Thanks to all the distracting hot nakedness, I’d almost forgotten why I’d come here in the first place. “Well, forgive me if I don’t have a sense of humor at two in the morning after being woken up by a drill in my ear,” I said with as much venom as possible.
He watched me for a few seconds while some cogs turned in his head, “You live there?” He pointed to the wall looking genuinely shocked. “Seriously? You livethere?”
“Yes, on the other side of the wall you’ve been drilling into for the past half hour.”
Ben blinked a few times before bursting out laughing, a big hearty laugh. “Well, it’s official,” he said. “I’m never going to be able to sleep again knowing that only a few inches separate us.”
I swallowed hard, and my breath caught in my throat as I too pondered the implications.
“Some people at the office think you don’t sleep anyway,” I said, trying to steer the conversation in another direction.
“Really? What else do people think?” he asked with a knowing smile, as if he was used to such rumors and stories following him around.
I debated whether to say it or not but decided I would so he would know that I knew what kind of man he was. “I heard you ‘nailed,’” I gestured air commas, directly quoting the IT guys, “all the women in your last office.” I immediately felt silly for using that ridiculous word.
“Nailed?” A tiny smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
“Well, you know what I mean,” I said.
“No, I actually don’t.” He took a step forward. “What is this ‘nailed’?” He copied my air commas in a decidedly mocking way.
I shook my head. “You’re incorrigible! You know exactly what I mean, you’re just trying to get me to say it.”
“Incorrigible?” A tiny chuckle escaped his lips. “I don’t think anyone has ever called me that before.”
“Well, they should have,” I folded my arms belligerently.
“So let’s get back to this supposed ‘nailing,’ I’m meant to have done.” He was mocking me now, and not even trying to hide it.
I shook my head. “Okay, fucked. Screwed. Banged. How’s that? Better?”
He smiled. “Do you think I fucked, screwed and banged all the women in my last office?” He ended the question with a slow, mischievous smile, and a deadly glint flashed in his eyes; it stole my breath.
“I wouldn’t know.” I swallowed, my mouth was so damn dry. “People have been saying a lot of different things about you.”
“Well, what do you think?” he asked as he met my eyes.
“About what?”
“What do you think about me?”
“Um . . . What do you mean?”
He’d started walking forward again, and I continued my backwards shuffle.
“Be careful of that box,” he said, pointing behind me just as I was about to walk into it. But I kept on going, retreating while he continued moving forward.
“You walk backwards a lot,” he finally said with another smile that could melt the entire polar ice cap.
“Well, you walk forwards a lot.”Great retort, Sera. Real genius one there!
“So what do you think of me, Sera?”
I stopped walking, considering that this might actually be a great opportunity to re-draw my line in the sand. I could make it quite clear to him that we would never have sex again—although I’m sure I’d be tempted—and make it clear that things should remain professional at all times—despite the unprofessional images flashing through my mind right now.
“Honestly?” I asked.
“One hundred percent.”
