“Oh, you think it’s funny that you can defy me?” he asked, his voice smooth and scary. Well, not really scary but…sexy. Yeah, incredibly sexy. Low and threatening, but she knew that Phillip would never, ever, hurt her.
“I think it’s funny that you think you can tell me where we’re eating lunch, when you have no idea who to call to make reservations at any of the places we prefer to dine.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then tilted his head, indicating that she had a valid point. “Yes, I’ll concede that you have the power there. But…” he leaned his head closer, “the true power isn’t all yours, now is it?” he asked, his voice going even lower this time.
She stared up at him, wondering what he meant. Oh, she would love to have him…well, that wasn’t an option. “You’re the boss,” she replied. Was her voice huskier than normal? She certainly hoped he didn’t hear that tone. She cleared her throat and looked down, unable to maintain eye contact with him.
His soft laughter told her that she wasn’t fooling him. Not even a little!
The elevator opened up and it was filled with others. So they had a silent ride down to the building’s lobby. When they exited, he wrapped his long fingers around her arm and steered her out to the street. Once again, Marie was startled by his touch. He was always the gentleman, but never before had he touched her in any way. It was shocking and the heat hitting her system was more than she could handle.
“I called Quinn’s Tavern for a table,” she told him, pointing across the street to his favorite restaurant.
He looked down at her with a, “You’ll pay for that!” look and she only smiled up at him. It was all she could do to remain calm when he looked at her like that. She wanted to drag him into one of the long alleys between the buildings and throw herself at him, kiss him until he swooped her up into his arms and carried her back to his place to make love to her.
Ugh! Her unrealistic dreams were going to make her crazy.
They were seated immediately at one of the best tables in the restaurant and a waiter arrived to take their order.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Martineau, Ms. Stein. Ice tea with extra lemon?” he asked.
Phillip didn’t even open the menu. “Ms. Stein will have a glass of chardonnay and I’ll have a bourbon,” he told the man, shocking both the waiter and Marie.
When the waiter disappeared, Marie looked across the table at Phillip. “I’m taking it this isn’t a business lunch?” she asked carefully.
“No. Today isn’t a business lunch. We are celebrating.”
She lifted her eyebrows in surprise. “Celebrating?”
He chuckled. “How soon we forget.” The waiter arrived with a chilled glass of white wine and Phillip’s bourbon. When the waiter was once again gone, he lifted his glass. “To no more wedding!” he toasted.
Marie wasn’t sure what to say. So instead of trying to figure things out, she simply lifted her glass and toasted his “freedom”.
Their meal arrived and, despite his comment that they were celebrating, the pink elephant of his canceled wedding was not discussed further.
Chapter 5
“I don’t like him,” Phillip grumbled after the first candidate for Marie’s position left.
Marie glared at him. “I thought he was wonderful! What was wrong with him?”
Phillip shrugged. “He doesn’t have experience running a hedge fund.”
She stared at him. “Neither did I when I first started working for you!”
He walked back around his desk. “Who’s next?”
Marie inhaled deeply, trying to calm down her temper. Or was it panic? She wasn’t sure any longer. “Here’s the next candidate’s resume,” she handed him the paper. She then turned around and walked out. A moment later, she led the woman into Phillip’s office and introduced the two of them.
Marie walked out of Phillip’s office, but before she closed the door, she gave him a look that told him she wasn’t pleased. He simply lifted one of those sexy eyebrows back at her.
She closed the door and sat down at her desk. Sexy eyebrow? When did a man ever have sexy eyebrows? Okay, so it wasn’t so much the eyebrow as the man conveying the gesture. Phillip was sexy. Too sexy! Boy, he turned her on. And all morning, he had been touching her. Same as yesterday afternoon and evening. Especially when their dinner arrived, Chinese food delivered so that they could review the latest numbers that had been put out last night.
