Her Boss by Day...

by Joss Wood

  Rob bent his head and placed a long, sexy kiss on Willa’s shoulder. When he lifted his head to look at her he saw that her eyes were smouldering with passion. Maybe they could find an empty bedroom—closet, bathroom—on this monstrous floating tub and have some fun.

  ‘I want you,’ he told her, sotto voce.

  Willa licked her lips and he felt his blood rushing south.

  ‘You always want me.’

  ‘This is true.’ He lifted her hand, opened her fingers and dropped an open-mouthed kiss on the centre of her palm. ‘Is that a problem?’

  ‘Yeah...kind of... Because when you look at me like that my knees go all wobbly and my vision blurs,’ Willa admitted.

  His ego puffed out its chest and did a high-five at the thought...

  ‘And my panties get all wet.’

  Okay, there went his knees. Well-played, gorgeous. ‘Keep that up, honey, and I swear I’ll give this room something more to talk about.’

  Willa tipped her head. ‘What would you do, Rob?’

  Rob stepped up closer to her and his breath played with the hair at her ear. ‘I’d run my hands up your stunning legs, pull that dress over your hips, push your thong aside and start moving.’

  Willa kissed the side of his jaw. ‘Panties now soaked—’

  ‘You’re making a spectacle of yourself, Willa. Stop it.’

  Rob’s hand fisted but he took his time moving away from Willa, dropping a brief but possessive kiss on her lips before pulling back and lifting his eyebrows at the balding blond man who was standing far too close to them, steam coming out of his ears. Okay, not literally, but still...

  Rob didn’t need his MBA to tell him that this was Wayne, Willa’s soon-to-be ex-husband.

  ‘Willa, do you have to embarrass me like this?’ Wayne demanded. ‘You’re my wife, dammit!’

  Rob opened his mouth to blast him but then remembered that Willa wanted to do this herself...recapture her pride and self-respect. He lifted an eyebrow at her but she wasn’t looking at him. Her eyes were firmly on Wayne—a snake about to strike. She needed to handle this, he reminded himself. This was her party and he’d play bouncer—ready to step in if things got out of hand.

  Wayne took a sip of whisky from his glass and his brows lifted to his receding hairline. ‘What are you doing here anyway? These aren’t your friends any more.’

  Could he sound any more childish if he tried? God, what a moron. Okay, Willa, any time now—blast him. Rob placed a hand on her lower back and gave her an encouraging tap, but she just stood there, a fawn caught in the hunter’s sights. He recognised that look. He had seen it on his mother’s and sister’s faces—probably on his own too.

  ‘You’ve picked up some weight since I last saw you. You really should monitor your ice cream intake. Your backside is getting huge,’ Wayne stated, his eyes glinting with malicious amusement.

  Rob so wanted to punch him. For a moment he saw Stefan in Wayne’s face and knew that he was dealing with the same type of character, the same need to control.

  He rubbed his hand over his face. If he had to get involved with a woman, why couldn’t it be with one who didn’t make him feel as if he was reliving his past? Why did she have to be the one person he could thoroughly understand—who could probably understand him? He was already having problems keeping his emotional distance from her—how was he supposed to keep her at arm’s length knowing just how miserable her last eight years must have been? Why couldn’t she just have had an ex she’d fallen out of love with? Was that too much to ask?

  The universe, he decided, had a sick sense of humour sometimes.

  Rob noticed that they were attracting the attention of the rest of the room and decided that enough was enough. He couldn’t stand here while the woman he...whatever he felt for Willa...was insulted and disparaged. He’d done that before and he’d never allow it to happen again.

  ‘Back off, dude. Now,’ he growled in Wayne’s direction.

  Wayne turned his attention to him and Rob held his shark-like eyes. Soft, mean and dangerous, he thought. But one punch to that jaw or a hook into his sternum would have him out cold or gasping like a fish. Lovely image, that.

  ‘Who the hell are you? Did she hire you for the evening?’ Wayne demanded.

