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Mindy looked relieved and opened her planner notebook with a definite snap of her hands. “Great, so we had the plasti company make us molds, but those aren’t working as well without the sodium silicate, but it…”
Anton’s attention wandered almost instantly again. He knew what Mindy was talking about. He’d tell her in a second, but first…
Firsthe was going to think about Grace a bit more. This was day one. He had to start strong, didn’t he? He looked her way and went still when he saw her looking right back at him. He smiled at her because that was what he wanted to do when he looked at her, and it was as good of a starting point as any.
Instantly she looked away, but he didn’t miss the pretty pink blush that dusted her cheeks. A second later she worried her bottom lip, dark eyes darting back up to meet his. Anton had to stifle a groan at the sight of the pastel-haired woman looking up at him through her lashes. The effect was immediate, even from across the room, and he took an unconscious move off the stool toward her, but Mindy clearing her throat once more made him freeze in his tracks.
“Now I see why you aren’t listening to me.”
Anton froze and sank back into his seat. “I was listening. Molds. We probably need to reorder them. It’s fine. I can-”
“Why don’t you just go talk to her already?” Mindy sighed, giving him a solid whack with her planner.
He winced and rubbed his arm. “I see you didn’t find your tablet yet,” he said, playing for time as he got up from his stool. He couldn’t sit right now. He had to move. Had to do…something. He knew his restlessness was coming from an urge to do something about Grace.
“No, it’s probably on this inventory list. Whatever. Back to the matter at hand. Go talk to her,” she said, making a little shooing motion with her hands.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, feigning interest in the papers in front of him.
She rolled her eyes. “Sure you don’t. Why don’t you just sign off on these papers and you’ll be free to ogle in peace? I’m pretty sure she’d even let you go over there and talk to her if you made the effort. Maybe say sorry for all the dick-headed behavior I heard about.”
“I love that we’re all one gossipy family around here,” he said as he grabbed the forms she held and began to sign at random.
“It’s not like everyone in the lab wasn’t Gossip Girling about it. Of course I know. People like me,” she said, flicking a finger at herself, “I’m in the know, Anton.”
He hummed but said nothing, just sighed and initialed, but he stopped because she had said something very important to his Grace problem.
“What makes you say that?” he asked, keeping his voice cool and eyes trained on the papers in front of him. When Mindy didn’t answer, Anton raised his eyes to see her grinning.
“Because she can’t seem to stop looking at your ass every chance she gets. She’s not as good at being covert as she thinks. I’ve counted her copping a look no less than fourteen times since this morning.” She held up her hands when he made to talk. “Yes, I’ve been counting, and number fifteen is occurring as we speak. How do you not know she’s been staring all morning? I thought you used to be a lady killer, and-” she broke off in a strangled groan when he looked over at Grace.
“What are you doing? Don’t look at her!” she whisper-screamed to him.
Anton lifted one shoulder. “This is more fun.” He nearly pumped his fist in victory when he saw that the pink-haired beauty’s eyes had fixed on his ass. She was definitely getting an eyeful just like Mindy said. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t starting at zero with Grace. If she was into him physically he had a way in. A nudge from a passing Lou prompted an audible squeak from Grace, who dropped out of sight behind the lab table she stood beside.
“Did she just stop, drop, and roll behind that table?” Mindy asked, leaning towards him and craning her neck in a bid to see where Grace had vanished from sight.
He grinned. “Yup.”
Now this he was familiar with. He rubbed his hands together. His plan had gas. He knew what to do. Grace was going to fall for him again, even if he had to use his assets to get it done.
six
“It’s easierto ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.”
—Grace Hopper
“You wanna tell me why you’ve been ogling Anton’s ass all day?”
“Is he still looking?” Grace hissed. She sat on the floor, back pressed up against the lab table, hands covering her face.
“Yup.”
“By Odin’s beard,” Grace cursed, letting her head bang back against the table. She hadn’t meant to be caught mid-deed, but there was something to be said about a man who knew his measurements and how to display them. And that was exactly what the scientist had done, and on purpose, too.
She’d barely been in the labs an hour and there was no missing the fact that Anton’s eyes were on her often, nor was she oblivious enough to not realize he’d caught her practically drooling over him. If not him, then at the very least his assistant was on to her. The other woman had caught her no less than a dozen times staring at Anton. And it wasn’t even nine am, how was she going to survive till lunchtime?
“He’s on to me,” she whispered to Lou.
