A Baby for the Boss(9)

“Not how it looks from where I’m standing,” he muttered.

“Well that’s how I’m looking at it. So you can either deal or switch hotels with Sean.”

“You don’t make the calls in my business,” he pointed out, irritated that she could try and order him off his own damn project.

“Sean put me in charge of the art design,” she argued. “Not you. If you have a problem with that, talk to him.”

“I did.” He pushed one hand through his hair and started pacing, more to get away from the scent of her than because he needed to move. “But he doesn’t know what happened in Phoenix so he doesn’t get it.”

“So tell him,” she shot back. “If you’re so sure I’m a thief and untrustworthy, tell him and let him fire me.”

“I’m not telling him that I let myself get used by a woman who looks more like one of the fairies she paints than she does a damn spy.”

“Wow. Thief and spy,” she mused. “I’m really notorious, aren’t I?”

“Why the hell else would you come and work for my company if it wasn’t to be a spy for your uncle? You had to know that we’d be thrown together and clearly that thought didn’t bother you. The only answer I can come up with is you’re still trying to use me—now us, for your uncle’s sake.” That one question had been simmering inside his brain for months. Ever since the day he’d walked into the graphic design room and seen the woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about sitting at one of the computers.

Damn it, he wanted her to convince him he was wrong, that his thoughts were baseless. He wanted to know that she really was the woman she’d seemed to be when he first met her.

“Listen up, you unbelievably suspicious...man. I took that job in spite of you, not because of you. Sean offered me a great position doing something I’m damn good at and I should have turned it down because I might see you?”

“I don’t buy it. I think I’m the reason you took the job,” Mike said, his gaze spearing into hers from across the narrow room. “You were hoping to get me into bed again.”

Her head jerked back as if she’d been slapped. Gulping a deep breath, she muttered, “You pompous, arrogant... You know, sex with you wasn’t that good.”

He laughed shortly. “Now I know you’re lying. It’s amazing what a talent you have for it.”

“Get out,” she said flatly, holding up both hands toward him as if warding him off. “Just get out of my house and go away. Far, far away.”

Mike shook his head.

“That night we had was incredible,” he said. “And I know you felt the same way.”

“Please.”

His body churning, his brain racing, Mike stalked back to her, grabbed her and pulled her in close. “Since you asked so nicely...”

He kissed her, drowning in the taste and scent and feel of her. Not since that hot, amazing night in Phoenix had Mike felt so completely right about anything. She squirmed halfheartedly against him for a second or two, as if she might actually try to deny what was happening between them as thoroughly as she’d lied about their past.

But then the moment was gone, hesitation evaporated and she wrapped herself around him, arms locked about his neck, her short, shapely legs hooked around his waist. His hands dropped to the curve of her behind and held her there, tight against the erection straining and pulsing with the need to be buried inside her.

Had he known what would happen when he’d decided to come here tonight? Had he guessed that he wouldn’t be able to deny himself—as he had for months—the sheer glory of her body? Didn’t matter, he told himself as his tongue swept into the heat of her mouth. Nothing mattered but the now. The feel of her surrounding him, pulling him deeper.

No other woman had ever affected him like this. It was as if his brain and his body weren’t even linked. He knew this was a bad idea, but his body just didn’t give a damn. All it wanted...needed was her. One more night of being in her, on her, under her.

He tore his mouth free of hers, then shifted to taste her at the pulse beat in her throat. Her heart hammered in time with his own.

“Mike...” She sucked in a gulp of air and shivered in his arms when he nibbled at her skin. “We really shouldn’t do this—”

“Yeah, I know,” he whispered against her neck. “Do you care?”

“No.”

“Good.” His grip on her tightened and she ground her hips against him, her heels digging into the small of his back. He groaned and hissed in a breath. “You’re killin’ me here.”