her and she breathed deeply to inhale his scent into her bones.
Bracing his big hands on her desk, he leaned over. His deep-blue eyes usually held boundless energy, but today anger simmered in their depths. She felt it radiating off him in waves. Concerned, she started to rub his hand, to offer him the most basic of human comfort, but then pulled back.
She watched as his eyes left hers to stare at her small hand now only a few inches from his right one on the desk. He’d spent the entire afternoon with the board of directors and, if his body language was correct, then the rumor that Colette was the object of a hostile takeover was true.
Colette, Inc. had proven a safe place for her to build her career and save the money she needed to buy her dream house. The rumored takeover reminded her how much she hated change.
When she’d packed up and moved to Youngsville it was with the intention of staying here forever. First, Nick had started acting like she was the most scrumptious woman he’d seen in years, and now her job was threatened.
It wasn’t so much her role in Colette she worried about losing. It was her apartment. The homey place at Amber Court had given her the grounding she needed to find her own feet, to shape her own image away from her mother. And suddenly that looked as if it might be taken away.
“What’s up?”
“I’d rather not discuss it out here.”
Her stomach clenched, and she felt much the same as she had on that day in high school when the guy she’d been waiting for three years to be asked out by had told her that he’d only done so because she was considered easy.
“I’ll be right in.”
Nick straightened and then deliberately brushed his fingertip over the back of her knuckles. Her breath caught as electric tingles pulsed through her body. She’d spent so many hours at her desk wondering if she’d just imagined his attraction to her, but now she knew it wasn’t a fantasy.
For a tense moment they stared at each other. Lila’s breasts felt full and her lips were suddenly dry. She licked them. Nick tracked the movement and started to lean closer to her.
Down the hall an office door closed loudly. Nick stood and walked into his office without another word.
“Oh, my God!” Lila said. She had to transfer out of this office before she completely lost all of her common sense. She fingered the brooch Rose had given her before she left for work. It was beautiful, and Lila had found herself taking it off to look at it several times today. In fact, it seemed to glow a little more brightly whenever she touched it. Rose had said it had always brought her luck. Lila had the feeling she needed more help than this brooch could bring her.
She signed out of the local area network, or the LAN, and removed her laptop from its docking station. Nick’s office overlooked Lake Michigan. Tonight, the view was dark and menacing. Being a Florida girl she didn’t care for all the cold weather, but the changing leaves had been beautiful. After a year and a half here, she still hadn’t acclimated herself to the Indiana weather.
Lila set her laptop on the corner of Nick’s desk. He was hunched over his own computer, probably checking e-mail, she thought. Tension radiated from him, and she wanted to touch him, to massage those broad shoulders until he leaned back in his big executive chair and smiled at her.
Of course, he never really smiled at her. Sometimes when they’d completed a really tough project, he’d give her one of his half-smiles, and she’d feel a deep longing inside to make him really happy. But she never did. Sleeping with the boss was the one thing she’d never do. Except this morning things between them had changed. Her dreams were slowly becoming reality. The actions she’d always longed to take were now presenting themselves to her.
“Ready, Lila?”
She swallowed and blocked her train of thought. “Almost.”
She powered on her computer. “Should we close the blinds?”
“Why, afraid someone might see us alone together in here?” There was a biting edge to his words.
“Not afraid exactly.” She’d never been afraid of any man since most of them turned and ran when life got tough. She knew she was strong and could take all they had to give. But she always tried to keep a part of herself secret. And Nick was harder to hide from than anyone else.
“Trust me, Lila. Everyone knows your reputation. Anyone who might see us will know we are only working.”
Stung, she busied herself at the computer, pulling up the company memo template and readying herself to do her job. His words shouldn’t have hurt, she thought. After all, their relationship was that of boss and secretary. But the words did hurt.
“I’m ready, Nick.”
“Lila…”
She glanced up, hoping he’d attribute the tears in her eyes to the late hour.
“Never mind.”
They’d been carefully treading around one another since that night two short weeks ago when Jayne had interrupted a moment that had almost gone too far. She’d wanted so badly to taste his lips on hers. To feel that rock-hard body that he worked at keeping in shape pressed against her own. To experience for once in her lonely little life the touch of real passion.
“The memo should go to all staff in the Marketing Division.”
“Just our team or domestic, too?”
“Domestic, too. I’m handling this announcement.”
“Promotion?” she asked hopefully.
“I wish it were.”
“Subject?”
“Grey Enterprises,” he said, pacing across the room and stopping in front of the Zen rock garden that he adjusted every day or so.
Uh-oh, she thought. Nick’s deep-blue eyes reflected the frustration and anger in his tone.
“Dammit,” he said under his breath.
“Nick?”
“Have you heard the rumors of a takeover, Lila?”
“Yes, but I’m sure they are unfounded.”
“They aren’t.”
Shock rumbled through her, and for a minute she saw herself back in that duplex she’d grown up in. The government-subsidized housing that had been her world until she’d gone to trade school and accepted this job. She saw herself back in that world she’d struggled so hard to get out of. She saw her dreams slowly dying and vowed that she’d do whatever it took to prevent that from happening.
“What the hell should I say to the staff? Don’t worry, we’re not going to let you lose your job?”
“I don’t know. Is that true?”
“Hell, I wish I knew.”
Lila’s hands started to shake and she realized that this wasn’t just change happening around her. This was the sky falling in. This was—
“Don’t worry, Lila. Clerical staff is hardly ever let go. VPs on the other hand…”
“No one’s going to fire you, Nick.”
“Lila, sometimes you are naive.”
She wanted to argue, but knew that to a suave sophisticated man like Nick Camden, she must seem a little small-townish. “But the board loves you.”
“We might have a new board member.”
“Grey Enterprises?”
“Yes. Marcus Grey, their CEO, has bought eight percent of the common shares on the market. He is now the fourth-largest stock holder.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Whatever we can to survive. I’ve