He’d arrived at the hotel even before she did, and with that one afternoon, they’d embarked upon a coworkers with benefits arrangement that never failed to leave her body satisfied and her mind free of relationship drama.
Her phone beeped. It was a text from Harrison with the travel agent’s name and phone number, and a reminder to send the name of the person who would be sharing her cabin.
Indina looked over at Griffin. He’d just put on a gingham blue dress shirt, but hadn’t bothered to button it up yet. Her mouth watered again at the expanse of exposed skin.
He looked up from the neckties he’d been contemplating.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Indina nodded and decided not to ask the question that had been on the tip of her tongue. Hadn’t she just acknowledged that what she and Griffin had going was perfect? Why would she jeopardize it by asking him to come with her on this damn cruise?
She slipped her dress over her head, then picked up her wristlet and keys from where she’d dropped them on the dresser.
In a real relationship this is where they would kiss each other goodbye. But this wasn’t a real relationship. It wasn’t how she and Griffin rolled.
And that was just fine with her.
“See you in a few hours,” Indina said, gripping the handle on the bedroom door. “I’ll lock the front door on my way out.”
“As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, our design balances both style and efficiency, all within the small footprint available for the new office complex,” the lead architect, Jason Leblanc, said as he rounded the table. He gestured to Griffin. “Next.”
Griffin pointed the remote at the miniature display model in the center of the conference room table and pressed the button. Images of people sitting in a glass-enclosed lobby projected onto the display’s stark white walls. It had been Indina’s idea to incorporate the projected images into the presentation, giving the officials from the city planning commission, along with the executives from his engineering firm, a virtual tour of the new state office building they were bidding on.
Months of work had gone into this project. If they landed it, it would be the largest contract Sykes-Wilcox Engineering had ever scored. Not only did it include building new government buildings in the city of New Orleans, but because it was in conjunction with the state, there would be projects all over south Louisiana.
Knowing that everything came down to this presentation should have been enough to force him to concentrate on what was being discussed around the table. Yet, Griffin’s mind continued to wander to the woman sitting at the far end of the conference room.
Indina sat with her hands folded on the table, her expression cool and collected. If she was still nervous, she was doing a kickass job hiding it. Not that Griffin expected anything different from her. When it came to her job, Indina’s mantra was never let them see you sweat. She was the consummate professional. It was sexy as hell.
As Jason finished up his portion of the presentation, he said, “I will now turn things over to my colleague, Indina Holmes, who will go into further detail about how we’ve incorporated sustainable environmentally-friendly interior design into the structure.”
As Indina rose from her seat, it took all Griffin had within him to focus on the words she was saying instead of that ridiculously gorgeous mouth. That mouth was more of a mystery to him than anything else. He’d only kissed it twice, and never for more than a couple of seconds. Yet he’d kissed other parts of her body untold times over the past eight months. In fact, just this morning her soft thighs had cushioned his head as he’d explored between her legs with his tongue.
Shit!
Griffin surreptitiously sucked in a swift breath. How in the hell was he supposed to think about anything else now?
“A key directive we received when we were presented with this project was to go green, and I’m proud to say that, once completed, this entire structure will not only reach current LEED gold-certified standards, but will surpass the code required by the Department of Energy. In fact, it will be one of the greenest buildings in the southeastern quadrant,” Indina said.
She nodded at him and Griffin clicked the remote again, illuminating another room on the 3-D model.
“One of the most ingenious aspects of the design is the on-site fitness center.”
“Wait a minute,” the commission member with the snowy Santa Claus beard interrupted. “An on-site fitness center? That’s a job perk that goes above and beyond what the city can or even should provide, don’t you think?”
“Not when you consider the number of days of lost productivity due to illnesses associated with obesity, diabetes and other diseases,” Indina said. “This on-site gym encourages a healthy lifestyle for government employees.
“But this is so much more than just a fitness center, ladies and gentlemen. The recumbent bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines all feed into the main power system. As employees exercise, they will also help to generate electricity for the building, thus saving the state money in the long run.”
That got everyone’s attention. Several of the people around the table sat up in their chairs and peered closer at the design.
“That’s genius,” the head of the city planning commission said.
“Thank our lead structural engineer. It was his idea.” Indina smiled at Griffin. “It’s all yours.”
“Thank you.” He winked at her as he walked to the head of the table where she’d been standing, then he closed out the presentation by wrapping up the points Indina and Jason had already made.
“You mind hitting the lights?” Griffin asked Jason.
He waited until their architect turned the lights in the conference room back on before concluding the
