Page 20 of Adam’s Obsession

Sara grinned. “Don’t you know it. I loves me my Vegas.” Shesighed ecstatically. “This is gonna be awesome.”

Across the room, Adam Trillo’s breath stalled. He raised hisstunned gaze to the two women chatting at the beverage bar. Sara and Katherine.He’d caught the tail end of their conversation, waiting for his shot atShannon’s phenomenal coffee. Then he’d heard it. A phrase he’d never heard beforelast night. And here it was again.

Like a duck on a june bug.

Those words lashed him with an unexpected shaft of lust.

And they came from Katherine Hart’s mouth.

Katherine! Starched, unbending, cold Katherine. The ultimateprofessional automaton. The kind of woman a guy could fantasize about but nevertouch. The woman Jack swore—swore—was a lesbian based on Stan’s vastknowledge of the subject.

Although considering the source…

He watched Katherine through the glass walls of theboardroom as she and Sara, deep in conversation, meandered down the hall towardtheir respective offices. For the first time in two years, he studied her,noticing the sway of her hips, the turn of her cheek, the tightly restrainedhair jammed into a knot at the top of her head.

Could it be? Could she be his Wildkat?

It seemed more than a little unlikely.

First of all, what was the possibility that someone asbuttoned up and reserved as Katherine could transform into a hot, panting sirenat night, one who made him come by threatening to stick her finger in his ass,for Christ’s sake?

Second of all, what were the odds his internet lover—one ofprobably millions of women online—could be a coworker? He pondered the thoughtand shook his head. No. No way. As a computer programmer, he was all aboutlogic and flow. The universe was a tightly constructed net, with strict lawsthat governed everything. The probability that he and Katherine could randomlymeet in such a fashion, under those circumstances, was astronomical.

No, he thought with a heavy sigh. It must just be acoincidence. Maybe the phrase was more common than he’d realized.

The prospect that frost-covered Katherine Hart could be hissteamy internet lover was, well, laughable. And still—as he watched her turninto her office, saw the way her tight pinstripe skirt unobtrusively cupped afirm, rounded ass—he wasn’t laughing.

Not at all.

Adam had lunch in his office. Not because he was so busy hecouldn’t be bothered to go to a restaurant. He just wanted to watch Katherine.For some reason he was suddenly fixated on her.

He had to be unobtrusive about it because he didn’t want tofreak her out, but it wasn’t difficult. He simply leaned back in his chair andpretended he was deep in thought, staring sightlessly out the windows of heroffice across the hall. Then he let his vision drift leisurely over to her.

Her head was bent. She was absorbed in her project. Every sooften she would glance up, but like him, she would stare into the distance asshe pondered. Then she’d lick her lips and nod and turn back to her work.Occasionally, she’d reach up and tug a tendril of hair from her topknot andtwine it madly around her fingers.

This, Adam found, was a rather disturbing habit. It gave himvisions of her wrapping that soft rope around something else entirely. He’dnever noticed her doing that before—in two long years of sitting across fromher, facing her office.

He’d never noticed a lot of things before.

Idiot that he was.

To be fair, Katherine had come to work at Trillo–Maris atthe tail end of Adam’s nasty divorce, at a time when he had no intention ofbeing with a woman again, like ever. He’d convinced himself that every womanwas as faithless as Betsy. That any woman would gleefully rip out his heart andstomp on it.

As time passed, he’d recovered from the betrayal. He stillhad no desire to enter into a real relationship—the wound was far too raw—hencehis forays onto the internet for sexual gratification. But at least he didn’tbelieve every woman was an evil succubus determined to suck out his soul. Notanymore.

At any rate, when Katherine joined the team, Adam hadn’tnoticed her other than the typical boss-like observations. She was always ontime, her work was excellent and she consistently behaved in a professionalmanner. Over the years, he’d come to appreciate her more and more. The womanwas truly brilliant. Her analyses often helped the company avoid potentialdisasters and on one particular occasion, she’d made a suggestion that savedthem nearly a million dollars. He, Tristan and Jack had even talked aboutmaking her a partner.

To see her now, sitting there in her office, stroking thatlong strand of honeyed hair, all thoughts of her business acumen fled. Adamtried to imagine her without those glasses, with her hair down, in a satinteddy, stroking her swollen nipples, and his temperature rose. He closed hiseyes and tried to recapture the timbre of Wildkat’s voice, tried to rememberthe sound, the tempo, the dulcet tones. And his eyes flew open.

Last night, just as a mind-blowing orgasm had consumed him,she’d cried out a name. Wrapped in the claws of his own ravening passion, he’dheard his name. Naturally he’d assumed his imagination was workingovertime.

What if… What if…

He peeped at Katherine and to his surprise found her staringdirectly at him. Their eyes met and a shock wave crested within him, settlingin his groin. His cockstand was immediate. Curious as to how she would react tohis bold stare, he held her gaze and watched as a slow flush stole up hercreamy cheeks.

She looked away.

A second or so later, she flicked another questing glance inhis direction.