All That He Wants(15)

At the end, he tossed the last file on Klaus’s desk and leaned back, his fingers steepled in front of his face as he thought.

I looked at him. He looked at me.

“I feel like a cappuccino. You feel like a cappuccino?” he asked.

“Uh… I guess I could go get some Starbucks if you want,” I agreed, feeling a little let down. I’d spent the first ten minutes of our acquaintance fielding passes from him, and the last thirty minutes playing Susie Secretary. Now I was demoted to Gidget Gopher.

“Screw that,” he said. “Last time I was here, there was a pretty nice machine up in the boardroom. Want to check it out?”

My heart caught in my chest.

Everton rented the penthouse of the building, on the 27th floor. That was where the Executive VP’s had their offices, and where they held all their meetings with multi-million-dollar clients.

Rather than answer the question, I tried to avoid it. “When were you here?”

“Oh, long before your august tenure at Everton began,” he teased. “So, what do you say?”

“I don’t have access to that.”

He held up a badge. Klaus’s badge. “I found this on your boss’s desk. I’m pretty sure he has access, doesn’t he?”

“I… I don’t think we should do that…”

“Oh, come on, live a little. Besides, you’re supposed to give me anything I want, remember? And right now, I want a cappuccino, and I want your company.”

My heart was thudding against the sides of my ribs.

A cappuccino in the company penthouse with the man of my dreams…

I just knew this was going to come back to bite me in the ass.

“Okay,” I agreed with a tremble in my voice.





14





I felt like we were two kids sneaking out of a slumber party. Or – even better – he was the hot high school jock who convinced me to climb out of my bedroom window so we could go TP somebody’s house.

Sure enough, Klaus’s badge got us through the Italian marble receptionist area and into the board room – a giant open space with sumptuous leather chairs, plush carpet that was so thick it was hard to walk in my heels, and a thirty-foot-long mahogany table. The cappuccino machine was in an anteroom with an expensive refrigerator.

“I have no idea how to work this,” I said as I laid my purse on the counter and stared at the thousand-dollar contraption in front of me.

“I’ll take it from here,” he said, and began expertly preparing the coffee.

“Did you work in Starbucks in college or something?” I asked.

“What? Where did you get that?”

“You know how to work that machine.”

He gave me a bemused smile. “I own one.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Must be nice.”

“Nothing but the best, Lily. You should try it sometime.”

I just rolled my eyes.

After the cappuccino was ready, we went back into the boardroom with our cups. We kept the lights off, the better to see the sights. The entire side of the room was plate glass, and all of downtown Los Angeles spread out before us. The sun had set long ago and the glow of the city lights was like something out of a movie. Headlights and tail lights sparkled like diamonds and rubies up and down the 110 Freeway.

“This was worth the whole trip,” he smiled at me.

“The view?” I asked, hoping he meant something else.

“No, the coffee,” he said as he lifted the cup.

I smacked him playfully on the arm.

He laughed, then grew mock serious. “What? I make a damn good cappuccino.”

“I hear it’s pretty easy when you have a million dollar machine to make it for you.”

“Oh really? Is that why you did such a great job of preparing it for us?” he teased.#p#分页标题#e#

“Fine,” I conceded. “You make a damn good cappuccino.”

“Finally, credit where credit is due. But, I have to say, there is one other thing that makes the cappuccino absolutely amazing…”

“What?” I asked nervously.

He stared intently into my eyes.

“…the view.”

I smacked him on the arm again.

“Aaah! I’m going to report you to HR for that!” he laughed.

“For what?”

“Physical abuse and intimidation.”

“You don’t even work here.”

“Okay, I’m going to report you to HR after I buy the company.”

“In that case, I don’t ever have to worry about it, then.”

He just grinned at me, then gestured at my face. “You have a little, uh, foam on your lip.”

Wonderful. Here I was thinking this was all playfully romantic, when in reality he was joking around with me like a good ol’ gal pal while I had stuff all over my mouth. Great.