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“Sorry,” he said, his tone sincere. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. You’re just… sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“‘You’re just’ what?” I asked.
I wasn’t mildly curious about what he had been going to say next – I was dying to know.
“Well, you’re – ” He stopped and shook his head. “Never mind.”
“‘You’re just’ what?” I demanded.
He smiled, but it wasn’t his normal I’m going to do whatever I want and I’m going to have fun doing it grin. It was more sincere… and almost vulnerable. “I find you very attractive.”
My heart skipped a beat as he kept on talking.
“I’m used to being a little more… aggressive, and I forgot the setting and my manners. I’m sorry.” He went back to kidding around, and held up both arms like Don’t shoot! “I’ll stop, just don’t file a sexual harassment lawsuit, okay?”
I stood there, arms still crossed, and pondered my dilemma.
On the one hand, his behavior was totally inappropriate for the workplace.
On the other hand, sexual harassment is, by definition, unwanted sexual advances.
And I soooo wanted them.
I’d basically snapped at him because… well… he annoyed me, he flustered me, he got under my skin, and I wanted to hit back. I’m not the most sexual person in the world – at least, I don’t go around making sexual jokes with strangers – and I had no ammo I could fire back at him after the ‘ass kissing’ bit. So I’d gone the route of least resistance.
I’d had an incredibly gorgeous guy flirting openly with me, and I was about to throw it all away.
So… keep my dignity and throw cold water on all the sexual tension… or admit I was overreacting and look like I was throwing myself at him?
I tried to chart a course through the middle, but it didn’t come out sounding as good as I’d hoped.
“I didn’t say stop… just… tone it down a little,” I muttered as I shifted back and forth on my heels.
He burst into a humongous grin, and I felt my knees wobble again.
Damn it, I’m not that easy!
He had the advantage, and he knew it – but he didn’t push it.
“Agreed. Now let’s go look at those files, shall we?”
12
We made our way back to my desk and Klaus’s office.
The silence was a little uncomfortable.
They have a saying in sales: the first person to speak, loses.
Imagine a salesman is making a pitch to an undecided customer. When the salesman finishes his presentation and asks for the sale, he has to stop talking and wait for an answer. If he says something before the customer does, it looks like he’s desperate for the sale, and we all know how attractive desperation is. Whereas, if the undecided customer says something first, there’s this unspoken balance of power he’s bought into and acknowledged. Psychologically, he’s given the power over to the salesman, which usually results in the customer signing on the dotted line. Whoever speaks first, loses.
In this scenario, I lost.
“You still haven’t said what’s so important about these files that you have to waste a perfectly good Friday night,” I said, if for no other reason than to get the conversation flowing again.
“Actually, I believe I did,” he grinned.
“Oh, that’s right – you’re thinking about buying the company,” I said sarcastically. “How about a real reason?”
He kept grinning. “Well… if I were Klaus, I might say something about it not being any of your business. But since we’re friends, let me put it this way instead: there are things I’m not at liberty to talk about, but you could say I’m the… advance man on a very important business deal, and I wanted to check out some things before we go through with it.”
“The LMGK buyout,” I realized.
He looked surprised. “You know about that?”
I blushed. I wasn’t supposed to know, but…
“Everybody’s been whispering about it the last few weeks. And I’ve seen a few things.”
“Such as?”
“…such as things I’m not at liberty to talk about.”
He laughed. “Touché.”
“But what I haven’t seen is you before.”
Which was true. In all the hush-hush meetings between Everton and LMGK fat cats, I had never once spied Connor. I definitely would have remembered.
He gestured to himself. “Now you have. In the flesh.”
I looked at the tan chest in the unbuttoned V of his shirt and sighed inwardly.
