It only took two minutes to get her jacket from the back of her seat and the bag she’d tucked under the table. She logged off her computer.
She turned. The office was so quiet she would have heard her now ex-colleagues blinking—if they weren’t all staring totally bug eyed at her. Wow, the ones down the far end had actually risen out of their chairs to get a better look. What on earth was going on?
She tossed her head, determined to hide the freak-out thudding of her heart. So what if her cheeks were purple with embarrassment—she could still walk, right? OK, it was a run/walk to the door and after that she basically threw herself down the stairs, letting the adrenalin fly to her feet.
The recruitment agency was only a ten-minute walk away. Dani did it in seven. Red cheeked, breathless, trying to suck up the desperation pouring out of her.
Then she had to wait ten extra-long, make-you-sweat minutes.
‘What’s the problem with my file?’ Dani asked as soon as she was shown in.
‘There are a couple of issues.’ The agent wouldn’t look her in the eye. ‘One is misconduct.’
Misconduct? Dani frowned, that she hadn’t expected. ‘What kind of misconduct?’
The woman smiled then—it wasn’t a kind smile. ‘Have you seen this?’ She angled her computer screen so Dani could see it.
Dani gripped her bag, pushing it hard on her lap as she waited for the clip to start playing. Why was she being shown a vid on YouTube? What was this all about?
She squinted at the black-and-white grainy images. Oh, no. It couldn’t be.
Not her.
Not him.
OMG—it was! Alex Carlisle and her, Dani Russo, locking lips in that damn lift. Oh, more than locking lips. There was neck kissing, and touching and moving.
Heat prickled all over her body. From every pore popped a painful drop of blood. How had this happened? This just had to be a joke. Was she in a reality TV show and she didn’t know it?
‘Where did you get that?’ she whispered, knowing she was damned.
‘It was emailed to us. I believe it’s been circulated around the company already.’
So that explained the staring, then. The embarrassment engulfed her, swamping the spark of anger she’d felt before.
The agent didn’t stop the clip playing, just sat blandly waiting. Three and a half minutes of absolute agony. Dani couldn’t look away from the screen. Had they been so passionate? Had she really jumped on him like that? Had she been so hungry? And what was that awful music?
Not going to cry. Not going to cry.
She hadn’t in years. And she wouldn’t, not ‘til she was alone.
Finally it ended. Dani couldn’t look at the woman.
‘But this isn’t why we’re unable to place you in another position.’
Dani didn’t understand. ‘Pardon?’ Still shocked.
‘This was obviously a mistake and an embarrassing one, but we can deal with it with a simple warning.’ The agent couldn’t be crisper. ‘Not on work time, not on work premises. Understand?’
Dani just nodded. Still unable to process what she’d just seen—they’d been filmed? How was that possible?
‘The reason we’ve had to pull you from the job is because we haven’t been able to get your school records verified.’
Dani jerked. Her school records? How were they relevant? She had banking qualifications that totally surpassed her achievements at school. Plus she had her security clearance from the Australian bank she’d worked at for the last three years—surely that was far more important than verifying her school-leaver’s certificate?
‘I can call the school,’ she said. ‘I can get them to fax whatever you need.’
‘No, that’s fine. We’ll keep trying.’ The woman smiled sharply. ‘But until we do get it, we can’t put you into another placement.’
It was then that Dani knew and understood. They weren’t trying to contact the school; even if they did there would be some other obstacle that would arise. This was about that video—her fooling with the boss and getting caught. The school-records thing was an excuse. The walls were up. Her anger surged then, pushing back the embarrassment. ‘I can go to other agencies?’
‘Of course.’ The woman smiled. ‘But you might encounter the same problem.’
Dani looked at the computer screen again. Yeah, that was the real problem. She could see how many hits the clip had had. Too many just to be the bank staff and this agency—even if they had watched it over and over as she was quite sure some of those sleazy bankers had. No, this one had been doing the rounds; it would be a source of great amusement for anyone in the industries—both finance and recruitment. Alex Carlisle proving his legendary swordsman status with a temp at work.
