Without another word, he shot to his feet and marched out of the room.
‘Well.’ Lucas leant back on his chair and started to laugh. ‘I’ll say one thing for Black. He certainly livens up a management meeting. Is there anything else we need to discuss?’
‘We’re done, but before you go, one question.’ Sam knew Lucas put on a good game face, but behind it, he was far more sensitive than he let on. ‘Are you really okay with Ryan taking the mick like that?’
‘Darling, he can call me whatever he likes.’ When she continued to look at him, his face sobered. ‘If you want the truth, there’s something refreshing about a man who’s prepared to stare me straight in the eye and say I look like a watermelon. Most of the time that sort of stuff is whispered behind my back. With Ryan I know where I stand. There’s no side to him. He’s not saying it to be mean, or to goad me. He just says what he thinks.’ As he stood up, he added with a wink. ‘Don’t go telling him I said this, but I’m actually starting to like the man.’
Feeling equal parts surprise and relief, Sam watched him leave before turning to her so-called friend. ‘What the hell, Becks?’
Becky had the grace to look shamefaced. ‘Sorry about setting you up to travel with him like that, though I’m not sure he heard any of it. He was so focused on whoever was calling him.’
‘But why would you? Especially after you’d just spent the whole meeting winding him up, which wasn’t cool, by the way. I’m trying to develop a culture of team working. Of being one happy family.’
Becky grinned. ‘You have brothers, right? Don’t tell me you never wound them up on purpose, just to see how they’d react.’
‘Is that what you were doing? Because it seemed to me it was more than that.’
‘Hey, he started it. Not very teamy of you, Becky,’ she drawled in a terrible imitation of Ryan’s deep yet oddly soft voice.
‘When I said I wanted this to be a family, I didn’t mean I wanted squabbling siblings. And I certainly don’t want to be Mum.’
Becky snorted. ‘No, it’s quite clear what you want. He’s six-three with big shoulders, dark eyes and an annoying attitude.’
Sam lurched back, aghast. ‘I do not.’
Becky gave her arm a light touch, her expression turning from highly amused to concerned. ‘Are you sure about that? Because the way you looked at him before we went into the room sure didn’t say not bothered.’
Groaning, Sam covered her face with her hands. ‘Please tell me I didn’t look like that in the actual meeting.’
‘You didn’t, though I suspect that’s just because you barely glanced at him.’ Becky sighed, giving Sam’s shoulders a sympathetic rub. ‘Hey, come on. You like him, he likes you.’
‘He doesn’t.’
‘Of course he does. You think he’d say sorry to any of us like he just did to you?’ Her eyes brimmed with understanding. ‘I know it’s not ideal because of the office connection again, but it’s only really a problem if you make it into one. I thought if you travelled to the conference together it might give you a chance to talk things out.’
‘Oh no, no, no.’ Sam heaved in a breath and sat up. ‘No, no, no. There’s nothing I have to say to Ryan outside work. What we did was a mistake. I can’t see someone from work again. Have you forgotten how badly that went for me last time? And God, Ryan works for me, sleeping with him is all sorts of wrong.’ A bubble of brittle laughter escaped her. ‘Except I did, didn’t I, and now I can’t stop thinking about it.’ Emotions all over the place, she looked glumly over at her friend. ‘I don’t even know if I like him, Becks, but my eyes can’t stop tracking him. My body can’t stop remembering what it felt like to be touched my him. What the blazes am I supposed to do?’
Becky took hold of her hands and clasped them in hers. ‘Number one, stop worrying. Just because Damien ended in disaster doesn’t mean every office-based relationship is doomed.’
‘Did I mention the part about me being Ryan’s boss?’
‘You’re not the first boss to sleep with an employee.’
‘Yeah, but the boss is usually male. I hold myself to a higher standard than that.’
Becky started to snigger. ‘If it’s like I’ve read in books, the boss isn’t just usually male, he’s also usually a billionaire who likes to tie his employee up in all sorts of—’
‘Thanks, I get the picture.’
