Caught on Camera with the CEO
Caught on Camera with the CEO
Natalie Anderson
TO: All staff – Is this the hottest kiss you’ve ever seen?Finally our playboy boss plays around at work! Watch this steamy clip of Alex Carlisle getting down and dirty in the lift with the brand-new temp…Heart-throb Alex has recently been spotted prowling the office floor – is brunette bombshell Dani Russo the reason? From this sizzling encounter, we think so! Now Dani’s lost her job, and the office grapevine says our bad-boy boss has moved her into his bachelor pad and found her a job – but is an X-rated action replay on the cards?!Watch this space… Hot Under the Collar Naughty nights with the boss…
Alex opened up the e-mail and grimaced—a video.
He clicked on the ‘play’ button and waited a moment for it to load. Turned the speaker up a touch on his computer and frowned at the poor quality of the picture on screen. It was black and white. And then he recognised what that small space was—an elevator. And then someone walked into it. And, as if he was trapped in it again, freefalling, his stomach dropped.
Hell
He leaned closer to the screen as she waited in the lift. Her face was clear in the frame, and now so was his as he stood side on, until he turned and faced her. Their mouths were moving, but the security camera recorded images, not sound. Even so, he knew exactly what was being said. He’d replayed that too brief exchange a million times every sleepless night since.
Alex watched, seeing now what he’d felt so gloriously at the time. His back was to the camera but you could see her face as he kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck. Her eyes were closed. Her hands caressed his shoulders, his hair. Passionate. Beautiful. And then came the moment her legs parted, wrapped around his waist, and his body reacted now as it had then. Instantly hardening, instantly burning, insisting on getting closer.
And then the lift moved. It had been over far too quickly.
Praise for Natalie Anderson:
‘Natalie Anderson is one of the most exciting voices in steamy romantic fiction writing today. Sassy, witty and emotional, her Modern Heat™ are in a class of their own…An extraordinary new talent who can blend passion, drama, humour and emotion in one unforgettable read!’
—Cataromance
‘MISTRESS UNDER CONTRACT is a fantastic contemporary romance full of intense emotions, funny moments, blazing sexual tension and moving romance; don’t miss it!’
—The Pink Heart Society
‘Natalie Anderson’s HIS MISTRESS BY ARRANGEMENT is a charming romance of childhood friends reconnecting. It’s both fun and flirty, and conveys the wonderful feeling of finding someone you can truly be yourself with.’
—RT Book Reviews
This is the first book in Natalie Anderson’s
exciting new duet:
HOT UNDER THE COLLAR.
Don’t miss
UNBUTTONED BY HER MAVERICK BOSS,
out next month!
Caught on Camera with the CEO
by
Natalie Anderson
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Possibly the only librarian who got told off herself for talking too much, Natalie Anderson decided writing books might be more fun than shelving them—and, boy, is it that! Especially writing romance—it’s the realisation of a lifetime dream kick-started by many an afternoon spent devouring Grandma’s Mills & Boon®…
She lives in New Zealand, with her husband and four gorgeous-but-exhausting children. Swing by her website any time—she’d love to hear from you: www.natalie-anderson.com
Recent titles by the same author:
TO LOVE, HONOUR AND DISOBEY
HOT BOSS, BOARDROOM MISTRESS
BETWEEN THE ITALIAN’S SHEETS
PLEASURED IN THE PLAYBOY’S PENTHOUSE
For the best apple pie and chocolate chip biscuit baker in the world: Aunty Margaret.
No one makes ‘em like you do. And no one laughs as infectiously as you either.
Thank you for all your support.
CHAPTER ONE
‘YOU’LL have that for me by three? Fantastic.’
Dani forced her body to freeze at the sound of that voice.
‘No problem.’
Dani knew the breathless assistant would have it for him by two at the latest—just as she would if he’d asked her.
Alex Carlisle, CEO of Carlisle Finance Corporation, on his rounds again—gliding through the open-plan area and bewitching his staff so they performed above and beyond. She wondered if he even knew the effect he had on his legions of adoring employees.
And Dani was the latest. Not looking was impossible. Her lashes lifted.
Truthfully she was probably the only one whose work was suffering because of him. She found him so distracting she wasn’t getting half as much done as she should. Half of her wished he’d go away so her insides wouldn’t be so pummelled, but all of her wanted him to stay.
He was so good to look at, she’d been watching him all week. She’d seen how he abandoned his lavish office suite at the top of the building and came to talk with his worker ants—all of whom then frantically tapped faster at keyboards to get the work done for him. Charismatic, confident, Alex Carlisle got everything he wanted, every time. And if the water-cooler gossip she’d got from one of the secretaries was anything to go by, women were a big part of what he wanted—beautiful, highflying, high-society women. He played a lot, apparently. And all his female employees wished like crazy he’d play with them.
Dani totally understood why they did, but she wasn’t going to admit she was floored by him too. So predictable. Anyway she couldn’t afford to fixate like this. She checked the time. Only a few minutes and she could go to lunch. She’d never clock-watched before, usually enjoyed her work so the hours flew, but she had a mission to fulfil. Besides, something about this place made her antsy. OK, it was him. She was waiting, always waiting for him to appear. Now he had, she couldn’t wait to bust a move, so restless it was as if she had creepycrawlies infesting every inch of her clothing.
Unable to resist the compelling force of him, she lifted her head and looked again. She was such an idiot. It was as if she’d been tossed into a stormy kind of teen crush—she’d never experienced one in her youth, but it seemed there was a time for everything. She only had to hear his voice for her heart to thunder and the adrenalin to flood her system, so sitting still was no longer possible.
Concentrate, you fool.
The excitement was a waste of energy anyway. The water-cooler woman had also informed her that, while the man might play fast and loose in his own social set, he never ever fooled around at work. Big shame. She watched as he stood talking with her supervisor. He was tall; his tailored trousers seemed to go on forever.
Yeah, Dani, all the way to the floor.
But her self-mockery didn’t stop her looking. He’d shed his jacket so he wore just the pale blue shirt, sleeves rolled partially up his arms—the ultimate ad for corporate wear. He turned. Caught her look on the full. And then held it prisoner.
Oh. Wow.
All but his face blurred. The low noise of the office became a distant hum. The sudden silence was nice and her antsy body stopped still, bathed in his gaze. Dani’s favourite colour was green. And Alex Carlisle’s eyes were very, very green.
He moved, one small step. Was he coming over? To talk to her?
Someone called his name. He turned away, his smile flashing back on. And it was gone—the stillness, the warmth, the quiet. All disappeared the instant she blinked.
Good grief, what was she doing sitting there like a Muppet? Unable to move or speak or even breathe? She shook her head and released the air held too long in her straining lungs.
Ridiculous.
But how glad was she that he hadn’t come over? Because when he’d looked at her she’d been unable to think of anything. Not a thing. All power had gone from her brain to somewhere else entirely—and was warming her up. She couldn’t see how any of them got any work done when he was on the floor.
OK, so it was two minutes ‘til lunch. But she’d arrived early, as she always did, and had already promised to work late tonight, so she needn’t feel guilty about stepping out now. Because she desperately needed to get outside and gasp in some fresh air.
She walked down the length of the floor to the lift, keeping well to the side of the room. She was short enough not to be noticed and she was only the temp, after all. She moved fast. Usually she took the stairs but he was near the stairs and, as much as she was drawn to him, her instinct told her equally loudly to stay well away. And this instinct was just strong enough to beat the one that made her avoid small, confined spaces. She could do it. Sure she could.
But when she got to the lift and pressed the button, her nerves sharpened. She counted to ten as she waited, trying to slow her breathing to match it with her mental chanting. It was only a lift. People went up and down them millions of times a day without accident. People didn’t get trapped in them.
Trapped. Her scalp prickled as if she were under one of those huge cover-your-whole-head driers at the hairdresser—and it was on too hot and she couldn’t get it off. She didn’t want to be trapped.
She redirected her thoughts. Forced the fear to the back and focused on a plan. If she ate on the run, she’d have time to go to the public library and be able to check the message boards on the Internet. The search was all that mattered.
The lift chimed and she made herself move into it, closing her eyes as the doors slid together. It would be over in a whirl. Such fears were childish.
But there was a noise. She opened her eyes again in time to see the doors sliding back again. An arm was stretching out between them—making them automatically reopen. And stay open.
‘I’ll be back shortly.’ The arm held firm. ‘Email the guest list through to Lorenzo, as well, will you? And make sure the catering staff have the right number of vegetarians this time. We don’t want to upset anyone again. Oh, and can you make sure Cara gets the message about Saturday?’
Jeez, the lift could have been down and back up again in that time—well, almost. At last, the rest of him stepped in.
He smiled at her. ‘Sorry about that.’
Was he really? Or was that just his polite upbringing talking, hiding the real ramifications of his childhood—that he had the right to make others wait, that his time was more important than hers? Dani only had an hour—unpaid and all—and she had to make the most of it. But that thought and every other disappeared as the doors finally slid shut.
Dani stepped right back, standing stiffly against the far wall of the lift. Would the fear never leave her?
He leant his back against the side wall so he was at right angles to her. Not even covertly looking at her. No, his gaze was open, intense and relentless.
She kept her eyes fixed on the doors, trying to stop the sensation that they were closing in on her. At least the lifts in this building were science-fiction fast—once they were allowed to get started. But the sense of airlessness closed in too.
He pressed the button again and finally it began its swift descent.
Dani gritted her teeth, sweat sliding down her back.
‘Are you OK?’
Dani couldn’t answer. Too busy holding her breath. Five, four, three…
There was a groaning sound—a metallic moan that, although slow, was definitely getting louder. Dani’s muscles flexed. The lift stopped, dropped another foot and then stopped again. Dani’s stomach just kept on falling.
She looked at the lights—no floor indicated. The doors half opened and she had a glimpse of metal and concrete. Between floors. She was damn glad when the doors closed again.
There was a second of complete silence.
‘I’m sure it won’t be long.’
‘I’m not worried,’ she lied, flicking a glance his way and looking straight back at the doors again when she registered he had a smile on. His smiles weren’t good for her blood pressure. Nor was being stuck in a very small space. Adrenalin rippled through her muscles but the nausea rose faster. She inhaled through her nose, aware of every inch of her body. Surely those few years of physical training would stand her in good stead. She could overcome fear. She could breathe.
He’d lifted away from the wall. ‘No, really, it won’t be long.’
Sure. No matter how stiff she tried to stay, her limbs insisted on shaking. Her heart was shaking too, the beats falling over themselves, and she couldn’t breathe fast enough. She couldn’t get any oxygen in.
‘We never have trouble with these lifts.’
Oh, yeah? Well, they were now. ‘You probably confused it by making it wait so long with its doors open,’ she said. The spark of anger pushed the bile back down.
‘It’s a machine. Machines don’t get confused. Only people do that.’
She was confused now—her body wanting to run, her brain wanting to shut down altogether, her stomach wanting to hurl its contents.
‘You’re new here,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen you in the office.’
Distraction. Excellent. ‘Yes,’ she said, barely controlling the wobble in her voice. And after another stumbling beat she looked from the doors to him.
His eyes were very wide and very green and filled with a painfully gentle concern. He took a step towards her. ‘My name is—’
‘I know who you are,’ she cut him off. She couldn’t think enough for conversation.
‘You do?’ His eyes narrowed and his smile twisted, bitterness thinning his sensual lips. ‘Then you’re one up on me.’ He took the last step closing the gap between them. ‘I have no idea who I am.’
The bitterness surprised her, blasted the smothering fog from her head. She looked closer at him. ‘You’re Alex. And you’re stuck in a l-lift.’
She glanced at the walls; they were nearing her again. The fear crept back up. She gulped in air. Were they running out of oxygen already? And had she just whimpered?
‘There’s no need to be afraid.’
Wasn’t there? Didn’t she know exactly how frightening it was to be stuck in a small place for too long?
‘Hey.’ He put his hands on her shoulders. ‘It’s going to be fine.’
At his touch she looked back into his face. Green eyes gazed at her, deepened by the dark lashes that framed them. Everything else in the world receded again. Yes, she’d look at him, focus on him, forget everything…but green eyes. The colour swirled, the black centre spread. His gaze flickered, dropped to her mouth. Made her realise it was dry. She touched her tongue to the corner of it and then she found she was looking at his. It was extraordinarily fine, with lips that were currently curved up in a smile.
‘You OK?’
She couldn’t take her eyes off him. She couldn’t answer.
‘Sweetheart?’
Funny how just one word, said in just the right way, could change everything.
She gazed at him, feeling that restlessness inside roar, and her chin lifted.
His hands moved, dropping to circle round her waist.
‘It’s going to be just fine,’ he said. And then slowly, so slowly, giving her all the time to turn away, he lowered his head.
But she didn’t turn.
His lips were warm, firm but not forceful, not invasive, just gentle. He lifted his head a millimetre and his green eyes searched hers. ‘See?’
Still she said nothing, but the smallest of sighs escaped as she lifted her chin back up to him.
Those strong hands at her waist then lifted her right off her feet. Automatically she put out her own hands—not to punch, but to steady. Her fingers connected with cotton and curled around the hard muscles. The heat of him burned through the shirt. She spread her fingers wider—wow, he was broad. All she could hear was her breathing—too short, too fast.
Their gazes remained locked all the while he lifted her, sliding her up against the back wall of the lift until her eyes were almost level with his. Her heart thundered while her toes stretched down, vainly searching for something solid—like the floor.
This time when he kissed her he stayed, his lips moving over hers slowly teasing. Oh. Her eyes closed as again and again his mouth caressed hers, making her brain go so mushy. And then Dani had to move: softening, opening, relaxing yet seeking at the same time—more. And he gave it, his tongue sweeping into her mouth and curling with hers. It was like feeling all her favourite things at once—the heat of a summer’s day, the freshness of sea breeze and the sensation of diving into the deepest warm water. Only it was better. It was all-in-one. And it was real.
