The Boss and the Beauty

by Donna Clayton

  She expelled an awesome sigh. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t put the correct name to what she felt. What did matter was that she finally realized just what it was that had her mind—and her body—in such turmoil over Kyle. And this sudden insight changed everything.

  Perceiving the love she felt only upped the ante. Knowing the depth of her feelings for Kyle made the stakes even higher than they had been only a few minutes ago.

  Maybe Rachel had been right. Maybe she should take a risk, do something utterly daring, something so astonishingly forward that Kyle couldn’t help but see just how she felt about him.

  Her heart hammered with fear. If she were to make her feelings plain, he’d surely discover the big, fat lie she’d allowed him to believe. He was certain to figure out how she and her friends had finessed their date. How they had manipulated him into taking her out. Kyle wouldn’t think too kindly about having his feelings exploited. In fact, he just might want to have nothing more to do with her.

  Personally or professionally.

  Leaning her head against the glass, Cindy groaned softly. Was she ever going to be able to escape this utterly tangled web she’d woven?

  Three hundred miles to the west, Kyle lay prone in bed, his skin slick with sweat, his eyes open wide as he stared into the darkness of the lonely hotel room. The explicitly carnal dream from which he’d just awoken had his pulse throbbing, his breath heaving, his whole body rigid and aching with desperation—with a hunger so deep, he thought he’d surely starve with the wanting.

  The fantasy that his imagination had concocted while he’d been innocently sleeping hadn’t been the type of dream sequence with a beginning, a middle and an end, but rather, a wild explosion of isolated images that fully involved each and every perceptual sense.

  Cindy’s silky, brown curls had brushed his belly, causing his abdominal muscles to tense almost painfully. The mysterious woman scent of her had enveloped him like a warm, secret embrace, and even though he was wide-awake now, he thought he detected the soft flowery fragrance wafting all around him. The sight of her lithe body stretched out naked next to him had made him tremble like a weak kitten. Her creamy flesh had sent his taste buds to some titillating, ambrosial paradise. And her soft, nearly mindless moans of ecstasy, even now, made every inch of him prickle with cold perspiration as he heard the whispery memory of the sound echo through his head.

  Raking his fingers through his disheveled hair, Kyle was sure his dreams of Cindy were going to drive him to the brink of sensual madness. He kicked back the sheet, his naked body still damp with sweat, and stalked across the carpet toward the bathroom door.

  The tile was cool under his feet as he gazed, bleary-eyed, at his reflection in the mirror above the sink. She was like no other woman he’d ever met, his Cindy. She was talented, creative, competent...and so damned beautiful. He’d felt attracted to her for what seemed like forever. Before she’d changed her hair and makeup. Before she’d begun to wear those formfitting, sexy suits to work. So why hadn’t he acted on his attraction weeks—no, months—ago?

  Because simply working with her had been enough for him.

  He shook his head at his image in the mirror. “Why do you lie to yourself?” he grumbled out loud.

  Working with the woman hadn’t been enough. If it had, he’d have been happy to go home at quitting time, he’d have been satisfied with an eight-hour workday. However, he hadn’t been happy or satisfied. He’d stretched out the day to ten, even twelve working hours, and he’d done what he could to make sure Cindy did the same. All because he wanted to be near her.

  And the reason he hadn’t acted to make his relationship with her more personal? His inability to trust. His fear of being used. A ragged sigh erupted from deep inside him.

  Hell, his fear was as tall and prickly as a two-hundred-year-old saguaro. And he didn’t hesitate to hide behind it.

  He turned on the faucet and cupped his hands under it. Bending over, he splashed cool water into his face. Straightening his spine, he rubbed his fingers over his cheeks and jaws, droplets trailing, unheeded, down his forearms and his bare chest.

  Damn it! Surely she should realize what he felt for her. Surely she should see and understand his feelings....

  Why? a silent voice asked. Why should she see what you haven’t been willing to reveal? Have you told her that you think she’s the most talented woman working at Barrington? No. Have you trusted her with your feelings and emotions? No. So how can she know that you want her? That your body burns for her? That you want your relationship to grow into something more personal, more intimate?

