Читать книгу Secret Admirer - Karen Rose Smith - Страница 15

How could she have been so stupid? What had she done?

Jane stood in front of the glass doors of Fortune TX and slapped her forehead with her open hand. Harper wanted to be director of market research. He didn’t want her. His little seduction routine was just his own perverse version of a game of hardball!

Last week he’d impressed Andrea, Jane’s supervisor, and all their bosses in that meeting when he’d demonstrated how the company could best use the Internet to defend brand assets. He’d been creative. She couldn’t let herself ever forget that he’d do anything to win. Anything.

Harper was part of the good-old-boy network. That was one of the reasons he was so successful. He didn’t work as hard as she did because he didn’t have to. He schmoozed. He drove a jazzed-up car to impress people. He was into image rather than substance.

He would probably tell every man at the water-cooler first thing how easy and hot for him she was. He’d get a few laughs, and the male executives would start snickering behind her back. They might even ask her out to get more of the same. If any of them even winked at her, she’d never be able to face anybody again.

Fool that she was, she still felt turned on by the darkly handsome jerk with the talented mouth and hands. She’d even liked the way he’d touched her breasts.

The sun was getting hotter, or was it just thinking about him that made her feel the heat? There was nothing for it but to go inside and face the music.

When she reached her floor, Jane still felt hot and wet and trembly as she skittered past the receptionists, mumbling her hellos so fast neither woman could start a real conversation. Not that they didn’t try.

“You look great,” Stephanie said.

“Different,” Melanie agreed. “What’s with the looser hairstyle and those top buttons undone? New look?”

“New man,” Stephanie whispered.

“Gotta go,” Jane said, not meeting their eyes. She couldn’t even manage a smile in her mad desire to escape to her own office where she could close her door, be alone and try to regroup.

“Have you seen that cute green dress in the shop downstairs? It’d be perfect for the new you,” Melanie said.

“There is no new me,” Jane muttered, horrified that she felt faintly tempted to take a look at the dress.

Even before she got to her office and saw the huge bouquet of daisies, roses, irises and lilies, she didn’t have an inkling about how to proceed with her day. She hated teasing or sexual innuendo, even talks about sex and boyfriends between women. She hated sex on television. Love scenes in books made her skim pages until she got past them. That’s why Matt’s sexy pictures of her had undone her.

Just why sex scared her so deeply was a mystery. Maybe her mother had been too open and flamboyant. Maybe it had to do with the whole town laughing because she’d been born in the pool hall. To Jane, sex was not something to be viewed through keyholes or to be flaunted the way Matt had flaunted those pictures of her.

Jane was at her file cabinet, with her back to the huge vase of lilies and roses and daisies on her desk, when Stephanie popped her head inside the door.

“We’re all dying to know. What’s the special occasion?”

Jane turned and gasped when she saw the flowers Stephanie was looking at. Moving toward them, Jane said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you followed me.”

“Couldn’t resist.”

“I guess…It’s my birthday,” Jane mumbled.

“Looks like somebody remembered big-time. Who?”

“I—I haven’t a clue. My mom maybe.”

“So, read the card.”

With trembling fingers Jane plucked the small envelope from the flowers. Leaning over them, she couldn’t help but inhale their sweet fragrance. “Mmmmmmmm.”

Oh my, she did love flowers.

“Name withheld upon request,” she read aloud. Then she flipped the card over. “That’s all.”

When she looked up, Stephanie was still hovering expectantly. “Well?”

“I’m sure you’ve got work to do,” Jane said hastily.

Ducking her head, Stephanie scurried away.

Jane set her briefcase down and began to search for her folder with the information on the fund-raiser. She needed to get approval from her boss, Andrea, for the booth at the baseball game Wednesday night.

But the fund-raiser folder wasn’t there.

“Damn.”

Frowning, she was shaking the contents of her briefcase out onto her desk when Matt ambled into her office. A mischievous smile lit his dark face, and his hands were behind his back.

“Hi,” he said in a low tone.

She glanced down at the contents of her briefcase, hoping he’d go, but he stayed, lounging in the doorway, his long legs planted widely apart.

“You’re the last man on earth I really want to see,” she said.

“At least I’m in a class by myself.”

Something electric in his deep voice made her look up.