Becky gave her a cheeky grin and started to fan herself. ‘Oh my, so do I. You standing by the four-poster in sexy heels. Ryan sprawled out on the bed, arms and legs cuffed to the posts.’
‘What’s point number two?’ Sam interrupted, feeling heat pulse through her body. ‘Because number one isn’t exactly helping here, you know.’
Becky sobered. ‘Number two is spend more time with him. Go to the conference together. You might find you don’t like him, and then this crazy attraction will disappear.’
‘And if the opposite happens?’
‘Ah.’ She slid Sam a look. ‘You think you could actually like a guy whose default mode seems to be rude and the only smile he knows is a smirk?’
‘No.’ Yet the man she’d slept with, who’d nearly walked away from a certain one-night stand because he’d been worried she was drunk, and who’d been kind enough to pretend to listen when she’d poured out her grief about her grandad, had been more than that. ‘At least I don’t think so.’
PART THREE
A Matter of Trust
Chapter 9
Ryan cursed under his breath as he kicked the tyre of his car. Bloody thing was letting him down more and more these days. With a huff of resignation, he threw his jacket on the passenger seat, yanked off his stupid tie, rolled back the sleeves of the one collared shirt he owned, and opened the bonnet.
Twenty minutes later he had the engine of the forty-year-old Triumph Spitfire running again. But now he was late.
Why had he nodded dumbly last week when Sam had asked if he wouldn’t mind driving because her car was having its airbags replaced, thanks to a customer recall? Why hadn’t he laughed and said airbags, what the hell are they? His car was lucky to have seat belts.
But no, with his brain in a fog of worry because of the phone call he’d just taken, and his mind hung up on the image of them travelling together, just the two of them, he’d meekly agreed to pick her up.
Quickly slipping the tie back on, he jammed himself behind the wheel and set off towards her place. Of course he hadn’t needed the address, because he’d been there before, two months ago.
The memory caused heat to prick at the back of his neck and he pulled the tie further down. No point strangling himself all the way to the meeting venue.
She was waiting outside when he arrived, and his heart skipped a beat as his eyes drank her in. Looking wow in a curve-hugging purple trouser suit, her hair neatly coiled into a bun, she dripped sophistication and poise. And he was about to cram her into his battered old car.
Fuck, he was stupid.
Keeping the engine running – he wasn’t going to take a chance on it not starting again – he jumped out. ‘Sorry I’m late.’
She gave him a polite smile. ‘No problem. London traffic is never predictable.’
Averting his eyes, he pulled open the passenger door for her. Was it lying if he didn’t correct her? Sod it, for once he was keeping quiet. She slipped inside and he banged the door closed. His mum would be proud of his chivalry, but he knew he’d had no choice. Ruddy door only shut if you banged it from the outside.
‘Do you need me to map read?’ she asked as he pulled off, waving her hand at the pathetically barren dashboard. ‘No GPS, I take it.’
He leant towards her and pulled open the glove compartment, feeling a jolt as he inhaled her familiar scent. Immediately images from that night flooded through him and he reared back. ‘GPS is in there somewhere.’
His voice was suspiciously hoarse, something she must have clocked because he saw her swallow before she spoke. ‘There had better not be anything
in here that might bite.’
As she angled her body to dig around in the compartment, Ryan felt himself starting to smile. ‘Nah. It’s just where I keep my spare boxers.’
She stilled, but her eyes were alive with humour. ‘Dirty or clean?’
‘Clean.’ He gave her a mock disgusted look. ‘I’m not a total slob.’
‘Thank heavens for small mercies.’
She smiled and he felt a rush of air leave his lungs. As he reached to take the gadget from her, their fingers touched and he felt another jolt. This was going to be impossible. The car was too small. She was too gorgeous. And he was far, far too aware of everything about her. ‘This was a bad idea.’
Those huge blue eyes swivelled towards him. ‘Sorry?’
Was she really that clueless? Or was it only him feeling as if he’d been tied into a hundred knots? ‘Do I need to spell it out?’
He watched the heat touch her cheeks. ‘No.’ She swallowed again. ‘Maybe it would be better if I got a cab.’