Her hands slid over his arms, her fingertips exploring his strength and heat, the breadth of his back. She lifted a hand, ran it through his hair. Short, dark, gorgeously thick. She moved, resting her palm on the back of his neck—so warm. Both hands lifted to hold his face close and the kisses changed again—deeper, more hungry, fevered. Now every inch of her wanted every inch of him hard up against her. She wanted to feel his body above her, beneath her—all around. But she couldn’t tear her mouth from his. She didn’t care about the tightness of his hands bruising her waist. She just didn’t want the soaring feeling to end. It was as if a veil had been lifted to reveal a bottomless need she hadn’t known she had. To be close.
And his need, too, seemed as strong. His kisses on her face and neck were fast, passionate, until their lips connected again and they could plumb the depths of each other in a long, long carnal kiss.
He pulled her away from the wall, close against his body. One hand quickly moving beneath her bottom to take her weight so she didn’t fall from his hold. She responded automatically, hooking her legs around his waist. Gasping at how good it felt to have his body between hers. He was big, strong and fantastically hard. Basic instinct screamed at her now. Bursting with need for bare skin, she pressed her mouth harder against his, her fingers fighting with his shirt.
But then she felt him stagger. He pushed her, lifting her away and down until her feet hit the ground. But then the ground itself bumped up and down.
Oh, no, that was right. They were in a lift. Dani tore her gaze away from him. Looked beyond to the lights, to the door. The lift had finally moved again, descended. And now those doors were opening.
‘I—’
He didn’t get a chance to say whatever it was he was going to say. There were people—bankers, a couple of technicians. All chorusing his name.
‘Alex!’
Dani knew when to make the most of an opportunity. Her legs might be short but she could move them quickly. And, breathless though she was, she had a huge hit of adrenalin to see her through. Energy was an inferno inside her roaring for release. Her high heels clipped on the polished floor. As she exited through the big glass door she glanced back. He was still caught talking to the group. Frowning this time, no smile. And he glanced up frequently, tracking her, she knew. Sparkling light tumbled from his eyes towards her. She walked faster. Pulled her mobile from the bag that miraculously was still slung over her shoulder. She’d phone the agency. Find another job. Snogging the boss was so not allowed. But it wasn’t her flouting of that convention that made her move so fast. It was the fear of that bottomless need he’d uncovered. And the truth that she was desperately trying to ignore: it hadn’t been a snog, it had been heaven.
Alex lifted the cup and sipped—yick. He might be sprawled in a big chair in the first-class club but the coffee was still thin, airport dross. He glanced at his laptop on the table beside him. The screen saver had been dancing for a good twenty minutes now—hiding the report he should have finished already. But focus had been impossible when distraction had such curves. He should be working. And if he wasn’t working he should be worrying about Patrick’s bombshell last week and the horrendous ramifications of those test results. He should be dealing with it.
Instead he was indulging in a wicked fantasy and debating how he was going to turn it into reality. There simply had to be more—wrong though it was. But those minutes in the elevator with that petite temp had been magic, and not anywhere near enough. Since when did he start kissing random women in elevators? Especially an employee? Just because she’d been nervous?
Well, it had seemed like a good way of distracting her at the time. And himself. But that irresistible distraction had turned searingly, mind-blowingly incredible—how was he going to ensure he got more?
His mobile chimed. Lorenzo. Alex answered promptly. ‘Hey.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Sydney Airport.’
‘Man, you’re hardly ever home these days.’
Alex sighed. ‘I know. Just waiting for the flight back.’
He’d arranged this business trip after Patrick had called out of the blue. After years of only occasional correspondence, he’d rung to tell him the ‘truth’—thirty years too late. At first Alex hadn’t believed him, had insisted on the tests. It had only taken twenty-four hours. After seeing it in black-and-white he’d had to get away. He could have done the deal with conference calls, but he’d used it to avoid everyone for a few days. But now the job was done and he was aching to get back to Auckland. He had unfinished business to tend to and it wasn’t the paternity nightmare.
‘There’s something you’ve got to see.’
Alex sat up, registering the thread of tension in Lorenzo’s usually dry-humoured tones. Instinctively he pressed the phone closer to his ear to catch the nuances better. ‘What is it?’
‘You need to see it. I’ve sent you the link. You should have it now.’
He reached out and tapped a couple of buttons on the laptop, Lorenzo’s email opened up and he grimaced—a YouTube video. ‘Its not some stupid joke, is it?’
‘I don’t think so.’ For once Lorenzo actually sounded unsure.
‘Not porn?’ He might be the boss, but the ‘inappropriate use of office computers’ clause applied to him too.
‘Uh, well, I don’t think so.’ There was a laugh now. ‘Just watch it, Alex.’
He read the title ‘Get Stuck, Get Snogged—is this the hottest kiss ever?’ and groaned. ‘Lorenzo, it is porn.’
‘Just watch it.’
He clicked on the play button and waited a moment for it to load. Turned the speaker up a touch on his computer and frowned at the poor quality of the picture on screen. It was black-and-white. And then he recognised what that small space was—an elevator. And then someone walked into it. And as if he was were trapped in it again, freefalling, his stomach dropped.
Hell.
That awful music hadn’t been playing. Muzak didn’t play in the lifts at all; no point when they whisked you up and down the many stories so fast—or at least they did if they weren’t faulty and hadn’t stopped between floors.
When that had happened, five days ago, it had been silent, save her breathing, which—despite her efforts to control it—had spiked. So whoever had lifted this footage had added a cheesy soundtrack—rich, melted chocolate, ‘in the mood’ kind of music. It didn’t fit.
He leant closer to the screen as she waited in the lift. Her face was clear in the frame, and now so was his as he stood side on, until he turned and faced her. She didn’t look nervous in this, but up close she’d been shaking like a leaf. Their mouths were moving, but the security camera recorded images, not sound. Even so, he knew exactly what was being said. He’d replayed that too-brief exchange a million times every sleepless night since.
And he knew her face too well. He’d been prowling the floor more than usual just to get a glimpse after spotting her in the open-plan office on Monday. Her glossy black bob with the too-long fringe had caught his eye, and then her oh-so-professional man-style shirts hinted at the most luscious curves.The last thing he should be doing was chasing skirt—walking through the office a zillion times a day on the lamest of excuses. But while waiting on those blood results he’d been only too happy to be distracted. For five minutes he hadn’t wanted to think at all. So he hadn’t. And the moment he’d touched her, all remaining rational thought had fled. Her shape was more wicked than he’d suspected—slim, soft, devastatingly curvaceous. It hadn’t taken much effort at all to lift her against the back wall of the elevator, raising her high enough so her eyes were almost level with his. Beautiful big brown eyes burnished with a caramel gold—and filled with a challenge he’d been utterly unable to resist. He’d been thinking about what she’d feel like in his arms—dreaming of her curves spilling into his hands. Damn it, he was still dreaming of that.
Alex blinked, came out of the haze and watched, seeing now what he’d felt so gloriously at the time. His back was to the camera but you could see her face as he kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck. Her eyes were closed, her hands caressed his shoulders, his hair. Passionate. Beautiful. And then came the moment, her legs parted, wrapped around his waist and his body reacted now as it had then. Instantly hardening, instantly burning, insisting on getting closer.
And then the bloody lift moved. It had been over far too quickly.
‘You’re watching it again, aren’t you?’
Alex flinched. Hell, he’d forgotten Lorenzo was still on the phone. He’d forgotten he was sitting in an airport lounge. Fortunately it was a midweek red-eye flight and the other patrons were too busy slurping the rotten coffee to pay any attention to him.
‘It looks pretty good,’ Lorenzo added blandly. ‘You’re getting some star ratings.’
Alex scrolled down, read the first few comments and felt his face fire up like some mortified teen caught making out with his first girlfriend—by his grandma.
‘Who is she?’ Lorenzo might sound indifferent, but Alex knew his friend was as agog as he got.
‘I don’t know.’
‘What do you mean you don’t know?’
‘She’s a temp. Started last week. I don’t know her name.’
Lorenzo’s chuckle didn’t help. ‘Well, you better find out—this thing is doing the rounds of every inbox in the office.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Wish I was, but I’ve been sent it three times already this morning—and once from a colleague in Hong Kong.’
Anger surged into Alex’s veins. He didn’t need this and she didn’t deserve it. It had been a whim—a crazy, lusty whim and one right on the edge of his code. Alex Carlisle never seduced temps or coworkers—too messy. Especially given he was the boss. But the irresistible force of her had felled him. And was still affecting him—wasn’t that why he was sitting here now doing nothing? Despite having been up for hours he hadn’t achieved a thing because he was too busy plotting how he could get close to her again as soon as he got back to Auckland. How did he do it without breaking his own rules?
‘What would your old man say?’ Lorenzo laughed again. ‘Screwing around in the office, Alex, bad you.’
Alex iced over and pressed pause on the playback. He hadn’t told Lorenzo what he’d found out. It was proved—the chance of the DNA results being wrong were so tiny no lawyer in the land would dare argue it. Samuel Carlisle wasn’t Alex’s father. Instead it was his best friend who’d supplied the necessary chromosomes. The friend who’d been on the periphery of Alex’s childhood—the honorary uncle, the godfather figure—hell, he’d even been the one to offer advice when Alex had doubted whether he’d wanted to go into the family business.
‘You’re a Carlisle—it’s in your blood.’
Patrick had lied so easily.
Alex had found out only a few years after that that Samuel couldn’t be his biological father. When illness had struck, Alex had offered his body, his blood. But it didn’t match Samuel’s—at all. His mother had begged him not to tell, but she’d refused to say who his real father was. She’d taken that secret to the grave with her.
Alex couldn’t then ask Samuel—couldn’t destroy his last years. But Alex had been burnt through from the inside out by the betrayal. Anger, resentment had festered, his trust severed. And in the quiet dark hours the unanswered question had tormented him.
But now he knew. Patrick had been her lover. Patrick had fathered her child. The pair of them had lied for years to the man she was married to. They’d lied to him, their son.
And Alex would never forgive either of them for it.
He needed time before he could speak of it—even to his best friend. But before he got to that, there was now this situation to be sorted.
He forced out a half-laugh as he looked at the image on screen. Caught out the one time he went base at work. Just the icing on the way the last week had gone.
‘I’m flying back shortly. Meet me at my place this afternoon.’ He hung up before Lorenzo could say more. Stared at the way her hands threaded through his hair and her legs clamped round his waist.
The anger simmering beneath his skin spiked through. He wished he could storm into Security, find the culprits and fire them on the spot. Every single one of them. But going on the hunt would only inflame the situation. He’d have to make do with a memo reminding them of the ‘Use of Internet’ policy. He couldn’t get rid of them—at least, not yet.
Damn.
The other person he couldn’t sack was her—straight to litigation that would be. But it was going to be pretty messy with everyone in the office watching this little number. How was he going to protect her?
He didn’t even know her name.
CHAPTER TWO
DANI wondered what it was she’d done wrong. She’d been temping here for over a week and until today they’d all been polite and friendly. All except Mr Alex Carlisle, that was. But she wasn’t thinking about him. Definitely not fixated on what had to have been the craziest few minutes of her life. She’d forget it. He obviously had, because she hadn’t seen him since—he’d disappeared from the floor, hadn’t been down loitering by the managers’ desks at all since The Lift. She refused to acknowledge the sting she felt over that. And she hadn’t been able to swap to a placement with another company; there were no other placements—none that lasted as long and paid the same kind of money. So, embarrassed or not, she was here to stay.
But the looks she was getting from everyone else today. The number of people that had filed past her desk…and they’d all been rubbernecking. There was no way they could know what had happened. He wouldn’t have told anyone, would he?
Maybe she had half her breakfast on her face. She ducked behind her computer screen and used a tissue. Surely they didn’t know. How could they? They’d been alone. It hadn’t been long—not nearly long enough for her starved hormones—only a few minutes. They’d been a metre apart when those lift doors opened because he’d been aware enough to move. She hadn’t. So, given that he’d moved, he hadn’t wanted them to be caught. Therefore, Dani reasoned, they couldn’t know and she was just feeling paranoid. Besides, it was days ago now. And she. Had. Forgotten. It.
But there was an unnatural awareness about the place. She could feel them all watching her. And she couldn’t help but think of him again. She’d been told he had a way with women, but she hadn’t realised he had more pulling power than the sun.
She couldn’t put all the responsibility on him, though, could she—hadn’t she deliberately lifted her chin at him? Hadn’t she deliberately looked him over as he had her? Hadn’t she widened her stance—preparing for battle but also preparing for contact?
She had. And she hadn’t exactly given him a cool, back-off response. She’d enjoyed every second of it, far more than she’d thought it was possible to enjoy a kiss. And that was terrifying. To want like that made you weak.
The office stirred, as if an invisible wave were working its way through. She glanced over her screen. Not invisible. This was a tidal wave and she was in its path—for that was the HR dragon, wasn’t it, heading straight for her?
‘Danielle? Could you come with me, please?’
For some reason a power-that-be like her could make Dani feel guilty just by the way she said her name. But Dani hadn’t done anything wrong. OK, she hadn’t been quite at her usual output level, but she hadn’t been bad. Something was definitely up. She was aware of the sudden stillness in the office—no one was talking, no one was moving. They were all, she realised, watching her. She lifted her head that little bit higher—don’t show weakness.
‘Shall we take the lift?’ The dragon seemed to have a gleam in her eyes.
No way could she know about the lift. Could she? ‘I’d prefer the stairs,’ Dani answered quietly.
That was definitely a smirk. Quickly covered, but it had flashed in her eyes and on the edges of her mouth. Then there was nothing—just chilly silence all the way up the stairs to the executive level, even heavier silence in the corridor, only when the door closed behind her as she entered the woman’s office was there the slightest noise. She wasn’t invited to sit down. The woman just turned and spoke.
‘I’m sorry but your recruitment agency has been in touch. Apparently there is a problem with your file.’
‘A problem?’ What kind of problem? Dani’s blood ran cold. Surely it wasn’t about her father. She’d passed bank security clearances in Australia despite his record. They’d investigated and known it was nothing to do with her—that she’d been a victim as much as the others he’d ripped off. But maybe in New Zealand they had different rules?
‘I’m not entirely sure—you’ll need to talk to your agent about that. However—’ the woman was robot-like ‘—it means we’re unable to have you working here any longer.’
