Baby, It's Cold Outside(3)
He made one last grab, hoping the idea would re-entrench when he said it this time. “I trust her.”
“And she took advantage of that. You never saw it coming.”
“I’m not an easy man to fool.” He forced his mind to focus. He skimmed the beginning of the memo. With each paragraph the blood pounded in his ears and her guilt became clearer.
“Usually no, but I’m wondering if you were thinking with your head this time.”
Linc pinned his best friend with a you’re-right-on-the-line glare. “Excuse me?”
“You know what I’m talking about, but I’ll let that go. For now.” Nick held up both hands as if in mock surrender. “Let me show you the evidence and prove it to you.”
The thick file sat in the middle of the desk. “The evidence is in there?”
Nick clapped a hand on Linc’s shoulder. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. There’s no doubt here. Thea is the mole.”
Linc threw the paper on top of the rest. “Show me.”
Chapter Two
Thea dropped her empty coffee cup in the trashcan and plopped down in her desk chair. She’d been at work for more than an hour, and her cheeks hurt from trying to bite back any hint of the excitement spinning through her.
After a night with Linc she felt free and light. She’d always enjoyed dating. While she’d never been wild, she’d had a few serious relationships and one or two of the more-fun-than-serious type. She loved the feel of a man holding her, touching her. The light scent of soap on his skin.
She’d missed all of that during the last twelve months. Her parents died in that plane crash and her world flipped upside down. As an adult with friends and a life separate from her family, she knew she shouldn’t think of herself as an orphan, but being an only child she did. For months she’d drifted, missing them, going to work, coming home and staring at the television whether she’d bothered to turn it on or not. More automaton than woman.
Coming to Campbell Construction had been a new start. Her way of clearing out the mental cobwebs and honoring her parents by moving on. Then she’d walked into that second interview and met Linc. A crazy flip-flopping started in her stomach right after.
He dated often but not seriously. She knew all about his social calendar because she fielded the calls from his female admirers except for a few who slipped through on his private cell. The heartbreaker thing should have been a turnoff, but something about the taciturn man who preferred to be alone and working to drinking with the boys wiggled under her defenses.
Becky LeFever rested her palms on the edge of Thea’s desk. As the office manager, Becky had full run of the place. Being ten years older than Thea but years younger than most of the men in the building, she somehow still commanded attention and got things done.
She leaned in. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Thea tried to imagine the explosion if she told the truth. See, I’m tired because I was up having sex with my boss—our boss—all night. Want me to tell you about the positions?
She went with the G-rated version. “Nothing.”
“That’s my point.” Becky glanced around, her gaze landing on two engineers who were standing by the coffee room and engaged in an argument about building permits that only they seemed to care about. “Everything is running as usual around here.”
“And?”
“You can’t stop smiling.”
Thea bit down harder on the inside of her cheek. She also slammed a hand against her thigh to keep her foot from bouncing. A few more clicks and Becky would notice the sound of a heel against the hardwood floor.
“I’m just in a good mood,” Thea said, trying to sell it.
“The smile is ridiculous.”
“I’ve never know you to be anti-happiness.” Thea pretended to be shocked. “Wait, is there an office rule against that now?”
“Not while I’m in charge.”
“Good.”
“Any chance our boss put a smile on your face?” Becky asked.
Thea’s arm dropped and her hand smacked into her keyboard. The plastic crackled and the sting had her hissing. Smiling was not a problem now. She was too busy trying not to swear her head off. “Um, what?”
Becky frowned as her gaze wandered over Thea’s desk. “A bonus.”
“Oh, no. Nothing like that.” Nice in theory but if the man dared to offer her money after last night she might just push him out a window. He didn’t always excel in the interpersonal-relationships department, but he wasn’t stupid. And that would be stupid.
Thea jumped when a click sounded next to her. Linc’s door opened, and he stepped out with Nick right on his heels. They were polar opposites, light and dark in hair color. The openly charming Nick as opposed to emotionally guarded Linc.