  Rob rolled his eyes at Misha and Vern who, obviously hoping to avoid blood on their expensive teak floors, had scuttled up to them. ‘Nice to know that if the gyms and clothing line don’t work out I have another option.’

  Misha’s eyes glinted with amusement. ‘It’s always good to have a Plan B. Wayne—really? Another scene?’

  ‘We’re still married, Michelle.’

  Misha sent him a look to pin him to the floor. ‘And where is your current lady-love, Wayne, darling? Oh, look.’ She tapped the face of her disgustingly expensive diamond-studded bracelet watch and smiled brightly. ‘It’s after nine so it’s probably past her curfew.’

  ‘Not funny,’ Wayne muttered.

  Rob grinned at Misha. ‘I thought it was. Didn’t you, Willa?’

  He sighed. Willa was still doing her ‘see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil’ thing.

  The rest of the room remained silent, Rob noticed, enthralled by the drama. Misha, obviously trying to rescue the situation, turned back to Wayne.

  ‘Rob was telling me earlier that he owns a couple of fitness centres in South Africa as well as a chain of sports stores. He’s expanding his business to Sydney, then Perth and Melbourne.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Vern murmured. ‘A little risky when you have competition from Just Fit?’

  Rob nodded. ‘I’ve had two business consultants plus Willa look over the market research. They all agree that there’s a gap in the market.’

  ‘Like Willa knows anything about market research,’ Wayne mocked. ‘She’s nothing but a pretty empty shell.’

  ‘Careful,’ Rob warned him. ‘That’s my accountant you’re talking about.’

  Wayne’s eyes widened with astonishment and then he erupted into laughter. ‘Oh, come on—you’re kidding, right? You hired her as your accountant? You’re stupider than you look!’

  Rob flicked a glance at Willa, who still stood staring at Wayne, face ashen and eyes wide with hurt confusion. Dammit, say something, Willa, he urged her silently. Take control, don’t let this moron win.

  Rob squeezed her hand and she looked at him. He tipped his head in Wayne’s direction, his eyes urging her to take a verbal swing. ‘I’ve got your back,’ he mouthed.

  Willa took a deep breath, and he wondered if she knew that when she spoke her low, quiet, controlled voice had more power than shouting and screaming.

  ‘I actually don’t care what you think about me any more because you mean absolutely nothing to me. You didn’t want a wife. You wanted a blow-up doll—someone who would feed your ego and tell you how wonderful you are. Except that you aren’t wonderful...you’re a sad man who gets his kicks from putting people down. And I am done with you.’

  Yeah, you go, girl. Rob waited for her to say more but she just kept her eyes on Wayne’s face, looking classy and strong and proud.

  Rob couldn’t help adding his two cents because—well, he wasn’t going away without taking a couple of swings himself. Verbal only, of course. He looked Wayne in the eye and used his toughest, hardest, don’t-mess-with-me voice.

  ‘You must be a special kind of stupid not to realise how bright Willa actually is. She has a mind like a steel trap and she has the credentials to back it up. Smart and sexy... What kind of man would let that go?’

  ‘I made her. I gave her everything!’ Wayne spluttered, his face mottling instantly.

  Typical bully—stand up to them and they back down...fast. The fact that he had six inches, ten years and twenty pounds of muscle on Wayne also helped.

  ‘You ga
ve her nothing of value.’ Rob shook his head. ‘She wasted far too much time on you...and now she’s done.’

  He deliberately turned his back to Wayne and stood in between him and Willa—a silent but, he hoped, an effective insult.

  He winked at Willa and held out his hand. ‘Ready to blow this joint, honey?’

  ‘So ready.’ Willa slid her much smaller hand into his.

  He lifted his head at his hosts. ‘Thanks, Misha and Vern... I wish I could say it’s been fun.’

  Vern grinned as he shook Rob’s hand. ‘I like you...come back.’

  Rob shook his head. ‘Nah, life is too short to spend my leisure time with people I don’t like.’

  Vern, instead of being insulted, just nodded. ‘You may be right, son.’

  ‘Happy birthday anyway.’

  Rob tugged Willa and wrapped his arm around her slim waist. He bent his head to speak in her ear.