He’d argued once again this morning that he wasn’t accepting her resignation. She’d told him that it didn’t matter if he’d accepted, she was leaving. He’d said that she was too responsible to leave without an adequate replacement.
Unfortunately, he was right. She’d never leave him without someone to assist him. But was he going to be stubborn about accepting someone else?
Four hours later, she could answer that question with a definite “Yes!”
“You’re being too picky!” she yelled at him after he’d rejected the last candidate.
He did that whole eyebrow lifting thing again as he leaned back against the leather sofa. She was standing in front of him, her hands fisted on her hips as she glared at him.
“Are you seriously yelling at your boss?” he teased. “Not very good protocol, Ms. Stein.”
She huffed a bit and looked up at the ceiling, trying for patience. “Phillip, you’re not taking this seriously.”
He laughed softly. “On the contrary. I’m taking this very seriously.” He stood up and tossed their empty food cartons into the trash. “I’m seriously trying to figure out how to get you to Aruba with me tomorrow.”
Marie rolled her eyes. “If you want to go to Aruba, go ahead. But I’m training someone to replace me. So, pick one of these candidates.”
Phillip looked up at the woman who haunted his dreams. He could feel her tremble every time he touched her. And those weren’t the only signs. Her lips softened, her eyes became a bit dreamy, and her heartrate visible at the base of her throat accelerated. All very good signs of her awareness, if not outright arousal.
So he wasn’t backing down on this. He needed to get her out of the office and a trip to Aruba was the perfect excuse. Once he got her alone, he could focus on a relationship with her. On getting her to realize that they could truly have it all.
“Are your bags packed? I’m coming by to pick you up tomorrow morning at 7 am. We should be in Aruba by afternoon.”
She huffed a bit and, he couldn’t help it, his eyes dropped to her breasts. They were beautiful, but hidden by her suit at the moment. But Phillip knew that Marie was very well endowed. She had softly rounded hips and full breasts. She was a bit shorter than the women he used to date, although about the same height as Lillian. Maybe a bit shorter. As Marie continued to tell him about all of the candidates again, he tuned her out, preferring to let his eyes roam over her voluptuous figure. She wasn’t too skinny, but nor was she fat. He knew that she slipped out of the office three afternoons a week to catch an aerobics class. She’d shower and come back, her cheeks would be rosy, all sexy and flushed. It was too bad that she wasn’t a morning person. He would love to go on long runs with her. But that just wasn’t her thing, he knew. She preferred aerobics classes where the music blasted and energized her.
Thinking of that, he knew of many ways he’d like to get her revved up. And as she went through the list again, he contemplated every one of those options, starting with on her back, in his bed and his mouth…
“Phillip! You’re not listening to me!”
He laughed softly, coming back to the present. He knew that his body was still in his fantasies, hard and aching for her, but he calmed himself, knowing that he’d get to see her in a bathing suit by tomorrow afternoon.
“What color is your bathing suit?’ he asked. Red. She looked amazing in red, he knew.
“I don’t own a bathing suit,” she told him.
“Not a problem,” he replied, thinking that her lack of a bathing suit meant that he could
pick out whatever he preferred. And a red bikini was definitely on the agenda.
“You’re still not paying attention, are you?”
He shook his head. “Nope. I think you should focus more on pulling together the files for the Pinkley report, so we can review it tomorrow.” He stood up and whipped the resumes out of her hands. “We’ll discuss these tomorrow on the plane.” He wanted to toss them into the trash. “Get your coat and purse. I’m driving you home.”
She huffed a bit more, but she turned around and shut down her computer. She stuffed several files into her bag, thankfully not arguing with him about going to Aruba any longer.
“I can drive myself home,” she told him.
“Not a chance. If you have your car, you might just drive out of the city.”
“Why would I do that?” she asked, startled when he lifted her heavy tote bag from her shoulder, carrying it himself.
“Because you’re a coward and are afraid to come to Aruba with me tomorrow.”
