All Work and No Play(6)

“I’m on to it, boss.” His blue eyes twinkled before he swivelled away to his computer.

Anna heaved out a breath. She could not afford to be distracted just because Giles had bought her dinner and rolled up his sleeves for her.

Silence descended once more as they returned to work, but it was a companionable silence, and the tense knot between Anna’s shoulders gradually eased. She ate her California rolls and sipped her Pepsi as she immersed herself in code.

But the stuffy atmosphere made it hard to concentrate. She kicked off her shoes, undid another button of her shirt, and eventually hiked the shirttail out of the waistband of her skirt. Moisture beaded between her breasts and on her upper lip as she flapped the front of her shirt.

She slid a surreptitious glance in Giles’ direction, and then wished she hadn’t. He’d taken off his shoes and socks, and the sight of his bare feet was both startling and arousing. He looked younger and more carefree. With his head propped up on one hand, his fingers messing up his thick, chestnut hair, and his shirt hanging loose, he looked more like a uni student than a polished, professional, highly successful consultant.

He straightened in his chair, and she quickly jerked her head away. No way could she let him catch her ogling him again. But oh, how impossible it was to stop thinking about him. She couldn’t resist taking another peek at him...

Blue eyes gazed back at her, frank and warm, as if he knew all along she’d been staring at him. She didn’t break eye contact. Couldn’t. For hours, days, weeks, she’d been fighting this...this weird attraction, and now, worn down by stress and heat and him, she couldn’t look away. Didn’t want to look away.

“Hey.” His husky murmur sent a frisson down her spine. His eyes said so much more than that one monosyllable.

“Hey yourself.” Her voice was a croaky whisper in a dry throat.

“Hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind...what?”

The corner of his lips tilted up. “My bare feet.”

“Oh. No, of course not. Mine are bare, too.”

“So I noticed.”

His gaze lingered on her naked toes, and warmth spread across her skin as if he’d touched her feet.

She swallowed. “This is a weird conversation.” Trying to lower the temperature here. Why was it so damn hot?

“Having trouble concentrating?”

“Yeah.” She cricked her neck from side to side. “It’s so hot in here...”

And Giles wasn’t helping. He was hotter than the atmosphere and a lot more distracting. She pushed her hair away from her face, then slid her fingers down her throat, wiping away a bead of perspiration. When she glanced back at Giles, her heart jumped at the sudden blaze in his eyes.

“You shouldn’t do that,” he growled, his gaze fixed on her hand.

The naked hunger in his face blasted her common sense away. He wasn’t forbidden territory anymore, but the man who had tormented her fantasies for too long. And now that he seemed a little tormented himself, she was going to tease him some more.

Tilting her head back, she kept her eyes on him as she continued to stroke her neck. “Do what?” she murmured and dipped her fingers lower into her cleavage, thrilled when his hungry gaze tracked her movements.

The tendons in Giles’ throat flexed as he swallowed. “That. Unless you’re prepared to go back into that stationery closet with me.”

His eyes held a challenge, while his mouth promised nirvana.

It was Anna’s turn to be tortured. For a moment, pure lust hazed her brain and shuddered through her body. If only they’d kissed earlier, then she wouldn’t be so tied up in knots and longing for his touch. But one kiss wouldn’t have satisfied her, of that she was sure.

Oh come on, Reynolds. She had to show some will power. She couldn’t degenerate into a nymphomaniac just because she was alone and frazzled with the hottest man she’d ever met.

With a sigh, she lowered her hand to her keyboard. “Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t do this.”

His shoulders slackened, and he looked frankly disappointed. “Doesn’t have to be the stationery closet, you know,” he murmured. “Any place will do.”

Shaking her head, she turned back to her screen, determined to ignore the yearning of her wayward body. “Let’s get back to work, shall we?”

She sensed his gaze lingering on her a while longer before the squeak of his chair indicated his acquiescence. A moment later he began tapping on his keyboard and nothing more was said.

Anna sighed inwardly. This had been a very trying day, and it wasn’t even over yet.





