He released her and his fingers rubbed into his palm.
She adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat. “I was with my sister’s kids last weekend. I love them to death, but children are walking petri dishes.”
“Reason number one million why I never plan to have them.” He shook the pages from the opened envelope.
“Really? That surprises me.”
He paused to lift his gaze, snagging hers without effort.
She didn’t know how to interpret that and quickly babbled, “It’s just that I read you were engaged last year. That suggests you were planning to start a family.”
“Siobhan. This conversation is inappropriate.” He used an even tone and he wasn’t wrong, but she took his remark like a slap. One she deserved.
He had expressed a normal concern for a coworker and she had let it devolve into telling him her life history and admitted to looking him up. Bringing up his romantic history, asking him about his plans to have children, was totally offside. The fact thattheyhad a history between them pushed her inquiry from nosy into the sort of thing one asked an intimate partner as a compatibility check.
While her cheeks flamed with chagrin, she glanced over her shoulder. The doors to the corridor were closed, but they might not be as alone as they thought. His assistant had still been at his desk by the elevators. There could be stragglers in the boardroom.
“I’m sorry,” she said, stricken and unable to raise her eyes to see what was in his expression. “I’ll go.” She pivoted one foot.
“Let me see what this is first,” he muttered and glanced over the cover letter then swore tiredly. “My father is taking LV Global to court. This is what sort of man he is.” He fluttered the pages in impotent fury. “He would rather lock me into years of court appearances and legal fees, demonstrating to the entire world that he is no longer fit to run this company, than accept that irrefutable fact. Give this back to Oladele. Tell her we’ll discuss it Monday. Then go home and get some rest.”
She wordlessly took the papers, fighting to keep her chin up as he walked alongside her to the elevator. Did hehaveto step into it with her? The space felt so claustrophobic she could hardly breathe. She kept replaying herinappropriatewords, feeling unbearably gauche.
“You could make this easier,” he said as the elevator descended. “Wear ugly clothes. Stop showering.”
They were both staring straight ahead. For a second, she wondered if she had heard him correctly. Then she thought about telling himthatwas inappropriate, but a tiny glow flickered to life in her chest and began to expand, warming her to her fingertips and toes.
Every day she came to work anticipating her moments with him, and every day she felt tortured by them. Let down, even. She thought about their kisses and their lovemaking far too often. She reminded herself constantly that they weren’t going back to that.
But he seemed to be telling her that he still felt this awareness, too. This attraction.
As the elevator stopped on her floor, she said, “I’m probably carrying a deadly plague.”
The doors opened.
“See? Was that hard?” he drawled.
She bit back her pleased smile as she walked away.
Chapter Seven
Siobhan ignored Joaquin’sorder to rest and spent the weekend Christmas shopping.
She even made a point of watching children who were blinking in wonderment at toys and pausing to listen to a choral group singing before a massive decorated tree, trying to remind herself why she used to love Christmas so much.
It cheered her a little, but she couldn’t seem to shake a leaden feeling in her limbs. No actual sniffles or cough arrived, though. She wasn’t running a fever or even feeling achy. She was merely tired and her stomach was a little unsettled so she stuck to bland foods and skipped coffee and wine, hoping to feel better by Monday.
She didn’t, but she wasn’t any worse so she didn’t feel justified calling in sick. There was still so much to do and she didn’t want to let Joaquin down.
She didn’t want to miss a chance to see him. That was the real reason.
You could make this easier.
She’d been deeply stung when he had rebuffed her remark about his engagement. All she had been able to learn online was that it had been announced a few weeks before his brother passed and was called off shortly after. But he was right. It was very personal and none of her business. She shouldn’t have brought it up at work or anywhere else.
She had been deeply surprised by hisreason one millionfor not wanting children, though. It had struck a pang of distressin her because she wanted children someday. She didn’t really believe in fate, either, but the way she and Joaquin had come together so coincidentally after parting in San Francisco had made her secretly wonder if greater forces were conspiring to throw them together.
His aversion to children told her they weren’t as sympatico as she’d hoped. Not that she should have any hopes where he was concerned. Even if he was physically attracted to her, his remark in the elevator told her he didn’t want to be.