There was nothing for it but to make a dignified exit. No way could she win this battle here and now. She needed to withdraw and come up with some kind of strategy.
She stood, stuck a small smile on her numb face. ‘Thank you for letting me know. Please get in touch when you get my record confirmed. I’d like to get working as soon as I can.’
‘Of course.’ The agent stood and saw her to the door.
It was a complete fiction. They both knew they were never going to talk to each other again.
‘You can collect your wages for the last couple of days from Reception.’
Dani made for the nearest café and ordered the biggest blackest coffee they made. She closed her eyes. The money she had would last less than a week. Her whole aim had been to work while she hunted because she hadn’t wanted to wait any longer before trying to find him. But she had to be able to eat—to pay for her accommodation, and to pay for the search. How on earth was she going to find Eli now? How was she going to keep the promise she’d made to her mum?
It had been her final request—she’d given up that precious secret only in her last few days and it was the one last thing Dani could do for her. Dani wanted to honour that promise more than she wanted to do anything. And if she found him, it would be like having a part of her mother back.
She called a different agency. Then another. But once she’d told them the kind of work she wanted, then told them her name, the ‘our books are full’ line got handed to her. Was she going to have to move cities to get another job? She didn’t even have the bus fare, and the best finance jobs for her were here. Or they had been. Now she was screwed.
Her anger fired even higher. What about Alex Carlisle? What about his misconduct? Had he been given a ‘warning’—she bet there was no way he’d have got the sack. Oh, no—he’d just ensured he had a peaceful work environment again. She wasn’t around to embarrass him anymore.
There was one person responsible for this. One person who owed her. One person who was going to pay.
Alex Carlisle was getting the bill.
‘Kelly, I need you.’ Alex called his PA into his office. ‘The temp who was working on the Huntsman project last week—’ He broke off. His super-efficient PA had a touch more colour to her cheeks than usual. But her brows lifted as if she were vaguely mystified.
As if.
‘Temp?’
‘Yes. Short, brunette bob.’ Alex winced, hating to have to reveal that he didn’t know her name. He watched Kelly’s lips purse and sighed, frustrated. ‘You’ve seen the clip, haven’t you?’ Now he felt his cheeks heating.
Kelly dropped the ‘no idea’ look and nodded. ‘Yes. She no longer works here.’
‘How come she’s no longer working here? That project is months off completion.’ Alex found he couldn’t meet Kelly’s eyes. Hell, what a mess. He’d never compromised himself at work like this. Socially for sure—he liked to play. But not at work. Kelly had worked for this company for more years than he’d been alive. She’d worked with Samuel, and his father before him. A Carlisle loyalist. There was nothing in the business that she didn’t know. Alex remembered her giving him paper as a kid to entertain him while he waited for Samuel and him making darts to shoot at people walking past. T
he severe look she was giving him now wasn’t so different from the one she’d given him then.
‘I know,’ Kelly said quietly. ‘But there’s a new temp now.’
Alex looked at her then, hearing the soberness in her voice. He didn’t like the censure in her eyes, either. ‘I think you’d better send Jo to see me.’
Kelly disappeared and Jo, the head of HR, was knocking at his door in less than a minute. Alex walked over to meet her. ‘The temp that we had working on the Huntsman project last week—where is she?’
Jo looked distinctly uncomfortable. ‘The temp?’
‘Yes,’ he growled. ‘You know the one I mean.’
‘Yes.’ Of course she did. ‘Her services were no longer required.’
‘But there’s a new temp out there now.’ He’d walked through the floor as soon as he’d got in, run the gauntlet of knowing looks and smiles only to be completely disappointed when it had been some blonde at the desk and not the little brunette who’d been haunting him for days. ‘So why did you get rid of the other one? On whose authority? For what reason?’ He rapped out the questions, the nasty feeling in his gut growing.