  Something more intimate... The phrase resonated through his brain, triggering a reaction in him that was both emotionally intense and physically uncomfortable.

  A hoarse curse burst from him and he moved to the shower, reaching around the curtain to turn on the spray, full force and cold enough to make an involuntary shiver shoot through him. He stepped into the tub, not bothering to bite back the sharp inhalation produced by the glacial shock.

  Icy water sluiced over his skin, and he closed his eyes and tipped his face upward.

  No, he couldn’t blame Cindy. He had only himself to blame. And now he was about to lose her. To another man she found attractive. A man who evidently didn’t suffer any inability. A man who didn’t hide behind any fear.

  His hands clenched into tight fists. He refused to surrender! Not without a fight. Not without at least making an attempt, taking a chance, to see what he and Cindy might have together. As a couple.

  Oblivious to the freezing water that cascaded over his tense body, Kyle made a decision right there and then: he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life regretting what he hadn’t done. He would take a risk. He would reveal to Cindy how he felt. Somehow, someway. No matter the consequences.

  Cindy snapped on the small radio that sat on the console at the back of her office, and the room immediately filled with soft, slow music. She bit into the round, juicy apple she’d brought to work for her lunch. As she chewed, she sighed. The loneliness plaguing her was acute. However, the good news was that the forlornness troubling her so should be alleviated this very afternoon.

  The thought was like a bright ray of sunshine burning through the dark clouds fogging her mind.

  Swallowing the bite of apple, she smiled.

  Kyle would be returning to Barrington today. And having every intention of greeting him as soon as he arrived, she’d decided to have her lunch right here in her office rather than eating in the break room with Rachel, Olivia and the others, as was her usual habit.

  Slow, sexy notes from a saxophone smoothed over her like satin, conjuring images of the moments she’d spent in Kyle’s arms on the dance floor and then again in her apartment. The feel of his arms around her like a protective cloak had been warm and wonderful.

  With those sensual pictures as clear as crystal in her head, she began to sway, from side to side, right there in the space in front of her desk.

  What exactly would he say to her when she saw him? she wondered, dancing to the music. How would her greet her? With that charming, little-boy grin, she hoped. And the most intriguing question of all... Would he invite her out to dinner and dancing tonight?

  He’ll be too tired from his trip, an irritating voice pointed out.

  Yes, he probably would be. Yet the disappointing realization didn’t diminish the excitement she felt over the prospect of simply seeing the man she loved. Wrapping her arms around herself, she closed her eyes and twirled in her lovely, half-dream state. Just seeing him again would be enough.

  All at once, she became vaguely aware of a fragrance hanging in the air. It causing her to frown and inhale a quick sniff. Was that the faint, yet familiar scent of Kyle’s cologne? Lord, but her imagination was vivid! So vivid, in fact, that she’d nearly conjured a flesh-and-blood, three-dimentional version of him as part of this wild and wonderful lunch-break fantasy in her head, a fantasy that had her dancing in his arms.

&
nbsp; But suddenly she was really and truly in his arms, his cheek pressed against hers as he waltzed with her for several beats. It took all of three dancing steps, three full notes of music, before she snapped back to reality, into the present. Her eyes flew open.

  “K-Kyle!” she sputtered. “You’re back.”

  “Shhh.” His lips pressed close to her ear as he urged her to hush. “Just dance with me,” he said.

  His voice was so silky, it sent shivers coursing across her skin.

  She really was in his strong, protective arms. And the two of them really were swaying together to the sexy strains of the saxophone. All this wasn’t her imagination. She sighed happily.

  The music faded, and then the newscaster’s mono-toned voice took its place on the radio. But still Kyle held on to her. She wondered if he meant to continue dancing, but then he pulled away from her an inch. Not too far, only enough so that he could look into her face. His arms were still holding her snugly. And that was all right by her.

