hand-in-glove with Zach.
“Quit stalling. Have you had wild monkey sex yet? Have you seen him without his shirt?”
Audrey rolled her eyes. “You’re obsessed with sex, you know that?”
Although it was very telling that the thought of Zach sans shirt made her heart rate go a little crazy.
“Hello? Trying to get pregnant over here. Sex is my life. Not wild monkey sex, though, sadly. We have slightly dutiful procreational sex. Still fun, but not very spontaneous. I think it’s all the mucous checking.”
“What on earth—” Audrey caught herself and held up a hand. “Actually, you know what? I don’t want to know.”
“I’ll spare you. I’d hate for there to be no surprises for you if you ever decide to have children.”
“Thank you. You’re very generous.”
“So, I’m thinking eight inches, solid girth...?”
“Jesus, Megan.” This time Audrey glanced over her shoulder, even though she was pretty sure no one else from work was currently patronizing the food court at the local shopping mall.
“What?” Megan asked, a devilish glint in her eye.
“I don’t want to think about Zach’s...girth, okay? We’re working together.”
Not that she hadn’t given some consideration to the more intimate aspects of his body over the past week, most notably when she’d been drifting back to sleep at four o’clock Sunday morning, picturing Zach doing the same thing on the other side of town. She was only human, and he was the sexiest man she’d ever spent so much time with.
Hands down.
All he had to do was walk into the room these days and she could feel her body warming. She didn’t even want to imagine what he could do if he put his mind to it.
Okay, she did. But she wasn’t going to, because she loved her job, and she wanted to get ahead, and sleeping with Zach was the best way she could think of to destroy both those things.
She would dearly love to discuss all of the above with Megan, however, because that was what they did best. It would be so good to get her friend’s perspective. But Megan would make a big deal out it, along with encouraging all sorts of reckless fantasies and behavior, and Audrey so did not need that kind of encouragement right now.
It was bad enough dealing with her own inappropriate thoughts and feelings.
Megan sighed heavily. “I knew it. You’re wasting this golden opportunity by squabbling with him, aren’t you?”
“No.”
Not since the night he’d forced her to see him as he really was. Nope, since then they’d been getting on just fine. Chatting in the staff room. Popping into each other’s offices to pass on new pieces of information they’d dug up. Emailing each other in the dead of night and having inappropriate, unprofessional conversations.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
Audrey adopted a more serious expression. “Is that better?”
“You’d tell me, wouldn’t you, if you and Zach were doing the dirty?” Megan asked beseechingly.
Audrey suspected her friend was only half kidding.
“You’ll be the first to know. Outside of Zach, of course.”
“Cross your heart and hope to die?”
“Stick a needle in my eye,” Audrey promised.
It wasn’t as though it was ever going to be an issue, after all. She might be sexually frustrated, but she wasn’t an idiot.
“Okay, fine.” Megan pointed to the half a sandwich still left on Audrey’s plate. “Are you going to eat that?”
“It’s all yours.”
“Thank you. That sub barely touched the sides. I think I’m having a growth spurt.”
Audrey managed to change the subject then, but Megan’s words popped into her mind as she hit the mall afterward to shop for a present for her sister.
The truth was, she was finding it incredibly difficult to believe that she had ever not liked Zach. He was funny. He was cheeky. He said amazingly clever things that made her brain hurt trying to keep up. And he was also one hundred percent male.
Hot, firm, hard male.
Yesterday, they’d shared a pizza and worked into the night as they pasted their separate sections of the analysis into one coherent report and massaged it into shape. At some point he’d loosened his tie and she’d kicked off her shoes. She’d been tired after days of doing her normal job as well as working every spare minute on the project, but Zach had made it fun.
Be honest. He made it more than fun.
Okay, he’d made it exciting. Sitting in the same room with him when the rest of the building was dark and silent had created a special sort of intimacy. They’d laughed and told jokes in between bouts of intense productivity. And they were doing it all over again tonight.
There was no denying the frisson of excitement that fizzed through her belly at the thought. There was also no denying that she’d dressed with particular care this morning, choosing a black pencil skirt and fitted latte-colored silk blouse that made her feel like a heroine in a forties movie. And yes, she’d even spritzed on perfume, something she didn’t usually bother with for the office.
“He’s your coworker,” she murmured to herself, in case that rather important fact had slipped her mind.
“Excuse me, ma’am? Can I help you?”
Audrey lifted her gaze from the scarf display she’d been eyeing and realized that the sales assistant had overheard her talking to herself. Such a good look.
“I’m just browsing, thanks,” she said with a sheepish smile.
“For yourself or are you looking for a gift?” the young woman asked.
“It’s a gift, for my sister. Her thirtieth, actually.”
“Something special, then? Were you thinking a scarf? We have some lovely French silk scarves....”
Audrey blinked at the display. She had no idea, really, why she’d stopped in front of it.
“I was thinking maybe a watch, actually. Or a piece of jewelry.”
“Lovely. Jeannie is over in the watch department. She’ll be sure to help you out,” the saleswoman said, already drifting away to serve another customer.
Audrey made her way to the shiny glass display cabinets in the jewelry department, finally locating the watches. She did a slow circuit of the cabinets, running her eye over the range, hoping something would jump out at her as being perfect for Leah.
Her gaze moved