Jo looked even more uncomfortable. ‘It was the recruitment agency. They phoned and said they’d made a mistake with her file. They hadn’t been able to verify her school qualifications so they pulled her.’
Alex stared at her, anger churning. ‘So she’s no longer working for the agency?’
‘No. I don’t believe she is.’
It was his turn to take a deep breath—he had to force his jaw apart to do it. ‘They couldn’t verify her school qualifications?’ Alex shook his head. ‘But we had security clearance for her? And proof of her banking exams?’
‘Yes.’
So the records meant diddly, then. If she had her banking qualifications, then they didn’t need to verify any other records—she couldn’t have got the bank ones if she hadn’t had the school ones. It was a trumped up excuse to get rid of her.
‘So it wouldn’t have had anything to do with this?’ He strode to his desk and spun his computer screen round so the image he’d paused it on was viewable from her side of the room.
His head of HR went beet red.
Alex leaned back on his desk and folded his arms, hiding the fists. ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it. Everyone in the office has seen it. Haven’t they?’
Jo nodded.
‘And now you’re telling me she’s been removed for the most flimsy of reasons.’
‘We’re covered, Alex. It was the agency who removed her. Her dismissal had nothing to do with this…incident.’
Alex stared at her, unable to believe his ears. Like hell it didn’t. She’d done nothing wrong. She shouldn’t have lost her job. His fists bunched tighter.
‘Does she have another job?’ He could only hope she had a better one.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Then you better phone the agency and find out,’ he growled—he was not going to be able to rest until he knew. The job market was horrendous at the moment. That meant the temp market was even more vicious.
‘Excuse me, Alex.’ Kelly came back in, shutting the door fast behind her and stepping forward. ‘I have someone outside insisting on seeing you.’
‘Who is it?’ Alex asked crossly. ‘I don’t want interruptions now, Kelly.’
‘I know you don’t. But this one is different. It’s her.’
‘Who?’
‘That temp.’
Alex froze. ‘She’s here?’
Kelly nodded.
‘Now?’ The ripple that ran through his body was pure testosterone. ‘You. Out,’ he barked at Jo.
She was out of there faster than a condemned prisoner getting a last-minute reprieve. But Alex was the one feeling the edge of desperation. He turned to the woman who knew more about what went on in the building than anyone. ‘Kelly, please, what’s her name?’
Kelly looked up at him through her half-glasses, her face as impassive and composed as always. When she finally answered, it was with marked deliberation. ‘You really ought to know that already.’ Then she left.
Alex stared at the door and wondered how on earth he was going to get away with it.
Dani perched on the edge of the chair—the one nearest to the exit. She shouldn’t have come. What was she doing back here? Sweating for one thing and she was all shaky inside, as if it wouldn’t take much for tears to sting. She couldn’t let that happen—getting all emo was one sure way to come off the loser. She blinked and went rigid as the hideous HR dragon appeared from his office. She glanced at Dani but made no acknowledgement as she swept past. That was it—Dani was leaving. What had possessed her to attempt this? Oh, yeah, desperation.
Now the PA was standing in front of her. ‘Mr Carlisle will see you now.’
Mr Carlisle. She swallowed, tried to quell the fluttering inside, told herself she had no need for nerves. But the moment before the door opened she had a second, a sliver of a second, when she thought she’d really rather die.
She pushed through, went in and it happened as it had all the last week. The large hand gripped her heart and squeezed, stopping the beat for two seconds too long, while lower in her belly someone switched on the heater.
He was in a suit. It was immaculate. He wasn’t smiling.
But he was still brain-zappingly gorgeous and she was as bad as the thousand other women who fell at his feet—breathless, bedazzled. She tried to clear her mind of the clutter, to quell the hormones shrieking at her. Think Zen. Think power.
‘Thanks, Kelly.’
Dani heard the door click. So it was shut. So they were alone.
He wasn’t behind his desk; instead he stood on her side of it, in the middle of the room. ‘My name is—’
‘I know who you are.’
