by Audra North
She waved to the security guard, then passed through the electronic turnstile and ran toward an elevator whose doors were starting to close, expecting it to be empty this early in the morning.
But just before she hit the threshold of the car, someone from inside the elevator put an arm out to stop the doors from shutting completely, surprising her in mid-stride. She gasped.
Andrew.
It was too late to slow down. Meredith caught a glimpse of his strong chin and wide brown eyes before she collided with him, the impact knocking her off-balance. She grabbed blindly at something to keep herself from falling—Andrew’s shoulders. Her fingers dug into hard muscles that she could feel through his clothes at the same time that his arms came up to brace her. They closed around her waist as their bodies slammed together, the momentum propelling them both toward the back of the elevator.
The doors rolled softly shut. Her embarrassment was so strong that it nearly became audible in the ensuing silence.
“Well. Good morning to you, too, Meredith.” Andrew sounded amused, but immediately followed up his greeting with, “Are you all right?”
She could feel a hot flush rising up her neck. Klutzy Klaus! Klutzy Klaus! She shouldn’t have felt so clumsy over something that could have happened to anyone, but the voice in her head still enjoyed taunting her. Her shoulders slumped and she twisted her lips in a wry smile. “No one could ever say I don’t know how to make an entrance, at least.”
His laugh sounded shockingly loud in the quiet elevator car. “Indeed,” he replied, his eyes twinkling as he looked down at her in his arms. “But I can’t let you take all the credit for it.” His voice gentled, and she felt his arms tighten around her, ever so subtly. “I apologize for stepping in your way. I was trying to hold the door for you, not to trip you. Although…I certainly can’t complain about the result.” At that, he grinned, a playful, teasing expression, and her breath caught at the sight. Without thinking, she leaned into him a fraction of an inch further, his hard chest against her soft breasts creating an arousing contrast.
“You got new glasses.” His eyes roamed all of her face, as though that new detail made him wonder if there were any more things to discover on her.
An image of him, exploring her entire body as she lay naked before him, popped up in her mind. Her tongue felt thick and unwieldy as she spoke. “Not new, but new to you, anyway.” She had lowered her voice so as not to deafen him, as she was still clasped in his arms, their faces mere inches apart. The words came out as a near-whisper, like a secret shared by lovers in the dark.
His gaze shuttered immediately, and he pulled away from her. “Ready for a full day?” he asked, his tone still light, but different somehow. Professional.
She stepped back, too, reluctantly, ruthlessly tamping down the urge to linger in his arms. “I am. I got your message with all the information about tonight. Thank you for arranging a car to pick me up.”
He snorted. “Please don’t thank me. It’s the least I could do. I’m sorry I can’t pick you up myself, but I’ve got a last-minute meeting at five o’clock with a politician. He’s trying to introduce a bill in the Senate that would require New York companies to give to charities and needs some help reviewing the draft.”
Meredith couldn’t help feeling pleased that Andrew had considered coming to get her. Even if it was just a nod to gentlemanly courtesy, it made her feel like more than just a last-resort choice. A companion.
The elevator stopped and he gestured her forward. “Let’s head to my office right away and get started. I’ve got another meeting around ten, but otherwise my focus today is on the Christmas Bonus Fund.”
“Sure,” she replied, heading past her own door to his large corner office. He had a similar setup to hers, only his conference table and desk were both much bigger. She pulled out a chair at the table and set her bag on the seat. To her surprise, he strode over and set up his own computer right next to her place.
When he said they would be working side by side for the next six days, he meant it literally.
She straightened up and pulled her hat off, shaking out her deep-red tresses. She’d worn her hair down because she’d had to spend so much time searching for her replacement pair of glasses that she hadn’t had time to blow it completely dry as usual, then put it into a clean, tight bun. Instead, she’d just run the dryer haphazardly over it a few times so that her wet hair wouldn’t freeze, bundled it into her knit cap, and headed out the door.
The sight of it surprised him, that much was certain. He made some kind of sound that might be best described as “Oh,” but wasn’t really a word at all. She swallowed hard at the sudden throbbing between her legs. That moment in the elevator, and now this…
Nerves had her hands suddenly seizing up, knotting in the fabric near her collar.
She smiled. Couldn’t contain a blush. “Uh, yeah. My hair. It’s just—I didn’t have time—well, it’s down today.”
“Ah. Of course.” A simple enough reply, but her body practically went liquid at the way he said it. Her fingers felt clumsy as they worked the buttons of her coat, slowing her progress in slipping each one from its mooring. She was embarrassingly aware that the pace made it seem like she was performing a striptease, but that only made her fingers cooperate less.
Thankfully, he moved behind her to help her with the coat, and she finally managed to open the entire placket. But then she could feel his hands on her shoulders, making her blood heat and her vision cloud, and there was no choice left but to allow him to slide it off, revealing the sturdy brown tweed she wore underneath.
