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The five of them stilled. Moira and Hana turned with speculative grins toward the other side of the room where Alex, Mal, and Lucas were talking to Dan Ellis and Indy Jones.
Maggie was determined not to think about Alex in leather and not much else. “Eyes front,” she hissed. Moira and Hana turned back slowly. Too slowly. Alex lifted his head and raised his eyebrows at her from across the room when he caught her watching him. She snapped her eyes back to her friends. “Really, you’re children.” She realized Shelly hadn’t said anything. “You didn’t find anything like that? Did you?”
Shelly grinned. “Sadly, no.”
“Well, darn,” Hana said.
“Hana Tuckerson!”
“Oh, like you’ve never let a guy rummage through your scarf collection and do interesting things to you,” Hana said, waving her hand dismissively. “Sheesh. Anyone would think you were really trying for that sainthood thing.”
“I’m not a saint.”
“Then go flirt with the boss, find out some more dirt for us,” Hana said.
“I am not going to flirt with him,” Maggie said, trying not to blush. She hoped the heat rising in her cheeks would be attributed to the drinks.
“Then dazzle him with your baseball knowledge or something. Whatever. I’m sure you can think of something to make him tell you stuff.”
“I was sort of planning on doing a good job and finding stuff out by being there when they discuss it,” Maggie said. She ignored Hana shaking her head at her in mock disappointment. “And speaking of jobs, I’m here to work. So excuse me while I go mingle.”
Chapter Eight
Alex watched as Maggie detached herself from her friends and walked toward him, the fabric of her dress swaying around her body with each step she took in those stupidly sexy shoes.
His heart, which he’d finally managed to get back under control after that kiss, sped up again, and he made himself look at Lucas and act like nothing was bothering him. He was pretty sure Lucas didn’t have some crazy, secret doctor power that would let him hear Alex’s heart pounding.
“Maggie’s coming,” Mal said with a nod of his head in her direction, giving Alex the excuse to shift his gaze back to her.
Damn. She was gorgeous. Her hair was loose and wavy and the dark blue dress made her skin look like moonlight or something pale and glowing. He liked the fact she wasn’t smothered in fake tan like half the women in the room. Her skin looked almost pearly under the ropes of fairy lights festooned around the room, a very watchable contrast with the gleaming dark hair and wicked dark eyes and the deep pink lips.
Those lips.
He wanted them again. He wanted more than that, the ache fierce in his body, making him glad his tailor cut his jackets long. Damn. He knew that she was right. He was the boss, she was an employee, and their getting involved in any way would only complicate things. But right now his body was pretty adamant that complications could go to hell and he was inclined to agree with it.
“Hello, Maggie,” Lucas said. “You look beautiful.” He glanced sideways at Alex with an amused gleam in his eyes and then bent to kiss Maggie’s cheek. In four-inch heels, she must’ve been close to six foot, so he didn’t have to bend far.
“Thanks,” she said, smiling at Lucas. It made Alex’s stomach clench and his instincts roared a very primitive protest. She was his.
His? Christ. He was losing it.
“Seconded,” Mal said, bending to kiss her as well.
“And thirded,” Dan Ellis added. “How are you, Maggie J?” He kissed her hello as well. Alex’s eyebrows drew down, both at the nickname—the same one Ollie Shields had used—and at the way Maggie’s expression was ever so slightly more relaxed as she smiled at Dan.
Surely her no-colleagues rule extended to the team’s coach as well?
And now he was being as ridiculous as Ollie had been at the pizza test. One kiss. That’s all it had been. One tiny, fleeting, “under the mistletoe because it’s Christmas” kiss.
But damn, it had been good, and if sleeping with her was even better he could see why Oliver carried a torch for her. No sane man would want her to leave his bed if he could find a way to coax her there.
And here he was wasting a perfectly good opportunity to be able to touch her again.
“I’ll add my vote in favor,” he said, and took his turn, taking care to keep the kiss as brief and friendly as the other three. It was difficult when he breathed in the scent of flowers and Maggie as his lips touched her cheek.
Damn. He stepped back because that’s what he had to do. Throwing his guests out and carrying Saint Maggie off to his bedroom was not going to achieve what this party was meant to achieve.
Time to suck it up and be smart. She thought he was the devil but he was beginning to suspect that she might have been sent to tempt him. Because she was right; the last thing he needed in this position was to foul things up with sex.