Rumor was they’d roomed together in college and had been best friends since, with Linc sticking around Nick’s hometown of DC to begin his construction business. With his glasses and ever-present smile, Nick reminded some of a sexy professor. But he never even spiked Thea’s radar. Linc owned that prize.
Seeing him now, like always, worked like a punch to her senses. The suit slid over his body in a perfect fit and those hands she loved so much hung lose at his sides. From her position in her chair, he loomed over her, all six feet of him. Today he wore a frown that could cut glass.
He cleared his throat. “I need to see you.”
The husky growl she’d enjoyed so much last night was gone. He’d morphed back into serious boss man. The loss sent a chill spiraling through her. He struck the right tone for the office, but she longed to lure him back into bed.
She stood up. “Of course.”
He didn’t say a word as he opened the door to his office and gestured for her to precede him inside. The scene hit her as fairly normal except for the abruptness of it. If the man was trying to hide their relationship, shooing her into the office with a level of grumpiness he usually refrained from using on her was probably not the best way to go about it. Especially not with his VP and office manager watching.
As she passed by Nick, his eyes narrowed. It was as if whatever happened in that room a minute ago sucked the life right of him. He usually joked with her. This time he stared as if analyzing then glanced away and wouldn’t meet her gaze again.
The whole thing came off as odd. She tried to puzzle it through as the office door closed behind her, trapping her inside. She didn’t expect Linc to bend her over the desk in the middle of the workday, but maybe a hello. Instead, she stood there and watched Linc walk across the room. He didn’t even bother to look in her direction.
It was as if…no, it couldn’t be.
Nick knew. Somehow he knew about what had happened last night and now Linc had gone into panic mode. For a man like him, emotionally bundled up and serious, having his private life splashed all over the office would prick at him. He’d hate the loss of privacy.
She rushed to reassure him before he blamed her or pulled back. “I know you’re upset.”
“Damn right.”
Okay. This was embarrassing and a potential HR nightmare. He was the boss, after all. But they hadn’t really done anything wrong. They were unattached grown-ups and grown-ups had sex. She refused to feel guilty.
She also refused to be his punching bag. “You don’t have to talk with me like that.”
He spun around and pinned her with a furious glare. “Like what?”
“Fiery mad and on the verge of spitting.”
“You might want to remember I’m your boss.”
He was biting and spewing, and she wanted it to stop. Keeping her voice low and fighting back the need pulling at her, the one where she wanted to use harsher words to tell him to calm down and knock it off, she tried again. “Is this some sort of over-compensation thing?”
He wore the same look of fury he did when a businessman across a conference room table said something that annoyed him during a meeting. The whole squashed-like-a-bug thing. “What are you talking about?”
She stepped away from the door and stood across the desk from him. “We made love—”
“Had sex.”
Pain lashed inside her. She clenched her fists to keep from grabbing his jacket and shaking some sense into him. He wasn’t letting up on his anger or even trying to hide it. But it was the part where he aimed it all at her that was over the line. There had been two people in that bed, and against that wall, and for some reason he made her the sole responsible party.
She didn’t like any part of this conversation so far, his attitude being only one of the issues. “Fine, we had sex.”
“Exactly.”
Every harsh word sliced through her. She tried to understand what losing control did to a man like him and cut him some slack, but he was venturing close to irretrievable-jackass territory. One more step and he’d start saying things he couldn’t take back and ruin everything.
She made a second mental grab for patience and barely held on. “You’re upset with yourself over your lack of control, so now you’re striking out at me. Feel free to knock that off.”
“Excuse me?” The phrase sounded like a modified version of “go to hell”.
“If you weren’t my boss and we were just two people who spent the night together, I would point out that this—” She waved a hand between them. “The thing you’re doing right now? It’s total jackass behavior. But as your employee, I’ll just stand here and wait for you to wind down.”