His smile widened, and she felt herself soften. She was mush when she sank in a heap into her chair. How could he do this to her with just a smile? He looked male and arrogant and yet charmingly boyish all at the same time and friendlier than a puppy wagging his tail too fast. He appeared to genuinely like her.

He’s not to be trusted.

“Aren’t you thirsty? Shouldn’t you be hanging out at the watercooler or something?” she snapped. “Saying impressive things about that car.”

“Later.” He smiled again. “Flowers.” He strode closer and put his dark, handsome face into the blossoms and inhaled deeply. “Mmmmmmmmmm. Secret admirer?”

For no reason at all she thought of Ol’ Bill’s anonymous letter in the Gazette.

I know we belong together and I’m sorry I haven’t told you what’s in my heart.

“You tell me,” she whispered, teasing him, in spite of herself.

Oh, why couldn’t she stop looking at his lips? Or his sparkling green eyes? His eyes were wooing her, sucking her into their depths again, stealing her soul, so she cast her gaze down quickly.

“Read the card,” he said softly.

“Been there. Done that. He didn’t sign his name.”

Matt was so close she could smell his tangy after-shave. For a long delicious moment she even forgot to breathe.

“So you think it’s a man?”

The intimacy in his gorgeous eyes made her shiver.

“Any guesses as to who?” he persisted.

The warm flush running through her body was terrifyingly pleasurable. He was leading her, teasing her. Why?

Suddenly a lightbulb went on in her brain.

Had he sent them? Just like he’d written that letter? Was he as shy about intimacy as she was about sex? Was it possible he was afraid to tell her? Was it possible that he couldn’t put himself out like that, not when she’d rejected him for so many years? What if he really felt bad about those wet T-shirt pictures? If so, the whole thing, the letter, the flowers, was sweet in a way.

Don’t be a fool. He’s the enemy. He’s after your job.

“Are you here to take credit for the flowers?” she whispered, challenging him.

“I’ll take any credit I can get,” he said smoothly. “Lord knows where you’re concerned I damn sure need it.”

“You’re not afraid,” she said shyly.

“Why the hell should I be?”

“What does the card say then?” she asked, testing him.

“Ah, a test.”

She stared at him in shock, realizing that she was enjoying this exchange way too much.

“Love, Matt.” He blushed when he said it. He actually blushed. His quick smile was unpretentious and sweet.

She felt her own face growing hot beneath his steady gaze. “P-please—don’t tease me about this.” With fingers that trembled, she placed the card in his. “You know what you wrote…and it wasn’t Love, Matt.”

“Name withheld upon request,” he read aloud in his deep baritone, watching her. “This guy is good. As good as me.”

“I wonder why?” Those green eyes of his were still on her. She felt him reading her mind, her heart. Strangely she didn’t mind as much as she usually did. “If you really sent them, write the words you didn’t say,” she said, stealing the sentiment from his anonymous love letter in the Gazette.

He took the card and laid it on her desk. With a flourish of black ink, he wrote, “Love, Matt,” and then placed the card in her palm. “There. Satisfied?”

Their fingertips touched and again she sizzled.

At her gasp when she pulled her hand free, he gave her another startled look. “Happy Birthday then, darlin’.”

“It’s been quite a birthday,” she said. “Full of surprises.”

“For me, too. It’s not even 9:00 a.m. yet. Your smiles are getting friendlier. Does this mean you’ll go to the Spring Fling with me?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Don’t say no yet. I’ll forgive you for high school if you’ll forgive me.”

“What?”

“After your father talked to the superintendent, I got expelled, remember?”

“It’s just too sudden,” she said.

“Okay,” he murmured. “I guess we’d both better get to work. Happy birthday, beautiful.”

“I’m not beautiful. My sister, Mindy, is beautiful. Your Carol is beautiful.”

“You’ve always been way too hard on yourself.”

“I can’t believe you know that about me.”

“I pay attention—when I’m interested. And you are beautiful,” he repeated. “Furthermore, just to set the record straight, she’s not my Carol anymore. In fact, she never was. We went out a few times. People in Red Rock thought it meant more than it did.”

“Carol thought so, too.”

“So you’re tuned into the twenty-four-hour grapevine.”

“Isn’t everybody?”

“I’m a free man, darlin’, unless some pretty lady takes pity on me and decides to love and reform me.”