She gasped, looking up at him as he put a hand to the small of her back, leading her towards the elevators. “I’m not a coward!”
“Good! Then be ready at seven o’clock tomorrow morning.”
Chapter 6
Marie didn’t sleep at all! She tossed and turned the whole night, wondering if Phillip was really going to show up at her apartment at seven o’clock.
Sure enough, at six-fifty-nine, her doorbell rang. And because she hadn’t wanted to believe it, she hadn’t packed anything. Because she hadn’t packed anything, she knew that Phillip was going to do…something. She wasn’t sure what because she just wasn’t sure about the man who had emerged now that he was no longer about to marry the beautiful Lillian.
The doorbell rang again and she could almost feel Phillip’s impatience.
She’d handled this all wrong. Marie knew she should have sat Phillip down and explained the whole situation to him. Then he wouldn’t be doing this to her. He wouldn’t have touched her for the past two days, she would still be asleep in her warm bed, and she wouldn’t feel like a zombie right now. Or someone facing a firing squad.
Phillip was going to know about her silly feelings for him. Oh, he couldn’t know how deeply she loved him, but he’d assume she had a silly crush on him. On her boss! How stupid!
“Open the door, Marie. We have a plane to catch.”
“Time for honesty,” she muttered to herself.
She smoothed a hand down her legging-covered thighs, took a deep breath, then walked to the door.
Because it was December and morning, it was chilly outside. Phillip was dressed in khaki slacks…did the man even own a pair of jeans? And a soft shirt that was covered by a leather jacket. There weren’t many times for someone to wear a leather jacket when living in New Orleans. Maybe one or two nights a year got down below freezing. Perhaps last night had been one of those nights.
Opening the door wide, she faced her worst nightmare. “If you’d just…”
She stopped what she’d been about to say as Phillip’s eyes moved up and down her figure. She realized that she probably should have changed out of the leggings and exercise shirt, but she hadn’t really been thinking too clearly this morning.
“Damn, woman!” he growled, stepping into the room. “I knew that you had a knockout figure but…” then his eyes caught something over her shoulder. The boxes! The moving boxes stuffed with her things were stacked all over her apartment. There weren’t that many boxes. An apartment dweller couldn’t really get a whole lot of stuff into the small space. But she also had a small apartment and there wasn’t a lot of space to stack the boxes.
His eyes sharpened, his hands fisted on his hips as he took in the boxes, no pictures on the wall or shelves. Everything was packed up, ready to go.
Turning around, he looked down at her. “You’ve been planning this for a while!” he snapped. “How long, Marie?” he demanded.
She shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“And where the hell are you going? You only said that you’d accepted another job. You never told me that you were leaving New Orleans!”
Woah! He was really pissed off! “Phillip, why are you so angry?” she demanded. “Does it really matter where I’m going?”
He moved closer to her, towering over her and she almost laughed at his attempt to intimidate her. But this was Phillip. He was the kindest, sweetest man she’d ever met. And certainly the most generous she’d ever worked for. Her next job was a lower salary. The trade-off was to not be in love with her boss. Well, and see him marry another woman.
The fact that Phillip wasn’t marrying Lillian…that threw a whole new wrench into her gears, didn’t it? But, of course, he would eventually marry someone. The man was in his mid-thirties and his mother was nagging him for grandchildren. Neither of those issues were a reason to marry. But Phillip would. Phillip always did the right thing. The thought flashed through her mind that Phillip wasn’t very nice when it came to business but…well, he had to be tough in order to protect people’s retirement. He did what he had to do.
Was that justification?
No. Phillip was good, kind, and a protector. That’s what he did. He protected people who invested with his firm. And he wouldn’t do anything to her now.
“Why do you think I’m angry?” he asked softly.
She smiled slightly at the threat in his voice. “I don’t know.” Crossing her arms over her stomach, she leaned back against the wall. “Why don’t you explain it to my feeble mind, Phillip?”
