You won’t kill me before the gala, or you’d have to scramble to find a new date.”
“You’ve thought this through. So have I, trust me.” He smiles, his eyes glinting with evil humor.
I open up the box. Grilled goats’ cheese sandwich with tomatoes and basil on sourdough bread. The scent wafts up into my nostrils, and my stomach rumbles.
I set it down and open up the smaller boxes. One of them has two chocolate chip cookies, and the other contains a peach tart. How special of him.
“Thank you for lunch. ‘Thaaaank yoouuu’ is how it’s pronounced, by the way. Hold on a minute.” I pick up the peach tart and toss it into the trash. “Now, where were we?”
He leans forward a little and folds his arms across his broad chest. “Someday I’ll learn the story behind your peach aversion.”
“I doubt that.” I pick up the sandwich and take a bite. “This is amazing. Here we go with the mixed messages again. Do you want to get rid of me or not?”
He smiles, his eyes sparking with amusement. “I’m pretty sure you’ll accomplish that all by yourself. You came very close to missing several deadlines today.” Bastard. “In the meantime, you’re on the clock. My clock. People who skip meals are less efficient, and it’s two minutes past two p.m. You haven’t eaten lunch yet, and you didn’t bring any.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Weird that you know that. Then again, you did break into my apartment and leave the world’s stankiest pizza on my counter, so obviously the stalker powers are strong with this one.”
“I plead the Fifth. But to be clear, I wouldn’t have gone within a mile of that pizza. That’s the kind of scent that lingers. When I want dirty deeds done, I generally have people I can call.”
“Do they do it dirt cheap?”
The sparkle in his eyes would melt the panties right off a lesser woman. “No, I always pay top dollar.”
I take another bite of sandwich, then duck my head as I chew and swallow, because he’s staring right at me and it’s freaking me out. He’s doing the laser-beam thing with his eyes again, drilling right through my skull and probably extracting my thoughts. When I’ve finished chewing, I look up again. “Don’t just stand there staring at me while I eat. Have a cookie or something.”
He grabs a chair from the corner of the room and brings it over so it’s almost pressed up against the desk. Then he grabs a cookie and plops down in the chair. Great. Now instead of standing and staring, he’s sitting and staring.
He takes a bite of his cookie, I pour my coffee and drink it, and his eyes are on me the entire time. It warms me in a way I find uncomfortably pleasurable. “By the way, haven’t checked my email in a little while. Did you pick up my dry cleaning?”
I nod, with just a hint of smug. “Of course. By the way, who dry-cleans their boxers? Is that safe? all those chemicals near your…” I blush and trail off, waving my hand vaguely.
He smirks at me. “They use organic cleaning solutions. And I had no idea you were so concerned about my…” He waves his own hand in a mocking imitation, then cocks an eyebrow. “How did you know which dry-cleaner I use?’
“You mean, since you gave me only partial instructions in the hopes that I’d fail?” I smile at him. “And the same thing with your dentist and your gym, when you told me to make appointments for you but didn’t give me their numbers? I have my ways.” Ha. He thinks he’s so smart. Well, I’ve got moves.
He turns up the intensity on his laser beam gaze. “Well, good for you. Find the toy yet?”
“I have several excellent leads.”
He swallows the rest of the cookie in one savage bite, and smiles. “Liar.”
The corner of his mouth twitches up. I’m just so funny to him. My eyes trace the curve of his mouth, and I think about kissing those soft pillow lips, which makes me want to slap my own face. Irritation sizzles through my blood, warring with attraction.
“I still have time left, so why ask?”
“Just making plans for advertising a certain personal shopper position sometime soon. And sending Thérèse a gilt-edged ‘I told you so’ card.”
I mutter something under my breath. It begins with an “A” and ends with a “hole.”