Then she looked over at the man’s glare and all of those naughty ideas came right back to her. That need to get a reaction out of Brant Jones, to make him feel…something, anything at all, hit her hard. So it was that her hand reached out, their eyes locked. He anticipated her act and dared her to follow through. Wrong thing to do, Gianna thought.
That hand just…flipped the door. Slam!
There! Door closed, she thought with satisfaction. And noise! Goodness the loud noise inside this stuffy office felt liberating!
But as she looked up at the man, she knew once again that he was irritated with her. What was new, she thought with increasing resentment.
Brant didn’t say anything for a long moment. He simply stared at her. Like a bug. Like a disgusting bug that was crawling across his immaculate, expensive carpet. His immaculate, noise-silencing carpet! How about a tile floor, she thought as she stood there, waiting for his furious inspection of her to end.
“Why would I install tile?”
Gianna blinked, cringing inwardly. She hadn’t meant to say those words out loud. Darn filter! What’s the point of having a filter if it didn’t work?!
“Um…just…sound.” Giving in to her desperation, she moved forward, her hands lifting into the air to implore him to understand. “Don’t you ever want some noise? Something to let you know that you’re alive and that the world is moving around?” She spun around, sighing as she took in the amazing view of the mountains from his massive office. “Even here in this silent room, it is oppressive! You have a gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains and yet,” her arm swept the air, indicating his desk, “you work with your back to that resplendent view!”
Brant sat down in the leather chair and watched. It was always a delight to watch Gianna with her wild, dark hair that curled all around her lovely, delicate features. Even listening to her was amazing. Her English was brilliant, but the words were tinged with a beautiful, lilting, Italian accent. He almost laughed at her use of “resplendent” but pulled back just in time, not wanting to offend her. He knew that she was constantly pushing to improve her use of the language by trying out different words and phrases. Sometimes her new words were right on target and other times, she…well, didn’t. Either way, she was like a shocking breath of fresh air.
Unfortunately, she was bored. He knew that she needed more challenges, more intellectual stimulation, but no matter how many assignments he handed over to her, she finished them with ease and accuracy, wanting more. She was doing the job of three people at the moment. Yet she still didn’t have enough work to do.
Still, he couldn’t be seen as soft. There was a professionalism within the company that needed to be maintained. “Your father asked me to hire you, Gianna. He wanted you to work, not play games.”
She stood up and moved around the office. “I work! But that’s all that anyone does around here! They work! No one does anything interesting!” She huffed for a moment, then swung around. “Where is the fun? Where is the laughter? You Americans!” she said with an inelegant snort. “You never do anything fun!”
Brant leaned back in his chair, thinking about all of the fun things he’d like to do with her. Starting with taking off that sexy dress that wrapped around her voluptuous figure. With one, simple tug of that silk tie at her waist, the entire dress would fall open. One tug and he could view all of her lush curves. At twenty-five, Gianna had a very Italian sense of style. The flamboyant colors and simple lines all contributed to the sensuous nature of whatever she wore. Add in her dramatic flair for…everything and it was no wonder Brant was hooked. Completely!
Not that he would do anything about his attraction for Gianna. She was gorgeous and outrageous, flagrantly taunting him some days and others, she just annoyed him by being around him and knowing that he couldn’t touch her.
She’d asked him a question. Question? No, she’d made a comment. Something bout…Americans? Yeah, that was it. She thought that Americans were boring and work driven. Oh, if only she could read his mind, she’d know full well that he was focused on her and work…he had no idea what was waiting for him on his desk or on his calendar. On the other hand, Brant was fully aware of the enticing shadow between her breasts and her slender ankles. Pulling his eyes back up to her darker ones, he nodded in agreement. “Yes. Americans are very focused on work issues.”