  His dark eyes twinkled with something not quite identifiable. His cryptic expression intrigued her. Ever so slowly he pulled her outstretched hand toward him, not taking his gaze from hers. Completely engrossed in the sensuous aura emanating from him, totally beguiled by the curious look in his gorgeous dark eyes, Cindy let him guide her hand.

  It wasn’t until her fingers came into her peripheral vision that she remembered the apple she was holding. Kyle pulled the piece of fruit to his lips...and with a lazy and languid deliberateness, he took a bite. Sweet, sticky juice dripped down the heel of her palm, Cindy could feel its moist path, but so mesmerized was she by his gaze that she didn‘t—no, she couldn’t—pay it any mind. The atmosphere in the room constricted with something intense, and she actually had to part her lips and gulp in a breath of suddenly thick oxygen through her mouth.

  What’s gotten into him? she wondered. Either his lunch on the plane had been so awful that he was half-starved, or—Cindy couldn’t quite allow herself to believe her next thought—or he was actually trying to seduce her.

  Her heart fluttered behind her ribs. Could he really be flirting with her?

  Confusion regarding the whys and hows of his behavior made her mind spin so fast that she felt faint. Then a rush of pure panic crashed over her when she realized exactly where she was.

  She and Kyle were dancing in her office. She was at work. What if some Barrington employee were to come into her office? Kyle’s reputation, not to mention her own, could be badly damaged by a stirring of company gossip. Cindy felt she should step away from him, but he was holding her so tightly.

  He swallowed the bite of apple, then whispered, “Have dinner with me tonight.”

  The overwhelming sense of joy that bombarded her brain seemed to short-circuit her thoughts. She blurted out, “To discuss your trip?”

  His dark head shook, back and forth. “No. I don’t want to talk about my trip. Or Days of Knights. No Barrington business tonight.”

  Her joy escalated to awesome excitement. “I’d love to have dinner with you.”

  Cindy tucked her bottom lip between her teeth, too afraid to believe that what was happening was really and truly happening. Could Rachel have been right? Could she and Kyle be crossing that fine line between what was pretend and what was real? She suppressed the hopeful sigh that hovered in her throat. Oh, how she’d prayed for that to happen.

  The knock at her office door startled her right out of Kyle’s arms. She nearly tripped in her haste to step away from him, but he reached out and steadied her with a strong hand on her upper arm.

  The tall man standing in her doorway had an amiable gaze.

  “Cindy?”

  The question in the man’s tone had her smiling and nodding out of sheer courtesy.

  “Patricia sent me up,” he explained. “I have some papers for your department.” He took a step farther into her office. “I’m Mike,” he told her. “From downstairs.”

  Downstairs? she wondered. Ah, from the mail room, she realized. This was Mike.

  This was Mike!

  Until this moment, Kyle’s attentive behavior had enabled Cindy to completely forget the awful lie she’d led her boss to believe. But here he was...Mike the mailman...in the flesh. And the reality of her manipulative conduct came rushing at her, blindsiding her, making her feel terribly awkward standing here with these two men.

  She hadn’t met Mike until now. Evidently, his delivery route didn’t include New Products, and if the truth were known, she’d actually been relieved by that.

  “I’m Cindy. Cindy Cooper.” She instinctively switched the apple from her right hand to her left, and finding no other alternative, she gave her palm a quick swipe down her skirt before she reached out to greet him. He slid his hand eagerly into hers and gave an amiable shake.

  “I’ve heard lots about you.”

  His green eyes held a mischievous glint, and in that instant she was certain that Patricia, or one of the other girls, had filled him in on the very personal situation taking place in the New Products division and his part in the peculiar predicament. Her face grew hot with embarrassment. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Mike was “in” on the scheme they had all concocted. All she wanted to do was groan. And run to the nearest hiding place.

  Not now, she silently pleaded. Why did he have to show up now?

  “Mike,” she said, ignoring the forward tone she’d heard in the mail carrier’s voice, “this is my boss, Kyle Prentice.”