He placed a hand on either side of her head, leaning in. Okay, this was intimidating. Well, not exactly intimidating, she corrected. Exciting. Terrifying. Would he know? Could he somehow discern her attraction to his broad shoulders and…well, everything else about the man? Would he figure out that she’d love for him to take her into his arms and…do everything to her? Anything? Or that she wanted to…
“Stop it,” she gasped, thinking about all the things she wanted to do to this man’s body. And right now, he was just a bit too close for her exhausted mind to rein in her need to touch him. Her fingers closed into fists under her arms in an attempt to stop herself from touching him.
“Stop what, Marie? Stop trying to understand why you are running away from me?” The shock on her face must have given her thoughts, away because understanding lit up his eyes. “That’s what it is, isn’t it? You’re running away.” He pulled back slightly, his intelligent eyes roaming over her features and she pressed her lips together. “Why? What did I do that would spark a need for you to run?”
She shrugged, shaking her head. “Phillip, let’s just…”
“We’re not going to ‘just’ do anything, Marie. We’ve been friends for too long. You’re the best assistant I’ve ever had. We’re not abandoning this issue until I understand.”
Marie’s temper flared because Phillip never gave up on an issue until he understood. Over the time she’d been working for him, she’d seen it over and over again. With anyone else, she’d admired that determination. But when it came to herself, it angered her.
Ducking under his arm, she moved away from him, pacing through the small confines of her apartment which was limited even more by all the stupid boxes that were in her way. “Phillip! Just drop it! This is none of your business!”
“How can you say it isn’t any of my business when it’s exactly my business? You’re leaving as my assistant and, what’s more, I thought we were friends. I thought that we had more than a boss-employee relationship. So what the hell? What gives, Marie? Why are you running away without an explanation? I deserve better!”
He hadn’t raised his voice, but his smooth, steady tone only reinforced that he was furious. If his tone hadn’t clued her in, the anger in his dark eyes would have been more than enough.
With a sigh, she turned her back on him, staring out the window. “Phillip, just…”
“Talk to me, Marie. You’ve always been able to talk to me about anything.” When she remain
ed silent, he tried a different tactic. “Is it salary? Did this other position give you a better salary? You know I’ll match any amount another firm gives you. Hell, I’ll beat any offer by ten percent.”
She gasped, swinging around to glare up at him. “Don’t you dare!”
Phillip was watching her carefully, trying to find clues. But she wasn’t giving anything away. “If you need more money, I’m damn well going to give you more money, Marie. I want you here.”
Those eyes! Her beautiful hazel eyes stared up at him. Pleading with him. But he couldn’t relent. This was too important. He’d spent the last months engaged to the wrong woman, only to discover his feelings for Marie were much more powerful than he’d realized. Now, when he finally had a chance to do something about it, she was leaving him. He couldn’t let that happen.
As she paced, Phillip couldn’t stop his eyes from dropping, enjoying her figure. The black leggings were perfect for his viewing pleasure, although he would like to ditch the shirt. Hell, he’d prefer to ditch all of her clothes, lay her out on the bed that was still unmade in the next room and take his time kissing every inch of her amazing figure.
Mentally shaking his head, he reminded himself that he needed to focus, convince her to take a chance on them as a couple, before he introduced all of those other desires. Well, first, he needed to stop her from leaving town.
“I’m waiting, Marie,” he reminded her, realizing that his voice was sounding more like a growl now.
“Phillip, I just need to start fresh, get on with my life.”
He thought about her words, watching her carefully. Usually, he understood her moods even before she did. “Are you working too many hours? You know that you don’t have to. We can skip our usual dinners together,” he told her, even though those were the highlights of his day.
“You know I love our dinners,” she told him. Still pacing. Still giving him ample opportunity to contemplate the round pertness of her butt. Damn, she was built! He knew that, had been watching her for months. It’s just now that he was allowing himself the pleasure. No longer feeling guilty for it.
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