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“That’s amazing. No, you’re amazing.” Merri smiled at Alison. “You’re way ahead of schedule.”
“Thank you.” Alison glanced at Harker.
He stared at his computer, the glow from the screen making the smattering of gray at his temples shine almost silver in his dark hair. She should be used to his reticence by now but for some reason it hurt her feelings. She didn’t need someone to praise her all the time, but she worked hard for this man—long hours, holidays, weekends—and he barely ever acknowledged her accomplishments.
“We should celebrate.” Merri sent a cautious glance toward Harker.
Alison had noticed the many quiet exchanges between the two tonight. She wondered again if they were having an affair. She had to grind her teeth together to keep her big mouth shut. Tobias adored his wife and didn’t deserve to be treated this way.
“The four of us should go out.” Merri grabbed her phone. “I’ll call Tobias and—”
“Alison, do you think you can have a demo ready next week?” Harker continued to stare at his laptop.
“A canned demo? Sure. I can modify the one we made for the initial funding and prep the screenshots and—”
“No. Live.” He tapped his screen. “I’m sure I can get a meeting arranged—”
“Live? Next week? You mean like we’ll scan someone’s face and watch it work?”
“Exactly.” His dark eyes met hers over his laptop. “Is that a problem? From what you claimed in this meeting it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“I said several core components were done but they’ve never been linked together and tested.”
“Then link them and test it.”
“I will.” Now, she remembered why she hated this job as much as she loved it. Him. This man was never satisfied.
“By Wednesday.”
“No. That’s not possible.”
“That’s five days from now. Seems more than possible to me.”
“Five? No.” She shook her head. “I have this weekend off, remember?”
“Plans change.” His lips turned up in a half-smirk.
“Harker,” Merri scolded him. “We agreed that Alison could have this weekend off. We’re not making her work.”
She bit the inside of her mouth to keep from pointing out that she shouldn’t have to get approval to have a weekend off.
“I agreed to that before I had all the data.” Harker leaned back in his chair.
“I’m being punished for getting things done early?” This man was unbelievable. Every freaking time she thought she knew how much of a jerk he could be, he surprised her in a horrible way.
“If you think working here is a punishment”—his eyes darkened and dipped for a moment—“you have no idea what punishment is.”
If she didn’t know better, she would’ve sworn he’d looked at her breasts. Of course, that’d be a joke because first, her breasts had never drawn a man’s gaze and second, Harker wasn’t a man. Not really. He was a boss. A machine that did nothing but work.
“Enough.” Merri stood. “We can all use the weekend off and we can discuss the project timeline on Monday. Admit it, Harker. A night out with just the four of us will be fun. We’ll eat, have some drinks, dance. Get to know each other better.”
There was that secret undertone again. Alison wasn’t going to be the decoy to keep Tobias entertained while these two fooled around right in front of his face.
“I suppose it can wait a night.” He frowned, his dark gaze on her again. “Make the arrangements. Alison and I will meet you and Tobias later tonight.”
“Tonight?” Even after working for him for almost a year, the intensity of his gaze still made her uncomfortable. It was like he was studying her, analyzing her and she had no idea why. Men never studied her. Most males barely gave her a second glance. She wasn’t particularly attractive. Her hair was long and brown with a tendency to frizz in the humidity. She was tall and on the thin side. Her breasts were small and her face, while not unattractive, wasn’t anything that’d make anyone take a second look. She often thought she should’ve been a spy because people never really saw her. Unfortunately, her tendency to yammer on about everything had killed those dreams.
However, for some odd reason, Harker looked at her. He saw her. He didn’t seem to know what to make of her but at least he looked. That was probably why she’d stayed at this job. He was arrogant, demanding and could be a jerk but she liked him. Plus, the money was really good.
