Back In The Bedroom

damn bribe.”

She didn’t have to wonder at his edgy, unpredictable mood. As a rule, she was open to herself and all experiences and to other people being who they were. But in this case, he’d been manipulated, and a man like Reilly would hate that. Because of what happened the other night, she felt overwhelmingly conscious of him. He wasn’t bulky and he certainly didn’t come close enough to invade her space, but she felt an almost over-the-top awareness of him anyway. As if her every nerve ending had been exposed by just looking at him. A product of what she’d let him do to her. Begged him to do to her.

She knew why she was uncomfortable looking at him. He brought it all back-her neurotic behavior, the way she’d flung herself at him, everything. Oh, yes, she knew why her face was heating up even as she stood there.

But she didn’t understand what was bothering him. He had nothing to be ashamed of; he hadn’t thrown himself at her. And if it was about the work, she was a fine worker, a hard worker and a good person to boot, damn it. “I don’t understand, Reilly, why you’re so upset.”

He just stared at her with those light eyes that so easily hid his every thought.

“I mean, yes, Eddie was a little sneaky about sending me here without telling us, but you did request a temp, right?” She purposely looked through him instead of at him because looking at him directly was like looking straight into the sun. Beautiful and dangerous all in one. “Or is it because it’s…me?”

“It’s nothing personal,” he said. “I just work best with…a grumpy, old temp.” He propped his shoulder up against the door frame and folded his arms as he eyed her. “You’re not old and I doubt you have a grumpy bone in your entire body.”

Wait- Was there a compliment in there somewhere?

“Where’s Marge?” he asked. “I like Marge.”

“Marge is maybe fifty-five and one of the nicest people I know. Hardly old and grumpy.”

“She is when she’s here. She smells like mothballs and snaps my head off when I talk to her.”

“Maybe you bring out the worst in people,” Tessa suggested, feeling a little grumpy herself now. She moved toward the reception desk and dropped her purse next to the computer, phone and adding machine. She could see down the hall where there were four doors, all closed. Glass and brick dominated the office. Not a plant or a splash of color in the place that was cool and a bit reserved.

Apparently not unlike the man she was going to work for. She forced a smile. “In any case, it looks like you’re stuck with me. Where do I start?”

He just let out a long breath, his big body looking quite tense. Which actually made her mad. She made him tense? Ha! “Look, if it helps, I can be grumpy all day,” she offered. “Oh, and by the way, it’s really nice to see you again.”

That got him. He swore softly as he shoved his fingers through his short spiky hair, making it stick up all the more.

She had no idea how in the world she ever imagined this man had a secret beta side, but one thing she knew was that she’d let him see far too much of her when they’d been at Eddie’s house. Furthermore, she regretted finding him sexy, even for one little moment. She’d let him in, she’d shared some of herself and she regretted that, a lot. She’d…she’d let him kiss and touch her and she didn’t even really know him.

She didn’t usually do that sort of thing and knowing it had been the fright, the trauma, didn’t help. She just wanted to forget the whole thing and there was only one way to do that. Without pondering it further, she grabbed her purse. “Look, I don’t know why Eddie sent me over here without telling you, or me for that matter, but clearly, he made a mistake.” She went back through the glass doors toward the elevator, grateful that when she punched the down button, the doors opened immediately.

She stepped inside and hit the close button, which it did, also in a timely fashion. She waited until she heard the doors touch before she turned around to face them. Slowly she let out a breath, which halted in her throat when the elevator stopped on the fourth floor.

No matter what the little hitch in her heart told her, it wasn’t Reilly coming after her. Not even a superhero could have run down a flight of stairs that fast and besides, he wasn’t coming after her, he wanted her long gone.

A couple got on the elevator and it began to move again, far sooner than her heart rate returned to normal. Telling herself that she was fine, that she’d made the right decision, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Eddie’s office. She’d need a different job, pronto.

“Jeannie,” she said when Eddie’s secretary answered the phone. “Can you tell Eddie I need another assignment? This one didn’t work out after all.”

“Oh, dear,” Jeannie said. “Hold please.”

The elevator opened onto the lobby floor. The couple got off first, arm in arm, lost in each other’s eyes. Love you, the man mouthed to the woman as he drew her close and the woman let out a dreamy smile in response.

Something deep within Tessa tightened at the sight. What a lovely man, so incredibly over the moon for his lover. It touched her, watching him allow his every feeling to show.

That would be something, she thought with a little sigh, having a man let his every emotion show.

“Tessa.” Jeannie’s voice was replaced by Eddie’s in her ear. “What’s the matter with my idiot son?”

“Um…” This wasn’t a subject she wanted to touch with a ten-foot pole. “Well-”

“Because I already assigned everything else. There is no other job at the moment.”

“You don’t have anything else for me at all?” Her heart fell. She needed to work. “Are you sure?” She stepped off the elevator and ran smack into a solid brick wall of a body.

Reilly.

Mouth tight, his jaw bunching all sexylike- No, not sexy, she told herself. He was not sexy.

He gripped her shoulders in a firm grip. “Tessa.”

Had she said she wanted a man to show his every emotion for her? Because here was a man doing just that, unfortunately the emotions he felt toward her were quite different than the ones she’d envisioned.

“Tessa?” Eddie said in her ear through the cell phone. “You still there?”

“Yes.” She stared at Reilly. “Just call me when you have work.” She shoved the phone in her purse, deciding to deal with one worry at a time. “How did you get down here so fast?”

“Stairs.”

She eyed him. He would have had to haul ass down those five flights of stairs and yet he wasn’t so much as breathing heavily. “You know, you really don’t seem like an accountant to me.”

“That’s what I am.”

She eyed his black clothes, his intense eyes, his incredible stillness, which alluded to an edgy but undoubtedly dangerous air. She’d kissed this man, she’d touched this man and looking at him this morning horrified her because she still didn’t know who he was. “You look like you could be a bad guy.”

“We’ve already established I’m not.”

“Not a bad guy, then. A…Bond. That’s it, you look like a secret agent or something. It would explain the gun you carry.”

“You’ve got an overactive imagination.”

“Let me go, Reilly.”

He sighed, a sound that managed to perfectly convey his wistful thinking. “I can’t.”

“Of course you can, you just…let go.”

“Yes, but Eddie doesn’t seem to have anything else for you.”

“So?”

“So I won’t be the one responsible for you being out of work. Back upstairs.” Then he motivated her to step back onto the elevator by taking a single step toward her.

When he followed her in, he hit the fifth-floor button and crossed his arms, staring at the closed door, completely ignoring the fact she was staring at him.

When the doors opened on the fifth floor at his offices, he looked at her.

She looked right back.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“I don’t think so.”