‘Eleanore?’
Embarrassed to be caught mentally drifting she subtly moved her leg away from his and tapped her computer mouse as if she’d been lost in more productive thoughts than what it would be like to sleep with him. ‘I’m sorry, I missed that.’
‘I asked if you had anything else to say to the team.’
‘No. No. Just.’ She cleared her throat and addressed the small group. ‘Eto zdorovo vstretit’sya s vami bylo.’
Everyone clapped and one by one left the conference room.
Lukas leant closer to her and repeated her last sentence back to her but in a different order. She frowned. ‘What did I say?’
‘You said it great meet you was.’
‘Oh...I’m terrible at languages.’
He laughed. ‘You don’t say.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You could be nice about it.’
‘And then where would we be.’
In bed, Eleanore thought, and had to blink to clear the image from her consciousness.
As the last person filed out of the room she waited for Lukas to do the same. He didn’t. He just sat there and watched her with those wicked blue eyes so she gathered her stuff together and pretended she wasn’t flustered at the thought that he would mention her underwear again.
‘Did you sleep well last night?’ he asked, his pleasant tone winding her nerves even tighter.
‘Fine, thanks. And you?’
‘Not so much.’ He took a sip from his water glass. ‘I dreamt about getting you naked.’
Eleanore twisted her mother’s ring on her little finger. ‘I know what you’re trying to do,’ she said crisply, ‘and it won’t work.’
He leaned back in his chair. ‘It won’t?’
‘No.’ It occurred to her that she really should be trying to tempt him and she briefly considered slipping off her scarf on the pretext of being hot but at the last minute she chickened out. The only real experience she had with flirting was watching actresses in movies and they never fluffed their lines.
‘Going somewhere?’ he drawled.
Eleanore held her files and computer to her chest. ‘Work.’
Of course he chuckled, the husky sound following her down the hallway.
* * *
By the end of the week Eleanore found herself jumping at shadows and she was no longer dressing to tempt him. It was too stressful and he was a much better player than her.
While she spent her time trying to avoid him he called her into his office on the smallest pretext or stopped by hers to go over things with her. And she had no choice but to put up with it.
On one of the days he’d even taken lunch in her office. Or rather, dessert. It had been one of the office girls’ birthday and he’d brought cake. Chocolate cake. Only one slice and one fork.
‘Want some?’ There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes and his smile widened as she pressed herself back against her chair.
‘No.’
He perched on the end of her desk. ‘On a diet?’
Eleanore ignored the heat rising to her cheeks. ‘That’s hardly polite.’
‘You don’t need to diet. You’re tiny.’ His mocking gaze lingered on her chest. ‘Well, most of you is tiny.’ Ignoring her sharp inhalation at his rudeness he tilted the plate in her direction. ‘It’s good.’
She didn’t need him to tell her that. She knew it would be good. She could smell it from across her desk. Saw the way he tipped the fork over in his mouth and used his tongue to suck all the chocolate away. ‘You don’t know what you’re missing out on.’
Oh, she was pretty sure that she did.
His smirk as he swirled his tongue around the fork infuriated her and his lazy smile told her he knew it.
‘I’m busy.’
‘Anything I can do for you?’
‘Find a main road and go play on it,’ she suggested sweetly.
He chuckled. ‘How about you kiss me instead and put us both out of our misery.’
‘Who said I was miserable?’
Tired. Grumpy. Wound up tighter than one of her father’s old fishing reels. Yes. And okay, maybe a teensy bit miserable.
Spying the next forkful of decadent cake he was about to put in his mouth the little devil on Eleanore’s shoulder made her reach out and snag his wrist.
He went predator still at her actions, curiosity lighting the depths of his blue eyes and Eleanore cursed her impulsiveness. She’d intended the move to be brief. She’d wanted to turn the tables and show him that two could play at this silly game of seduction. Only the skin beneath her fingers was warm and dry, the hair on his wrist slightly rough against her palm and her awareness of him skyrocketed. Her heart beat wildly inside her chest and it was sheer pride that had her redirecting the fork to her own mouth and away from his.