“Listen,” he began, but before he could continue she held up her hand to silence him.
“No, you need to listen,” she said, her face set, her voice firm. “You need to forget everything that happened in that closet.”
“Everything?” He could understand why she might be regretting almost being caught in the middle of a kiss, but the rest? “You don’t mean Oscar—”
“Yes, that’s precisely what I mean. I will take care of it. You just focus on what I assigned to you.” She moved with purpose to her desk and sat, her back ramrod straight. She had tidied up her thick, brown hair into a knotted updo, and her taut body exuded a decided ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude.
Giles wasn’t about to let that put him off. He walked up and stood over her, aware that her face was in line with his crotch, but determined not to let that affect him.
“Anna, stop treating me like a mere programmer,” he said. “FrogLeap hired me as a consultant, and I’m here to give you the best of my experience and advice.”
“No.” She stood up to face him. “You were assigned to me because I needed a programmer, and that’s what I want you to do now. Code some programs. I don’t need your consulting advice.”
He clenched a fist, unexpectedly furious at her pigheadedness. “You’re angry with me because you almost let me kiss you.”
Her eyes widened before they darted around for possible eavesdroppers. Then they glared at him. “I’m angry with you because you don’t respect my authority,” she hissed at him.
He blinked. “Is that what you think?”
“It’s my fault, of course. I shouldn’t have touched you.” She pressed her lips together. “I had a moment of weakness. But no more.” She aimed a gimlet stare at him.
Remorse twisted in Giles’ gut. He was just as responsible as she for what had happened in the stationery closet, but she was heaping all the blame on herself. And now, when he wanted to help her, she couldn’t accept because she believed it would weaken her position even further.
He held up his hands, palms facing her, in a gesture of surrender. “Look, I’m not interested in undermining your authority. I just want to help you fix Oscar’s mistakes. If we both work on his programs, we’ll finish it in half the time.”
But Anna stubbornly shook her head. “I’ll take care of Oscar’s work,” she insisted. “I’ll just have to work overtime.”
“You mean more than we are already? Last week we were working back until seven or eight every night. You can’t do more than that.”
Her chin jutted up. “I’ll do what’s necessary.”
He wanted to grasp her obstinate chin and press his mouth against hers. Would she still be unyielding then, or would she slowly melt into him? His body ached to find out, but his head restrained the urge.
“I can stay back tonight too,” he said. If he was here, at least she would have company and someone to bounce ideas off.
“Oh? I thought you had a date tonight with whatserface? Persephone?”
The cogs in his brain slowly turned over. He remembered that Persephone had called him earlier this morning, and they’d arranged to meet at six, but how did Anna know that?
“Yes, I do.” He lifted his eyebrows at Anna. “Been monitoring my calls?”
She turned pink with embarrassment. It was the first time he’d ever seen Anna blush, and he found it a huge turn on.
She hugged her arms, lifting her shoulders defensively. “I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation, the way you were cooing at her. Is she your girlfriend, then?”
The question made him frown. Did Anna think he was the type of man who would try to kiss another woman when he had a girlfriend?
“No,” he replied shortly. “We knew each other back in university.”
They’d slept together a few times, but it had never been serious for either of them. Later, Persephone had started dating a lawyer, but she’d recently broken up with him, and she was here in Sydney on holiday.
“I don’t want you to miss out on catching up with old friends,” Anna said. “I’ll be fine.”
She turned away from him and resumed her seat, as if the subject was closed. Giles wanted to object, but he sensed that in her present mood she wasn’t exactly amenable. Better to wait until she’d cooled down. Better for him, too, to cool down. Having come so close to kissing her and realising one of his fantasies about Anna, his senses were trigger happy around her, and he didn’t completely trust himself not to do something stupid like grab her and kiss her right here in the office.
No, he needed time to get himself in order. But that wasn’t easy when he was in such close proximity to Anna. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to work back late with her, if he couldn’t control his appetites.