‘What?’ She couldn’t lose this job. She just couldn’t. She was down to her last dollars. Literally—her last fifty or so. She’d come over too soon, hadn’t saved enough, but she’d been so lonely and so desperate to find him. She’d waited long enough—so had he.
‘The agency has the money for the days you’ve already worked this week. If you go and see them, you’ll be able to collect it.’ Her tone was utterly dismissive. Final.
‘I’m to go now?’ Dani gaped.
‘Yes. Gather your belongings and leave immediately.’
Dani clocked the woman’s impassivity. Wow—how could she ruin someone’s life and look so uncaring?
She turned and left the room, tightening every muscle hard to stop the trembling from being visible. She walked back down the empty corridor to the stairs. This just couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. Her paperwork was totally fine; she was sure of it. When she’d registered with the agency they’d been pleased with her qualifications and experience. So, there was no problem—unless someone had taken a dislike to her?
Someone important?
She stopped. Swallowed. Turned and walked back—all the way to the corner office and to the fiftysomething woman sitting guard-like outside the sanctum.
‘Is Mr Carlisle in?’ Despite her determination it was only a whisper that sounded.
‘He’s overseas,’ his PA answered crisply.
How convenient. Dani’s suspicions grew, edging out the anxiety. ‘When is he back?’
The PA lifted her head and looked at her. Behind the oldschool librarian glasses she seemed to be reading her for a long moment before her lashes dropped. ‘I believe he’s due back here early this afternoon.’
And she’d be gone by then. Doubly convenient.
No way was this a coincidence. He didn’t want to be embarrassed at work—was that it? Had she been so all over him he was trying to get rid an awkward situation before it got even more complicated? What was he afraid of—that she’d go psycho stalker on him?
She turned on the spot and marched back down the stairs to her floor. She’d go straight to the agency and clear it up. She needed the money more than he needed a clearconscience office.
‘Hi, Danielle.’ One of the young bankers gave her a leery grin when she walked past him. He hadn’t spoken to her before. She caught the grins then swapping between him and some of the others. It had probably been a bet. She knew about boys and their bets—ones made at her expense.
She didn’t have the time or capacity to deal him even a cool look. Too busy trying to stomach the sick feeling. She’d been in the country less than a fortnight, was on the bones of her butt in terms of funds and now she’d just lost her job. And she needed to know why.
It only took two minutes to get her jacket from the back of her seat and the bag she’d tucked under the table. She logged off her computer.
She turned. The office was so quiet she would have heard her now ex-colleagues blinking—if they weren’t all staring totally bug eyed at her. Wow, the ones down the far end had actually risen out of their chairs to get a better look. What on earth was going on?
She tossed her head, determined to hide the freak-out thudding of her heart. So what if her cheeks were purple with embarrassment—she could still walk, right? OK, it was a run/walk to the door and after that she basically threw herself down the stairs, letting the adrenalin fly to her feet.
The recruitment agency was only a ten-minute walk away. Dani did it in seven. Red cheeked, breathless, trying to suck up the desperation pouring out of her.
Then she had to wait ten extra-long, make-you-sweat minutes.
‘What’s the problem with my file?’ Dani asked as soon as she was shown in.
‘There are a couple of issues.’ The agent wouldn’t look her in the eye. ‘One is misconduct.’
Misconduct? Dani frowned, that she hadn’t expected. ‘What kind of misconduct?’
The woman smiled then—it wasn’t a kind smile. ‘Have you seen this?’ She angled her computer screen so Dani could see it.
Dani gripped her bag, pushing it hard on her lap as she waited for the clip to start playing. Why was she being shown a vid on YouTube? What was this all about?
She squinted at the black-and-white grainy images. Oh, no. It couldn’t be.
Not her.
Not him.
OMG—it was! Alex Carlisle and her, Dani Russo, locking lips in that damn lift. Oh, more than locking lips. There was neck kissing, and touching and moving.
Heat prickled all over her body. From every pore popped a painful drop of blood. How had this happened? This just had to be a joke. Was she in a reality TV show and she didn’t know it?
‘Where did you get that?’ she whispered, knowing she was damned.
‘It was emailed to us. I believe it’s been circulated around the company already.’
So that explained the staring, then. The embarrassment engulfed her, swamping the spark of anger she’d felt before.
The agent didn’t stop the clip playing, just sat blandly waiting. Three and a half minutes of absolute agony. Dani couldn’t look away from the screen. Had they been so passionate? Had she really jumped on him like that? Had she been so hungry? And what was that awful music?
Not going to cry. Not going to cry.
She hadn’t in years. And she wouldn’t, not ‘til she was alone.
Finally it ended. Dani couldn’t look at the woman.
‘But this isn’t why we’re unable to place you in another position.’
Dani didn’t understand. ‘Pardon?’ Still shocked.
‘This was obviously a mistake and an embarrassing one, but we can deal with it with a simple warning.’ The agent couldn’t be crisper. ‘Not on work time, not on work premises. Understand?’
Dani just nodded. Still unable to process what she’d just seen—they’d been filmed? How was that possible?
‘The reason we’ve had to pull you from the job is because we haven’t been able to get your school records verified.’
Dani jerked. Her school records? How were they relevant? She had banking qualifications that totally surpassed her achievements at school. Plus she had her security clearance from the Australian bank she’d worked at for the last three years—surely that was far more important than verifying her school-leaver’s certificate?
‘I can call the school,’ she said. ‘I can get them to fax whatever you need.’
‘No, that’s fine. We’ll keep trying.’ The woman smiled sharply. ‘But until we do get it, we can’t put you into another placement.’
It was then that Dani knew and understood. They weren’t trying to contact the school; even if they did there would be some other obstacle that would arise. This was about that video—her fooling with the boss and getting caught. The school-records thing was an excuse. The walls were up. Her anger surged then, pushing back the embarrassment. ‘I can go to other agencies?’
‘Of course.’ The woman smiled. ‘But you might encounter the same problem.’
Dani looked at the computer screen again. Yeah, that was the real problem. She could see how many hits the clip had had. Too many just to be the bank staff and this agency—even if they had watched it over and over as she was quite sure some of those sleazy bankers had. No, this one had been doing the rounds; it would be a source of great amusement for anyone in the industries—both finance and recruitment. Alex Carlisle proving his legendary swordsman status with a temp at work.
There was nothing for it but to make a dignified exit. No way could she win this battle here and now. She needed to withdraw and come up with some kind of strategy.
She stood, stuck a small smile on her numb face. ‘Thank you for letting me know. Please get in touch when you get my record confirmed. I’d like to get working as soon as I can.’
‘Of course.’ The agent stood and saw her to the door.
It was a complete fiction. They both knew they were never going to talk to each other again.
‘You can collect your wages for the last couple of days from Reception.’
Dani made for the nearest café and ordered the biggest blackest coffee they made. She closed her eyes. The money she had would last less than a week. Her whole aim had been to work while she hunted because she hadn’t wanted to wait any longer before trying to find him. But she had to be able to eat—to pay for her accommodation, and to pay for the search. How on earth was she going to find Eli now? How was she going to keep the promise she’d made to her mum?
It had been her final request—she’d given up that precious secret only in her last few days and it was the one last thing Dani could do for her. Dani wanted to honour that promise more than she wanted to do anything. And if she found him, it would be like having a part of her mother back.
She called a different agency. Then another. But once she’d told them the kind of work she wanted, then told them her name, the ‘our books are full’ line got handed to her. Was she going to have to move cities to get another job? She didn’t even have the bus fare, and the best finance jobs for her were here. Or they had been. Now she was screwed.
Her anger fired even higher. What about Alex Carlisle? What about his misconduct? Had he been given a ‘warning’—she bet there was no way he’d have got the sack. Oh, no—he’d just ensured he had a peaceful work environment again. She wasn’t around to embarrass him anymore.
There was one person responsible for this. One person who owed her. One person who was going to pay.
Alex Carlisle was getting the bill.
‘Kelly, I need you.’ Alex called his PA into his office. ‘The temp who was working on the Huntsman project last week—’ He broke off. His super-efficient PA had a touch more colour to her cheeks than usual. But her brows lifted as if she were vaguely mystified.
As if.
‘Temp?’
‘Yes. Short, brunette bob.’ Alex winced, hating to have to reveal that he didn’t know her name. He watched Kelly’s lips purse and sighed, frustrated. ‘You’ve seen the clip, haven’t you?’ Now he felt his cheeks heating.
Kelly dropped the ‘no idea’ look and nodded. ‘Yes. She no longer works here.’
‘How come she’s no longer working here? That project is months off completion.’ Alex found he couldn’t meet Kelly’s eyes. Hell, what a mess. He’d never compromised himself at work like this. Socially for sure—he liked to play. But not at work. Kelly had worked for this company for more years than he’d been alive. She’d worked with Samuel, and his father before him. A Carlisle loyalist. There was nothing in the business that she didn’t know. Alex remembered her giving him paper as a kid to entertain him while he waited for Samuel and him making darts to shoot at people walking past. The severe look she was giving him now wasn’t so different from the one she’d given him then.
‘I know,’ Kelly said quietly. ‘But there’s a new temp now.’
Alex looked at her then, hearing the soberness in her voice. He didn’t like the censure in her eyes, either. ‘I think you’d better send Jo to see me.’
Kelly disappeared and Jo, the head of HR, was knocking at his door in less than a minute. Alex walked over to meet her. ‘The temp that we had working on the Huntsman project last week—where is she?’
Jo looked distinctly uncomfortable. ‘The temp?’
‘Yes,’ he growled. ‘You know the one I mean.’
‘Yes.’ Of course she did. ‘Her services were no longer required.’
‘But there’s a new temp out there now.’ He’d walked through the floor as soon as he’d got in, run the gauntlet of knowing looks and smiles only to be completely disappointed when it had been some blonde at the desk and not the little brunette who’d been haunting him for days. ‘So why did you get rid of the other one? On whose authority? For what reason?’ He rapped out the questions, the nasty feeling in his gut growing.
Jo looked even more uncomfortable. ‘It was the recruitment agency. They phoned and said they’d made a mistake with her file. They hadn’t been able to verify her school qualifications so they pulled her.’
Alex stared at her, anger churning. ‘So she’s no longer working for the agency?’
‘No. I don’t believe she is.’
It was his turn to take a deep breath—he had to force his jaw apart to do it. ‘They couldn’t verify her school qualifications?’ Alex shook his head. ‘But we had security clearance for her? And proof of her banking exams?’
‘Yes.’
So the records meant diddly, then. If she had her banking qualifications, then they didn’t need to verify any other records—she couldn’t have got the bank ones if she hadn’t had the school ones. It was a trumped up excuse to get rid of her.
‘So it wouldn’t have had anything to do with this?’ He strode to his desk and spun his computer screen round so the image he’d paused it on was viewable from her side of the room.
His head of HR went beet red.
Alex leaned back on his desk and folded his arms, hiding the fists. ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it. Everyone in the office has seen it. Haven’t they?’
Jo nodded.
‘And now you’re telling me she’s been removed for the most flimsy of reasons.’
‘We’re covered, Alex. It was the agency who removed her. Her dismissal had nothing to do with this…incident.’
Alex stared at her, unable to believe his ears. Like hell it didn’t. She’d done nothing wrong. She shouldn’t have lost her job. His fists bunched tighter.
‘Does she have another job?’ He could only hope she had a better one.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Then you better phone the agency and find out,’ he growled—he was not going to be able to rest until he knew. The job market was horrendous at the moment. That meant the temp market was even more vicious.
‘Excuse me, Alex.’ Kelly came back in, shutting the door fast behind her and stepping forward. ‘I have someone outside insisting on seeing you.’
‘Who is it?’ Alex asked crossly. ‘I don’t want interruptions now, Kelly.’
‘I know you don’t. But this one is different. It’s her.’
‘Who?’
‘That temp.’
Alex froze. ‘She’s here?’
Kelly nodded.
‘Now?’ The ripple that ran through his body was pure testosterone. ‘You. Out,’ he barked at Jo.
She was out of there faster than a condemned prisoner getting a last-minute reprieve. But Alex was the one feeling the edge of desperation. He turned to the woman who knew more about what went on in the building than anyone. ‘Kelly, please, what’s her name?’
Kelly looked up at him through her half-glasses, her face as impassive and composed as always. When she finally answered, it was with marked deliberation. ‘You really ought to know that already.’ Then she left.
Alex stared at the door and wondered how on earth he was going to get away with it.
Dani perched on the edge of the chair—the one nearest to the exit. She shouldn’t have come. What was she doing back here? Sweating for one thing and she was all shaky inside, as if it wouldn’t take much for tears to sting. She couldn’t let that happen—getting all emo was one sure way to come off the loser. She blinked and went rigid as the hideous HR dragon appeared from his office. She glanced at Dani but made no acknowledgement as she swept past. That was it—Dani was leaving. What had possessed her to attempt this? Oh, yeah, desperation.
Now the PA was standing in front of her. ‘Mr Carlisle will see you now.’
Mr Carlisle. She swallowed, tried to quell the fluttering inside, told herself she had no need for nerves. But the moment before the door opened she had a second, a sliver of a second, when she thought she’d really rather die.
She pushed through, went in and it happened as it had all the last week. The large hand gripped her heart and squeezed, stopping the beat for two seconds too long, while lower in her belly someone switched on the heater.
He was in a suit. It was immaculate. He wasn’t smiling.
But he was still brain-zappingly gorgeous and she was as bad as the thousand other women who fell at his feet—breathless, bedazzled. She tried to clear her mind of the clutter, to quell the hormones shrieking at her. Think Zen. Think power.
‘Thanks, Kelly.’
Dani heard the door click. So it was shut. So they were alone.
He wasn’t behind his desk; instead he stood on her side of it, in the middle of the room. ‘My name is—’
‘I know who you are.’
Their eyes met. His face was expressionless. But she knew he was remembering the moment after the last time she’d said that, just as she was. That time the spark in his eye had surprised her. The oh-so-relaxed boss, the charming playboy, had looked bitter for a half-second. She’d spent all that night wondering why—in between reliving the heat.
‘Please sit down.’ Quiet, firm and with that underlying note of authority.
