by Nicola Marsh
‘Running scared, Professor?’
Her husky voice slammed into him with the same force as the teasing glint in those striking eyes the colour of dewdampened moss, leaving him with the same floundering feeling he’d only experienced once before when a ton of sand had caved in on a site.
Now, like then, the breath squeezed from his lungs and he had no idea whether to struggle against the odds or give in to the inevitable.
For right at that moment he knew he could struggle all he liked against the fierce attraction between them and he’d be powerless to stop it, just as he’d been unable to hold back that sand avalanche.
Ignoring her soft laughter, he shrugged into his jacket. ‘Come on, I’ll give you a lift home.’
‘I’ll take a cab, but thanks for the offer.’
Her flirtatious smile would’ve tempted a saint and, considering the thoughts crowding his brain at the moment were far from heavenly, he needed to get out of here. Now.
‘Fine. I’ll wait while you call one. Let’s go.’
She laid a tentative hand on his arm and he jerked to a stop, staring at her hand as if it were a cattle prod. It had the same effect, giving him an electrical zap when he least expected it.
‘This has been a bit of a crazy day for me all round and I’m sorry for overstepping the mark back there.’
She ran her other hand through her hair and he yearned to do the same, to see if the luscious gold locks felt as silky as they looked. ‘I’m prone to doing impulsive things when I’m nervous.’
Leaning forwards until their noses almost touched, he murmured, ‘Do I make you nervous?’
Her eyes widened, she inhaled sharply, her tongue darted out to moisten that full bottom lip he’d gladly taste again and he had his answer before she spoke.
Dropping her hand, she stepped back and he stifled a sigh of disappointment.
‘This job is important to me and you’re my boss so, yeah, I guess I am a little nervous.’
There she went again, surprising him with that intriguing mix of bold bluntness combined with cautious hesitancy.
He’d noticed how she’d changed the subject earlier, deftly switching the focus onto him, uncomfortable when he’d been delving into what made her tick, and he had the strangest feeling that her confidence was an act. Something—or someone—had put a susceptible chink in her sassy armour and he was curious.
What caused that vulnerable air that clung so delicately to her despite her bubbly façade? He’d give anything to find out…but he wasn’t going there, remember?
‘So that totally explains why I kissed you.’ She gnawed on her bottom lip and clutched her bag tight. ‘Nerves.’
‘Uh-huh,’ he said, seeing the spark of desire in her eyes and not calling her on it.
There were more than nerves at play here.
She knew it.
He knew it.
‘You’ll see. I’ll be back to my professional best tomorrow.’
His lips twitched at the memory of her ‘professional best’ earlier that day.
‘Tomorrow’s a new day,’ he said, captivated by the earnest set of her mouth, the determined gleam in her eyes, and wanting more than anything to throw his business-versus-pleasure ideals out the window at that moment and haul her back into his arms.
‘Good.’
She tilted her chin up, her defiance as enchanting as the hint of timidity he glimpsed beneath. ‘Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. I’ll be the best damn tour guide you’ve ever seen.’
‘I look forward to it.’
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing he looked forward to—just the thought of seeing her rock into the museum tomorrow was enough to put a spring in his step—and with a shake of his head he propelled her out the door, determined to bundle her into a cab, head home and lose himself in a mountain of boring paperwork.
Anything to take his mind off this intriguing woman and the memory of her scintillating kiss.
CHAPTER FIVE
BETH bounced into work the next day humming under her breath.
She’d lost her mind last night when she’d kissed Aidan. But, wow, what a kiss. As far as kisses went on a scale of one to ten, it scored a massive eleven.
She’d had Aidan pegged as a highly driven, career-focussed, not-much-time-for-fun type of guy.
She’d been wrong. Wa-a-a-y wrong.
There was no way he could kiss like that if he spent all his time with his nose to the grindstone. Uh-uh. Aidan had depths to him she hadn’t begun to fathom and, boy, was it going to be fun trying to explore every hidden facet.
Yeah, he was her boss and, yeah, she shouldn’t go near him with a ten-foot dinosaur bone, but that kiss last night had changed everything.
She’d learned the hard way life was too short not to make the most of every opportunity and right now Aidan Voss looked like one big, delicious opportunity wrapped up in a designer suit.
‘Hi, Beth.’
She stopped at the tentative tap on her shoulder and swivelled to face Dorothy.
‘Morning. How are you?’
‘Great.’
Dorothy tugged self-consciously at her burgundy fitted jacket flaring at the hips and sitting rather well over a matching pencil skirt. ‘Thanks for helping me choose this outfit yesterday. I feel like a new woman.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Beth smiled, trying to focus on the suit and avert her gaze from Dorothy’s staid navy pumps, whose scuff marks were poorly hidden by a shade of blue almost as hideous as the shoes themselves. ‘How about we do a bit of shoe shopping today at lunchtime?’
The young woman’s face fell. ‘I can’t. I’m filling in for one of the temps in the Science and Life Gallery.’
‘No worries, we’ll do it tomorrow.’
Dorothy’s ecstatic expression turned the girl from mousy to beautiful in a second and Beth smiled, telling herself that it was her duty to share her shoe expertise with her fellow women.