He laughed humourlessly. ‘What, you go by cab, I drive, and when we meet up at the conference, I suddenly don’t want to have sex with you any more?’
Her breath hitched. ‘Please don’t say things like that.’
Feeling a mix of annoyed, turned on and helpless, he exhaled roughly. ‘Sorry.’ After a few humming moments of silence, during which he plugged in the sat nav and stuck it to the dashboard, he handed her a crumpled Post-it. ‘It’s the postcode for the hotel where the conference is. Can you enter it while I turn the car round?’
She took it from him, carefully avoiding touching his fingers, and within a few seconds the woman on the sat nav was telling him the way to go. He wished she could also tell him how to erase the simmering tension he’d just created.
As he set off down the road an awful thought struck him. Was it sexual harassment if you told your female boss you wanted to sleep with her? Bile flew up his throat as his stomach churned painfully.
‘Perhaps we should use the journey to get to know each other.’
He swallowed down the nausea and took a breath. And then another. ‘Yeah?’
Out of the corner of his eye he saw her gaze fly to his face. ‘Professionally.’ A little laugh bubbled out of her. ‘Oh God, how ridiculous. We’re two grown adults. We can manage an hour in a car together without weirding ourselves out.’
Was she weirded out because she felt the same blinding sexual attraction he felt? Or was hers down to the acute embarrassment of knowing she’d slept with one of her underlings? And yeah, he didn’t really need to wonder, did he? He was the only one tied up in knots here.
He had to get over himself. Determinedly he searched for a safe topic. ‘So, word on the street is you started Privacy Solutions straight from university. Is that true?’
Her shoulders relaxed a little. A clear signal she was relieved to be talking work. ‘Sounds precocious, I know, but yes. Me and … another student planned it while we were studying. When we graduated, we’d already put a business plan together and had a few interested parties keen to invest.’
‘Impressive. This other student was Damien Lynch? The guy who left to set up the rival company you’re wetting yourselves over?’
Her stance stiffened again. Clearly she was happy to talk work, but not happy to talk about her ex-partner. ‘Yes, though I’d use the term “concerned” rather than “wetting ourselves”.’
‘Guess that’s CEO-speak compared to employee-speak.’ Or posh end of town compared to poor end. Either way, he was at the wrong end of the spectrum. ‘What did you have a bust-up over?’
Her posture wasn’t just stiff now, it was rigid. ‘We had a difference of opinion on the way forward.’
‘That’s the line trotted out to the media. I was looking for the real reason.’
Once again tension hung in the air, but this time it wasn’t sexual, thank God. He was a million times more comfortable handling an annoyed boss than an attractive one.
‘You don’t need to know what we disagreed about. It’s irrelevant to the work we’re doing.’
‘Irrelevant maybe.’ He flicked her a look. ‘Uninteresting, I doubt it.’
Their eyes caught briefly and he saw a glint of humour before he had to look back at the road. ‘I’m not here to entertain you.’
‘Shame.’ And just like that, the sexual tension was back again. ‘Sorry.’ Feeling the stiffness invading him now, he rolled his shoulders. ‘I’d offer to put the radio on, but it’s broken.’
‘Maybe I should ask the questions.’ He was aware of her gaze falling on him. ‘Why were you fired from your last job?’
He snorted. ‘You already know the answer to that.’
‘I know that Becky’s brother said you refused to work on the next app they assigned you. What I don’t know is why.’
Ryan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. Why hadn’t he had the radio fixed? ‘I don’t like gambling apps.’
Sam watched Ryan’s hands clench the wheel and realised she’d touched a nerve, just as he’d touched hers when he’d asked about Damien. Was it a misuse of her power to prod at it, when she’d deliberately cut his questioning of her dead? But if they weren’t arguing, they seemed to fall into conversations laden with sexual innuendo, and that was even more dangerous. Besides, she was interested in what made Ryan Black tick, what made him so anti-social. Why a man who earnt a pretty good salary was driving a forty-year-old rust heap.
Though it was painful to admit, Becky was right. She was interested in Ryan Black, full stop.