Would he laugh at her for that? Would it make him forget that her hair was down and her glasses were cuter and remind him instead that, oh yes, Meredith was clumsy and unattractive? It wouldn’t be the first time that she’d been put in her place. When she was thirteen, she’d knelt in front of her windowsill and wished upon a star for a new family for Christmas. Her foster father, Mr. Ferris, had been walking by at that moment, overheard her wistful plea, and informed her she was too old to be adopted. People wanted younger children they could make into their own, not frizzy-haired, nearsighted beanpoles whose clumsiness cost more than they were worth in broken china and chipped furniture. She’d never have the family she so desperately wanted.
It had been the last time she’d asked for anything for herself.
But Andrew didn’t say anything. Didn’t make a sound. He just pulled the coat away and stood in silence for a moment. She could feel the weight of his stare on her neck, moving lower, lower—
Her body drew tight. What was he looking at? Surely not her. It must just be her imagination, that sensation of his eyes on the curve of her bottom.
After a long moment, he finally cleared his throat and shifted behind her. “I’ll put this away” came the rumbling voice, close to her ear. She shivered. Before she could turn to thank him, he moved away, walking toward the wardrobe to hang her coat.
And in the next minute, any thoughts of how sexy she’d felt flew away when he flung the door to the wardrobe open and she saw what was inside, blurting out before she could think better of it, “Why do you have a gown in your closet?”
Chapter Five
Holy hell. Meredith was hot.
Andrew didn’t even register her words for a moment. He was so shocked by the intensity of arousal that had flooded through him as he watched her shake all that luscious red softness down her arched back. She’d ended up in the same pose he’d found her in last night in the hallway. The one that pushed her breasts out and highlighted the curve of her spine—things he’d felt even through her clothes when he’d caught her in his arms this morning. All that sweet, feminine warmth against him…
He shuddered.
Nothing was going to get done today if he didn’t get a handle on his libido. Hell, she had just asked him something from three feet away and he couldn’t figure out what she’d said.
“I—excuse me. I didn’t hear you. What did you ask?�
�� He pulled out a hanger and slid her coat onto it, releasing a faint floral scent. Her scent.
“You—you have a dress in your wardrobe.”
The confusion in her voice made him chuckle. He’d forgotten about Lily’s dress. He pulled it out and draped it over the front of him, trying to twist the way he’d seen his sisters do when they modeled new clothes. “Do you think it suits me?”
Meredith’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then she realized he was joking and clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.
He paused, grinning back at her. With her eyes bright, her face lit up with a smile, she was so alluring. How had he never seen her this way?
Because it’s not your job to see her that way.
Right.
He lowered the dress and dropped his grin. “Actually, it belongs to my sister. She met me at the office for dinner after she’d been shopping and I let her leave this dress in my closet since it was too bulky to carry around.” He flashed a sheepish look. “But we had a lot of wine with our meal, so by the time we were finished, both of us had forgotten about it. When I called the next day to remind her, she said she’d changed her mind and was planning to return it.”
He held the dress out at arm’s length, actually looking at it for the first time. The black dress didn’t have any straps, and the satiny material on top looked pretty tight-fitting, at least until it got to somewhere around the thigh area, where a bunch of feathery things with sparkly stuff sprinkled on them spilled downward to the floor. It was one of the more frivolous things he’d ever seen.
He turned back to Meredith to say as much, only to realize that she was no longer laughing. Instead, she was staring at the gown with unabashed longing. The look on her face was so raw, so heartfelt, that he knew he’d be unable to resist her if she ever looked that way at him.
But then she caught him watching her, and her face shuttered immediately. “It’s a nice dress” was all she said, falsely nonchalant before turning to face her laptop screen and starting to type.
He frowned. It was almost as though she were punishing herself for liking the dress. Hardly a normal reaction.
The way she had looked at it had gone beyond simple appreciation for a pretty dress. What had she been thinking of when she looked at it so hungrily? Had she seen herself sliding it over her body, sweeping up that incredible hair so that everyone could see the delicate beauty of her bare shoulders? Had she imagined him running his hand over her neck, down the slippery fabric—
Hold up. No, she probably hadn’t been imagining those things.
But he certainly had.
Still, she must have envisioned something special for her face to go all starry-eyed like that. And this was the only opportunity to test the waters…
He gave a little cough, and she looked up. “Were you able to find something to wear for tonight? I know I didn’t give you much time to shop. My sisters start looking weeks in advance for things like this.” His kept his tone casual, almost indifferent, but he didn’t miss the way her eyes flickered back to the dress, her body swaying ever so slightly toward it for a moment.
She started to shake her head, caught herself, and changed it into a nod. “I do have a few things in my closet. I’m certain one of them will suffice.”
Not exactly reassuring. And the way she looked at the damned thing… For the first time in his adult life, Andrew did something he’d never had a reason to do before.
He lied.
“Too bad that this dress has been sitting here for over a month. When Lily said she was going to return it, I told I’d have it sent back for her, but I kept forgetting. Now it’s too late. I already paid her back and was planning to just donate it, but I’m wondering…”
He purposely trailed off, watching her face. Her lips jumped as though she wanted to speak, to lay claim to it. In truth, the dress had only arrived here the other day, but he’d pay Lily back for it, no matter what it had cost, if it satisfied the hunger he saw in Meredith.