Her legs moved towards the chairs without her instruction—just following his order. She seemed to have swallowed her tongue. Every sentence, the whole spiel she’d rehearsed as she’d steamed her way over here, had fled from her head. Mute, mindless, she was like some star-struck fan meeting her pin-up hottie in the flesh for the first time.
And then she saw it.
Every word, every angry thought, all of it came ripping back. She inhaled, trying to hold back enough to be able to tackle him with controlled fury rather than blind rage. Even so, she spat the words. ‘Enjoying it?’
‘What?’
‘Your little home movie.’ She pointed.
They were plastered across the screen. Her legs around his waist. Their tongues so entwined it was a wonder they’d ever managed to pull themselves free.
And he was watching it? Had spun the screen round so it was visible from right across the room?
As if the HR woman had just come to give him his warning—she’d come for a laugh, more like. Dani nearly choked on the rage that reddened her vision. Her face was so hot she was probably casting a glow into outer space. But that was nothing on the churning mass of fire in her belly. ‘Why are you watching it?’
He hadn’t known she was coming to see him. She’d only finally made her mind up as she’d walked past the building—had been regretting it all the five minutes since. She couldn’t believe the whole nightmare. ‘How did it happen?’
‘What?’ He took the seat next to hers. ‘The kiss or the recording?’ His mouth lifted at one end in a small smile.
She wasn’t in the mood for seeing any kind of funny side—he wasn’t going to defuse her with his attempt at good humour. ‘The recording.’
‘There are security cameras in all the lifts. Someone saw us, clipped the footage and put it up. As I think you know, it’s been doing the rounds.’
‘Yes, the viral video du jour,’ she said bitterly. ‘Was it a joke? Did you set it up for fun?’
‘Of course not.’ He went rigid. ‘I’m the CEO of a large finance company. I think I have better things to do with my time than indulge in stupid pranks like this.’
He held her gaze a minute longer. Assessing. She withstood the scrutiny, tilting her chin that little higher. Refusing to be intimidated.
‘Where have you been these last few days?’ Assertive, that was how she’d be.
‘Overseas.’
‘How convenient for you—out of the country while the temp gets the boot and then can’t find another job in the whole city.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Give me my job back.’
He shook his head. ‘Impossible.’
‘How so?’
‘You think you could sit there knowing they’ve all watched me kiss you like that?’
Kiss you. The words seemed to whisper over her skin, teasing her into greater awareness. She shifted in her seat, resettling her limbs in an attempt to stay in charge of them—and the whole nightmare. ‘It was only a kiss, Mr Carlisle. It was nothing.’ She shrugged.
His brows lifted for a second. ‘You’re not going back out there.’
Damn it, she needed this job. ‘It was a moment. That’s all it was. So some geek with nothing better to do made a mini movie with it. Not my fault.’
‘You are not working on that floor again.’
‘You’re not understanding me. I need this job.’
‘And I’m saying it’s not going to happen.’
‘Do you know what this is? Unfair dismissal. Sexual harassment.’
‘That was not sexual harassment.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘You kissed me back. You wrapped your legs around me all by yourself.’
‘But because of that video, I lost my job and I need my job. Because of that video, I can’t get another. The world of recruitment agencies is really small here in Auckland, do you know that? The agents all know each other, all swap from company to company. And they send each other emails. Would you believe that?’ Dani inhaled. ‘That stupid kiss has cost me everything and I can’t let it. How come you get to sit here in your fancy office and suffer none of the consequences while my life gets totalled?’ She stood. ‘It’s not happening. This is unfair and I’ll prove it’s unfair. I’m going to a lawyer—see if you can say “impossible” to a court!’
She whirled and marched. She had no idea where to find a lawyer, whether she really did have a case, and she certainly didn’t have the money to pay for it but she was bloody well going to find it somehow.
She opened the door but it was slammed shut again—his big hand spread wide on the wood above her head and firmly holding it in place.
‘You don’t shout at me and walk out without giving me a chance to respond.’
‘Watch me.’ She pulled on the door handle with all her strength. It didn’t move.
‘This is what happens. We talk. We negotiate. You’re not leaving until you’ve let me think of an alternative.’
She turned to glare at him and discovered he was way too close. Right beside her, so all she could see was his body—the jacket of his suit pulled wide by the way his arm was stretched out, revealing the breadth of his chest in the crisp white cotton beneath. His physicality was so potent, all she could feel was the warmth of him reaching out to her. The temptation to step closer was almost crippling—and totally wrong, wrong, wrong.
‘What kind of alternative?’ The woolly feeling was seeping into her head. She lifted her chin to be able to look into his face and the brain lethargy only worsened. His eyes were looking very green.
‘Sit back down and I’ll explain. If you want we can get my HR manager to sit in on the meeting.’
Reality returned with acute vividness. That cow? ‘That won’t be necessary.’
His lips twitched. ‘My PA, then.’
Nope, not the boarding-school matron, either. ‘Look, you and I both know that if you lay a hand on me, I’ll be screaming the place down.’
His face suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree and his smile went so wicked she wouldn’t have been surprised if he had a doorway to a den of sin hidden behind his desk. Or maybe that was wishful thinking—because when he looked like that all she could think about was bad, bad behaviour. Then she mentally replayed what she’d said and suddenly felt a need to clarify. ‘Screaming in horror.’
‘Ri-i-ight.’ He nodded as if she were a delusional diva he had to humour. ‘All outrage rather than ecstasy.’
She opened her mouth but before she’d thought of a comeback he’d lifted his hand from the door, and was holding it and the other up in the ‘don’t shoot’ position, his mouth in a smile too cheeky to resist.
He’d be dead if her eyes had ammo. Sadly her eyes were too busy gobbling up the gorgeousness before her to execute the death look. Her failing brain managed one last attempt to control the weakening of her body and she tried the door again. It still didn’t move. She glanced down. His foot was jammed against it.
‘I really have been overseas. I left the afternoon we were in the lift. The trip was unavoidable. I expected to see you when I got back. To talk to you.’ His hands had dropped to his hips. She couldn’t stop looking at his long fingers.
‘What were you going to say?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ His fingers curled into fists. ‘What matters is that I found out about the clip this morning and I found out about you being dismissed two minutes ago.’
She took a step back from the door so she could look into his face from a safer distance. ‘You didn’t know?’ He hadn’t ordered it?
‘No. The clip was taken from the security camera in the lift. I don’t know who did it yet, but when I find out you can be certain that that person will be in danger of dismissal.’
That sharp edge sliced back into his eyes for a second. She wanted it to stay—wanted him to truly understand the impact. ‘It’s had hundreds of hits. It got sent to the agency. I got a warning for it but by some great coincidence they can’t complete the necessary verification on my paperwork.’ Shaking her head, she walked into the middle of the room—the greater the distance between them, the better she could think.
‘I know.’
‘So what are you going to do?’ It wasn’t the unfairness of the ramifications that had brought her here, it was that she needed help and had nowhere else to turn. And she hated it.
‘I’m not sure yet.’
That wasn’t good enough. She spun and saw the wicked smile was back on his face. He thought this was funny? He still didn’t get how serious it was for her? She walked back to stand right in front of him, whipping the words out.
‘Thanks to you I have no job and no hope of getting another one. Thanks to you I am flat broke. I’m in a strange country, I don’t know anyone and suddenly I’m starring in some local sex clip and all you want to do is laugh it off.’ Breathing hard, she glared at him—her eyes filled with the ammo they’d lacked before.
His grin was wiped. ‘I don’t think it’s funny.’
‘Oh, really? So that’s why you’re smiling like some satyr and watching replays like it’s the joke of the century.’
‘It wasn’t a joke.’ His eyes bored into hers so intently she couldn’t move. His face hardened in the long seconds of silence. She sensed the rest of him becoming tense too—his body sending such strong vibes of tightly leashed energy that she could feel them pressing on her.
For a second her instinct screamed at her to run, but just as fast the urge was squashed. Other urges began to surge instead—and she needed a strong leash of her own to control them. Her whole body was aware of him, her whole focus was on him. His gaze dropped to her mouth and she felt it like a physical touch. He was remembering—as was she, and the fire arcing between them threatened to burn through her control. But she wasn’t going to let this raging attraction muck up more of her life. She wasn’t going to lose the little credibility she had left by letting it happen again.
She made her body move—away—a few steps back towards the door.
‘You really can’t get another job?’ His voice sounded rusty.
‘You really think I’d be here if I could?’
His brows drew closer as he regarded her. The angles of his face became more pronounced. Suddenly, sharply, he moved. Walking to the window, he glared through it—she figured the glass would melt in moments if he still had that heat in his eyes.
‘I might have another job for you. But not here. I don’t think that’s something you or I or anyone would be comfortable with.’ He turned. It seemed he’d taken the time to ice over, for his face was schooled into blandness. ‘Look, let’s get out of here and go talk somewhere more relaxed.’
He opened the door and waited for her to pass through. Dani hesitated—relaxed might be a really bad idea. But if he could do cucumber cool, surely she could do better than melting jelly.
CHAPTER THREE
DANI kept three feet behind Alex as he strode past the PA.
‘Please cancel that last appointment and take messages, Kelly. I’m out for the rest of the afternoon,’ he said without slowing his pace.
‘Certainly.’ No surprise, no questions. The PA gave Dani a coolly professional smile but Dani was still too rattled to be able to match it.
Alex glanced at the lift. ‘Shall we take the stairs?’
Dani was already at the door to them—hoped the PA hadn’t heard his question. He’d laced it with the faintest hint of irony and if Dani were to look at him now and see him smiling she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions—aggressive energy seemed to be bouncing round her body.
‘Where are you staying?’ He thudded downstairs swiping a security card to get them into the basement.
She gave him the name of the hostel and saw his frown appear.
‘You don’t know Auckland, do you?’ He sent her a sideways glance. ‘Because if you did, you’d know that’s in a really dodgy part of town.’
It was a cheap part of town.
He unlocked the car—sleek, attractive, outrageously powerful, just like its owner. Dani got into the passenger seat. In seconds they were out of the garage and driving down the congested inner-city streets in awkward silence—he’d quickly cut the music that had roared louder than the engine. Dani wished he’d kept it on—better to listen to that than the silence between them or the voice in her head telling her how much of a mess she was in. The weather had turned, the rain drizzling and dampening her spirits further.
‘Um…’ he was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel ‘…I…’
Dani waited, surprised by his sudden attack of the fidgets.
His fingers abruptly stopped their beat and gripped the wheel. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Your name.’ He kept his eyes on the road ahead. ‘I don’t know what it is.’
‘You don’t know my name?’ Stunned, Dani stared at him. ‘How can you not know my name?’
‘We never finished our introductions.’ His high cheekbones were streaked with slashes of colour. ‘I have a lot of employees.’
‘Oh, and I was just one of the temps.’ OK, so she was. But she hadn’t been just one of them—he’d kissed the hell out of her. She’d felt him and he had her—intimately. Or did he do that with all the girls? Anger roared through her again—vicious, wild anger. ‘You could have found out.’
‘I don’t use the HR files for personal reasons.’
‘No, you just use the temps.’
He braked sharply at the traffic lights. ‘I didn’t use you and you know it.’
Dani shook her head, stupidly hurt by his admission. ‘No, I don’t.’
She wanted to get out of the car and away from him right this second. It was beyond humiliating—she’d gone to him because she had nowhere else to go for help, using her anger to mask the hope that he’d actually feel some kind of responsibility. Buried right beneath everything had been the teeny, tiny hope that he might have actually liked her. What a fool. The whole thing had been so meaningless for him that he hadn’t even bothered to learn her name. He could have found out—his HR dragon or his oh-so-efficient PA could have told him. But he hadn’t asked—he hadn’t wanted to. So while she’d been blown away by that kiss, he hadn’t given it a second thought, other than to be a little annoyed about the resulting clip—or perhaps amused was what he’d been. But the video didn’t affect him the way it did her—all it did for him was enhance his reputation as some kind of playboy sex god. But for her it ruined everything—her prospects, her plans, her reputation. ‘You know something, Mr Carlisle, I don’t care how good a job you can offer me. I don’t want it.’
‘Look—’
‘I’m serious. You can drop me at the corner.’
The locks in the car clicked on. She shot him a venomous look.
‘I’ll take you to the hostel.’ He looked angry, which was so wrong because he was the one who had been insulting, not her.
They were almost at the hostel already—Dani recognised the landmarks. He must have intended to take her there anyway. So much for a conversation somewhere more relaxing—so much for the possibility of a different job.
She was out of the car as soon as he’d pulled over and released the locks, felt her tension yanking tighter when he got out of the car just as quick. ‘You don’t need to see me in.’
‘The least I can do is see you safely home.’ He glared at the hostel’s sign, his frown saying all that he thought about her home—all that he thought about her.
Dani marched up the stairs ahead of him, wishing he’d get the hint and just leave. But he was right behind her as she crossed the floor.
‘Excuse me,’ the receptionist called out to her. ‘Danielle Russo?’
Dani veered towards the desk. Alex got to the counter at the same time as her. So now he knew her name—way too late.
Dani lifted her brows at the woman behind the desk and managed an almost-smile—not able to trust that her voice wouldn’t be razor sharp if she asked if there was a problem.
‘We need you to pay for this week. It’s nothing personal—but we have had trouble with people leaving without paying and then their credit-cards not working. And, er—’ the receptionist looked at her notes ‘—we don’t seem to have credit card details for you.’
That was because Dani knew all about credit cards not working—and, worse, being abused. ‘I paid cash,’ she mumbled.
‘Great. Shall we settle it now, then?’
Dani swallowed. ‘I already paid for last week.’
‘I know.’ She looked apologetic. ‘But I now need payment for this week.’
Alex was like a statue next to her, listening to every word of the painful exchange. Could the day get any worse? Did he really have to be here to witness this last painful humiliation?
‘Um.’ Dani mumbled some more. ‘I’m waiting on my pay before I can do the next week.’