A gentle prod it was, then. ‘You’ve never had a flutter on the horses?’
‘I didn’t say I disagreed with gambling. I disagree with making it too easy.’
‘So much so that you gave up a well-paid job, with nothing in the pipeline?’
He indicated to switch lanes and it was a few seconds before he replied. ‘Yes.’
There was history there, but if she probed, it would move their conversation into the personal, and she’d promised professional. ‘Why didn’t you just ask to work on another project?’
‘Simple as that, huh?’
‘I can’t see why not. I know the company. There must have been other apps you could have been moved to.’
When he didn’t immediately reply she turned to study his face. At times, like now, she’d put him down as a thinker. Slow and careful about what he said. It went with his need to work in isolation. He liked to detach himself from others, and from the problem, so he could look at it painstakingly. Logically. It was in direct contrast to her, who liked to talk out a problem, and then go with her gut instinct. At other times though, he seemed quick to blurt the first thing that came into his head. That, she guessed, was when his emotions were involved.
‘I probably could have moved apps.’ He shrugged his wide shoulders, drawing her attention to the way his muscles shifted beneath the white shirt.
Eyes forward, Huxton. ‘I suspect you screwed up any chance of being moved to another project by going, and I quote from Becky’s brother, “apeshit”.’
Humour danced around his mouth, drawing her eyes again. She really should have gone by cab. It was far too easy to stare at him, knowing he couldn’t stare back. ‘Why ask the question, when you knew the answer?’
‘I only know you lost your temper,’ she corrected. ‘I don’t know why.’ Because she wanted it to at least appear she was asking the question for professional reasons, she added, ‘I don’t want the same to happen when you’re working for me.’
His jaw tightened, and she suspected he hated her reminding him of their unequal status. ‘Are you planning on developing an app that has the potential to feed an addiction?’
‘No. The company is all about protecting our customers’ privacy.’
His eyes briefly held hers. ‘Then I won’t be going apeshit on you.’ He smiled darkly. ‘At least not in work time.’
What did he mean by that? Sam pulled her gaze away, aware yet again of the sexu
al undercurrent that was never far from the surface. Her slow-burning affair with Damien hadn’t prepared her for this raw attraction and she didn’t know how to handle it. Add in the fact that Ryan was an employee, and it felt like she’d been tossed into a stormy sea without a life jacket. ‘Please stop the innuendos.’
‘It wasn’t.’
Oh boy. Her heart let out a loud thump. ‘There can’t be any non-work time for you and me. It would be too awkward.’
‘You think I don’t know that?’ She heard him exhale slowly. ‘Doesn’t stop me wondering about it.’
Me too, she thought despairingly. She risked another glance at his strong profile, and her stomach flip-flopped. Would it really be so bad to continue their affair, if both parties were up for it?
Continue their affair? Dear God, she was going crazy. They’d had a one-night stand. At the time she’d been so determined they were totally wrong for each other, she’d not even wanted to know his name. To consider falling into that trap again was total madness.
To her relief he turned onto the slip road. ‘Not long now.’ He flicked a look at the sat nav.
He’d given her an out so she could ignore his previous sentence, but that would be cowardly. She had a grudging admiration for his willingness to face difficult situations head on. ‘I wonder about it too,’ she admitted quietly. ‘But you and me, we’d burn bright and then fizzle out. If you think now is awkward, imagine if we couldn’t stand the sight of each other.’
Pulling up at a red light, he gave her a small smile. ‘Does that mean you quite like me at the moment?’
‘Don’t push your luck.’ The amused look he gave her caused her stomach to execute a neat somersault. Quickly she dropped her gaze to her hands. ‘I can’t afford to lose another software developer,’ she said finally.
He obviously understood her meaning, because he sighed. ‘I read you.’
They were silent as he navigated the final few miles to the hotel. It was only when he’d parked that he turned to face her, and her heart fluttered as those dark eyes sought hers, his body looking huge in the small interior. ‘This ex-partner of yours. Will he be here, too?’
The New Guy Page 7