Was it the glasses? The hair? His attraction was strong, sure, but also unexpected and inappropriate. He should just drop it and—
“Wondering what?” Her voice cut into his thoughts. She’d stood up. “You were going to donate it, but you were wondering something?”
I was wondering what your bare shoulders look like.
He held out the hanger, the black fabric beckoning her to touch it. “You’re probably about Lily’s size. Why don’t you wear it tonight? It would make me feel better for inconveniencing you.”
At first he thought she would refuse, but then she took another step forward. Her hand reached out and he sucked in a breath, thinking that she was going to touch him, and then he would really lose his mind and do something like haul her against him and kiss her.
But instead, her fingers slid over the curving neckline of the dress before they dipped inside and lifted out the tag. Ralph Lauren Collection, 6, 100% silk, it read.
He heard her take a deep breath before she sighed out, “Yes. Yes, I’ll take it.”
***
Her fairy godmother’s name was Lily.
The second her fingers had closed around that dark-purple tag, Meredith had known. The fabric felt like heaven and the dress was in her size. She had to have it, or she’d die.
And that was the moment that she’d finally admitted that, yes, possibly, some kind of magic was at play, because in the past half hour she’d never felt more sexy and powerful in her life. Andrew was looking at her like he wanted to eat her up. She hadn’t fallen or spilled something or broken anything since she’d stumbled into his arms back in the elevator. Something was changing in her, and she simply couldn’t say no.
So she’d said yes, instead.
Andrew had grinned as though she’d given him the best Christmas present he could think of, and told her to take it home with her that evening, then. And then he’d hung it back in the closet and joined her at the table and pretended that everything was normal.
But it wasn’t. She wasn’t. She could feel it.
Her mind kept wandering away from the spreadsheets in front of her. She was wound up with excitement and nerves and…something else. Something hotter and more sensuous and—
“Want some coffee?” Andrew rose as he spoke, and she blinked. Had her thoughts been somehow transmitted to him, but gotten jumbled a bit along the way? She blushed. If so, thank God some mystical static had rendered the message all choppy. It was one thing to imagine a connection between them. It was another thing altogether to pursue it. To ask for it.
But he was doing the offering, even if it was just coffee, so it was okay for her to nod and say, “Yes, please. Three-quarters—”
He interrupted her. “Three-quarters full, one packet of sugar, then cream until the cup is seven-eighths full. Don’t stir. Which is weird, I will add.” He smiled at her in that way that popular high school boys smile at each other—mischievous, happy, and full of life, and Meredith couldn’t hold back a smile in return, her heart swelling with pride in him and, strangely enough, in herself. He’d noticed how she liked her coffee. And he was gorgeous.
But just in case she was completely misreading the situation, and he was just being nice while she was acting like a silly fool on some six-day trip to Crazytown, she wiped the goofy grin from her face and gave a perfunctory nod, instead. “Exactly. You’re so—” She fumbled for words for a moment. Handsome? Sexy? Lickable? “Observant,” she finished lamely.
“Thanks.” He said it slowly, drawing out the word into a couple of syllables while giving her a strange look, but he didn’t say anything else after that, just turned and walked out of his office. With him gone, the air seemed suddenly too thin, as though some vitally important element had just been sucked out of it.
Had he noticed that, too? The way she drank him in so deeply? He saw so much…
“It’s just coffee,” she whispered to herself, before sighing and turning back to focus on her work.
***
She sat back in the chair and looked at Andrew. It was just past one o’clock, and except for an hour while he’d had a conference call, they had been talking back and forth about the financial history of Harbor all day. Even when he had gotten on the call, he’d insisted that she stay, and they had communicated with a series of small touches. Her fingers ghosting over his as she pointed out an incorrect entry, his hand on her shoulder to get her attention, foreheads furrowing, mouths smiling…
She could draw him in her sleep now. Could trace the outline of the hard muscles in his forearms in her dreams. She was drowning in him. Working side by side had been a terrible, awful mistake. Because while she was nearly melting into a puddle under the table, he was completely unaffected. Business as usual, that’s what it was for him, while that black dress kept calling to her from inside the closet.
It had taken longer than usual for her to work through the statements from the fund. Not just because her mind was wandering all over thoughts of Andrew and how it would feel to wear that gorgeous gown tonight. What she was seeing in the numbers was getting more and more confusing, even without those distractions.
“What is it?” He rose from his chair and came to stand right next to her, leaning down to look at the computer.
Oh, my. The way he was standing, her shoulder was nearly brushing his thigh. If she leaned just slightly to the left, she would feel those hard flanks against her arm …
“Meredith?”
She shook off her thoughts and tore her eyes away from his legs, turning her attention back to the screen, scrolling down in the report. “See here? Until four months ago, there was actually more than the necessary amount in the fund. But between that period and the next, the balance drops by half a million dollars and the line item only says, ‘Fund transfer to account 6623-841.’ But at the same time, the Christmas Bonus Fund line item disappears from the Harbor Technologies monthly portfolio report, which is why it didn’t even occur to me that something was wrong until I received the fund statement yesterday. And I can’t find this account number in any of the financial tracking systems.”