Desire by Design - By Paula Altenburg Page 0,16

any thought as to how they were going to explain this to any of the other people present. Matt couldn’t help but be charmed, and maybe a little bit envious. Everything she did, she did with passion—he could tell that about her already. What would it be like to live life like that?

That was when the situation really struck him. He was rolling around in his uncle’s shrubbery with a sexy new colleague in a peekaboo dress. A company code of ethics didn’t quite have this one covered. He wasn’t too sure what to do about it—or when he’d become such an old man.

Because personally, he didn’t see how it would do any real harm.

The night was warm, and the air was heavy with the threat of approaching rain. If they didn’t move soon they’d be mud wrestling, too.

Still, he was no longer in any hurry to go anywhere. No one could see them even if they did come out on the patio. He figured this put them well past the first base of any relationship, professional or otherwise, and wondered if it would be inappropriate to kiss her.

“You’re in luck,” he said. “Here’s your chance to get to know me better.”

“I already know you suck at making excuses.” Laughter lingered in her voice. She caught his ribs with an elbow. “Who says ‘powder your nose’ anymore? What are you, ninety?”

“I panicked. Besides, there may be snow on the roof, but there’s plenty of fire in the furnace.” He edged closer. “Don’t move. I’ll unhook your dress.”

He pinned her down with the weight of one leg and reached across her, taking his time, enjoying the moment. She smelled a lot better than the mulch.

The moment stretched. Inside the house, he could hear muted conversation and the faint clatter of plates and glasses.

“We’re flattening your uncle’s forsythia,” Eve said.

“Consider it his punch in the nose.”

He finally got a finger under the piece of fabric on the prickly shrub, lifted it, and she was free. Again, he debated the wisdom of kissing her. Something pulled him to her like a magnet. He lowered his hand and ran a thumb across her lower lip.

She froze.

Not the reaction he’d been hoping for.

“I think my dress is untangled now,” she said, all the laughter gone, sounding uncertain in a way that only made him want to kiss her more, but for different reasons.

Disappointment mingled with temptation as Matt told himself to be a gentleman. She had hesitated. That meant the fun and games were over.

The sudden swish of the patio doors warned him they were no longer alone. Time dragged to a standstill. Then his uncle’s voice boomed from above.

“Mattie? You out here?”

The situation could still be saved as long as his uncle didn’t hear them. Matt leaned over, intending to whisper in her ear for Eve to be quiet, but in the process, accidentally pinched the soft flesh of her underarm beneath his elbow.

“Ouch!” she gasped, then clapped a hand to her mouth.

Matt, with an impending sense of doom, dropped his forehead to hers. It seemed there was a downside to a passionate lifestyle.

The outdoor floodlights flared, and the entire area lit up like an operating room. There was an awkward moment of silence.

“It’s a big house,” his uncle said slowly. “Couldn’t you two find a room?”

…

Eve’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel as her car hummed along the dark, empty streets. Her hair was a wreck, and Matt’s suit was covered in mulch. She had to give Bob credit for handling the situation well. He’d offered to tell people that Matt had been called away on business, giving them time to slink around the side of the house and slither off into the night.

Eve slouched deeper in her seat. There must be a perverse little part of her subconscious that liked to see her humiliate herself. She’d really thought Matt was going to kiss her, and she’d panicked. That suggested it had been either way too long since she’d been kissed by a man, or not long enough. She wasn’t sure which.

Or maybe it was because that one phone call from Claude had set her confidence back a few years.

She made a mental note not to be so hard on the men at work the next time they whistled at women. After Lena’s performance—and her own—it was apparent that men weren’t the only ones who could make idiots of themselves over the opposite sex.

She wished Matt would say something now. Anything. He hadn’t