A Cowboy in Disguise (9 page)

“Nothing productive happened. And are what from him?” Alexandra was still somewhat irritated with her assistant for all the false rumors she’d planted in her head. She hadn’t given Scott a fair initial reaction because of them.

“Those!” Sarah gave a sweeping game show hostess gesture toward Alexandra’s office. A dozen long-stem Lady Diana roses sat in a crystal vase in the middle of her desk. She felt the color rise in her face and remembered the emotion in Scott’s eyes … She knew without looking that the roses were from him.

“What’s the card say?” Sarah squealed, shaking Alexandra back to the present.

Alexandra pulled the card from the bouquet and read it silently to herself.
I’ve still got your back. I’m sorry.
Thank goodness the card wasn’t signed, because she wasn’t entirely sure Sarah hadn’t done a little snooping.

“Well?”

“They’re just from a friendly business associate, that’s all,” Alexandra told her. “Nothing to get worked up about.” She had no intention of reading the card out loud to her assistant no matter how anxious the woman was to hear what was written on it.

Sarah gave her a suspicious and disappointed look and went back to her desk.

Scott called Alexandra just as she sat down at her desk. “Hi, it’s me,” he said.

“I got the roses. How very original.” She hated to shoot him down, but there was no other way.

“Look, Alex. I think I scared you. But I feel wonderful and can’t wait to see you. I’ve asked about Duncan and about your family, but I haven’t told you anything you need to know about me. Talk when I get back?”

“No need. We’ve got to get the presentation going, you know. I don’t need to know your past, Scott. What happened in that cabin will never be repeated. It doesn’t matter now. I apologize for being to unprofessional with you in Colorado. I
wa
—”

“You’re wrong, Alex,” he interrupted. “It matters very much and you know it. We have feelings for each other that are hard to come by in this world. We need to see where they lead.”

Alexandra hung up the phone not wanting to hear the end of his romantic sales pitch. He was right. She didn’t really know much about him considering all she’d heard. Maybe he was the playboy Sarah had warned her about and happened to be a very good actor when it came to hiding his true self.

That ice wall was firmly in place and she wasn’t going to let him chip away at it again. But the man called incessantly, nearly every hour, every day until she wanted to scream. She finally explained to the receptionist that they were working on a presentation together and to expect several calls, but knew that the fodder for office gossip was already in place.

“You have to quit calling,” she whispered frantically to him after the fifth call. “Between that and the roses, we may as well have actually done
things
together for all the damage this is doing to my reputation.”

“Things?”

“
Things
.”

“Oh, okay. So I won’t call you,” he agreed amicably.

Five minutes later, Scott appeared in front of her desk. “Surprise! I flew in and came straight here. Go to dinner with me?”

Alexandra’s mouth dropped open. “Were you calling from the parking lot? The plane?” Scott Falconer had nerve if nothing else.

Though she hated to admit it, she hadn’t seen him for a couple days, and hadn’t realized how much she’d missed looking at his face. He wore a beautifully tailored suit that screamed authority and sophistication. She loved how he could look one way at the office and quite another while tossing wood on a fire. It was as if he stepped with ease back and forth between two very separate, very masculine worlds.

•

Scott grinned. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

Her classic navy blue suit had small yellow buttons and yellow piping at the bottoms of the sleeves—and it fit her amazingly. But no suit could erase the memory of her skin, warmed to golden hues by firelight.

“I missed you,” he whispered.

“Shut the door before Sarah hears you,” Alexandra hissed. “I’m not having dinner with you. I’ve put the brakes on where you’re concerned, Scott Falconer. Not that they were ever off. Okay, maybe they were off a little.” She took a breath to collect herself. “If you’d like to stay here and work on the presentation with me, we can order in pizza or something.”

“Alex, I said I’m sorry and I meant it. I’m not typically that intense and I don’t want to talk about Colorado any more. But I also don’t want to think I damaged what had started between us. You felt it back on the side of the road that first day. I know you did—even then.”

“I know you’re sincere. And it’s fine, really. But business is business and we agreed to keep it that way. From here on out, that is.”

Scott sighed. “Dinner? A long conversation? How about a drive down the freeway until we get another flat?”