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Natalie Anderson
TO: All staff – Is this the hottest kiss you’ve ever seen?Finally our playboy boss plays around at work! Watch this steamy clip of Alex Carlisle getting down and dirty in the lift with the brand-new temp…Heart-throb Alex has recently been spotted prowling the office floor – is brunette bombshell Dani Russo the reason? From this sizzling encounter, we think so! Now Dani’s lost her job, and the office grapevine says our bad-boy boss has moved her into his bachelor pad and found her a job – but is an X-rated action replay on the cards?!Watch this space… Hot Under the Collar Naughty nights with the boss…
Alex opened up the e-mail and grimaced—a video.
He clicked on the ‘play’ button and waited a moment for it to load. Turned the speaker up a touch on his computer and frowned at the poor quality of the picture on screen. It was black and white. And then he recognised what that small space was—an elevator. And then someone walked into it. And, as if he was trapped in it again, freefalling, his stomach dropped.
Hell
He leaned closer to the screen as she waited in the lift. Her face was clear in the frame, and now so was his as he stood side on, until he turned and faced her. Their mouths were moving, but the security camera recorded images, not sound. Even so, he knew exactly what was being said. He’d replayed that too brief exchange a million times every sleepless night since.
Alex watched, seeing now what he’d felt so gloriously at the time. His back was to the camera but you could see her face as he kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck. Her eyes were closed. Her hands caressed his shoulders, his hair. Passionate. Beautiful. And then came the moment her legs parted, wrapped around his waist, and his body reacted now as it had then. Instantly hardening, instantly burning, insisting on getting closer.
And then the lift moved. It had been over far too quickly.
Praise for Natalie Anderson:
‘Natalie Anderson is one of the most exciting voices in steamy romantic fiction writing today. Sassy, witty and emotional, her Modern Heat™ are in a class of their own…An extraordinary new talent who can blend passion, drama, humour and emotion in one unforgettable read!’
—Cataromance
‘MISTRESS UNDER CONTRACT is a fantastic contemporary romance full of intense emotions, funny moments, blazing sexual tension and moving romance; don’t miss it!’
—The Pink Heart Society
‘Natalie Anderson’s HIS MISTRESS BY ARRANGEMENT is a charming romance of childhood friends reconnecting. It’s both fun and flirty, and conveys the wonderful feeling of finding someone you can truly be yourself with.’
—RT Book Reviews
This is the first book in Natalie Anderson’s
exciting new duet:
HOT UNDER THE COLLAR.
Don’t miss
UNBUTTONED BY HER MAVERICK BOSS,
out next month!
Caught on Camera with the CEO
by
Natalie Anderson
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Possibly the only librarian who got told off herself for talking too much, Natalie Anderson decided writing books might be more fun than shelving them—and, boy, is it that! Especially writing romance—it’s the realisation of a lifetime dream kick-started by many an afternoon spent devouring Grandma’s Mills & Boon®…
She lives in New Zealand, with her husband and four gorgeous-but-exhausting children. Swing by her website any time—she’d love to hear from you: www.natalie-anderson.com
Recent titles by the same author:
TO LOVE, HONOUR AND DISOBEY
HOT BOSS, BOARDROOM MISTRESS
BETWEEN THE ITALIAN’S SHEETS
PLEASURED IN THE PLAYBOY’S PENTHOUSE
For the best apple pie and chocolate chip biscuit baker in the world: Aunty Margaret.
No one makes ‘em like you do. And no one laughs as infectiously as you either.
Thank you for all your support.
CHAPTER ONE
‘YOU’LL have that for me by three? Fantastic.’
Dani forced her body to freeze at the sound of that voice.
‘No problem.’
Dani knew the breathless assistant would have it for him by two at the latest—just as she would if he’d asked her.
Alex Carlisle, CEO of Carlisle Finance Corporation, on his rounds again—gliding through the open-plan area and bewitching his staff so they performed above and beyond. She wondered if he even knew the effect he had on his legions of adoring employees.
And Dani was the latest. Not looking was impossible. Her lashes lifted.
Truthfully she was probably the only one whose work was suffering because of him. She found him so distracting she wasn’t getting half as much done as she should. Half of her wished he’d go away so her insides wouldn’t be so pummelled, but all of her wanted him to stay.
He was so good to look at, she’d been watching him all week. She’d seen how he abandoned his lavish office suite at the top of the building and came to talk with his worker ants—all of whom then frantically tapped faster at keyboards to get the work done for him. Charismatic, confident, Alex Carlisle got everything he wanted, every time. And if the water-cooler gossip she’d got from one of the secretaries was anything to go by, women were a big part of what he wanted—beautiful, highflying, high-society women. He played a lot, apparently. And all his female employees wished like crazy he’d play with them.
Dani totally understood why they did, but she wasn’t going to admit she was floored by him too. So predictable. Anyway she couldn’t afford to fixate like this. She checked the time. Only a few minutes and she could go to lunch. She’d never clock-watched before, usually enjoyed her work so the hours flew, but she had a mission to fulfil. Besides, something about this place made her antsy. OK, it was him. She was waiting, always waiting for him to appear. Now he had, she couldn’t wait to bust a move, so restless it was as if she had creepycrawlies infesting every inch of her clothing.
Unable to resist the compelling force of him, she lifted her head and looked again. She was such an idiot. It was as if she’d been tossed into a stormy kind of teen crush—she’d never experienced one in her youth, but it seemed there was a time for everything. She only had to hear his voice for her heart to thunder and the adrenalin to flood her system, so sitting still was no longer possible.
Concentrate, you fool.
The excitement was a waste of energy anyway. The water-cooler woman had also informed her that, while the man might play fast and loose in his own social set, he never ever fooled around at work. Big shame. She watched as he stood talking with her supervisor. He was tall; his tailored trousers seemed to go on forever.
Yeah, Dani, all the way to the floor.
But her self-mockery didn’t stop her looking. He’d shed his jacket so he wore just the pale blue shirt, sleeves rolled partially up his arms—the ultimate ad for corporate wear. He turned. Caught her look on the full. And then held it prisoner.
Oh. Wow.
All but his face blurred. The low noise of the office became a distant hum. The sudden silence was nice and her antsy body stopped still, bathed in his gaze. Dani’s favourite colour was green. And Alex Carlisle’s eyes were very, very green.
He moved, one small step. Was he coming over? To talk to her?
Someone called his name. He turned away, his smile flashing back on. And it was gone—the stillness, the warmth, the quiet. All disappeared the instant she blinked.
Good grief, what was she doing sitting there like a Muppet? Unable to move or speak or even breathe? She shook her head and released the air held too long in her straining lungs.
Ridiculous.
But how glad was she that he hadn’t come over? Because when he’d looked at her she’d been unable to think of anything. Not a thing. All power had gone from her brain to somewhere else entirely—and was warming her up. She couldn’t see how any of them got any work done when he was on the floor.
OK, so it was two minutes ‘til lunch. But she’d arrived early, as she always did, and had already promised to work late tonight, so she needn’t feel guilty about stepping out now. Because she desperately needed to get outside and gasp in some fresh air.
She walked down the length of the floor to the lift, keeping well to the side of the room. She was short enough not to be noticed and she was only the temp, after all. She moved fast. Usually she took the stairs but he was near the stairs and, as much as she was drawn to him, her instinct told her equally loudly to stay well away. And this instinct was just strong enough to beat the one that made her avoid small, confined spaces. She could do it. Sure she could.
But when she got to the lift and pressed the button, her nerves sharpened. She counted to ten as she waited, trying to slow her breathing to match it with her mental chanting. It was only a lift. People went up and down them millions of times a day without accident. People didn’t get trapped in them.
Trapped. Her scalp prickled as if she were under one of those huge cover-your-whole-head driers at the hairdresser—and it was on too hot and she couldn’t get it off. She didn’t want to be trapped.
She redirected her thoughts. Forced the fear to the back and focused on a plan. If she ate on the run, she’d have time to go to the public library and be able to check the message boards on the Internet. The search was all that mattered.
The lift chimed and she made herself move into it, closing her eyes as the doors slid together. It would be over in a whirl. Such fears were childish.
But there was a noise. She opened her eyes again in time to see the doors sliding back again. An arm was stretching out between them—making them automatically reopen. And stay open.
‘I’ll be back shortly.’ The arm held firm. ‘Email the guest list through to Lorenzo, as well, will you? And make sure the catering staff have the right number of vegetarians this time. We don’t want to upset anyone again. Oh, and can you make sure Cara gets the message about Saturday?’
Jeez, the lift could have been down and back up again in that time—well, almost. At last, the rest of him stepped in.
He smiled at her. ‘Sorry about that.’
Was he really? Or was that just his polite upbringing talking, hiding the real ramifications of his childhood—that he had the right to make others wait, that his time was more important than hers? Dani only had an hour—unpaid and all—and she had to make the most of it. But that thought and every other disappeared as the doors finally slid shut.
Dani stepped right back, standing stiffly against the far wall of the lift. Would the fear never leave her?
He leant his back against the side wall so he was at right angles to her. Not even covertly looking at her. No, his gaze was open, intense and relentless.
She kept her eyes fixed on the doors, trying to stop the sensation that they were closing in on her. At least the lifts in this building were science-fiction fast—once they were allowed to get started. But the sense of airlessness closed in too.
He pressed the button again and finally it began its swift descent.
Dani gritted her teeth, sweat sliding down her back.
‘Are you OK?’
Dani couldn’t answer. Too busy holding her breath. Five, four, three…
There was a groaning sound—a metallic moan that, although slow, was definitely getting louder. Dani’s muscles flexed. The lift stopped, dropped another foot and then stopped again. Dani’s stomach just kept on falling.
She looked at the lights—no floor indicated. The doors half opened and she had a glimpse of metal and concrete. Between floors. She was damn glad when the doors closed again.
There was a second of complete silence.
‘I’m sure it won’t be long.’
‘I’m not worried,’ she lied, flicking a glance his way and looking straight back at the doors again when she registered he had a smile on. His smiles weren’t good for her blood pressure. Nor was being stuck in a very small space. Adrenalin rippled through her muscles but the nausea rose faster. She inhaled through her nose, aware of every inch of her body. Surely those few years of physical training would stand her in good stead. She could overcome fear. She could breathe.
He’d lifted away from the wall. ‘No, really, it won’t be long.’
Sure. No matter how stiff she tried to stay, her limbs insisted on shaking. Her heart was shaking too, the beats falling over themselves, and she couldn’t breathe fast enough. She couldn’t get any oxygen in.
‘We never have trouble with these lifts.’
Oh, yeah? Well, they were now. ‘You probably confused it by making it wait so long with its doors open,’ she said. The spark of anger pushed the bile back down.
‘It’s a machine. Machines don’t get confused. Only people do that.’
She was confused now—her body wanting to run, her brain wanting to shut down altogether, her stomach wanting to hurl its contents.
‘You’re new here,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen you in the office.’
Distraction. Excellent. ‘Yes,’ she said, barely controlling the wobble in her voice. And after another stumbling beat she looked from the doors to him.
His eyes were very wide and very green and filled with a painfully gentle concern. He took a step towards her. ‘My name is—’
‘I know who you are,’ she cut him off. She couldn’t think enough for conversation.
‘You do?’ His eyes narrowed and his smile twisted, bitterness thinning his sensual lips. ‘Then you’re one up on me.’ He took the last step closing the gap between them. ‘I have no idea who I am.’
The bitterness surprised her, blasted the smothering fog from her head. She looked closer at him. ‘You’re Alex. And you’re stuck in a l-lift.’
She glanced at the walls; they were nearing her again. The fear crept back up. She gulped in air. Were they running out of oxygen already? And had she just whimpered?
‘There’s no need to be afraid.’
Wasn’t there? Didn’t she know exactly how frightening it was to be stuck in a small place for too long?
‘Hey.’ He put his hands on her shoulders. ‘It’s going to be fine.’
At his touch she looked back into his face. Green eyes gazed at her, deepened by the dark lashes that framed them. Everything else in the world receded again. Yes, she’d look at him, focus on him, forget everything…but green eyes. The colour swirled, the black centre spread. His gaze flickered, dropped to her mouth. Made her realise it was dry. She touched her tongue to the corner of it and then she found she was looking at his. It was extraordinarily fine, with lips that were currently curved up in a smile.
‘You OK?’
She couldn’t take her eyes off him. She couldn’t answer.
‘Sweetheart?’
Funny how just one word, said in just the right way, could change everything.
She gazed at him, feeling that restlessness inside roar, and her chin lifted.
His hands moved, dropping to circle round her waist.
‘It’s going to be just fine,’ he said. And then slowly, so slowly, giving her all the time to turn away, he lowered his head.
But she didn’t turn.
His lips were warm, firm but not forceful, not invasive, just gentle. He lifted his head a millimetre and his green eyes searched hers. ‘See?’
Still she said nothing, but the smallest of sighs escaped as she lifted her chin back up to him.
Those strong hands at her waist then lifted her right off her feet. Automatically she put out her own hands—not to punch, but to steady. Her fingers connected with cotton and curled around the hard muscles. The heat of him burned through the shirt. She spread her fingers wider—wow, he was broad. All she could hear was her breathing—too short, too fast.
Their gazes remained locked all the while he lifted her, sliding her up against the back wall of the lift until her eyes were almost level with his. Her heart thundered while her toes stretched down, vainly searching for something solid—like the floor.
This time when he kissed her he stayed, his lips moving over hers slowly teasing. Oh. Her eyes closed as again and again his mouth caressed hers, making her brain go so mushy. And then Dani had to move: softening, opening, relaxing yet seeking at the same time—more. And he gave it, his tongue sweeping into her mouth and curling with hers. It was like feeling all her favourite things at once—the heat of a summer’s day, the freshness of sea breeze and the sensation of diving into the deepest warm water. Only it was better. It was all-in-one. And it was real.
Her hands slid over his arms, her fingertips exploring his strength and heat, the breadth of his back. She lifted a hand, ran it through his hair. Short, dark, gorgeously thick. She moved, resting her palm on the back of his neck—so warm. Both hands lifted to hold his face close and the kisses changed again—deeper, more hungry, fevered. Now every inch of her wanted every inch of him hard up against her. She wanted to feel his body above her, beneath her—all around. But she couldn’t tear her mouth from his. She didn’t care about the tightness of his hands bruising her waist. She just didn’t want the soaring feeling to end. It was as if a veil had been lifted to reveal a bottomless need she hadn’t known she had. To be close.
