“What are you two lovebirds doing in here that you needed to lock the door?” Friggin’ Helene stood there, arms crossed beneath her big boobs, her hip cocked to one side.
“Is there something I can help you with?” Charlotte ignored her question, set her forearms on her desk, and forced herself to remain professional. Which was difficult to do when the she-devil was blatantly scanning Hawk up and down.Again.
She’d never been a violent person, but with the way Helene was pissing her off today, she just might make an exception.
“Oh, here’s the bag I’ve been admiring.” She lifted Charlotte’s messenger bag from the chair, held it up, and turned it in her hands to examine it. “It’s so … functional, what with all of these pockets.”
Then the damn woman actually had the nerve to open and close a couple of the outside pockets. She started to access the main compartment, and Hawk snatched it from her grasp. And boy oh boy, the look he gave her could wilt flowers.
“I’m sorry, I was just looking at it.” She actually acted put out by what he’d done. “I’ve been thinking about getting something like it.”
“What do you want, Helene?” Because Charlotte was certain she wasn’t here to admire a six-year-old messenger bag that wasn’t made by one of the fancy, big-name designers Helene preferred.
“Mr. Pennington is asking for you.” She lowered her arms. “And you know he doesn’t like being kept waiting.”
“Please tell him that I’m in the middle of something right now, then I’ll be leaving the office for vacation.” Charlotte shared a loving look with Hawk. “Hawk and I want to spend some time together—just the two of us—away from work.”
Was she rubbing it in Helene’s nose? Yes. Did she feel bad about it? Not even a tiny little bit.
She was done kowtowing to the likes of Pennington. Especially now that she knew he was a horrible, evil monster who did terrible things to children. And she was definitely done putting up with his holier-than-thou assistant.
“Yeah, I want her all to myself.” Charlotte’s bag still in his hand, Hawk stepped over to her and skimmed his fingertip down her cheek.
Holy panties on fire.He sure was good at this pretending thing.
Now that she’d gotten a taste of him—even though it was under false pretenses—her libido had, apparently, decided to come out of hibernation.
Charlotte had better get control of her emotions or she could be setting herself up for a major disappointment.
“Mr. Pennington is not one to be ignored.” Helene propped her hands on her pronounced hips, and her shiny red nails matched her skirt.
“That may be, but he’ll just have to wait until I get back.” Charlotte hoped Pennington and the rest of them were in jail by then.
“What she said.” Hawk reached down to set her bag on the floor behind her desk, straightened, and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Well.” She seemed shocked by their dismissal. “I can assure you he will be extremely unhappy when I tell him what you said.”
“So be it.” Charlotte shrugged.
At that, Helene turned on her four-inch heels and stormed off.
“You did great.” Hawk leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss. “Let me lock the door.”
Charlotte waited for the click before returning to her call.
“Sorry about that, Sammy.” She lifted her laptop screen.
“No worries. I finished downloading the files, so you can go ahead and power down and disconnect from the system whenever you’re ready.”
“That’s it?” Charlotte asked.
“Yep, and make sure you take your laptop with you when you leave,” Sammy said. “I’ll analyze these files and prepare a summary.”
“Thanks, Sammy.” Charlotte unplugged the blue cord from her laptop and blew out a sigh of relief that they were done with this part of their clandestine mission.
“Yeah, thanks,” Hawk said.
“You bet.” Sammy ended the call.