Chapter Three


Giles pushed back from his desk and stretched his arms above his head. The time on his monitor read ten-thirty. He swivelled round to look at Anna. She was leaning back in her chair, her face slightly paler than usual. She looked done in, and he felt a burst of anger against not only Oscar, who’d caused all this trouble for her, but also the management of this company and the outdated attitudes of the industry that had made her so reluctant to ask for help.

“Should we call it a day?” he asked, expecting her to say she’d stay another half hour.

But she surprised him by nodding tiredly. “Yeah, my brain’s not working anymore. I’ve been staring at the same bit of code for ages and not making sense of it.” Rising to her feet, she rolled her shoulders as if to ease away stiffness.

Immediately his attention zeroed in on her breasts. With more than a few buttons of her shirt undone, her cleavage was front and centre on display, and he couldn’t not look at it. He took in breasts firm and round as cantaloupes before he managed to tear his gaze away. With his eyeballs feeling wrenched, he powered off his computer.

Searching for a bland comment, he said, “A good night’s sleep will help you.” But that immediately brought up an image of Anna lying in bed wearing nothing but a skimpy black nightgown. God help him, he was regressing to a randy teenager.

Anna didn’t seem to notice his struggles as she straightened her clothes and smoothed back her hair. “Trouble is, I won’t be able to sleep for ages. Whenever I work late, I need at least an hour or more to unwind before I can fall asleep.”

Giles turned to her and spoke without thinking. “I’m the same. Why don’t we go and have a drink together?”

She started, halfway through piling things into her handbag. Wariness flickered across her face but was quickly replaced by another emotion, something hotter and impulsive.

“Sure, why not?” She stepped into her high-heeled shoes, looking assured and determined, as if she’d made up her mind about something and wouldn’t let her better judgement dissuade her. “Just a drink, right?”

“Yes,” he said quickly before she could change her mind. He slipped on his shoes and socks, suddenly wishing he wasn’t so grubby and work-stained. “I’m going to clean myself up before we go out. Why don’t we meet at the lifts?”

She nodded, and he left the office. In the men’s room he splashed cold water over his face, washed his hands, and combed his hair. He tucked in his shirt but left his tie and cufflinks off. He wanted to appear relaxed even if he wasn’t inside. Inside, he was bubbling with anticipation even though he didn’t expect anything more from Anna besides her company. No, he was pleased just for the chance to be alone with her away from the office.

She was waiting for him in the lift lobby. He paused as he saw her hair was loose, falling in shiny curtains of dark mahogany about her shoulders, and she’d added a dab of ruby lipstick to her mouth. Giles pulled in a breath to steady himself. Just a drink, he told himself. Nothing more.

“Where should we go?” Anna asked as the lift carried them down to the ground floor.

“How about the Opera Bar?” he suggested.

It proved to be an inspired choice. The summer night was balmy, and the light breeze off the harbour was refreshing after the stuffy office. There were people on the streets, theatre-goers and Sydney festival-goers, lending an air of conviviality to a Monday evening, but not so many that the popular Opera Bar was crowded out.

They snared a table near the water’s edge, and Anna ordered white wine, while Giles settled for a light beer.

“I still can’t believe the mess Oscar’s left behind,” Anna said, her mouth pulling into a moue. “I could never live with myself if I did something like that.”

She wasn’t being over-dramatic, he knew, because he felt the same. He and Anna shared the same high standards and sense of pride in their work.

She began to talk about a particular bug, and Giles offered his opinions. For a while they had a spirited discussion about the latest programming methodologies, and Giles discovered she was almost as geeky as he, and to him that made her even hotter.

After a few minutes, Anna nodded at the sails of the Opera House soaring above them.

“Have you been in there?” she asked.

“No. I haven’t had the chance yet.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “I assumed your family would be right into that kind of thing. You know, opera, ballet, concerts.”

She was teasing him, he knew, but there was also an undercurrent of testing him. Giles lifted his shoulders. “My family’s more the sporty type. My parents are into horses and sailing, and my two brothers are mad keen about rugby and golf.”