“So…is there anything you want me to work on? Anything specific?” She looked around the room. “If not, I can work on your invoicing.”
“My invoices are on my computer. They’re private.”
“Oh,” she said quietly. Then she winced. “So last night, I sort of, kind of, maybe just a little bit might have hacked into your computer so I could compare your paper invoices with your computer invoices. Then I transferred your files to my computer, just to make things easier.” She held the wince on her face.
I jumped to my feet. “You did what?” I slammed my palms down on the desk in front of her.
She stood up opposite me and took a similar pose. “You can say thank you now,” she spat out. We stood nose to nose and I realized her mouth smelled like cherry lip balm. I looked down at her lips.
“Don’t do that,” she said quietly.
“Don’t do what?” I whispered back.
“Don’t think about kissing me.”
“I wasn’t thinking about kissing you.”
“Yes you were.”
“No I wasn’t.”
“Puhleeze,” she said as she straightened up and put her hands on her slim hips. “You were totally thinking about what my lip gloss would taste like.”
Fuck me. She was right. “Why do you do that?”
“I like the truth.”
“No, why do you say everything that comes into your head?”
Her brow furrowed. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You distract people by delivering the truth. You notice things that will throw them off balance.”
“I do?” She stared at me, her blue eyes soft and yielding for the first time ever.
“You do.”
“I throw you off balance?”
“Very much so.”
She smiled. “Good.”
Then she picked up her computer, reached into my desk drawer and removed a file labeled “invoices.” Then she went to the desk in the reception area. I assumed she was going to work, even though I wasn’t paying her, and I didn’t want her here.
She leaned around the corner of the doorway. “Do you want me to call the building maintenance people to get them to try a new lock?” She didn’t even smile when she asked the question.
“No thank you,” I replied.
She shut the door between me and her, and for the first time since she’d arrived, I was finally able to take a deep breath.
Chapter 9
Clark
Two days later, when Mason Peterson showed up at my office, I should have known something was up. He came in and walked straight to my desk.
“Dude, you need a receptionist,” he said. He jerked his thumb toward the outer office area.