Their eyes met. His face was expressionless. But she knew he was remembering the moment after the last time she’d said that, just as she was. That time the spark in his eye had surprised her. The oh-so-relaxed boss, the charming playboy, had looked bitter for a half-second. She’d spent all that night wondering why—in between reliving the heat.
‘Please sit down.’ Quiet, firm and with that underlying note of authority.
Her legs moved towards the chairs without her instruction—just following his order. She seemed to have swallowed her tongue. Every sentence, the whole spiel she’d rehearsed as she’d steamed her way over here, had fled from her head. Mute, mindless, she was like some star-struck fan meeting her pin-up hottie in the flesh for the first time.
And then she saw it.
Every word, every angry thought, all of it came ripping back. She inhaled, trying to hold back enough to be able to tackle him with controlled fury rather than blind rage. Even so, she spat the words. ‘Enjoying it?’
‘What?’
‘Your little home movie.’ She pointed.
They were plastered across the screen. Her legs around his waist. Their tongues so entwined it was a wonder they’d ever managed to pull themselves free.
And he was watching it? Had spun the screen round so it was visible from right across the room?
As if the HR woman had just come to give him his warning—she’d come for a laugh, more like. Dani nearly choked on the rage that reddened her vision. Her face was so hot she was probably casting a glow into outer space. But that was nothing on the churning mass of fire in her belly. ‘Why are you watching it?’
He hadn’t known she was coming to see him. She’d only finally made her mind up as she’d walked past the building—had been regretting it all the five minutes since. She couldn’t believe the whole nightmare. ‘How did it happen?’
‘What?’ He took the seat next to hers. ‘The kiss or the recording?’ His mouth lifted at one end in a small smile.
She wasn’t in the mood for seeing any kind of funny side—he wasn’t going to defuse her with his attempt at good humour. ‘The recording.’
‘There are security cameras in all the lif
ts. Someone saw us, clipped the footage and put it up. As I think you know, it’s been doing the rounds.’
‘Yes, the viral video du jour,’ she said bitterly. ‘Was it a joke? Did you set it up for fun?’
‘Of course not.’ He went rigid. ‘I’m the CEO of a large finance company. I think I have better things to do with my time than indulge in stupid pranks like this.’
He held her gaze a minute longer. Assessing. She withstood the scrutiny, tilting her chin that little higher. Refusing to be intimidated.
‘Where have you been these last few days?’ Assertive, that was how she’d be.
‘Overseas.’
‘How convenient for you—out of the country while the temp gets the boot and then can’t find another job in the whole city.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Give me my job back.’
He shook his head. ‘Impossible.’
‘How so?’
‘You think you could sit there knowing they’ve all watched me kiss you like that?’
Kiss you. The words seemed to whisper over her skin, teasing her into greater awareness. She shifted in her seat, resettling her limbs in an attempt to stay in charge of them—and the whole nightmare. ‘It was only a kiss, Mr Carlisle. It was nothing.’ She shrugged.
His brows lifted for a second. ‘You’re not going back out there.’
Damn it, she needed this job. ‘It was a moment. That’s all it was. So some geek with nothing better to do made a mini movie with it. Not my fault.’
‘You are not working on that floor again.’
‘You’re not understanding me. I need this job.’
‘And I’m saying it’s not going to happen.’
‘Do you know what this is? Unfair dismissal. Sexual harassment.’
‘That was not sexual harassment.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘You kissed me back. You wrapped your legs around me all by yourself.’
‘But because of that video, I lost my job and I need my job. Because of that video, I can’t get another. The world of recruitment agencies is really small here in Auckland, do you know that? The agents all know each other, all swap from company to company. And they send each other emails. Would you believe that?’ Dani inhaled. ‘That stupid kiss has cost me everything and I can’t let it. How come you get to sit here in your fancy office and suffer none of the consequences while my life gets totalled?’ She stood. ‘It’s not happening. This is unfair and I’ll prove it’s unfair. I’m going to a lawyer—see if you can say “impossible” to a court!’
Caught On Camera With The Ceo Page 3
