Mitch leaned closer, his shoulder bumping against hers and his knee pressing against her leg. She shifted, trying to put some space between their heads but his voice and his breath were tickling her ear, causing rippling sensations to wash over her.
She nodded her head as if she understood and sighed with relief when he leaned back against the chair. It still took her several minutes to clear her head enough so she could hear what the others in the room were saying. And the horrible man didn’t help much. His blue eyes continued to watch her, seeing her as if he could know what she was thinking and feeling. But that was impossible! She didn’t even understand what she was thinking or feeling. Everything was crazy right at the moment, all because he’d whispered in her ear and his leg had touched hers!
Yesterday at lunch, less than twenty-four hours ago, she knew exactly what she thought about this man. But now? Well, if she could just keep her eyes off of his butt…and his thigh muscles! Oh and those amazing shoulders! And if she could just refrain from trying to figure out what he wore underneath that stupid suit! It was nothing!
Oh goodness, what if he didn’t wear anything? That thought hadn’t occurred to her before but her eyes now dropped towards his leg again. When she realized what she was doing, she shook her head, mentally admonishing herself for being so invasive. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know she was undressing him, it was still insulting! Besides, she didn’t need to know what he wore underneath his clothes. It was none of her business!
Unfortunately, the image of him completely naked popped right back into her mind. Had she no self-discipline when it came to this man? He constantly irritated her. How had her mind gone from trying to think up ways to torture him yesterday to imagining him in the nude today? Was she losing her mind?
Maybe that was it, she thought. Maybe she was just exhausted from too much work and no play. Perhaps she just needed to go out dancing with her friends, meet a guy and…her eyes flashed over to him again, then quickly away.
She felt her cheeks turn pink and she lowered her head, hoping her hair would fall forward so that he couldn’t see her blush. Why was she here?! What was her point to attending this particular meeting? Why was he insisting she sit next to him?
His deep voice broke through her mental admonishments. “Thank you everyone. Jim, get me those numbers in time for our afternoon meeting and Linda, can you make sure that the marketingteam is ready to go with a demonstration? I want to see what they’re thinking this time around.”
Everyone stood up and Adriana breathed an enormous sigh of relief. Unfortunately, he heard her and stopped her departure with a firm hand to her arm, looking down at her again with those curious eyes of his.
She smiled weakly, biting her lip. “I apologize, sir. I didn’t take very thorough notes for you. I wasn’t sure what the issues were.” She looked down at the floor then at her notebook, her pen, anywhere but into his intelligent eyes. She felt like a failure and it was all because she’d had strange, inappropriate thoughts bouncing around in her head about this man.
Everyone swirled around them, people leaving the conference room with mumbled conversations. They all stepped around her and Mitch, courteously nodding to Mitch as they passed. Mitch didn’t move and Adriana felt like her feet were frozen to the ground while he continued to stare down at her.
When the door closed softly with a slight click, Adriana could feel the shivering start up. She didn’t understand why this man created such a reaction in her but she didn’t like it. First the strange, almost erotic reaction last night when his shoulder had touched hers, and then that incredible smell! Goodness, the man might be a horrible human being but he smelled…hot! Sexy!
She re-focused and looked up at him, suddenly realizing that her mind had wandered once more. She was staring at his lips!
Looking down, she forced her eyes to examine his chin. Yep, he had a very un-sexy chin. But it was a strong…“Is there anything else?” she prompted before her mind started to think that his nose hairs were a turn-on. She held the notebook in front of her like a shield, hoping that a physical barrier could help her to avoid finding yet another body part on the man that was attractive. At this rate, she’d be one of his adoring fans by dinner time.
He’d been watching her carefully, noticing that her eyes would look focused one moment, then a bit fuzzy the next. Her lips would soften, and she’d appear all soft and cute like a kitten wanting to bepetted. A moment later, she’d almost jerk backwards and her lips would compress as if she’d tasted something sour. “What was going through your mind during that last meeting?” he asked in a lower voice, leaning one hip on the top of theconference room table.
Adriana mauled her lower lip, her eyes darting around the room, trying desperately to remember what the others had been discussing. “I heard people talking about a new marketing strategy that will…”
He almost laughed at her attempt to avoid answering the question. She was cute, he thought. And sexy and adorably transparent at the moment. “No. That’s what you heard people discussing around the table. I want to know what was going through your mind.”
Her lungs didn’t work all of a sudden. Her eyes glanced up at his, then quickly away. There was no way she could tell him what she was thinking! It was embarrassing enough that she was thinking it. Saying it out loud, letting this man know that her mind was playing tricks on her in a very odd, very unacceptable manner was not going to happen.
Her lips compressed once more and he almost laughed out loud. He refrained, but it was a challenge. “And I know I told you to stop calling me ‘sir’. My name is Mitch. Use it,” he commanded but his voice was deeper, gentler, all of a sudden. “Did you finish the pasta last night?”
Of all the topics he might have brought up at the moment, last night’s dinner was the absolute last thing she would have guessed he’d care about. Dinner? Had she eaten dinner? “Oh! The pasta last night. That was,” she tried to think of a diplomaticadjective, “kind of you.” He only raised his dark eyebrows in response again, his blue eyes silently telling her that she hadn’t answered his question.
She thought back, trying to remember what she’d done with the delicious pasta he’d bought her. “Um…it was delicious.”
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