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“That should do it,” Justin muttered some time later. He tossed down his pen and leaned back in his chair. Finally, after incorporating several suggestions from his father and fine-tuning the document once more, he was satisfied. Now he just needed to sell it to Schaeffer. Stretching to ease the stiffness in his shoulders, he cupped his hands behind his head and spun his chair around to face the windows.
“Aw, hell,” he grumbled at the sight of the star-filled skyline. A quick glance at his watch told him he’d been at it for hours, which meant that Kim had been forced to stay late again. Shoving out of his seat, he tore out of his office.
“What’s wrong?” Kim asked, jerking her gaze up from the computer screen.
“It’s late, and I promised that you’d get out of here at a decent hour for a change.”
“It’s only half past eight,” she informed him, and averted her gaze.
“Only? You’re supposed to be able to leave at five.” He could probably count the times on one hand that she’d left at quitting time. He claimed a seat on the corner of her desk. “And thanks to me, you’ve had to work late again.”
“I didn’t mind. I had some things I needed to catch up on. So did you finish?”
“Yes,” he told her, but made no attempt to give her the agreement.
Finally she shifted her gaze back to his for a moment. “If you intend for me to put in those changes, you’re going to have to give that to me,” she said, and held out her hand for the document.
“I’ll plug in the changes. Just pull up the original agreement on the screen and then you can get out of here.”
“Don’t be silly. I’ll do it,” she argued.
“No. Go on home. You’ve stayed late enough.”
Kim hesitated a moment. “Justin, is there something in that agreement that you’d prefer I not know about?”
“Of course not.”
“Then since it is part of my job, I’ll make the changes,” she informed him. “Besides, as you’ll recall, the last time you used my computer, you, um, had some difficulties.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” he said, recalling that the system had ended up crashing when the terminal had insisted he’d performed an illegal operation.
“I’m sure it was just a coincidence. All the same I’ll feel better if you let me make the changes.”
Reluctantly Justin handed over the pages.
She scanned the edited sections a moment. “It’ll probably take me about twenty minutes to do these and print up a fresh copy. If you want to go home, I can drop the revised set by your apartment on my way home.”
He found the idea of Kim visiting his apartment appealing. Which was why he said, “I’ll wait.”
When his stomach grumbled a few seconds later, Kim looked up. “Maybe you should go down the street and have dinner while I take care of this. By the time you get back, it’ll be finished.”
“What about you? You haven’t eaten yet, either. And don’t tell me you’re not starved because I wouldn’t believe you.”
“I’m all right,” she said as she continued to scroll down on the screen and make changes. “I’ll pick myself up something on the way home.”
“Do you like pizza?”
“Yes,” she said, pausing, her voice cautious, as were her eyes.
“Everything on it?”
“Justin, this isn’t necessary.”
He ignored her and reached for the phone. After dialing information, he had the number connected. “Everything on it?”
She frowned at him. “No anchovies.”
Justin grinned at that. “You’re a girl after my own heart, Kim Lindgren,” he told her, and placed an order for a super-size pizza extravaganza with everything except anchovies.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she admonished. “I’ll never be able to eat even a third of that pizza.”
“Good. That means there’s more for me.”
“But I thought…”
“You thought?” Justin prompted.
“I thought you would prefer to sit down to a real meal, something from a nice restaurant.”
“By a ‘real meal’ I take it you mean a thick steak or some expensive entrée with a fancy sauce served on china?” Justin countered.
“Yes.”
Justin grinned at that. “You obviously don’t know many teenagers, do you?”
She gave him a puzzled look, which caused her brow to wrinkle in the most adorable way. “No.”
“Well if you did, you’d know that pizza isn’t only considered a real meal. It’s the best meal possible.”
Justin had been right. The pizza was a fabulous meal, especially when it was accompanied by an enormous Italian salad, bread sticks and a glass of wine from the bar in his office. Kim couldn’t remember when she’d enjoyed a meal half as much.
Maybe it was the wine, she thought, as she breathed in the merlot and watched Justin over the rim of her glass. He seemed more relaxed, warmer toward her than he’d been in days. And she…she was enjoying herself, enjoying him. Sitting back in her chair at the conference table in Justin’s office, Kim allowed herself the pleasure of watching him.