  She glanced at Kyle and immediately felt the need to suppress another groan. Yes, she had been able to step away from her boss before Mike had come into the room, but looking at Kyle, she wished she’d had the forethought to wipe that drip of apple juice from the corner of his sexy mouth. And here she stood holding the evidence, the darned piece of fruit. Her chagrin grew, as did the stifling awkwardness that tightened the air and crawled across her skin like dozens of tiny spiders.

  “Glad to meet you, Kyle. Actually, buddy, these papers are addressed to you.”

  Mike’s familiar tone took Cindy aback. And evidently Kyle felt the same. Her boss’s dark brows furrowed.

  “If the documents were for me,” he said, the words cool and curt, “then you should have delivered them to my office, rather than my assistant’s.”

  The abrupt rebuke surprised Cindy even more, and her eyes widened. She felt embarrassed for Mike. Why, she couldn’t quite say, but she didn’t think he deserved a dressing-down simply because he’d delivered some papers to the wrong office.

  “Kyle, maybe he did try to deliver them to you,” she said, trying to ease the ever-building tension, “and he found your office empty.”

  She looked expectantly at Mike, sure he would latch on to this version of the sequence of events.

  “No.” Mike’s easy grin was quite charming. “I just wanted to stop in and finally meet you, Cindy. I’ve heard such wonderful things about you.”

  It was pretty clear to her that Mike had a fun-loving attitude and didn’t waste time on work-related anxiety.

  Before she could respond to Mike, Kyle pointedly asked, “Don’t you think you should have been focusing on delivering those papers to me? They might be important.”

  Mike just gave a little shrug, the smile he offered Cindy widening.

  The soft groan that had been gathering in her throat finally erupted. This man didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by her intense boss, and unfortunately, Mike was about to be put on report all because of her. It was so obvious that he was acting in this flirtatious—even brazen—manner because one of her friends had put him up to it.

  “I feel the need to remind you, Mike,” Kyle said, “that you really shouldn’t be conducting personal business on company time.”

  Cindy felt her whole body flush with panic. She had to save this poor guy. She didn’t want him getting into trouble because of her. Besides, her mind silently whirled, hadn’t Kyle just danced her around the room? Hadn’t he just taken a seductive bite o
f her lunch? Was that not personal business on company time?

  “There’s no need to be rude, Kyle.” Then she smiled at the mail-delivery man. “You’ll have to excuse him, Mike. He’s been away and I’m sure he’s feeling tired—”

  “Don’t make excuses for me.” Kyle’s tone was sharp enough to slice off her sentence midstream.

  His tone totally shocked and offended her. She simply looked at him. Then she softly said, “Well, somebody needs to make excuses for you. Or do you just enjoy acting like a jerk?”

  Kyle’s handsome face tightened, his hand unwittingly reaching up to harshly wipe across his mouth as if he wanted to somehow erase the few moments they had just spent alone. Without another word, he took the papers from Mike and walked out of the room.

  Chapter Eight

  Had she really called her boss a jerk?

  Cindy flitted nervously around her office, straightening her desktop and console, filing papers, memos and messages, making notes for tomorrow, getting ready to leave the office for the day. Her impulsive behavior at lunch—the harsh, rash words she’d tossed at Kyle—had her terribly upset. She’d felt so scatterbrained all afternoon that she’d actually had to make a “to do” list to ensure that she completed all her work.

  She hadn’t seen or heard from Kyle since he’d stomped away from her office, leaving her alone with Mike.

  A small smile cracked through the confusion swimming in her head. Hugging a file to her chest, she thought of Mike the mailman. He really was a nice guy.

  After Kyle had left, she’d discovered—as she’d suspected from the first—that Mike had been privy to the lie she and her friends had concocted. And, dear soul that he was, he’d allowed himself to be talked into agreeing to do what he could to convince Kyle that he was interested in Cindy.

  “Oh, you were quite convincing,” she’d told Mike, the heaviness still pressing on her over how her boss had taken his leave.