  ‘So, where were we before we were so annoyingly interrupted...? Oh, I was sliding on in and your legs were wrapped around my hips...’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  WILLA LOOKED ABSOLUTELY SHATTERED, and for that Rob wanted to go back onto that fancy yacht and pitch her waste-of-oxygen ex over the side. The funny, charming, sexy woman he’d spent the last few weeks with was gone and he was furious that the moron had wiped away her self-confidence, her happiness.

  He looked sideways at her and thought that she looked like a ’roo in the headlights of a road train. Unfortunately he understood how deeply the scars of emotional abuse ran. He was proud of her, but she didn’t seem to understand how far she’d come. Sure, she hadn’t said much, but she’d said something.

  It didn’t matter that her words had just bounced off Wayne and that he’d only sat up and taken notice when Rob took him to task. None of that mattered because Willa had stood up for herself and he was proud of her. Yeah, he’d jumped in and got all he-man and protective, but he knew, deep down, that if hadn’t been there Willa would have been just fine.

  Eventually.

  ‘So, on a scale of one to Chinese water torture, how much fun was that?’ Rob asked as he opened the passenger door to her Mercedes, gesturing her inside.

  Willa looked up at him, the sheen in her eyes suggesting tears. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Rob slammed her car door shut and stalked around to the driver’s seat, sliding inside and sending her a puzzled look. ‘What exactly are you sorry for, Willa?’

  ‘For everything. For even asking you to go.’

  ‘You didn’t ask me. I volunteered. Try again.’ Rob started the car, pulled off, and flicked her another look. ‘Put your seat belt on, honey.’

  Willa just looked at him, so Rob leaned across her, pulled the strap from the harness across her body and snapped the lock into place.

  ‘I put you in a silly situation and we had the attention of the entire room on us.’

  As if he cared about that. ‘I couldn’t give a monkey’s if all of Sydney was watching us,’ Rob growled. Knowing that he’d sounded harsh, he placed a warm, large hand on her knee and tried to dial it down. ‘Willa, I don’t care what people think of me—I do not live my life wondering how to please other people and meet their expectations.’

  ‘But you think I do,’ Willa stated quietly.

  ‘Actually, I think you were pretty amazing tonight.’

  Willa snorted her disbelief. ‘All I feel is humiliated. And stupid.’

  ‘You don’t have to feel that way.’

  ‘I stood there with a mouth full of teeth and when I finally said something it was a couple of sentences that he hardly bothered to pay attention to.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter.’

  ‘He didn’t hear me or care!’

  ‘And that’s on him—not you. You did what you needed to do.’

  Rob squeezed her knee again and wished he could pull over to take her in his arms, to offer the comfort he knew she so desperately needed. She was the only woman who had ever made him want to offer tenderness, to become involved. And it scared the hell out of him.

  But worrying about how emotionally tied up he was becoming with this woman was for later... He was a man. He couldn’t multitask.

  He saw the stubborn tilt to her wobbly chin and gave it another shot. ‘Where did you get this idea that you aren’t entitled to express your feelings? Earlier you said that you didn’t want them to remember you as a wimpy wife or as an easily dismissed insecure girl. You were talking about taking back your pride and self-respect.’ Rob flicked her a glance. ‘You did that.’

  ‘Not very well,’ Willa muttered. ‘I got scared.’

  ‘You didn’t—don’t—need to be. He’s a wimpy moron in an expensive suit.’ Rob kept his voice low and tried for soothing. He didn’t know if he’d reached it...he’d never aimed for soothing before. ‘I was standing right behind you. I wouldn’t have allowed him to get close enough to touch you.’

  Willa closed her eyes. ‘I wasn’t that type of scared. I felt myself sliding back into the person I was with Wayne—anxious to please, nervous, compliant—and that terrified me. What if this is who I actually am? Who, underneath it all, I’ll always be?’

  Yeah, he could understand that. He’d watched her sliding away tonight, back into a place where nothing and nobody could touch her. The person she was with him—cheeky, mischievous, confident—had disappeared at Wayne’s first insult and she’d frozen, unable to get her vocal cords to move. Wayne had put her there, back in the life she’d hated, the state she’d hated, with a couple of well-placed barbs.