And his need, too, seemed as strong. His kisses on her face and neck were fast, passionate, until their lips connected again and they could plumb the depths of each other in a long, long carnal kiss.
He pulled her away from the wall, close against his body. One hand quickly moving beneath her bottom to take her weight so she didn’t fall from his hold. She responded automatically, hooking her legs around his waist. Gasping at how good it felt to have his body between hers. He was big, strong and fantastically hard. Basic instinct screamed at her now. Bursting with need for bare skin, she pressed her mouth harder against his, her fingers fighting with his shirt.
But then she felt him stagger. He pushed her, lifting her away and down until her feet hit the ground. But then the ground itself bumped up and down.
Oh, no, that was right. They were in a lift. Dani tore her gaze away from him. Looked beyond to the lights, to the door. The lift had finally moved again, descended. And now those doors were opening.
‘I—’
He didn’t get a chance to say whatever it was he was going to say. There were people—bankers, a couple of technicians. All chorusing his name.
‘Alex!’
Dani knew when to make the most of an opportunity. Her legs might be short but she could move them quickly. And, breathless though she was, she had a huge hit of adrenalin to see her through. Energy was an inferno inside her roaring for release. Her high heels clipped on the polished floor. As she exited through the big glass door she glanced back. He was still caught talking to the group. Frowning this time, no smile. And he glanced up frequently, tracking her, she knew. Sparkling light tumbled from his eyes towards her. She walked faster. Pulled her mobile from the bag that miraculously was still slung over her shoulder. She’d phone the agency. Find another job. Snogging the boss was so not allowed. But it wasn’t her flouting of that convention that made her move so fast. It was the fear of that bottomless need he’d uncovered. And the truth that she was desperately trying to ignore: it hadn’t been a snog, it had been heaven.
Alex lifted the cup and sipped—yick. He might be sprawled in a big chair in the first-class club but the coffee was still thin, airport dross. He glanced at his laptop on the table beside him. The screen saver had been dancing for a good twenty minutes now—hiding the report he should have finished already. But focus had been impossible when distraction had such curves. He should be working. And if he wasn’t working he should be worrying about Patrick’s bombshell last week and the horrendous ramifications of those test results. He should be dealing with it.
Instead he was indulging in a wicked fantasy and debating how he was going to turn it into reality. There simply had to be more—wrong though it was. But those minutes in the elevator with that petite temp had been magic, and not anywhere near enough. Since when did he start kissing random women in elevators? Especially an employee? Just because she’d been nervous?
Well, it had seemed like a good way of distracting her at the time. And himself. But that irresistible distraction had turned searingly, mind-blowingly incredible—how was he going to ensure he got more?
His mobile chimed. Lorenzo. Alex answered promptly. ‘Hey.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Sydney Airport.’
‘Man, you’re hardly ever home these days.’
Alex sighed. ‘I know. Just waiting for the flight back.’
He’d arranged this business trip after Patrick had called out of the blue. After years of only occasional correspondence, he’d rung to tell him the ‘truth’—thirty years too late. At first Alex hadn’t believed him, had insisted on the tests. It had only taken twenty-four hours. After seeing it in black-and-white he’d had to get away. He could have done the deal with conference calls, but he’d used it to avoid everyone for a few days. But now the job was done and he was aching to get back to Auckland. He had unfinished business to tend to and it wasn’t the paternity nightmare.
‘There’s something you’ve got to see.’
Alex sat up, registering the thread of tension in Lorenzo’s usually dry-humoured tones. Instinctively he pressed the phone closer to his ear to catch the nuances better. ‘What is it?’
‘You need to see it. I’ve sent you the link. You should have it now.’
He reached out and tapped a couple of buttons on the laptop, Lorenzo’s email opened up and he grimaced—a YouTube video. ‘Its not some stupid joke, is it?’
‘I don’t think so.’ For once Lorenzo actually sounded unsure.
‘Not porn?’ He might be the boss, but the ‘inappropriate use of office computers’ clause applied to him too.
‘Uh, well, I don’t think so.’ There was a laugh now. ‘Just watch it, Alex.’
He read the title ‘Get Stuck, Get Snogged—is this the hottest kiss ever?’ and groaned. ‘Lorenzo, it is porn.’
‘Just watch it.’
He clicked on the play button and waited a moment for it to load. Turned the speaker up a touch on his computer and frowned at the poor quality of the picture on screen. It was black-and-white. And then he recognised what that small space was—an elevator. And then someone walked into it. And as if he was were trapped in it again, freefalling, his stomach dropped.
Hell.
That awful music hadn’t been playing. Muzak didn’t play in the lifts at all; no point when they whisked you up and down the many stories so fast—or at least they did if they weren’t faulty and hadn’t stopped between floors.
When that had happened, five days ago, it had been silent, save her breathing, which—despite her efforts to control it—had spiked. So whoever had lifted this footage had added a cheesy soundtrack—rich, melted chocolate, ‘in the mood’ kind of music. It didn’t fit.
He leant closer to the screen as she waited in the lift. Her face was clear in the frame, and now so was his as he stood side on, until he turned and faced her. She didn’t look nervous in this, but up close she’d been shaking like a leaf. Their mouths were moving, but the security camera recorded images, not sound. Even so, he knew exactly what was being said. He’d replayed that too-brief exchange a million times every sleepless night since.
And he knew her face too well. He’d been prowling the floor more than usual just to get a glimpse after spotting her in the open-plan office on Monday. Her glossy black bob with the too-long fringe had caught his eye, and then her oh-so-professional man-style shirts hinted at the most luscious curves.The last thing he should be doing was chasing skirt—walking through the office a zillion times a day on the lamest of excuses. But while waiting on those blood results he’d been only too happy to be distracted. For five minutes he hadn’t wanted to think at all. So he hadn’t. And the moment he’d touched her, all remaining rational thought had fled. Her shape was more wicked than he’d suspected—slim, soft, devastatingly curvaceous. It hadn’t taken much effort at all to lift her against the back wall of the elevator, raising her high enough so her eyes were almost level with his. Beautiful big brown eyes burnished with a caramel gold—and filled with a challenge he’d been utterly unable to resist. He’d been thinking about what she’d feel like in his arms—dreaming of her curves spilling into his hands. Damn it, he was still dreaming of that.
Alex blinked, came out of the haze and watched, seeing now what he’d felt so gloriously at the time. His back was to the camera but you could see her face as he kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck. Her eyes were closed, her hands caressed his shoulders, his hair. Passionate. Beautiful. And then came the moment, her legs parted, wrapped around his waist and his body reacted now as it had then. Instantly hardening, instantly burning, insisting on getting closer.
And then the bloody lift moved. It had been over far too quickly.
‘You’re watching it again, aren’t you?’
Alex flinched. Hell, he’d forgotten Lorenzo was still on the phone. He’d forgotten he was sitting in an airport lounge. Fortunately it was a midweek red-eye flight and the other patrons were too busy slurping the rotten coffee to pay any attention to him.
‘It looks pretty good,’ Lorenzo added blandly. ‘You’re getting some star ratings.’
Alex scrolled down, read the first few comments and felt his face fire up like some mortified teen caught making out with his first girlfriend—by his grandma.
‘Who is she?’ Lorenzo might sound indifferent, but Alex knew his friend was as agog as he got.
‘I don’t know.’
‘What do you mean you don’t know?’
‘She’s a temp. Started last week. I don’t know her name.’
Lorenzo’s chuckle didn’t help. ‘Well, you better find out—this thing is doing the rounds of every inbox in the office.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Wish I was, but I’ve been sent it three times already this morning—and once from a colleague in Hong Kong.’
Anger surged into Alex’s veins. He didn’t need this and she didn’t deserve it. It had been a whim—a crazy, lusty whim and one right on the edge of his code. Alex Carlisle never seduced temps or coworkers—too messy. Especially given he was the boss. But the irresistible force of her had felled him. And was still affecting him—wasn’t that why he was sitting here now doing nothing? Despite having been up for hours he hadn’t achieved a thing because he was too busy plotting how he could get close to her again as soon as he got back to Auckland. How did he do it without breaking his own rules?
‘What would your old man say?’ Lorenzo laughed again. ‘Screwing around in the office, Alex, bad you.’
Alex iced over and pressed pause on the playback. He hadn’t told Lorenzo what he’d found out. It was proved—the chance of the DNA results being wrong were so tiny no lawyer in the land would dare argue it. Samuel Carlisle wasn’t Alex’s father. Instead it was his best friend who’d supplied the necessary chromosomes. The friend who’d been on the periphery of Alex’s childhood—the honorary uncle, the godfather figure—hell, he’d even been the one to offer advice when Alex had doubted whether he’d wanted to go into the family business.
‘You’re a Carlisle—it’s in your blood.’
Patrick had lied so easily.
Alex had found out only a few years after that that Samuel couldn’t be his biological father. When illness had struck, Alex had offered his body, his blood. But it didn’t match Samuel’s—at all. His mother had begged him not to tell, but she’d refused to say who his real father was. She’d taken that secret to the grave with her.
Alex couldn’t then ask Samuel—couldn’t destroy his last years. But Alex had been burnt through from the inside out by the betrayal. Anger, resentment had festered, his trust severed. And in the quiet dark hours the unanswered question had tormented him.
But now he knew. Patrick had been her lover. Patrick had fathered her child. The pair of them had lied for years to the man she was married to. They’d lied to him, their son.
And Alex would never forgive either of them for it.
He needed time before he could speak of it—even to his best friend. But before he got to that, there was now this situation to be sorted.
He forced out a half-laugh as he looked at the image on screen. Caught out the one time he went base at work. Just the icing on the way the last week had gone.
‘I’m flying back shortly. Meet me at my place this afternoon.’ He hung up before Lorenzo could say more. Stared at the way her hands threaded through his hair and her legs clamped round his waist.
The anger simmering beneath his skin spiked through. He wished he could storm into Security, find the culprits and fire them on the spot. Every single one of them. But going on the hunt would only inflame the situation. He’d have to make do with a memo reminding them of the ‘Use of Internet’ policy. He couldn’t get rid of them—at least, not yet.
Damn.
The other person he couldn’t sack was her—straight to litigation that would be. But it was going to be pretty messy with everyone in the office watching this little number. How was he going to protect her?
He didn’t even know her name.
CHAPTER TWO
DANI wondered what it was she’d done wrong. She’d been temping here for over a week and until today they’d all been polite and friendly. All except Mr Alex Carlisle, that was. But she wasn’t thinking about him. Definitely not fixated on what had to have been the craziest few minutes of her life. She’d forget it. He obviously had, because she hadn’t seen him since—he’d disappeared from the floor, hadn’t been down loitering by the managers’ desks at all since The Lift. She refused to acknowledge the sting she felt over that. And she hadn’t been able to swap to a placement with another company; there were no other placements—none that lasted as long and paid the same kind of money. So, embarrassed or not, she was here to stay.
But the looks she was getting from everyone else today. The number of people that had filed past her desk…and they’d all been rubbernecking. There was no way they could know what had happened. He wouldn’t have told anyone, would he?
Maybe she had half her breakfast on her face. She ducked behind her computer screen and used a tissue. Surely they didn’t know. How could they? They’d been alone. It hadn’t been long—not nearly long enough for her starved hormones—only a few minutes. They’d been a metre apart when those lift doors opened because he’d been aware enough to move. She hadn’t. So, given that he’d moved, he hadn’t wanted them to be caught. Therefore, Dani reasoned, they couldn’t know and she was just feeling paranoid. Besides, it was days ago now. And she. Had. Forgotten. It.
But there was an unnatural awareness about the place. She could feel them all watching her. And she couldn’t help but think of him again. She’d been told he had a way with women, but she hadn’t realised he had more pulling power than the sun.
She couldn’t put all the responsibility on him, though, could she—hadn’t she deliberately lifted her chin at him? Hadn’t she deliberately looked him over as he had her? Hadn’t she widened her stance—preparing for battle but also preparing for contact?
She had. And she hadn’t exactly given him a cool, back-off response. She’d enjoyed every second of it, far more than she’d thought it was possible to enjoy a kiss. And that was terrifying. To want like that made you weak.
The office stirred, as if an invisible wave were working its way through. She glanced over her screen. Not invisible. This was a tidal wave and she was in its path—for that was the HR dragon, wasn’t it, heading straight for her?
‘Danielle? Could you come with me, please?’
For some reason a power-that-be like her could make Dani feel guilty just by the way she said her name. But Dani hadn’t done anything wrong. OK, she hadn’t been quite at her usual output level, but she hadn’t been bad. Something was definitely up. She was aware of the sudden stillness in the office—no one was talking, no one was moving. They were all, she realised, watching her. She lifted her head that little bit higher—don’t show weakness.
‘Shall we take the lift?’ The dragon seemed to have a gleam in her eyes.
No way could she know about the lift. Could she? ‘I’d prefer the stairs,’ Dani answered quietly.
That was definitely a smirk. Quickly covered, but it had flashed in her eyes and on the edges of her mouth. Then there was nothing—just chilly silence all the way up the stairs to the executive level, even heavier silence in the corridor, only when the door closed behind her as she entered the woman’s office was there the slightest noise. She wasn’t invited to sit down. The woman just turned and spoke.
‘I’m sorry but your recruitment agency has been in touch. Apparently there is a problem with your file.’
‘A problem?’ What kind of problem? Dani’s blood ran cold. Surely it wasn’t about her father. She’d passed bank security clearances in Australia despite his record. They’d investigated and known it was nothing to do with her—that she’d been a victim as much as the others he’d ripped off. But maybe in New Zealand they had different rules?
‘I’m not entirely sure—you’ll need to talk to your agent about that. However—’ the woman was robot-like ‘—it means we’re unable to have you working here any longer.’
‘What?’ She couldn’t lose this job. She just couldn’t. She was down to her last dollars. Literally—her last fifty or so. She’d come over too soon, hadn’t saved enough, but she’d been so lonely and so desperate to find him. She’d waited long enough—so had he.
‘The agency has the money for the days you’ve already worked this week. If you go and see them, you’ll be able to collect it.’ Her tone was utterly dismissive. Final.
