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 lifts. 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