“How’s the wine?” he asked.
“Wonderful,” she replied, and took another sip to prove it. Remembering what she’d read about wine, she allowed the flavor to rest on her palate to fully enjoy its taste before swallowing.
“Don’t tell me you’re full,” Justin teased.
“Hardly.” She took a third slice of the pizza. “Tell me more about the teenagers you work with at the youth center.”
“They’re a challenge,” he began, and told her about how bright some of the troubled teens he’d been working with really were. “They keep me on my toes, that’s for sure. You should think about coming down. There’s a lot they could learn from you.”
“I doubt that. You’re the marketing whiz.”
“But there’s more to business than marketing. You’re smart, organized and you have a way of putting people at ease. Those are rare qualities, Kim. You instill even a fraction of them in those kids and it’ll go a long way toward shaping their future.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, touched by the sincerity of his words.
“Nothing to thank me for. It’s the truth. And I hope you’ll at least think about coming down to the center.”
“I will,” she promised, and nearly choked when he smiled at her. God, but he was beautiful, she thought as she watched him tackle another slice of pizza. With that hint of red in his brown hair, the hazel eyes filled with laughter, the strong cheekbones and stubborn chin. For him to be so nice and honorable, too, just made him that much more attractive. Who could blame her for falling in love with him?
“You going to eat that?” he asked, pointing to the last slice of pizza on her plate.
“No. You go ahead and finish it,” she told him.
“Tell you what. Why don’t we split it,” he suggested, and proceeded to divide the slice in two.
Justin polished off his half in a matter of seconds, but it took her a while longer. “Full?” he asked as he refilled both of their glasses.
“Stuffed is more like it,” she confessed, dropping her napkin on the paper plate.
“Hang on a second. You’ve got a little tomato sauce on your face.”
“Where?” she asked, and reached for a napkin to blot at her chin.
“Here, let me do that,” he said, and, taking the napkin from her, he caught her chin in his hand and gently dabbed at a corner of her mouth.
He was so close Kim could see the stubble on his chin, smell the woodsy scent he wore. And when his fingers stilled and he looked into her eyes, she could scarcely breathe.
“You have the most incredible-colored eyes,” he told her.
“They’re blue.”
“No. Not blue. Not green. But a combination. They’re the color of water in the Caribbean where I sailed my boat last summer.”
He stroked her cheek with his thumb, brought his face a fraction closer. “Kim, I…”
Kim’s heart beat wildly in her chest. The breath stalled in her lungs. Instinctively she tipped up her head, closed her eyes and waited for the touch of his mouth.
“I-it’s getting late. We probably should call it a night,” Justin said, and dropped his hand from her face.
The words hit Kim like a blast of cold water. Her eyes snapped open and she scrambled to her feet, horrified of what Justin must think of her. Unable to meet his gaze for fear he would realize she’d wanted him to kiss her, she began to frantically snatch up the empty plates and napkins. “You can go on home. I’ll clear away this stuff and lock up,” she told him as she piled the paper goods atop the now-empty pizza box.
“Here, let me get that,” Justin offered when her unsteady fingers began dropping the soiled napkins.
“I’ve got it,” she argued.
But Justin ignored her. “You’ve worked hard enough today. Go ahead and close up shop at your desk while I handle the cleanup.”
Eager to escape, Kim didn’t argue. She simply fled Justin’s office, praying she could get out of there before he saw the tears prickling at the backs of her eyes. Quickly she grabbed her purse from inside the drawer of her desk where she kept it and snatched up her car keys. “Good night, Justin,” she called out, and started for the door. “Thanks again for dinner.”
“What? Wait a minute,” he said, sticking his head out the door of his office. “Let me get rid of this,” he told her, indicating the wineglasses and wine bottle he held in his hands. “It’ll only take me a second and then I’ll walk you to your car.”
“That’s really not necessary. Tom or one of the other security guards will see that I get there safely.”
“But—”
“I’ve got to go. Have a safe trip and good luck with Schaeffer tomorrow,” she said, and exited the office suite quickly before the first tears began to fall.
Three
“Kim, wait!”
