briefcase.”
“Wrong. You left it. I returned it.”
“And you stole my ideas!”
“I think our working together could be fun.”
“You have absolutely no interest in the children’s after-school day-care education fund.”
“Maybe I want to become…passionate about the same things you are.”
“All you want is to be director of market research.”
“Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black to me, darlin’?”
“I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve ever gotten. But you…you just get by on your contacts, money, your fancy car, good looks and good-old-boy network. Schmoozing around the ol’ watercooler. Telling dirty jokes.”
“Last time I looked, Andrea isn’t a good old boy. She seems to think highly of me.”
“Because she’s got a crush on you.”
“If she does, is that my fault?”
“You’re using it.”
“Relax. Spending more time together on this project could be fun…if you’d let it be.”
“This is my career. I work hard. All you do is joke.”
“I appreciate all you do. I admire you. That’s why I’m so interested in getting to know you better,” he insisted.
“Sorry, I don’t trust your motives. And if you dare joke about me or what happened in your car this morning to your watercooler pals…If they start coming on to me…” She choked at the awful thought and was unable to go on. His handsome face blurred. Oh, God, in another second she would be crying.
She got up to run, but he was faster. He grabbed her and pushed her up against the wall. She twisted her face away from his.
His grip eased. “Hey, I don’t want to hurt you.” His deep voice was soft. So soft, her knees went weak. “And I damn sure don’t want other men coming on to you.”
Very gently he cupped her chin and forced her to look at him just as she felt a single mortifying tear slide down her cheek. She wiped it away with the back of her fist and took a deep breath and glared at him.
A muscle tightened in his jawline. Then he drew a deep breath of his own, and he swallowed.
“Let me go,” she said.
“All right. But it’s not going to be that easy.”
When his hands fell away, she opened the door and ran. The day got worse. During her PowerPoint presentation about corporate branding, the computer she was using went down. When she couldn’t get it to work, she grew flustered. Naturally, Matt seized the day. After he jimmied a couple of wires, the computer hummed to life. By the time she was able to start over, she felt shy and unsure because she was running out of time. She talked too fast, lost her focus and forgot to make her most important points. If only Matt hadn’t been there, leaning forward, listening to her every word as if he was spellbound. The jerk even complimented her speech and asked several intelligent questions that made her look great afterward.
Then it was his turn. A natural when it came to sports or performances of any kind, he got up and blew everybody away with his smooth presentation. He stared at her the whole time, smiling after every point he made. When everybody clapped and congratulated him, Jane sat in her corner and chewed moodily on her pencil until the lead snapped and she tossed it down.
When their colleagues filed out of the conference room, Matt came over to her. No doubt to gloat because he was sure she’d lost and he’d landed the director of market research position.
“You didn’t say anything. Well?”
“Well what?”
“What’d you think of my presentation?”
She jabbed her pencil into the knot of hair at her nape. “You’ve been a natural-born ham ever since elementary school.”
“Surely you don’t still hold my clumsy efforts in the school talent shows against me.”
“You blew everybody away even back then, and you know it.”
“Even you?” he asked.
She felt her face heat. She was sure she was blushing, which was even better for his ego than actually telling him he’d been terrific.
“Did anybody ever tell you, you’re way too conceited, Harper?”
“Just you.”
She got up and began gathering her books and reports noisily.
“Darlin’, are you going to hate me forever?”
“I—I don’t hate you.”
“Well, that’s a start.”
“Just leave me alone. Okay?”
“What if it’s not okay?”
“Don’t be too sure you’ve got the promotion, Harper. Not until it’s announced.”
When she walked toward the door, he stepped in front of her. “Is that all you care about? This morning I thought that maybe…” When he swallowed, she thought he looked human, too human; hurt even, and it bothered her. A lot.
She swallowed, too. “Don’t think about this morning. And don’t brag to anybody about that kiss either.”
“Kisses. Plural. And I think we need a repeat.”
“Don’t even think about it, Harper.”
He grabbed her. “What if I can’t stop thinking about it, darlin’, any more than you can?”
Slowly he removed her glasses. When his mouth touched hers, she melted into his big body. Then it was all over but the kissing—long passionate, drowning kisses, which didn’t stop until she was wet and feverish, and he was shaking violently.
When he finally let her come up for air, her legs were wobbly, and she was reeling. Somehow she managed to say in a chilly tone, “This has got to stop, Harper.”
“You could have fooled me.”
He calmly picked up her glasses and handed them to her.
She shoved them onto the bridge of her nose. Then she grabbed her purse and briefcase and walked toward the door. She didn’t look back.
She didn’t dare look back.
Chapter 6
Wednesday evening
Jane seethed as she swallowed a nervous breath against the panic that threatened to
