She glanced at Lukan. Of course, working here and putting up with Alexandra’s crap did have perks. She eyed the glossy black of Lukan’s hair, the supple curve of his lips, the strong column of his throat. His expensively cut suit didn’t hide the raw strength of his body. It was enough to have her biting back a groan of desire. She was working for the sexiest eye candy in all of Manhattan.
Even if he was also the grumpiest eye candy. Like right now. Mr. Sex-on-stilts was glaring at his desk and looking over the files as if she’d presented him with pictures of rotting garbage rather than beautiful women.
“How are you doing today, Mr. Anders?” she asked.
He glanced up at her, and reached for the small tin can that sat on his desk. He fished out one of the odd-looking blue capsules in the tin, as he did many times a day, and swallowed it.
“I would be doing considerably better if Alexandra wore less perfume,” he said, and Talia stifled a smile.
Lukan pressed a button on his desk, and the overhead fan began whirling. He pressed a couple more buttons, and something began humming, and the thick, cloying smell of Alexandra’s perfume vanished.
Lukan had some weird gadgets on hand – gadgets that she had never seen before. He’d mentioned once that he owned a company that was developing new consumer tech, but they were years away from releasing it to market. She didn’t know why; everything she’d seen seemed to work perfectly.
She looked around the room, so beautiful and exotically decorated, and sniffed at the air. “That was fast,” she said in surprise. “The smell is completely gone. Usually that perfume lingers for hours.” God knew she and Rosamund had spent enough time breathing through their noses, or napkins, after Alexandra had stormed through the room.
“I designed the scent diffuser specifically for her,” Lukan said, perfectly straight-faced.
Talia threw her head back and burst into peals of laughter. “Oh, good lord,” she said, wiping away tears of merriment. “Sometimes I would actually swear you have a sense of humor.”
“You would be wrong,” he assured her gravely, but she was sure she saw a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Not for the first time, she wondered what it would be like to see him really smile. A big, happy smile spreading across his face – she imagined it would make him look even more stunning. Talia liked making people smile, and Lukan always seemed so tense and preoccupied. What would it take to get him not just to smile, but to burst into laughter?
That wasn’t the only thing she wondered about Lukan. All kinds of inappropriate thoughts crowded through her mind when she thought about her stern, gorgeous boss. What would he look like naked? What would those soft, sensual lips taste like?
What would it be like to lie naked underneath him? Or bent over that broad desk, with him behind her, hands firmly gripping her hips as he thrust into her… She felt her cheeks coloring at the notion. Thank God he couldn’t read minds.
Could he?
She looked at him. “You can’t read minds, can you?” she asked, a little nervously. Lukan always seemed a little…she couldn’t put her finger on it…otherworldly, to her. More than human.
He stared at her, his face expressionless.
“No,” he said finally. He didn’t ask why she would ask him a question like that, or laugh at her ridiculousness, like most people would have.
His frown grew deeper as he stared at her. His nostrils flared, and he licked his lips as if tasting the air now that the lingering stench of Alexandra’s perfume was gone. Talia’s heart gave a funny little trip in her chest.
“What makes you happy?” she blurted out. That was unusual for her. They normally didn’t discuss anything personal at all. Lukan Anders was all business.
“Me?” He looked at her in astonishment.
“There’s nobody else in here.”
His eyebrows rose even higher as he stared at her. He paused for a moment, then finally shrugged and said, “I don’t think about that when I’m at work.” A non-answer if she’d ever heard one.
“You should. When you’re on your deathbed, you’re not going to say, ‘Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office..”
“That’s…an interesting thought. You brought me the file folders. Is there anything else?”
“Ahhh…well, the new website is very effective – we’re getting double the number of new client applications.”
“Write up a report and send it to me.” He looked down at his desk, frowning at the papers there. She was clearly dismissed. It shouldn’t sting so much, but it did. Every single time.
She bit her lip, turned and walked out of the office. If she’d glanced back really quickly, she would have seen something astonishing. She would have seen Lukan looking at her with infinite longing, his gaze wandering over the length of her full body and lingering hungrily on each curve. She would have seen him practically caressing her with his eyes, and for once, she would have seen the ferocious, frightening glower melt into a look of raw hunger.
But she didn’t look back. She let the door shut behind her and quickly walked away, shoulders hunched together against the continuing hurt of his rejection.
Chapter Three