She glanced at her watch and grimaced. ‘Sorry, Dot. Love to stay and chat but the boss man might be on the warpath.’
Dorothy snapped her fingers. ‘I forgot. Mr Voss wants to see you.’
‘Oh-oh, what have I done now?’ she muttered under her breath, before thanking Dorothy and heading up to his office.
The kitten heels of her new designer butterscotch court shoes clattered along the marble corridor and she wriggled her toes, preferring open-toe sandals any day.
Funny, as she planned on slipping into a pair any moment now…
She really shouldn’t do this considering she’d been trying to convince Aidan of her professionalism at the end of last night, but she’d seen the spark in his eyes, the devilish glint that told her their attraction was entirely mutual.
Besides, there was no harm in having a little laugh on the job. It fostered good workplace relations…it was team-building…great for employee morale and all that guff.
Smiling, she pulled up outside Aidan’s door and cast a quick glance up and down the corridor, reassured it was empty, before slipping a pair of fabulous mulberry spangly sandals out of her bag, kicking off the court shoes and reacquainting her feet with a familiar pair of old friends.
‘That’s better.’ Her grin turned positively smug as she admired the contrast of her Knockout Cherry toenails against the deep purple satin strap covering her forefoot. ‘Much better.’
Schooling her face into serious mode was hard work considering the persistent smile threatening to break through as she envisaged Aidan’s expression when he laid eyes on her shoes, but she managed it in time to knock sharply at his door and enter after his muffled, ‘Come in.’
‘You wanted to see me?’
She knew the exact moment he noticed the shoes for he stopped dead in his tracks halfway across the office, his slate gaze riveted to her feet.
‘What the hell are those?’
He pointed to her Jimmy Choos and she wriggled her toes in response.
‘Would you believe I had anoth
er shoe crisis on the way in today?’
His gaze snapped up to meet hers, stormy grey warring with cheeky green.
‘No.’
‘Would you believe the dog ate my work shoes?’
‘No.’
‘How about I got held up by the shoe police for wearing low heels and to avoid being arrested I had to wear these?’
‘You’re pushing your luck.’
The corners of his mouth twitched, in total contrast to the frown marring his brow. ‘I told you to wear appropriate footwear today.’
Unable to contain her laughter a second longer, she chuckled and slid the court shoes out of her bag.
‘Relax, Professor, I was just teasing you.’
His lips stilled and his expression darkened. ‘Like last night?’
Surprised he’d brought up the kiss, she perched on the edge of an overstuffed chair and swapped shoes. ‘Don’t sweat it. I hope you didn’t lose any sleep over what happened. I certainly didn’t.’
Checking out her shoes and wrinkling her nose at the come-down in height, she thrust the purple Choos into her bag and looked up at him from beneath her mascara-ed lashes.
‘As sensational as it was and all, it’s not worth worrying about. So, what did you want to see me about?’
Gotcha! She watched male pride war with indignation, knowing he’d be torn between discussing her flattery further and wanting to forget the kiss ever happened. Sadly, it looked as if his common sense kicked in as he walked around his desk and took a seat in an imposing leather chair that looked as uncomfortable as the one she sat on.
‘There’s been a change of plans.’
He picked up a piece of expensive ivory paper that looked suspiciously like her résumé and rattled it in her direction.
‘I know you were going to spend the first few weeks conducting tours in the Australia Gallery and helping out with organising a few workshops to familiarise yourself with the museum, but I need you to do more.’
The bubble of happiness that sustained her through most days popped as the implication of his words sank in. It had been hard work swotting up on all the info required to take tours of one gallery; imagine how much time she’d have to invest for more. And what with organising paperwork for the lease and completing her latest sculpture…help!
He continued, oblivious to her escalating tension. ‘I think the quickest way to get you up to speed is throw you in the deep end and, what with the flu bug hitting us hard at the moment and staff going down almost daily, I want you to take on the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Centre and the Mind and Body Gallery too.’
Great. She might need this job to secure her own gallery, but what would be the point if she didn’t have any pieces to fill it? She needed time to sculpt, but with swotting up on these new areas of the museum at night she wouldn’t have a free moment.
She’d have to tell him.
But what about her ‘you can trust me, I’ll be the best damn tour guide you’ve ever seen’ spiel she’d given him last night? If she backed down now and said she couldn’t do it would he chalk it up as another mark against her or, worse, fire her?
Clutching her bag to her chest, somewhat comforted by the stab of stiletto through the soft leather, she racked her brain for a quick-fire response. However, before she could come up with anything suitable he handed her a bulging manila folder.
‘Here. I know it’s a lot to take in but I need you up to scratch asap. You’ll find information on those two galleries in here.’
‘When would you like me to start taking tours in the new galleries?’
‘Tomorrow.’
His direct stare unnerved her more than his unreasonable timeframe. For a fairly straightforward ‘what you see is what you get’ type of guy, his eyes glittered with triumph, as if he knew she wasn’t up to her professional promise and had called her on it.
Floundering for something characteristically witty to say and coming up lacking, she gripped her bag tighter and opted for partial honesty.
