‘I think it’s more anI’m sorry I was an arseoffering.’
‘It definitely seems more like aplease keep quietrequest.’
‘I wouldn’t presume to bribe you. I would, however, appreciate it if you could not mention to anyone in this place that you saw me last night.’
And there we have it—an admission!
‘Keep quiet about seeing you, or specifically that I saw you with the director’s daughter?’ My words are sugary sweet. With just a trace of arsenic.
‘Heather.’ He draws out my name affably this time, no doubt hoping to reinforce that he knows it now, unlike last night. ‘There really was nothing untoward going on. You have to believe me.’
‘Why? Why do I have to believe you?’ I fold my arms, my hip slightly cocked, though my high desk probably spoils the effect.
‘I wouldn’t want to lose your good opinion of me.’
I find myself laughing, the noise in the room almost startling.
‘What’s so funny?’ He tries not to smile himself, his gaze unabashedly holding mine.
‘Maybe the high opinion you have of yourself seems to be blinding you to the opinion of others.’
‘Blame it on my genes,’ he says with a sigh. ‘I was a very beautiful baby who grew into a very handsome boy. And that handsome boy eventually became the stunner you see before you now.’
‘Yet still, I find I don’t really have much of an opinion of you at all.’ Though dream Archer is pretty yummy.
‘Ouch. You really know how to dent a man’s ego.’ There’s a hint of pearly white canine teeth with this lie because his ego is probably titanium plated. ‘I think I’d prefer you to have a poor opinion over no opinion.’
‘Hmph,’ I mutter, adjusting the position of my mouse. ‘I’m sure that wouldn’t take much to rectify.’
This is surreal. Maybe I’ve gone to sleep at my desk. Maybe someone spiked my champagne last night, and this is a hallucination. Up until yesterday, I’d barely spoken to the office hottie, avoiding him at all costs. And now what? I’ve had a weirdly porn-y dream about him. I’m expected to think he finds me interesting? Or is it that he wants me to findhiminteresting for nefarious means? Either way, we both know there’s a reason he’s playing this game.
‘Because the only thing wrong about last night was when I realised the wrong girl was sitting at my table.’
‘Hah!’ The noise that’s expelled from my throat is pretty violent. ‘You really are a piece of work.’
‘It’s all true. Clara is a nice girl, but that’s all she is. A girl. A girl with smarts and ambition, but she’s also—’
‘The boss’s daughter?’
‘I was going to say not interested in me in that way. And the same goes the other way around. But you and me? I reckon we could be mates.’
Sparring partners maybe.
‘There really was nothing untoward going on. Believe me?’
‘I think that’d depend on your definition of untoward.’ I look up, giving him one of my best unimpressed looks. ‘Of how you’d paint that picture.’
‘Kinky.’ His eyes narrow as he hooks both elbows over the back of my high desk. ‘Paint that picture for you?’ he repeats, his voice suddenly dark and bedroom-y. ‘Are you a bit of a voyeur, Heather?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I snap as I wonder at the same time if he lines his lashes. They’re soextravagant. It’s so unfair that both the eyebrow and lash fairy visited his crib.
‘It’s like you’re trying to get me to spill all the dirty details.’ His eyes glint in the light as though they’re full of wicked thoughts. ‘Sadly, for you at least, it was shop talk then home, and into bed by ten. Alone,’ he adds as my mouth opens with a retort. ‘You and I should go out sometime.’
‘I’msonot interested in Clara’s sloppy seconds.’ My reply drips with derision, and in return, one dark eyebrow rises like a question mark. It’s such an elegant and pointed motion, and one that almost implies that nothing about this man could ever be messy or careless.
‘I meant as workmates, but I can see you don’t believe me.’
‘Goodness, whatever gave you that idea? Apart from my mouth.’
