her office as a stacking place. If something comes in on paper I just dump it on her desk.”
Faith stared at him in amazement. “Wow. I had no idea. Cody, do you want some help dealing with the everyday stuff?”
He rubbed his hand over his chin. “I hadn’t thought of it. I am supposed to be doing Sue’s job, after all.”
“No one…” Ava Taylor’s name hung between them, there but unspoken, “expects you do the clerical parts of Sue’s job. Angela is a quick worker and I like to keep her busy, particularly now that I know she’s been creating her computer problems out of boredom. I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
“See what I mean?”
He was smiling at her in that warm, amused way that made her tingle from head to toe. “What?”
“You are one formidable lady, Faith Hamilton.”
Chapter 12
Faith was still tingling when she danced into the office on Friday morning. Her date with Cody had been a delight. Her mood was so good she’d put on a favorite summer dress, a splash of blues and yellows that reached mid-thigh and hugged her hips. Everything had cooperated for her this morning. The day had woken with a blaze of sunshine, her drive in had been a breeze—minus its usual moments of traffic madness—and she’d found a prime parking spot in the crowded NIT lot.
She dumped her purse into her desk drawer, then got down to business. After she’d arranged for Angela to file the stack of materials Cody had been collecting, she checked her e-mail and dealt with the various replies. She was deep into a review of budget figures for the quarter, when June came by with the news that she couldn’t access certain files on the network.
Faith sat back, stretched, and said, “Have you called Cody Simpson?”
June nodded. “I left a voicemail.”
Faith considered that. Cody might be at his desk, but even if he was, he didn’t pay much attention to messages. There was also a good chance that he was hiding away in his secret place, working on one of his projects. She stood up. “I’ll take a look. If it’s a little thing I can easily sort out we won’t have to wait on Cody.”
It wasn’t. Faith spent fifteen minutes assessing the situation, then glanced at her watch. “Okay, it’s eleven o’clock. Let’s give Cody until noo
n to get down here. If he hasn’t shown up by then, I’ll call him and ask him to come down as soon as possible. Yesterday, if he can.”
At noon June poked her head in the door. “He didn’t come.”
That meant she was going to have to call Cody herself. She thought about the little bit of a dress that made her feel and look good and considered taking a trip up to his second floor lair, but decided to stick with voice and e-mail. When he came down she’d have a chance to see him. “Okay, I’ll organize this, June. Let me know when Cody arrives.”
Of course his voicemail was on, so Faith left a message and sent him an urgent e-mail. Assuming he’d call right back after the way they’d meshed last night, she stayed at her desk and worked through lunch. An hour flew by, but Cody hadn’t come down.
That put a damper on Faith’s buoyant good mood, but only a small one. Sooner or later Cody was going to show up and then she’d have a chance to talk to him. Humming a little tune, she called him again, then added an e-mail for good measure, and went back to work.
June was back again a while later—over an hour later!—to say her network link was still down. Faith considered her options. Between them, she and June had contacted Cody several times. If he ever picked up his phone or checked his e-mail he’d be awash with requests to come down to the main offices to fix June’s malfunctioning computer. Adding another one to the total would be like pouring a glass of water into a lake—unnoticeable.
What this needed was the personal touch. She’d go up to the second floor and seek out Cody in his secret hiding place, room two-oh-seven. She let June know her plan, then hummed as she climbed the stairs and followed the hallway around corners into the depths of the building.
When she reached two-oh-seven Cody wasn’t there. Nor was he in his corner office with the big windows. Faith’s mood plummeted. Where in heavens was he? She glanced at her watch. It was nearly two-thirty. He couldn’t be at lunch. No one ate lunch this late in the afternoon. Maybe he was in the washroom. She waited five minutes. Frustration grew. When he didn’t show up, she gritted her teeth and checked the men’s washroom by knocking on the door, then pushing it open and asking if there was anyone in there.
There wasn’t. Or at least, there wasn’t anyone who was willing to admit his presence. With frustration rapidly ballooning into annoyance, Faith again checked his office, two-oh-seven, and even Sue Green’s office. When she had no luck finding Cody, she returned to the main suite.
Somewhere between the second floor and the first, annoyance settled into a stubborn determination that June’s computer was going to be fixed today and that Cody was going to do it. Buried deep within that determination was a sense of betrayal. Last night Cody had made her believe that he understood why she had to contact him to make the repairs on her department’s computers, that he was willing to work with her to ensure that what needed to be done would be done. He had told her about two-oh-seven hadn’t he? Wasn’t that evidence of his new cooperative attitude?
Evidently not. The moment Faith reached her office she e-mailed, then phoned Cody. She did a follow-up five minutes later, then five minutes after that. With each unanswered call her stress levels rose, along with her temper.
The clock was hovering between three-thirty and three-forty-five when June tapped on Faith’s door and announced that Cody was fixing her computer. Faith breathed a sigh of relief. After wrestling her temper under tight control she went out to June’s desk.
Cody’s attention was riveted to the computer. He was dressed as he normally was, in jeans that hugged his lean hips and a t-shirt that made the most of his shoulders and strong arms. As he worked a lock of dark hair fell over his forehead, creating a look that was relaxed and decidedly sexy. Some of Faith’s tension eased, but not all of it. She’d needed his help hours ago and his slow response to her urgent messages had caused her and her staff problems that need not have happened.