The door swooshed closed behind her. But not before Justin had a chance to see her face. Had those been tears in her eyes? he wondered. Were they because of him? Had Kim realized what he’d been thinking of doing a few moments ago? What he still wanted to do?
Damn!
Staring at the door through which Kim had just exited, Justin checked the urge to go after her. He scrubbed a hand down his face. To do so would be a mistake, he reasoned. He’d come dangerously close to kissing her a few minutes ago. Were he to follow her now, he wasn’t at all sure that he wouldn’t give in to the desire that had been nagging at him for days.
Definitely not a good idea, Connelly.
Not only would he risk losing the best assistant he’d ever worked with, but Kim would have every right to slap him and the company with a sexual harassment suit. Still, for a moment there, he’d almost believed that Kim had wanted him to kiss her.
Right! More like wishful thinking on his part, Justin conceded as he headed back into his office. Kim probably hadn’t given him a second thought. She’d certainly never indicated that she had any romantic interest in him. Why should she? Despite that most-eligible-bachelor tag he’d been labeled with, the truth was he was a dull guy who spent most of his time working and little time on fun. If women were drawn to him, it probably had more to do with the fact that he’d been lucky enough to be born of a gene pool that provided him with decent looks. Being a part of the Connelly dynasty that had amassed a fortune and having ties to royalty didn’t hurt, either. Kim, on the other hand, was a bright and attractive young woman. No doubt any number of guys were interested in her. And while he knew little about her personal life, it stood to reason that there would be a man in her life.
Justin frowned at the notion of Kim in the arms of another man. Disturbed by how much the idea bothered him, he told himself it was because he was protective of Kim. After all, they worked closely together. He’d become fond of her, valued her as his assistant and depended upon her. It was only normal that he should feel some concern about her, he reasoned.
He was going to drive himself crazy if he didn’t stop thinking about Kim and whom she might or might not be involved with. Determined to wipe Kim and thoughts of her love life from his mind, Justin focused all his attention on making sure he had everything he would need while he was in New York.
For the next ten minutes the impending business meetings drove all other thoughts from his mind. After adding two other file folders he would need for his meetings in New York, as well as the redrafted contracts for the Schaeffer deal, he surveyed the contents of his briefcase.
“I’m forgetting something,” he muttered. But what?
Don’t forget your Palm Pilot.
Justin jerked his head up as he remembered Kim’s earlier instructions. Striding out of his office, he marched over to Kim’s desk. There was his Palm Pilot resting in the caddy where Kim had placed it when she’d taken the hand-held computer gadget in order to synchronize it with the updated data on his computer’s main network. He picked up the palm-size marvel that contained not only his schedule for the entire year, but also the addresses and phone numbers of his family, friends and business associates. As he turned to leave, he spied the single white rose on Kim’s desk that she’d bought from a street vendor the previous day.
And quick as a wink she was back in his head again.
Only this time she wasn’t at Connelly headquarters. She was on the beach with her faced tipped up to the sun and her lips turned up in a smile. She’d exchanged the neat, ladylike blue suit she’d worn that day for a pair of shorts and a T-shirt that made the most of those curves he’d caught a glimpse of the other evening. And instead of that prim, sleek twist, her hair was loose and flowing like silk in the wind. But it was Kim’s eyes—those serious blue-green eyes that had been haunting him for nearly a week—that he saw most clearly. Those eyes were bright with laughter and expectation and desire.
Justin’s mouth went dry. He sucked in a breath. “Oh, man.” He definitely needed to get a grip, he told himself, and strode back into his office. He tossed the Palm Pilot into the briefcase, then snapped it closed and forced himself to shut off the enticing images of Kim in his head.
He was going to be in serious trouble if he didn’t get a handle on these crazy thoughts he’d been having about his assistant, Justin reminded himself. He snatched up his briefcase, retrieved his suit coat and headed toward the exit.
So, he would get a handle on it, he assured himself, as he stepped into the elevator. All he had to do was treat this new attraction he was experiencing toward Kim as he would a business or marketing problem. These next few days away from Kim—tomorrow in New York and then the weekend—would provide him with the perfect opportunity to do just that. Squaring his shoulders, Justin stepped off the elevator and, after signing out with the guard on duty, he headed for the garage.
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