Romantic Acquisition Page 0,3
a friendly acquisition, such as this one, or a hostile takeover. Peter and Jeff knew that they were supposed to remain separate in order to maintain the data integrity and not become influenced by employee issues.
Even Carlo knew that this was going to be a difficult test for his team. Hell, Carlo wanted to jump up and help her if only to get himself closer so he could capture her scent again. Her perfume was very subtle, barely there even, but smelled of lilac and vanilla. He liked it. Too much, he thought. He admitted that he was drawn to her. But he kept himself apart, determined to maintain the discipline that demanded isolation from a target during due diligence. Once they had made the final decision to acquire a company, he would then give himself permission to get closer and get to know the personnel. He had to, in fact. It would be his job to find out who would be kept on after the acquisition and who would be laid off.
Carlo watched in fascination as Kate plugged in her computer. She was definitely a ball of energy, he thought. Just plugging in her computer took a great deal of movement. And each time she moved, her hair bounced, her skirt fluttered and her hands were everywhere. It would be exhausting to watch her if it wasn’t so fascinating.
Kate bit her lower lip and tried to concentrate on putting the appropriate plugs into her computer. She hated to admit it, but she was a computer know-nothing. She figured out that the power cable needed to connect into the round hole in the back. She made that assumption with minimal difficulty. There were only two round holes and one didn’t fit. She was extremely relieved when the other hole worked. But then there was the blue plug that looked like a phone cable. She had no idea what that did. She’d seen the computer support people plug it in and she suspected that it helped her e-mail work, but other than that, she was lost. There were two areas that this plug fit into. Since she didn’t want to blow up her computer by putting it into the wrong one, she just left it unplugged assuming that was the safest plan of action.
She decided it wasn’t too important since there was no obvious plug in the back of her computer so she laid it aside and started with the mouse connection. This one turned out to be another cable that she couldn’t figure out. Deciding to save face, knowing that the tall, incredibly sexy man at the end of the conference table was watching her, she dropped the mouse into the chair next to her and used the touch pad on her computer, hoping she looked non-challant enough to hide her computer ignorance.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at her screen and was relieved to see that she had power. That was something, wasn’t it? She felt as if she’d accomplished a small miracle. Clicking on her e-mail button produced no results. She knew that blue thingy connected her somehow. Should she try again to connect?
Kate sighed longingly. She wished she could work in her office. There, she just snapped her laptop onto what the computer guys called a docking station and everything worked. She had another docking station at home and it was easy enough to plop her computer in and, again, everything worked. She didn’t have to worry about connecting plugs or power cables or anything.
Suddenly, there was a large form leaning over her and Kate’s whole body went into overload. It was him! Carlo! And he was leaning over her computer.
His shoulders were so broad, they blocked out the sunshine as he leaned over her computer. Kate’s skin warmed with his closeness. He accidentally brushed her arm and her whole body shivered in reaction.
“Need some help?” he asked.
With a few snaps, her e-mail came to life. He picked up her mouse from the seat next to her and snapped that into place as well. Then he casually walked back to the other end of the conference table, leaving Kate trembling with curiosity and awareness of this incredibly attractive man.
Kate watched him as he took off his suit coat and draped it on the back of a chair. Good grief! The man’s shoulders filled out that suit! There was supposed to be padding there to make his shoulders look broad but there wouldn’t be any room with those