‘I’m to go now?’ Dani gaped.
‘Yes. Gather your belongings and leave immediately.’
Dani clocked the woman’s impassivity. Wow—how could she ruin someone’s life and look so uncaring?
She turned and left the room, tightening every muscle hard to stop the trembling from being visible. She walked back down the empty corridor to the stairs. This just couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. Her paperwork was totally fine; she was sure of it. When she’d registered with the agency they’d been pleased with her qualifications and experience. So, there was no problem—unless someone had taken a dislike to her?
Someone important?
She stopped. Swallowed. Turned and walked back—all the way to the corner office and to the fiftysomething woman sitting guard-like outside the sanctum.
‘Is Mr Carlisle in?’ Despite her determination it was only a whisper that sounded.
‘He’s overseas,’ his PA answered crisply.
How convenient. Dani’s suspicions grew, edging out the anxiety. ‘When is he back?’
The PA lifted her head and looked at her. Behind the oldschool librarian glasses she seemed to be reading her for a long moment before her lashes dropped. ‘I believe he’s due back here early this afternoon.’
And she’d be gone by then. Doubly convenient.
No way was this a coincidence. He didn’t want to be embarrassed at work—was that it? Had she been so all over him he was trying to get rid an awkward situation before it got even more complicated? What was he afraid of—that she’d go psycho stalker on him?
She turned on the spot and marched back down the stairs to her floor. She’d go straight to the agency and clear it up. She needed the money more than he needed a clearconscience office.
‘Hi, Danielle.’ One of the young bankers gave her a leery grin when she walked past him. He hadn’t spoken to her before. She caught the grins then swapping between him and some of the others. It had probably been a bet. She knew about boys and their bets—ones made at her expense.
She didn’t have the time or capacity to deal him even a cool look. Too busy trying to stomach the sick feeling. She’d been in the country less than a fortnight, was on the bones of her butt in terms of funds and now she’d just lost her job. And she needed to know why.
It only took two minutes to get her jacket from the back of her seat and the bag she’d tucked under the table. She logged off her computer.
She turned. The office was so quiet she would have heard her now ex-colleagues blinking—if they weren’t all staring totally bug eyed at her. Wow, the ones down the far end had actually risen out of their chairs to get a better look. What on earth was going on?
She tossed her head, determined to hide the freak-out thudding of her heart. So what if her cheeks were purple with embarrassment—she could still walk, right? OK, it was a run/walk to the door and after that she basically threw herself down the stairs, letting the adrenalin fly to her feet.
The recruitment agency was only a ten-minute walk away. Dani did it in seven. Red cheeked, breathless, trying to suck up the desperation pouring out of her.
Then she had to wait ten extra-long, make-you-sweat minutes.
‘What’s the problem with my file?’ Dani asked as soon as she was shown in.
‘There are a couple of issues.’ The agent wouldn’t look her in the eye. ‘One is misconduct.’
Misconduct? Dani frowned, that she hadn’t expected. ‘What kind of misconduct?’
The woman smiled then—it wasn’t a kind smile. ‘Have you seen this?’ She angled her computer screen so Dani could see it.
Dani gripped her bag, pushing it hard on her lap as she waited for the clip to start playing. Why was she being shown a vid on YouTube? What was this all about?
She squinted at the black-and-white grainy images. Oh, no. It couldn’t be.
Not her.
Not him.
OMG—it was! Alex Carlisle and her, Dani Russo, locking lips in that damn lift. Oh, more than locking lips. There was neck kissing, and touching and moving.
Heat prickled all over her body. From every pore popped a painful drop of blood. How had this happened? This just had to be a joke. Was she in a reality TV show and she didn’t know it?
‘Where did you get that?’ she whispered, knowing she was damned.
‘It was emailed to us. I believe it’s been circulated around the company already.’
So that explained the staring, then. The embarrassment engulfed her, swamping the spark of anger she’d felt before.
The agent didn’t stop the clip playing, just sat blandly waiting. Three and a half minutes of absolute agony. Dani couldn’t look away from the screen. Had they been so passionate? Had she really jumped on him like that? Had she been so hungry? And what was that awful music?
Not going to cry. Not going to cry.
She hadn’t in years. And she wouldn’t, not ‘til she was alone.
Finally it ended. Dani couldn’t look at the woman.
‘But this isn’t why we’re unable to place you in another position.’
Dani didn’t understand. ‘Pardon?’ Still shocked.
‘This was obviously a mistake and an embarrassing one, but we can deal with it with a simple warning.’ The agent couldn’t be crisper. ‘Not on work time, not on work premises. Understand?’
Dani just nodded. Still unable to process what she’d just seen—they’d been filmed? How was that possible?
‘The reason we’ve had to pull you from the job is because we haven’t been able to get your school records verified.’
Dani jerked. Her school records? How were they relevant? She had banking qualifications that totally surpassed her achievements at school. Plus she had her security clearance from the Australian bank she’d worked at for the last three years—surely that was far more important than verifying her school-leaver’s certificate?
‘I can call the school,’ she said. ‘I can get them to fax whatever you need.’
‘No, that’s fine. We’ll keep trying.’ The woman smiled sharply. ‘But until we do get it, we can’t put you into another placement.’
It was then that Dani knew and understood. They weren’t trying to contact the school; even if they did there would be some other obstacle that would arise. This was about that video—her fooling with the boss and getting caught. The school-records thing was an excuse. The walls were up. Her anger surged then, pushing back the embarrassment. ‘I can go to other agencies?’
‘Of course.’ The woman smiled. ‘But you might encounter the same problem.’
Dani looked at the computer screen again. Yeah, that was the real problem. She could see how many hits the clip had had. Too many just to be the bank staff and this agency—even if they had watched it over and over as she was quite sure some of those sleazy bankers had. No, this one had been doing the rounds; it would be a source of great amusement for anyone in the industries—both finance and recruitment. Alex Carlisle proving his legendary swordsman status with a temp at work.
There was nothing for it but to make a dignified exit. No way could she win this battle here and now. She needed to withdraw and come up with some kind of strategy.
She stood, stuck a small smile on her numb face. ‘Thank you for letting me know. Please get in touch when you get my record confirmed. I’d like to get working as soon as I can.’
‘Of course.’ The agent stood and saw her to the door.
It was a complete fiction. They both knew they were never going to talk to each other again.
‘You can collect your wages for the last couple of days from Reception.’
Dani made for the nearest café and ordered the biggest blackest coffee they made. She closed her eyes. The money she had would last less than a week. Her whole aim had been to work while she hunted because she hadn’t wanted to wait any longer before trying to find him. But she had to be able to eat—to pay for her accommodation, and to pay for the search. How on earth was she going to find Eli now? How was she going to keep the promise she’d made to her mum?
It had been her final request—she’d given up that precious secret only in her last few days and it was the one last thing Dani could do for her. Dani wanted to honour that promise more than she wanted to do anything. And if she found him, it would be like having a part of her mother back.
She called a different agency. Then another. But once she’d told them the kind of work she wanted, then told them her name, the ‘our books are full’ line got handed to her. Was she going to have to move cities to get another job? She didn’t even have the bus fare, and the best finance jobs for her were here. Or they had been. Now she was screwed.
Her anger fired even higher. What about Alex Carlisle? What about his misconduct? Had he been given a ‘warning’—she bet there was no way he’d have got the sack. Oh, no—he’d just ensured he had a peaceful work environment again. She wasn’t around to embarrass him anymore.
There was one person responsible for this. One person who owed her. One person who was going to pay.
Alex Carlisle was getting the bill.
‘Kelly, I need you.’ Alex called his PA into his office. ‘The temp who was working on the Huntsman project last week—’ He broke off. His super-efficient PA had a touch more colour to her cheeks than usual. But her brows lifted as if she were vaguely mystified.
As if.
‘Temp?’
‘Yes. Short, brunette bob.’ Alex winced, hating to have to reveal that he didn’t know her name. He watched Kelly’s lips purse and sighed, frustrated. ‘You’ve seen the clip, haven’t you?’ Now he felt his cheeks heating.
Kelly dropped the ‘no idea’ look and nodded. ‘Yes. She no longer works here.’
‘How come she’s no longer working here? That project is months off completion.’ Alex found he couldn’t meet Kelly’s eyes. Hell, what a mess. He’d never compromised himself at work like this. Socially for sure—he liked to play. But not at work. Kelly had worked for this company for more years than he’d been alive. She’d worked with Samuel, and his father before him. A Carlisle loyalist. There was nothing in the business that she didn’t know. Alex remembered her giving him paper as a kid to entertain him while he waited for Samuel and him making darts to shoot at people walking past. The severe look she was giving him now wasn’t so different from the one she’d given him then.
‘I know,’ Kelly said quietly. ‘But there’s a new temp now.’
Alex looked at her then, hearing the soberness in her voice. He didn’t like the censure in her eyes, either. ‘I think you’d better send Jo to see me.’
Kelly disappeared and Jo, the head of HR, was knocking at his door in less than a minute. Alex walked over to meet her. ‘The temp that we had working on the Huntsman project last week—where is she?’
Jo looked distinctly uncomfortable. ‘The temp?’
‘Yes,’ he growled. ‘You know the one I mean.’
‘Yes.’ Of course she did. ‘Her services were no longer required.’
‘But there’s a new temp out there now.’ He’d walked through the floor as soon as he’d got in, run the gauntlet of knowing looks and smiles only to be completely disappointed when it had been some blonde at the desk and not the little brunette who’d been haunting him for days. ‘So why did you get rid of the other one? On whose authority? For what reason?’ He rapped out the questions, the nasty feeling in his gut growing.
Jo looked even more uncomfortable. ‘It was the recruitment agency. They phoned and said they’d made a mistake with her file. They hadn’t been able to verify her school qualifications so they pulled her.’
Alex stared at her, anger churning. ‘So she’s no longer working for the agency?’
‘No. I don’t believe she is.’
It was his turn to take a deep breath—he had to force his jaw apart to do it. ‘They couldn’t verify her school qualifications?’ Alex shook his head. ‘But we had security clearance for her? And proof of her banking exams?’
‘Yes.’
So the records meant diddly, then. If she had her banking qualifications, then they didn’t need to verify any other records—she couldn’t have got the bank ones if she hadn’t had the school ones. It was a trumped up excuse to get rid of her.
‘So it wouldn’t have had anything to do with this?’ He strode to his desk and spun his computer screen round so the image he’d paused it on was viewable from her side of the room.
His head of HR went beet red.
Alex leaned back on his desk and folded his arms, hiding the fists. ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it. Everyone in the office has seen it. Haven’t they?’
Jo nodded.
‘And now you’re telling me she’s been removed for the most flimsy of reasons.’
‘We’re covered, Alex. It was the agency who removed her. Her dismissal had nothing to do with this…incident.’
Alex stared at her, unable to believe his ears. Like hell it didn’t. She’d done nothing wrong. She shouldn’t have lost her job. His fists bunched tighter.
‘Does she have another job?’ He could only hope she had a better one.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Then you better phone the agency and find out,’ he growled—he was not going to be able to rest until he knew. The job market was horrendous at the moment. That meant the temp market was even more vicious.
‘Excuse me, Alex.’ Kelly came back in, shutting the door fast behind her and stepping forward. ‘I have someone outside insisting on seeing you.’
‘Who is it?’ Alex asked crossly. ‘I don’t want interruptions now, Kelly.’
‘I know you don’t. But this one is different. It’s her.’
‘Who?’
‘That temp.’
Alex froze. ‘She’s here?’
Kelly nodded.
‘Now?’ The ripple that ran through his body was pure testosterone. ‘You. Out,’ he barked at Jo.
She was out of there faster than a condemned prisoner getting a last-minute reprieve. But Alex was the one feeling the edge of desperation. He turned to the woman who knew more about what went on in the building than anyone. ‘Kelly, please, what’s her name?’
Kelly looked up at him through her half-glasses, her face as impassive and composed as always. When she finally answered, it was with marked deliberation. ‘You really ought to know that already.’ Then she left.
Alex stared at the door and wondered how on earth he was going to get away with it.
Dani perched on the edge of the chair—the one nearest to the exit. She shouldn’t have come. What was she doing back here? Sweating for one thing and she was all shaky inside, as if it wouldn’t take much for tears to sting. She couldn’t let that happen—getting all emo was one sure way to come off the loser. She blinked and went rigid as the hideous HR dragon appeared from his office. She glanced at Dani but made no acknowledgement as she swept past. That was it—Dani was leaving. What had possessed her to attempt this? Oh, yeah, desperation.
Now the PA was standing in front of her. ‘Mr Carlisle will see you now.’
Mr Carlisle. She swallowed, tried to quell the fluttering inside, told herself she had no need for nerves. But the moment before the door opened she had a second, a sliver of a second, when she thought she’d really rather die.
She pushed through, went in and it happened as it had all the last week. The large hand gripped her heart and squeezed, stopping the beat for two seconds too long, while lower in her belly someone switched on the heater.
He was in a suit. It was immaculate. He wasn’t smiling.
But he was still brain-zappingly gorgeous and she was as bad as the thousand other women who fell at his feet—breathless, bedazzled. She tried to clear her mind of the clutter, to quell the hormones shrieking at her. Think Zen. Think power.
‘Thanks, Kelly.’
Dani heard the door click. So it was shut. So they were alone.
He wasn’t behind his desk; instead he stood on her side of it, in the middle of the room. ‘My name is—’
‘I know who you are.’
Their eyes met. His face was expressionless. But she knew he was remembering the moment after the last time she’d said that, just as she was. That time the spark in his eye had surprised her. The oh-so-relaxed boss, the charming playboy, had looked bitter for a half-second. She’d spent all that night wondering why—in between reliving the heat.
‘Please sit down.’ Quiet, firm and with that underlying note of authority.
Her legs moved towards the chairs without her instruction—just following his order. She seemed to have swallowed her tongue. Every sentence, the whole spiel she’d rehearsed as she’d steamed her way over here, had fled from her head. Mute, mindless, she was like some star-struck fan meeting her pin-up hottie in the flesh for the first time.
And then she saw it.