‘I appreciate your faith in me, but I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, what with getting used to the one gallery, acquainting myself with the layout and staff—’
‘Either you can do it or you can’t.’ He cut her off, his tone razor-sharp and brooking no argument. ‘And if you can’t…well, I guess we’d have to re-evaluate your contract.’
Damn and blast the man! The laid-back, sexy guy from last night had morphed back into the powerful CEO and she didn’t like the change one bit.
As for re-evaluating…no way she’d let that happen. Losing this job wasn’t an option.
‘Of course I can do it.’
Squaring her shoulders, she released her death grip on her bag, knowing she’d have to do some quick thinking to come up with a workable solution to this doozy of a problem. She might have a photographic memory, but cramming in a folder’s worth of tour-guide expertise in one night would be impossible.
Aidan would know it.
With a mental ‘duh’, it hit her. This was a test.
Maybe he really did want to get rid of her and was expecting her to fail spectacularly so he’d have no other option but to fire her?
Well, she had news for him.
She’d faced worse growing up, having to think on her feet to avoid taunts and bullies at every new school, using her brain to outwit and outsmart, learning to distance herself from criticism from teachers and kids who had no idea about her home life.
She’d practised putting on a brave face while she’d hurt on the inside, learned to shield her real emotions behind a confident front and a smart mouth.
But she couldn’t push her luck here. If this was some warped test she had no intention of failing. If it wasn’t, maybe she could buy some time?
With a poised smile far removed from the jumble of nerves tumbling in her belly, she grabbed the manila folder and stuffed it into her bag.
‘I totally understand how tough it is around here at the moment with less staff, but how about you give me a few more days to look over this and I’ll start the new tours next week?’
The tiny crease between his brows had reappeared, doing little to distract from his handsome face. ‘How many days do you need?’
‘How about the rest of the week? That way, I can swot over the weekend too and be up to scratch to wow the masses first thing Monday.’
Sending him her best dazzling smile, she waited for a reaction.
He made her sweat for it, studying her face as if searching for one of his precious old artefacts before allowing his lips to curve into a beguiling smile, the type of smile that could charm the pants off a girl.
If she were prone to that sort of thing.
‘Fine, have it your way.’
‘Great.’ She leaped out of the chair, eager to make her escape while the going was good.
‘For now,’ he added, reasserting his power with the finesse of a businessman used to mixing subtlety with an iron-clad will.
‘Thanks, I’m sure you’ll be impressed.’
She hefted her bag with the ten-ton-tome of information under her arm and sent him a casual wave as she headed for the door, relieved that he’d given her a reprieve. With a little bit of luck—and a lot of hard work—she could juggle her two jobs without letting any balls slip.
‘I already am.’
She turned at the door, the husky timbre of his voice alerting her to the fact that maybe, hopefully, he wasn’t only referring to her work skills.
Sure enough, his gaze slid from her legs upwards and she sent him a coy smile, buoyed by the gleam of male appreciation in those incredibly expressive silver eyes.
They might have dismissed that kiss last night as an aberration, but there was no denying the sizzle of attraction buzzing between them, professionalism or not.
‘I can always slip the other shoes back on if you like?’
‘For a woman perilously close to having me revoke those few extra days’ grace I’ve just given you, you’re mighty sure of your
self,’ he said, grudging admiration in the hint of a smile.
‘I know what I want and I know how to get it.’
She paused, letting her gaze drift to his lips before rising ever so slowly to reconnect with his smoky eyes again. ‘After last night, you of all people should know that.’
Humming Prince’s ‘Kiss’ under her breath, she walked out the door.
‘Damn and blast it!’
Dorothy sent her a scandalous glance as if she’d just dropped the F bomb. ‘Don’t worry, we’re only a few minutes late.’
Beth practically ran the last few metres to the museum entrance, uncharacteristically grateful she wasn’t wearing her stilettos for once. ‘I know, but I’ve got a teenage school-group tour I have to lead.’
And the boss is tagging along to see how I’m doing.
That thought alone lent her extra speed and she flew through the door and waved to Dorothy over her shoulder. ‘Later, Dot.’
‘Thanks for taking me shoe shopping,’ Dorothy called out, her wistful tone bringing Beth up short.
The young woman was a walking fashion disaster and she couldn’t leave her hanging, not when she’d promised her a makeover to go with her new outfits and shoes.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow and we’ll tee up a time then for your makeover, okay?’
‘Great.’
Dorothy’s beaming smile could’ve lit a path for the space shuttle to follow. ‘I really appreciate what you’re doing for me, Beth. You’re the best.’
Ha! If only Aidan thought so too.
Waving, Beth dashed into the Mind and Body Gallery, tugging down her blazer with one hand while tucking a stray strand of hair back into the loose French twist at the nape of her neck with the other.
She didn’t know what was more annoying, the way the chartreuse jacket edged in ecru kept riding up over her hips or the headache that came with wearing her hair confined in a knot for a touch of added professionalism today. With Aidan watching her every move during her first tour in this new gallery, she had to look the part even if she felt like the least qualified person on the planet to conduct it.
Please let him be late, she thought, her gaze darting around the room while she simultaneously managed a confident smile at the biology students waiting for her.