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Whatever he said after that was completely lost on me, I spent the rest of my time glancing in Joanna’s direction, at least until the coworker beside me gave a rather loud and fake-sounding cough, which I felt certain was aimed at me.
“Any questions?” Tobias asked at the meeting’s close. “Excellent. Well, I wish you all a productive remainder of your day. You’re dismissed.”
Chairs began to slide and shuffle across the wooden floor as fellow coworkers got up.
Keeping watch of Joanna in my periphery, I lingered behind, a shameful plot brewing in my head that I had no hope of stopping.
Tobias nodded goodbye to me on his way out the door and not before long, Joanna was about to follow him.
“Joanna,” I said. My heart pounded as she turned around and eyed me with those hypnotic gray eyes of hers. She raised her eyebrows, as if uncertain of what was about to transpire. I easily got the impression that she was still feeling leery around me due to the coffee spill from earlier, and I wanted nothing more than to put her at ease. She and I hadn’t gotten along well when she was a kid, but I desperately wanted to turn over a new leaf with her now…
“Yes?” she said, drawing attention to the fact that I had called her and then failed to say anything.
I cleared my throat. “Um,” I said, trying to think fast. “Are you busy right now?”
She shook her head. “No, I guess not.”
“Follow me to my office, please,” I said, trying to put some authority in my voice and sound more certain than I felt. “I have something I want you to take a look at, if it’s all right.”
“Sure,” she said, and then grinned. “I think this is a first. You actually want my opinion on something, Anderson?”
I smirked at the sound of her saying my name. “Well, times have changed. Besides, I need to see if you’re really up to the task of working here.”
Joanna laughed. “Challenge accepted. Lead the way.”
I held open the door for her, trying unsuccessfully to not let my eyes roam her body as she stepped in front of me to wait in the hallway.
“This way,” I said, taking the lead and listening to the rhythm of her heels clicking down the hall. When we reached my office, I held the door open for her once again, and then closed it behind us.
Suddenly feeling too warm, I fumbled with my necktie as I approached my desk. “You know the project your brother spoke of at the meeting?” I said.
“Yeah,” Joanna said with a nod. She brushed back a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail, and I suddenly got the overwhelming urge to touch her hair.
Pushing the thought away, I abruptly turned to my desk and started shuffling papers. “Well,” I said, stalling, “I was wondering if you could help us out with that. I mean, your brother has a lot of faith in you and all, and this could be a good starter project for you…”
My voice trailed off as she slowly crossed the room to approach my desk. The scent of her perfume drifted to my nose, making me inhale deeply as I glanced up at her again, startled to find her so close. She stared at my desk, at the papers I pretended to organize.
“What can I do for you?” she asked.
You have no idea, I thought. I took a deep breath. “How about looking over the numbers for me and making sure everything is order?”
She smirked, the sight of it so sexy that my mind was flooded with a million different indecent thoughts all at once.
“Numbers, you know that’s right up my alley,” she said. “Just show me what you need.”
I swallowed and glanced down at the papers on my desk, quickly fumbling to find the one in question. As luck would have it, it was toward the top of the pile. I laid it on the desk before Joanna. “This one right here,” I said.
She leaned over to take a closer look and my mind almost exploded. I took several steps back, feigning giving her space, but truthfully, wanting to get a better look at how her shirt hung as she leaned over, displaying the smooth skin of her bosom. I pressed my lips together, careful to not make a sound.
A long moment of silence spread over the room in which I was practically afraid to breathe.
Finally, Joanna looked up. “This is going to take a while.”
Before I could stop myself, before I could think better of what I was about to say, the words spilled out my mouth and there was no hope of taking them back. “How about we have dinner so that we can go over things in more detail?”
/> Joanna smiled. “Sure.”
CHAPTER 5
