we might get a call from Russell tonight if things with his unit go as planned. I don’t want to miss that. I asked Mum and Dad if they’d like to come over, speak with him and then watch you-know-who while I finish the call. The deployments are hard and he doesn’t have his parents around, but Mum and Dad were too busy.’
Something in Rick’s face seemed to tighten with … sadness? Some kind of regret for his sister? A measure of long-standing anger? ‘What time? Do you want me to phone conference in from the office?’
‘No, that’s okay.’ Faith lifted her daughter higher into her arms. ‘Julia and I will be fine on our own but I appreciate the offer.’
They left after that and Marissa faced the company’s boss where he stood in the water. No tattoo on the right biceps. Just muscles that seemed to invite the stroke of questing fingers. Marissa wanted to stay annoyed at him for concealing the truth about Julia from her. Instead, she could only see his kindness to his sister and niece, meshed with the appeal of a great deal of male sensuality.
Somehow this Rick was even deeper and more difficult to try to ignore. ‘Your niece and sister seem lovely. It’s … er … it’s kind of you to give the little girl swimming lessons.’
‘I’m a skilled diver and for some reason Julia feels safer in the water with a man.’ His closed expression warned her off the topic, yet families were all about being there for each other, right?
Why would he mind her knowing he’d been there for his sister and niece?
Before she could consider possible answers, he climbed from the pool. In the brief time it took him to walk to the nearby lounger, snatch up a towel and wrap it around his hips, her concentration fled completely.
‘I always try to swim here every day anyway.’ His gaze swept, heavy-lidded and resistantly aware, over her. ‘For the exercise.’
‘You look very fit. Exceptionally fit, really. Quite muscularly fit.’ Heat washed over her from her toes to the top of her head as she acknowledged that saying so might not have been particularly prudent. And why was he looking at her that way? He was the half-naked one.
Board shorts and a towel. The man is perfectly adequately covered. This was quite true. The problem was that the board shorts had clung, hadn’t they? And the towel still left a lot of skin on display. His waist was trim and his shoulders were stunning.
‘Your hair wasn’t wet yesterday.’ The blurted words were an accusation, as though, if his hair had been wet and she’d worked out he’d been swimming, she would have felt more prepared for the sight of him this way. ‘And you didn’t smell like chlorine. I have a really good nose for that sort of thing.’
‘Today’s the first day Julia’s allowed me to put my head under the water, and I shower afterwards.’ His hair fell in a dripping mass over one side of his forehead and was pushed back from the other.
Spiked lashes blinked away the droplets of water that clung to them. ‘I want her to like swimming so I have to accommodate her fears. With her father away, she needs someone …’
‘I … er … it must be difficult for your sister, having a husband in the armed forces and unable to do the daddy things at times.’ Did the words even make sense? How could she concentrate, with every ounce of her so aware of the sight of him this way?
Not only that, but her hormones insisted on pointing out that Rick had seemed quite appealing indeed in the daddy role. Well, uncle, but it was the same general kind of thing.
Not really.
Yes, really.
She had to get over this idea of wanting a baby!
She had not thought that in association with Rick, anyway. She’d merely had a brief moment of considering how, in a bygone time, as in at the dawn of time, women may have reacted to strong men by wanting to … um … mate with them.
Which Marissa did not want to do—at all, whatsoever—with her boss.
It seemed expedient to get out of here. But she couldn’t quite recall how to bring that about. ‘Um … well …’
‘Yes?’ Rick’s gaze locked with Marissa’s. He felt worked up and overwrought for no reason he could explain. Other than to name the reason ‘Marissa’ or, at the least, ‘his reaction to Marissa’. That was something he didn’t want to do.
Her fingers tightened around the papers in her hands. ‘The fax.’
‘Let me see what it says.’ He took the pages from her, careful not to touch her. Bent his head to read while she finally looked everywhere but at him.
The knowledge of that belated restraint absurdly made him want her all the more. ‘I’ll need the files on this from the Civil Engineering department. Go straight there, will you? See if you can catch someone before they close for the day but tell him or her they don’t need to hang around. This is something I’ll have to address myself.’
‘I’ll go right now.’ With relief evident in every line of her body and expression on her face, Marissa took the fax, wheeled about and escaped with it.
Rick watched her go. She seemed more than glad to get away from him now. Which was, of course, exactly as he wanted things to be …
CHAPTER SIX
From: Englishcrumpet
Just let Tony down gently.
From: Sanfrandani
Better to tell the man so he knows where he stands.
From: Kangagirl
I know you’re both right. I don’t want to hurt his feelings, that’s all. Tony is a really nice guy. Maybe I shouldn’t have met with him twice so close together. We had lunch the day after I found my boss giving his niece a swimming lesson on the top floor of our work building, and then we had dinner tonight. If I’d given myself more time between …
From: Englishcrumpet
Do you really think seeing Tony this Saturday or next would have made any difference? What exactly did you say was wrong with him, anyway?
From: Sanfrandani
No spark, wasn’t it?
From: Kangagirl
Yes, and that’s enough about me and my evening. Tell me about your dating efforts.
‘This is a very tall building.’ The words passed through Marissa’s lips despite herself as they travelled up the outside of the building-in-progress in a cage lift.
It was Monday morning. She’d survived the disappointment of yet again finding ‘no spark’ during that second date with Tony, had also survived an entire week of working for Rick Morgan.
Had survived by the skin of her self-control, actually, and, really scarily tall buildings should be the least of her concerns.
For the real challenge, try genuinely not noticing the boss who’d taken her to the scary tall building