As if he’d felt her presence, he looked up. His expression shifted to one that was decidedly hostile. “We need to talk.”
“Yes, we do,” Faith replied. She didn’t like his tone, or the grim look on his face. “My office when you’re done.” She deliberately turned and walked away without waiting for his response. She figured if they were going to have a battle over this, she needed to do everything she could to get the upper hand.
She was halfway to her office when she felt a hand close around her arm. Surprised, she looked up to see Cody. Then suddenly he was leading her to her office, she wasn’t heading there on her own. Her temper started to steam again. It reached a full boil when he hauled her into her own office and shut her door behind them.
“Did you fix June’s problem?” she asked. The effort to keep her tone coolly controlled when she wanted to shriek at him set her temper sizzling even more.
Standing with his back to the closed door, he observed her thoughtfully, his hands in his pockets. His apparent calm was in sharp contrast to her annoyance.
He advanced into the room, stopping just in front of her. “Yes. It was nothing major.”
“Great. I have a staff member who couldn’t do her job all day because of a simple little problem.”
Something akin to humor danced in his eyes. “You should have come up to two-oh-seven.”
His response freed her seething temper. “I did. You weren’t there. You weren’t in your office either. You weren’t even in the bathroom! Cody, it took five hours and phone calls every few minutes to get a response from you! I thought we went out last night so we could get better acquainted and make sure this kind of miscommunication wouldn’t happen anymore.”
A frown snapped his brows together. “Is that why you went out with me? To create a better working relationship between us?”
“No! That’s not it…” Flustered, Faith’s voice dwindled to a stop. “Yes, it is. After I turned down your invitation at the picnic Ava put pressure on me to accept it.”
“So you dated me because you had to?” He sounded more baffled than outraged.
Faith wished she’d never opened her mouth. “Yes.”
He took one quick step that brought him within inches of her. “That’s too bad,” he said, “because it’s not why I went out with you. As far as I’m concerned last night was a date, with everything that goes along with it.”
She pressed her lips together. “Yeah? Then why didn’t you kiss me when you dropped me at my house?”
His eyes narrowed. “My mistake.” He caught her waist and drew her hard against him. “I’ll just fix that now.”
His free hand caught her head, holding it steady as he slowly, oh so slowly, lowered his lips to hers.
Though Faith put her hands against his shoulders and pushed, he was too strong for her. “What are you doing, Cody? Stop this right—”
He paid no attention, swallowing her words as his mouth closed over hers. Faith stood stiffly, determined not to respond, but there was nothing distasteful about the kiss, except for the fact that it was happening in her office. His mouth was warm on hers, inquiring and gentle, a first date kiss that asked rather than demanded.
And it didn’t last nearly long enough.
Her eyes were closed when Cody released her mouth. She opened them to find him staring down at her, looking all together very pleased with himself.
“Let’s get something straight, shall we?” he said.
He was still holding her, one hand around her waist and one cradling her head. “And what would that be?” she heard herself ask in a languid voice.
“I’m not dating you because Ava Taylor thinks it’s a good idea. I’m dating you because I like you—though I’m not entirely sure why.”
Faith gave his shoulders another push. This time he released her. She straightened her dress. “Try not to be too lavish with your compliments, okay?”
He laughed. “Maybe it’s because just when I think you’re completely uptight, you do something off-the-wall. Or it could be because I want to tear your gorgeous hair out of
that prim little bun you wear all the time.” He reached out to fiddle with her hair.
Horrified, Faith slapped his hand away. If he pulled out her knot she’d never get it back in place. Then the whole office would know that something other than an argument had been going on in her office. “Cody! You can’t do that here!”
“Why not? I just kissed you here.”
“That’s true, but…Look, it’s my office, okay? And it’s during working hours. I can’t…I shouldn’t…”
“You look so cute when you’re flustered,” he murmured. “I feel like kissing you again, just to shake you up even more.”
“Cody!”
He laughed. “Instead I’ll ask you to go out with me tomorrow night.”
Faith didn’t even stop to think. “Okay.”
“I’ll pick you up.”
“Okay.”
He laughed and ran his knuckles down her cheek. “Wear jeans and comfortable shoes.”
And then he was gone.
Faith touched her fingers to her lips, lips that still tingled from his touch. A shiver of awareness crawled through her, along with a wish that he was still here so he could recreate the kiss one more time.
His restraint had surprised her. They were both angry and he’d kissed her out of—what? Annoyance because she’d admitted that she’d only gone to dinner with him because of Ava?
No, not annoyance. Faith visualized his face, saw again the determination there and that elusive something else. What was it?
As she imagined the kiss again, she enjoyed the tingle of pleasure even thinking about his touch created, and she understood very well what Cody had been feeling when he’d decided to kiss her. She understood because it was what she was feeling at this very moment. Desire. He had wanted to taste her and his anger today had slipped whatever restraints he’d put on himself the previous night. He’d wanted and he’d taken. It was that simple.
It was amazingly powerful.
Even now, when Cody had been gone a full five minutes, Faith still couldn’t stop thinking about him or the way he had kissed her. Or the fact that they were going out again tomorrow night and this time it was for man-woman reasons, not sensible business associates reasons. That meant another kiss, maybe many other kisses from Cody.