  Seriously, he could still turn this car around and rearrange Wayne’s face.

  ‘I feel weak and foolish and sad.’

  Rob placed his hand on her thigh and squeezed. ‘You really don’t need to.’

  Willa looked out of the window as Rob turned into her driveway. He stopped the car, rested his arms on the steering wheel and looked out onto the dark night before reaching into his suit pocket to pull out his mobile.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, her heart in her throat.

  ‘Calling a taxi,’ Rob answered quietly.

  ‘You don’t have to go.’

  ‘Yeah, I think I do.’ Rob looked at her with hot eyes. ‘I think we should give each other a little space right now.’ He shook his head as panic skittered across her face. ‘Willa, get a grip!’ Tender, Hanson, remember to be tender. He dropped his voice. ‘I’m suggesting a night apart—that’s it. Some time for me to work off the fact that I want to use your ex as a punchbag and some time for you to work through what happened tonight.’

  Willa let out a long, relieved breath. ‘Okay...but don’t call a taxi. Take this car. I don’t need it.’

  ‘You sure?’ Rob asked her.

  ‘Yeah.’ Willa opened the passenger door and looked at Rob, her battered heart in her eyes. ‘I’m sorry I disappointed you.’

  Rob rubbed his forehead with his fingers. ‘Honey, that’s just it. Either I’m not explaining this well or you’re not hearing me but you damn well didn’t.’

  * * *

  Rob let himself into Willa’s house courtesy of the key he’d found in her sports car and wondered what he should do, say, to make things right. This was completely uncharted territory for him, he admitted, heading for the kitchen, where he could hear music playing from the retro radio on the long shelf next to the door.

  He only ever dated, slept with, strong women, confident women—women who knew who they were and what they wanted. How would you know what they wanted? he asked himself mockingly. You never stuck around long enough to ask or to find out whether their confidence was a shield or their strength was faked.

  Willa was strong, he admitted. You couldn’t survive a controlling marriage, get your degree and then find the guts to leave if you weren’t. If
he had to judge only by last night’s response, then he might have to say that she was weak and easily cowed, but last night she hadn’t been the same person she was with him. With him she was sharper, funnier, stronger, chirpier.

  Who was the real Willa? Maybe she was still too fragile? Maybe she needed someone...different? Better? He was impatient and gruff and forthright—too damn honest for most people, especially women, to handle. He was sometimes brutal, always clear-thinking and matter-of-fact; he called things as he saw them.

  The thought of her being with anyone else made him want to put his hand through the wall, but despite his caveman response—and what was that about?—he knew that the right thing to do was to back away, to give her space. Which posed a problem since, A. She was working for him, and B. He didn’t want to.

  Rob poured two cups of coffee and took them to the office, where he’d expected Willa to be. Not finding her behind her desk, he stepped through the door of the study onto the veranda and found her sitting on the edge of the pool, her feet in the water.

  Hearing his footsteps, she lifted her face. He wished that she wasn’t wearing huge sunglasses that dominated her face; he wanted to see her eyes. Firstly because looking into Willa’s eyes was always a pleasure, but mostly because then he could read, so clearly, what was troubling her.

  ‘Take your shades off for a moment.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Please?’

  Willa shrugged and pushed her glasses up into her hair. He scanned her face, her eyes, and, yep, there they were. Anger, humiliation, sadness.

  ‘Here.’

  Willa took the cup he held out with murmured thanks and Rob lowered himself to sit next to her, taking the sunglasses off the top of his own head and sliding them onto his face. He slipped hers back onto her nose.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked, when she didn’t say anything at all.

  ‘Still feeling like a fool,’ Willa admitted quietly.

  ‘What for? For not saying more or for marrying that moron? Or for going to that party in the first place?’ Rob asked. Yeah, too honest.

  ‘All of the above,’ Willa stated. ‘God, this coffee is good—but it would’ve been better with a doughnut. I’m starving.’