“You could definitely use some reforming.”

“I’d prefer the lovin’ part, but more on that later.” He was grinning as he strode out of her office, pulling the door shut behind him.

Alone with his sweet-smelling flowers, she plucked a daisy out of the bunch, went to the window and twirled it against her nose. She was so wrapped up in her conflicting thoughts and feelings about Matt that she had no idea how long she’d stood there when voices outside in the hall snapped her out of her reverie. Quickly she jabbed the daisy back into the vase and went back to her desk to search for the fund-raiser folder.

Much to her surprise, it lay on her desk on top of the clutter she’d shaken out of her briefcase.

Crossing her arms, she shook her head in confusion. Then she opened the file to make sure all the papers were inside it, and even though they were, she felt vague little prickles of alarm.

She could have sworn it hadn’t been there before Matthew Harper had come in to see her.

The River Walk was idyllic. The brown serpentine river sparkled, and sunlight shone through the cypress trees. Jane and Mindy were sitting in a shady spot under a red-and-white umbrella beside the water. There were enough tourists on the old limestone walkways so that Jane and Mindy had people to watch, but their riverside French restaurant wasn’t too crowded. Not like a happening Saturday night when all the restaurants, shops and clubs were jammed.

“I hate to cut this short, but I really do have to get back to the office,” Jane said. “I have an important presentation.”

“First we have to light your candles on your chocolate birthday cake so you can make a wish.”

For a birthday that had started off all wrong and had been filled with unsettling surprises, Jane couldn’t remember when she’d had more fun. Why was that? she wondered.

As Mindy struck a match to light her candles, Jane closed her eyes.

“Think of something you truly truly want, and your wish will come true,” Mindy said softly.

Jane tried to concentrate on the position of director of market research but drew a blank. Instead she conjured a broad-shouldered hunky giant with a sculpted mouth and black-lashed, green eyes, who was wearing a red tie with even hotter pink flamingos flapping all over it.

She squeezed her eyes tighter and tried to focus on the job she wanted. Matt’s image was as stubborn as the man himself and refused to budge.

“Are you thinking of something you really want yet?” Mindy quizzed hopefully.

“No!” she snapped and mentally stuck out her tongue at the vision of Matt.

“Mind if I sit down?” murmured a deep, familiar baritone.

Her eyes flew open, and there he was—as if she’d truly conjured him. Mom would love this.

“I certainly do mind. I was trying to make a wish before my candles go out.”

He sat down anyway and closed his eyes. A look of fiendish bliss transformed his dark, rugged features. His eyes opened. He leaned forward and blew out her candles.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I made a wish for you on your birthday.” He began plucking candles out of the cake and licking chocolate icing off their bottoms.

“You can’t do that.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, it’s a done deal, darlin’.” He licked another candle. “Besides, you were blocked and I was feeling creative. When are you going to realize we’re a team?”

“No, we’re not.”

“We could be—if you’d let it happen.”

“What did you wish for?” she asked him, to change the subject.

“I can’t say, or it won’t come true.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t make my wish.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Mindy said, watching them both far too intently.

“How did you find us?” Jane asked. “No—don’t tell me. Mother?”

He grinned. “She called me again.”

“What if I don’t want your wish to come true?”

“Then it won’t.” He signaled the waiter and ordered a piece of cake just like hers.

The cake was thick rich chocolate and sinfully delicious. Being a cook, she was wondering about the exact ingredients as she ate it, while he simply savored his. He began taking a bite of his cake every time she took a nibble from hers. He watched her, and she watched him. Soon she forgot all about cooking. When she ran her tongue across her upper lip, he did the same. There was a rhythm to it. The river flowed by, tourists laughed and chattered, and the chocolate melted on her tongue just as his ripe kisses had.

“Dark, oozy chocolate’s my favorite flavor,” he said.

“Mine too,” she whispered.

“At least there’s something we enjoy together.” He moved his face nearer hers so that he could whisper. “Besides kissing.”

When she felt his warm breath against her cheek, she jumped away from him. Still, it had been a long time since she’d enjoyed anything more than eating chocolate cake while staring into his sparkling green eyes.

“You’re dangerous,” she said, patting her mouth with her napkin.

“I certainly hope so,” he replied.