‘Nightmare,’ she said. ‘I’m a size nine. And I never wear heels. You?’
‘Heels have never been my thing,’ he said, that faint smile back again.
Kate nearly fell off her chair because, good heavens, was that a joke? Crikey.
‘It’s hard to be inconspicuous.’
He arched an eyebrow. ‘Is that a negative?’
It was for her. She’d been taller than her contemporaries since the moment she’d learned to walk. Throughout her childhood barely a week had passed without someone commenting on it. She couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t felt different, and not in a good way. No amount of positive parental input had helped. She’d just wanted to be the same as everyone else. To fit in. Subsequently she’d spent so much of her childhood and teenage years hunching her shoulders and trying to appear shorter than she was her posture was abysmal. ‘I imagine that depends who you are.’
‘You command attention.’
Obviously he was using the ‘you’ in the general sense, not referring to her in particular, but nevertheless she weirdly found herself sitting up a bit straighter. ‘Possibly,’ she hedged.
‘And statistically, taller people tend to earn a higher salary.’
Her eyebrows lifted. ‘Really?’ That was interesting.
‘So I once read.’
‘I must remember that at my next performance review.’
‘I would.’ He paused, then said, ‘Light bulbs.’
‘Maxi-dresses,’ she batted back.
‘You never have a problem reaching for something from a high shelf.’
‘And you can always spot friends in a crowd.’
‘Quite,’ he said. ‘Definite pluses.’
His words were spoken evenly enough, but something flickered across his expression and the smile faded, and it suddenly occurred to her that while she’d assumed he was too uptight and aloof to do friends, maybe it wasn’t just that. Maybe it was more that it was lonely at the top. And so maybe he was as lonely as she was...
Or not.
The strangely electric heat surging through her dissipated and she went cold, because what planet was she on? A man like Theo would never be lonely. He certainly wouldn’t lack for female companionship. Just because nothing appeared about him in the gossip columns didn’t mean he was a monk. And a moment or two of banter did not make him a kindred spirit. She must have been mad to imagine he ever could be. And to think she’d even harboured the vague hope that he might have some advice for her about how to deal with an excess of centimetres. Of course he wouldn’t. He clearly had no hang-ups about anything at all, and why would he? He was a god and she was about as far from goddess-ness as it was possible to get. She and Theo were poles apart in virtually every way. She had to be even more starved of attention than she realised if she was deluding herself with the idea that they somehow shared something unique. And as for the inappropriate little fantasies about hugging and showers, what had she been thinking?
The setting sun was casting an oddly seductive golden glow across his office and the sense of intimacy it created was messing with her head. That was the trouble. It spun a sort of web that rendered reality all blurry. That was why she found it so easy to talk to him. Why she’d been all of a flutter when he’d so casually mentioned the many sexual positions he’d obviously experienced.
The sooner she could get out of here, the better. If she stayed, who knew what else she might reveal? She’d already humiliated herself quite enough. Once she’d started talking she hadn’t shut up. Besides, what with the rolling of her stomach and the bizarre way she kept going hot and cold at the same time, she was beginning to feel very peculiar indeed.
‘So, anyway,’ she said with a feebly bright smile. ‘There you are. The reasons why I’m still a virgin. Basically no one wants me. And on that pretty mortifying note I should definitely go. I’m sure you have plenty to be getting on with and I’ve taken up more than enough of your time. So, sorry for the firewall breach thing and, uh, thanks for everything... I’d best be off. Unless, of course, there’s anything else?’
CHAPTER THREE
ANYTHING ELSE?
Anything else?
God.
There was so much going on in Theo’s head he didn’t know how to even begin to unravel it. How he was managing to keep a grip on things he had no idea. If he’d known what chaos Kate was going to unleash by not leaving when he’d told her to, he’d have picked her up and carried her out instead of ignoring his better judgement and like an idiot encouraging her to continue.
When she’d been talking about everything she’d been through his entire body had started to churn. When she’d mentioned the short-sighted fools who’d rejected her over the years he’d had an irrational urge to demand a list of names. When she’d revealed that she’d been bullied and how, his hands had curled into fists and he’d wanted to hit something for the first time in fourteen years, six months and ten days. As they’d batted back and forth the pros and cons of being tall, for the briefest of moments he’d forgotten where and who he was and had found himself actually enjoying the conversation, until she’d mentioned friends and he’d crashed back down to earth with a bump.
And then there was the want, the searing, clawing, deeply inappropriate need to show her what the soft