***
She shouldn’t have let slip that she’d overheard his phone conversation. That had been a mistake. Now he would think she was hung up on him when she wasn’t. Giles could see this Persephone girl anytime he wanted. Persephone...what a perfect name for an upperclass English girl. The kind of girl Giles was used to. She was willing to bet that Persephone was stunning and sophisticated because only the best would do for Giles St Clair.
Anna huffed irritably. She wasn’t doing a very good job of focusing on her work load. But first she had to cancel her dinner date with her two best friends. She texted them a brief message and returned to the program she was debugging, only to be interrupted a few minutes later by a phone call.
“Working late again?” Stephanie lamented as soon as she answered. “Anna, that’s too bad.”
“I’ll survive.” It was typical of Stephanie to call and worry over her. Stephanie was the mother hen of their group, the carer and nurturer, the designated driver.
“But you worked late all last week too. And besides, I wanted to hear all the gossip about you and Megan from New Year’s Eve.”
Last Friday, Anna and Megan had spent New Year’s Eve together, with Megan, recovering from a bad breakup, determined to kiss a new man before midnight struck. Anna had tried to help her friend by introducing her to a nice guy, and things had looked promising until Megan had suddenly dropped everything and raced across the city to be with a stranger she’d just met, something the cautious Megan would never have done before.
“Megan has a juicy story to tell you,” Anna said. “Apparently something big happened on New Year’s Eve. Last time I spoke to her, she sounded like she was still on cloud nine, though she wasn’t ready to give me the details.”
“Ooh, I’m so happy for her. She deserves something good after that douche bag of a boyfriend. And what about you? Any juicy stories?”
“No, my New Year’s Eve was very boring. I have to go now, Stephanie. Talk to you later.”
“Don’t forget to eat something healthy for dinner,” Stephanie advised her before hanging up.
Anna’s New Year’s Eve had been a disappointment. She’d gone out looking to relax and blow off some steam after the pressure cooker of work. At the back of her mind, she’d hoped to hit it off with someone, a man who could make her forget about work, about deadlines, and about Giles, if she were honest enough. She wasn’t a fan of one night stands, but in this case she’d have made an exception. One night of mindless, no-strings-attached shagging would have been perfect for getting the kinks out of her muscles. And for reminding her that there were other shagable men out there besides the maddening, debonair Giles.
But she hadn’t even come close to meeting a shagable man. In fact, the memory of Giles had somehow made every other guy out there look asexual. It was as if he’d taken all her hormones hostage and was slowly torturing them.
Stop thinking about shagging and Giles, she told herself. He was only a few metres away on the other side of the pod and seemed to have an uncanny knack of sensing her moods. She couldn’t let him sense this one.
***
“When are you coming back to London, darling?” Persephone reclined in her seat, flipping her blonde, cascading hair over one shoulder while her manicured fingers toyed with her gin and tonic.
They were in a five-star hotel overlooking the harbour with the setting sun casting a golden light over the plush lounge. Draped in expensive silk, Persephone looked right at home here, but Giles had felt vaguely uncomfortable ever since he’d sat down with her. And her question didn’t make him feel any easier.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I like it here. Might stay a few years.”
Persephone put down her drink, looking disconcerted. “A few years? You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?”
“Well, I mean, the weather’s nice here, but” —she pulled a face— “it’s not London.”
Maybe that was precisely why he liked being in Australia. Here, he wasn’t weighed down by tradition and expectation and familial habits. Here, he could breathe freely, be his own man.
“And what about your family?” Persephone leaned across the table. She seemed quite worried for him. “They won’t want you so far away.”
His parents wholeheartedly approved of Persephone because she was ‘their type.’ His parents, he had to admit, were snobs, though he loved them despite that. His brothers weren’t as bad, but Giles was different from them. Always had been. He was the unacknowledged ‘grey’ sheep of the family.