‘No reason.’ He forced a lazy smile to his lips. ‘Miller mentioned that you work long hours. Even weekends. I wouldn’t want you to burn yourself out.’
‘Oh.’ She glanced over his shoulder at the door as if she wanted it to open magically and suck him outside. ‘I’m not nearing burnout. Thank you for asking.’
She rubbed the outer edges of her left eye as if to control a twitch. Sam’s smile grew. Oh, she knew all right. She knew he had been the man who had been inside her at the Herzogs’ party, the man who had pleasured her so deeply, so thoroughly, so intimately he’d had to hold her upright immediately afterwards so she didn’t fall over. He was dead sure of it now. And damn, if that didn’t ease the choke hold she had on his unaccountably fragile ego.
‘My pleasure,’ he purred, buttoning his jacket and willing to back off now. ‘Set up that meeting with every one of our Star Burger clients. And Ruby?’ He stopped at her door and smiled at the wary expression on her face. ‘Thank you for your time. It was very enlightening.’
CHAPTER FOUR
RUBY SAGGED IN her seat the moment Sam closed her office door behind him.
Good lord, she was never going to be able to work with him. He was too big and too dangerous to her equilibrium, sucking all the air out of the room until she could barely breathe.
The way he had looked at her, all hot and intense...it was all she could do to hold herself aloof. And when he had asked about last Friday night...her eyes narrowed as she recalled his bland expression. She’d almost been certain he’d been toying with her, but he was a master when it came to inscrutability.
Even so, there was no way he could know that he’d been with her at the Herzog party. No one had known her there, as far as she was aware. The only way he would know it was her was if she told him. Which she wasn’t about to do. Ever.
‘Here are some boxes,’ Veronica said, carrying in two cardboard flat-packs she immediately set about constructing on Ruby’s desk. ‘I know you have a lot to do today so I’ll take care of the packing up. Just remember tomorrow when you finish in court to head to the new office building. With the amount of manpower Sam has provided we’ll definitely be in by then. And we’re on the executive floor.’ She waggled her brows. ‘I’m going to do my best to get us a view of the harbour. How was your meeting with His Hotness before? He looked a lot happier when he left than when he was standing around waiting for you.’
‘His Hotness?’
‘That’s what a few of the girls have already nicknamed him. I’m married, but I wouldn’t mind locking lips with him just once in this lifetime. I’m sure my husband would forgive me.’
Veronica grinned and Ruby tried to grin back. ‘He’s unlikely to remember you afterwards,’ she said with enough bite to have Veronica looking at her strangely.
‘What does that mean?’
‘Nothing.’ Ruby pushed back from her desk and started shoving things into the first box. ‘Ignore me. I’m upset that another client has opted out from the Star Burger case. I have to set up an appointment for all of them to meet. I think Sam has some idea that he can convince them to re-commit to the case.’
‘Maybe he can. He’s awfully compelling.’
About to tell Veronica she didn’t really want to hear how ‘compelling’ their new boss was, she stopped when there was a knock at her door.
‘Werner meeting about to start in five, Rubes.’ Grant Campbell, a rising-star associate in the firm, poked his head through the door. ‘We’re in conference room four.’
‘On my way,’ she said, grabbing her laptop and accidentally upending five case files in the process.
She glanced at Veronica. ‘Ever get the feeling you should have stayed in bed some days?’
‘All the time,’ Veronica quipped.
And that was pretty much Ruby’s day, chasing her tail and trying to keep up with work until she fell into bed that night so tired she didn’t even think about Sam the whole night. Or mostly.
By Wednesday morning she felt marginally more in control, though she used that term loosely because she could already feel her nerves buzzing around inside as if she were high on caffeine. Which she wasn’t because she hadn’t even had time for a coffee so far this morning.