Every word, every angry thought, all of it came ripping back. She inhaled, trying to hold back enough to be able to tackle him with controlled fury rather than blind rage. Even so, she spat the words. ‘Enjoying it?’
‘What?’
‘Your little home movie.’ She pointed.
They were plastered across the screen. Her legs around his waist. Their tongues so entwined it was a wonder they’d ever managed to pull themselves free.
And he was watching it? Had spun the screen round so it was visible from right across the room?
As if the HR woman had just come to give him his warning—she’d come for a laugh, more like. Dani nearly choked on the rage that reddened her vision. Her face was so hot she was probably casting a glow into outer space. But that was nothing on the churning mass of fire in her belly. ‘Why are you watching it?’
He hadn’t known she was coming to see him. She’d only finally made her mind up as she’d walked past the building—had been regretting it all the five minutes since. She couldn’t believe the whole nightmare. ‘How did it happen?’
‘What?’ He took the seat next to hers. ‘The kiss or the recording?’ His mouth lifted at one end in a small smile.
She wasn’t in the mood for seeing any kind of funny side—he wasn’t going to defuse her with his attempt at good humour. ‘The recording.’
‘There are security cameras in all the lifts. Someone saw us, clipped the footage and put it up. As I think you know, it’s been doing the rounds.’
‘Yes, the viral video du jour,’ she said bitterly. ‘Was it a joke? Did you set it up for fun?’
‘Of course not.’ He went rigid. ‘I’m the CEO of a large finance company. I think I have better things to do with my time than indulge in stupid pranks like this.’
He held her gaze a minute longer. Assessing. She withstood the scrutiny, tilting her chin that little higher. Refusing to be intimidated.
‘Where have you been these last few days?’ Assertive, that was how she’d be.
‘Overseas.’
‘How convenient for you—out of the country while the temp gets the boot and then can’t find another job in the whole city.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Give me my job back.’
He shook his head. ‘Impossible.’
‘How so?’
‘You think you could sit there knowing they’ve all watched me kiss you like that?’
Kiss you. The words seemed to whisper over her skin, teasing her into greater awareness. She shifted in her seat, resettling her limbs in an attempt to stay in charge of them—and the whole nightmare. ‘It was only a kiss, Mr Carlisle. It was nothing.’ She shrugged.
His brows lifted for a second. ‘You’re not going back out there.’
Damn it, she needed this job. ‘It was a moment. That’s all it was. So some geek with nothing better to do made a mini movie with it. Not my fault.’
‘You are not working on that floor again.’
‘You’re not understanding me. I need this job.’
‘And I’m saying it’s not going to happen.’
‘Do you know what this is? Unfair dismissal. Sexual harassment.’
‘That was not sexual harassment.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘You kissed me back. You wrapped your legs around me all by yourself.’
‘But because of that video, I lost my job and I need my job. Because of that video, I can’t get another. The world of recruitment agencies is really small here in Auckland, do you know that? The agents all know each other, all swap from company to company. And they send each other emails. Would you believe that?’ Dani inhaled. ‘That stupid kiss has cost me everything and I can’t let it. How come you get to sit here in your fancy office and suffer none of the consequences while my life gets totalled?’ She stood. ‘It’s not happening. This is unfair and I’ll prove it’s unfair. I’m going to a lawyer—see if you can say “impossible” to a court!’
She whirled and marched. She had no idea where to find a lawyer, whether she really did have a case, and she certainly didn’t have the money to pay for it but she was bloody well going to find it somehow.
She opened the door but it was slammed shut again—his big hand spread wide on the wood above her head and firmly holding it in place.
‘You don’t shout at me and walk out without giving me a chance to respond.’
‘Watch me.’ She pulled on the door handle with all her strength. It didn’t move.
‘This is what happens. We talk. We negotiate. You’re not leaving until you’ve let me think of an alternative.’
She turned to glare at him and discovered he was way too close. Right beside her, so all she could see was his body—the jacket of his suit pulled wide by the way his arm was stretched out, revealing the breadth of his chest in the crisp white cotton beneath. His physicality was so potent, all she could feel was the warmth of him reaching out to her. The temptation to step closer was almost crippling—and totally wrong, wrong, wrong.
‘What kind of alternative?’ The woolly feeling was seeping into her head. She lifted her chin to be able to look into his face and the brain lethargy only worsened. His eyes were looking very green.
‘Sit back down and I’ll explain. If you want we can get my HR manager to sit in on the meeting.’
Reality returned with acute vividness. That cow? ‘That won’t be necessary.’
His lips twitched. ‘My PA, then.’
Nope, not the boarding-school matron, either. ‘Look, you and I both know that if you lay a hand on me, I’ll be screaming the place down.’
His face suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree and his smile went so wicked she wouldn’t have been surprised if he had a doorway to a den of sin hidden behind his desk. Or maybe that was wishful thinking—because when he looked like that all she could think about was bad, bad behaviour. Then she mentally replayed what she’d said and suddenly felt a need to clarify. ‘Screaming in horror.’
‘Ri-i-ight.’ He nodded as if she were a delusional diva he had to humour. ‘All outrage rather than ecstasy.’
She opened her mouth but before she’d thought of a comeback he’d lifted his hand from the door, and was holding it and the other up in the ‘don’t shoot’ position, his mouth in a smile too cheeky to resist.
He’d be dead if her eyes had ammo. Sadly her eyes were too busy gobbling up the gorgeousness before her to execute the death look. Her failing brain managed one last attempt to control the weakening of her body and she tried the door again. It still didn’t move. She glanced down. His foot was jammed against it.
‘I really have been overseas. I left the afternoon we were in the lift. The trip was unavoidable. I expected to see you when I got back. To talk to you.’ His hands had dropped to his hips. She couldn’t stop looking at his long fingers.
‘What were you going to say?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ His fingers curled into fists. ‘What matters is that I found out about the clip this morning and I found out about you being dismissed two minutes ago.’
She took a step back from the door so she could look into his face from a safer distance. ‘You didn’t know?’ He hadn’t ordered it?
‘No. The clip was taken from the security camera in the lift. I don’t know who did it yet, but when I find out you can be certain that that person will be in danger of dismissal.’
That sharp edge sliced back into his eyes for a second. She wanted it to stay—wanted him to truly understand the impact. ‘It’s had hundreds of hits. It got sent to the agency. I got a warning for it but by some great coincidence they can’t complete the necessary verification on my paperwork.’ Shaking her head, she walked into the middle of the room—the greater the distance between them, the better she could think.
‘I know.’
‘So what are you going to do?’ It wasn’t the unfairness of the ramifications that had brought her here, it was that she needed help and had nowhere else to turn. And she hated it.
‘I’m not sure yet.’
That wasn’t good enough. She spun and saw the wicked smile was back on his face. He thought this was funny? He still didn’t get how serious it was for her? She walked back to stand right in front of him, whipping the words out.
‘Thanks to you I have no job and no hope of getting another one. Thanks to you I am flat broke. I’m in a strange country, I don’t know anyone and suddenly I’m starring in some local sex clip and all you want to do is laugh it off.’ Breathing hard, she glared at him—her eyes filled with the ammo they’d lacked before.
His grin was wiped. ‘I don’t think it’s funny.’
‘Oh, really? So that’s why you’re smiling like some satyr and watching replays like it’s the joke of the century.’
‘It wasn’t a joke.’ His eyes bored into hers so intently she couldn’t move. His face hardened in the long seconds of silence. She sensed the rest of him becoming tense too—his body sending such strong vibes of tightly leashed energy that she could feel them pressing on her.
For a second her instinct screamed at her to run, but just as fast the urge was squashed. Other urges began to surge instead—and she needed a strong leash of her own to control them. Her whole body was aware of him, her whole focus was on him. His gaze dropped to her mouth and she felt it like a physical touch. He was remembering—as was she, and the fire arcing between them threatened to burn through her control. But she wasn’t going to let this raging attraction muck up more of her life. She wasn’t going to lose the little credibility she had left by letting it happen again.
She made her body move—away—a few steps back towards the door.
‘You really can’t get another job?’ His voice sounded rusty.
‘You really think I’d be here if I could?’
His brows drew closer as he regarded her. The angles of his face became more pronounced. Suddenly, sharply, he moved. Walking to the window, he glared through it—she figured the glass would melt in moments if he still had that heat in his eyes.
‘I might have another job for you. But not here. I don’t think that’s something you or I or anyone would be comfortable with.’ He turned. It seemed he’d taken the time to ice over, for his face was schooled into blandness. ‘Look, let’s get out of here and go talk somewhere more relaxed.’
He opened the door and waited for her to pass through. Dani hesitated—relaxed might be a really bad idea. But if he could do cucumber cool, surely she could do better than melting jelly.
CHAPTER THREE
DANI kept three feet behind Alex as he strode past the PA.
‘Please cancel that last appointment and take messages, Kelly. I’m out for the rest of the afternoon,’ he said without slowing his pace.
‘Certainly.’ No surprise, no questions. The PA gave Dani a coolly professional smile but Dani was still too rattled to be able to match it.
Alex glanced at the lift. ‘Shall we take the stairs?’
Dani was already at the door to them—hoped the PA hadn’t heard his question. He’d laced it with the faintest hint of irony and if Dani were to look at him now and see him smiling she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions—aggressive energy seemed to be bouncing round her body.
‘Where are you staying?’ He thudded downstairs swiping a security card to get them into the basement.
She gave him the name of the hostel and saw his frown appear.
‘You don’t know Auckland, do you?’ He sent her a sideways glance. ‘Because if you did, you’d know that’s in a really dodgy part of town.’
It was a cheap part of town.
He unlocked the car—sleek, attractive, outrageously powerful, just like its owner. Dani got into the passenger seat. In seconds they were out of the garage and driving down the congested inner-city streets in awkward silence—he’d quickly cut the music that had roared louder than the engine. Dani wished he’d kept it on—better to listen to that than the silence between them or the voice in her head telling her how much of a mess she was in. The weather had turned, the rain drizzling and dampening her spirits further.
‘Um…’ he was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel ‘…I…’
Dani waited, surprised by his sudden attack of the fidgets.
His fingers abruptly stopped their beat and gripped the wheel. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Your name.’ He kept his eyes on the road ahead. ‘I don’t know what it is.’
‘You don’t know my name?’ Stunned, Dani stared at him. ‘How can you not know my name?’
‘We never finished our introductions.’ His high cheekbones were streaked with slashes of colour. ‘I have a lot of employees.’
‘Oh, and I was just one of the temps.’ OK, so she was. But she hadn’t been just one of them—he’d kissed the hell out of her. She’d felt him and he had her—intimately. Or did he do that with all the girls? Anger roared through her again—vicious, wild anger. ‘You could have found out.’
‘I don’t use the HR files for personal reasons.’
‘No, you just use the temps.’
He braked sharply at the traffic lights. ‘I didn’t use you and you know it.’
Dani shook her head, stupidly hurt by his admission. ‘No, I don’t.’
She wanted to get out of the car and away from him right this second. It was beyond humiliating—she’d gone to him because she had nowhere else to go for help, using her anger to mask the hope that he’d actually feel some kind of responsibility. Buried right beneath everything had been the teeny, tiny hope that he might have actually liked her. What a fool. The whole thing had been so meaningless for him that he hadn’t even bothered to learn her name. He could have found out—his HR dragon or his oh-so-efficient PA could have told him. But he hadn’t asked—he hadn’t wanted to. So while she’d been blown away by that kiss, he hadn’t given it a second thought, other than to be a little annoyed about the resulting clip—or perhaps amused was what he’d been. But the video didn’t affect him the way it did her—all it did for him was enhance his reputation as some kind of playboy sex god. But for her it ruined everything—her prospects, her plans, her reputation. ‘You know something, Mr Carlisle, I don’t care how good a job you can offer me. I don’t want it.’
‘Look—’
‘I’m serious. You can drop me at the corner.’
The locks in the car clicked on. She shot him a venomous look.
‘I’ll take you to the hostel.’ He looked angry, which was so wrong because he was the one who had been insulting, not her.
They were almost at the hostel already—Dani recognised the landmarks. He must have intended to take her there anyway. So much for a conversation somewhere more relaxing—so much for the possibility of a different job.
She was out of the car as soon as he’d pulled over and released the locks, felt her tension yanking tighter when he got out of the car just as quick. ‘You don’t need to see me in.’
‘The least I can do is see you safely home.’ He glared at the hostel’s sign, his frown saying all that he thought about her home—all that he thought about her.
Dani marched up the stairs ahead of him, wishing he’d get the hint and just leave. But he was right behind her as she crossed the floor.
‘Excuse me,’ the receptionist called out to her. ‘Danielle Russo?’
Dani veered towards the desk. Alex got to the counter at the same time as her. So now he knew her name—way too late.
Dani lifted her brows at the woman behind the desk and managed an almost-smile—not able to trust that her voice wouldn’t be razor sharp if she asked if there was a problem.
‘We need you to pay for this week. It’s nothing personal—but we have had trouble with people leaving without paying and then their credit-cards not working. And, er—’ the receptionist looked at her notes ‘—we don’t seem to have credit card details for you.’
That was because Dani knew all about credit cards not working—and, worse, being abused. ‘I paid cash,’ she mumbled.
‘Great. Shall we settle it now, then?’
Dani swallowed. ‘I already paid for last week.’
‘I know.’ She looked apologetic. ‘But I now need payment for this week.’
Alex was like a statue next to her, listening to every word of the painful exchange. Could the day get any worse? Did he really have to be here to witness this last painful humiliation?
‘Um.’ Dani mumbled some more. ‘I’m waiting on my pay before I can do the next week.’
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Natalie Anderson
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: TO: All staff – Is this the hottest kiss you’ve ever seen?Finally our playboy boss plays around at work! Watch this steamy clip of Alex Carlisle getting down and dirty in the lift with the brand-new temp…Heart-throb Alex has recently been spotted prowling the office floor – is brunette bombshell Dani Russo the reason? From this sizzling encounter, we think so! Now Dani’s lost her job, and the office grapevine says our bad-boy boss has moved her into his bachelor pad and found her a job – but is an X-rated action replay on the cards?!Watch this space… Hot Under the Collar Naughty nights with the boss…