Talking Dirty with the CEO - By Jackie Ashenden Page 0,66

on the door handle.

“You love her, I know you do.” Jude’s voice was very quiet. “And you said she loves you. Don’t throw that away.”

Joseph stared at the wooden grain of the door.

You love her.

Did he? Had he fallen in love with Christie?

“I don’t want to let her down,” he heard himself say hoarsely. “Not the way I have with you.”

“You’ve never let me down. Not when it counted. Not once.”

He wanted to believe that. Wished he could believe that.

Throwing the towel to one side, Joseph stalked out of his office, suddenly needing space. Air. In the area outside, activity came to a standstill as everyone looked at him and then abruptly went back to their tasks.

Jesus, he’d never heard his staff so quiet. And in fact, now that he thought about it, they’d been quiet for the past four weeks.

Afraid of you because you’ve been the boss from hell for the past four weeks.

A barb of agony sunk deep inside him. Yeah, he hadn’t been right for weeks now. Hadn’t been able to concentrate. Hadn’t been able to think. All his reminders had gone out the window and he’d missed some important deadlines because something had distracted him. Something stupid like searching for Gothic metal songs online or trying to find vintage parts for a certain computer on a specialist website. Stupid, irrelevant things.

And now his staff was scared of him because he’d been a moody bastard.

He swore under his breath, took the elevator down to the ground floor, and walked outside. Walking down the sidewalk just because he needed to walk. To move. To get away from the horrible, terrible restlessness that burned inside him.

When would it go the hell away?

He passed a shop and had his attention caught by a pair of shoes in the window. Ugg boots.

Christie.

Something inside him faltered, like missing a step going down stairs, making his breath catch.

You love her, Joseph. Don’t push her away.

And suddenly longing gripped him. A longing so intense he couldn’t breathe.

He missed her. Missed her smile, her quick wit, her laughter, her curiosity, her passion. The way she calmed him. The way he could look at her for hours and not have the restlessness eat away at him. Hell, he even missed her stubborn determination and her spine of pure steel.

He missed her so much it left him aching right down to his bones.

He did love her.

The knowledge of it held him rooted to the spot, an unconscious hand on the shop window, staring at the shoes on display.

He couldn’t let her go. Regardless of what was best for her, what was best for him was her in his life.

Joseph stepped away from the window and went into the shop.

…

Christie was knee-deep in zombies when the phone on her desk rang. She tried ignoring it for a while—the level she was playing in Zombie Force Online was a fiendish one—but when it became apparent that whoever was on the line wasn’t going to give up, she cursed and logged out of the game.

“What?” she snapped into the phone with very bad grace.

“Christie?” said Claire, the Total Tech receptionist. “You have a visitor.”

Feeling bad because really, Claire was very nice and didn’t deserve such rudeness, Christie made an effort. “Sorry, Claire. Bad moment.” Bad whole month in actual fact, but Claire wasn’t to know that. “Send them through.”

To tell the honest truth she wasn’t that interested in visitors. What she wanted was to continue her lunchtime Zombie Force game because God knew there was nothing more distracting than killing a bunch of zombies.

Not that she needed distraction, of course.

No, she was doing very well, thank you very much. Doing well not thinking of him. Not wondering what he was doing or where he was. Concentrating only on work and the new piece Ben had approved, her article on the resurgence of vintage computers and a how-to guide on rebuilding them. She was enjoying it. Even though the computer she’d started restoring sat on her kitchen table, still at the same stage as when Joseph had visited. She just hadn’t been able to face returning to it.

But she would. Of course she would.

At some point in the distant future when her heart had somehow miraculously healed itself.

“Don’t you want to know who it is?” Claire asked and Christie finally picked up on the small quiver of excitement in the other woman’s voice.

“Not particularly,” she said, frowning at the phone. “Is it someone exciting?”

“Oh, yes.” Claire’s voice had descended into a