“I didn’t say that,” he growled behind her.
“You implied it.” She pulled on the door.
“Wait,” he commanded.
She set her teeth and held the door open, forcing a bored expression onto her face as she turned back to him.
“That was a good idea about the D&O insurance,” he said begrudgingly. “It won’t work—”
“Is that a compliment? Because you’ve buried it,” she mocked.
“Lorenzo doesn’t scare easily,” he continued without reacting to her sarcasm. “But I can see that you’re looking for fresh angles of attack. That’s the sort of ingenuity I appreciate in the people who work for me. Let me know if you find something with teeth.”
Oh. He really was complimenting her.
Was she supposed to say thank you? You’re welcome?
She definitely wasn’t supposed to stand here gawking while he said impassively, “Anything else?”
“No.” She left, flushed and disconcerted by the entire exchange.
The rest of the week passed in similar encounters where Joaquin largely ignored her unless she had the nerve to speak up. He never berated her for offering an opinion, but he didn’t express overt appreciation again.
She kept reminding herself that they had both agreed—that she wanted as much as he did—to leave their one-night stand in the past.
But she still experienced a thrill of anticipation each time Oladele said, “We’re needed upstairs.”
Simply being in a room with Joaquin wired her with excitement.
“I know this has been a demanding time,” Joaquin said on Friday afternoon, wrapping up a meeting in the boardroom where someone had brought homemade polvorónes, a shortbread-style cookie, and anise-flavored crumble cookies called mantecados. “You’ve earned your weekend. Rest up and give me your best for one more week. Then we can all relax through the Christmas break.”
Rather than leave as he usually did, he hung back to answer a question from someone in PR.
“Gracias,”Siobhan murmured as she moved past them.
“Oh, that’s you, Ms. Upton,” Joaquin said with an ironic quirk of his mouth. “I didn’t recognize you in your glasses.”
Her pulse tripped over the fact he had noticed her at all, let alone such a tiny detail. She touched the navy-blue frames.
“Is that a joke?” She couldn’t believe he was making one, not that he had failed to recognize her.
“Yes.” The corner of his mouth indented with self-deprecating amusement.
Someone said something about superhero disguises and conversation turned to the latest blockbuster scheduled to release over the holidays.
She followed the crowd to the elevators, not letting herself look back, but she was still replaying his remark, shyly gratified to have provoked his almost-smile.
“Siobhan.” Oladele hurried out from her office as Siobhan arrived at her desk. “This was delivered by courier while we were upstairs.” She handed over an envelope. “Joaquin needs to see it. See if you can catch him before he leaves.”
Siobhan hurried back to the elevator, past his assistant at the reception desk, and found him locking his office door at the end of the empty corridor.
“Oh, good. I thought I might miss you.” She strode toward him. “Oladele said this was left on her desk while we were in the meeting.” She halted as she reached him, but had the strangest sensation of continuing forward. She slapped a hand on the wall, catching her balance, alarmed.
A firm hand wrapped around her arm. “Are you all right?”
“No,” she said reflexively. “Yes. I’m not sure. Just a little dizzy. I think I caught a bug.”
Heat suffused her at the way his grip eased, but his hand stayed on her arm. She looked at it, wondering if he could feel the way her muscles were melting and her blood was turning to honey.