Alexandra put up her hand and fought to hide a smile. “I don’t want to hear any more propositions. Not now. Maybe after the presentation.”

“Really? I’ll have to add a couple things to my list then.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and smiled.

“I just mean we can talk after the presentation, if you still have the burning need to.”

“Oh, I imagine I still will.”

•

They worked on the presentation endlessly, sitting side-by-side in front of Alexandra’s enormous computer monitor. Scott rolled his chair away when Alexandra signaled he was getting too close, and time after time they jumped when their hands accidentally touched. Reaching across the desk for the stapler or a paperclip took on a level of tension that wouldn’t have existed between two other people in the same situation.

“Alex …” he would start to say in that softened tone she now recognized so well.

“Back to the numbers,” Alexandra would instruct without looking up from her desk.

Once while she was typing, Scott looked at her with such an expression of amazement and desire that she almost lost her resolve. His entire being seemed to jump into his blue eyes when he looked at her like that. Pretending not to notice, Alexandra excused herself and walked to the restroom where she locked herself in one of the stalls and stayed there until her hands stopped shaking.

She found tiny gifts hidden in random places throughout her office. A truffle wrapped in red foil was tucked into her tape dispenser. She found a tiny African violet in a new pot beside the other plants on her window. A set of four floating candles shaped like tires miraculously appeared in her filing cabinet. Where in the world he’d found those, she could only guess. Of course, Scott denied any knowledge of the continuously appearing surprises.

He was
courting
her, she realized. Did men even do that anymore?

On a Friday when everyone else had left the office, Scott turned to Alexandra and said, “Come to dinner with me, Alex. I’m hungry. I mean no harm. And I’m sick to death of pizza.”

Alexandra studied him for a moment. “Let me get this straight. We’re alone in a dark office building, locked away in my office, and you want to leave? Go to a crowded, public restaurant and talk business? I guess that’s an indication of your good intentions.” She reached for her purse.

“You’re flirting with me, Alex.” Scott reached out and covered her hand with hers. “Does this mean you’re going to let me in again?”

“Do I have a choice?” Her fingers burned where his hand rested on them. “We have to work together.” She had nearly forgotten her intent to remain detached from him—so easily forgotten that it scared her.

“Let’s date, Alexandra. Let’s become involved.” He grabbed her roughly by the waist and pulled her against him.

“Are you crazy?” She felt her cheeks sting as her face threatened to redden. She was infuriated that this man had made her blush more times in the past week than she had in her entire life. “You can’t keep bringing up this subject while we’re working.” She struggled to pull away from his hold. “No. No. No.”

He nodded and turned her loose. “I’ve given this more thought than you can imagine. The worst that can happen is I’ll go back to Chicago, you’ll stay here and it will just end. We’ll be discrete and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll survive. Reputations intact,” he assured.

“It’s not just avoiding an office romance, Scott. After all that happened, I don’t trust myself with you.” She wasn’t used to such emotional honesty. She looked down at her desk.

“Then trust
me
. I’m looking for the commitment, Alex. I won’t let things go so far that you’d regret it the next morning.”

“But what about you?” she countered. “If we become involved, won’t you always wonder if I did it to keep you pliable so that I get my way on the presentation?”

“It’s a chance I’ll take.”

“I can’t, Scott.”

He shrugged in temporary resignation. “Well, then it’s back to friendly colleagues for now.”

“Well, yes and no. I think we could safely go out together just once.” Alexandra put her purse down and opened up her desk drawer. She pulled out an envelope with the words
You’re Invited
printed in swirling gold foil.

“I got this in the mail today,” she said. “It’s from Mac Stevens. Four tickets to Rio’s annual holiday gala with the request of our illustrious presence.”

“Pick you up at seven?” he asked.

Chapter Six

Mary was ecstatic. “You’re giving it a shot? I can’t believe it! Ms. Social Recluse on a date.” She handed Alexandra a cup of coffee and sat down next to her at the kitchen table.

“He’s picking me up any minute now. It’s not a date, not a real one anyway. It’s for work, and David and his wife are going with us.”

Mary waved her hand back and forth. “A double date then. It’s romantic. Forbidden office romance.”

“It’s not a romance. We stopped that before it got out of hand.”

The other woman rolled her eyes and slapped her hand against her forehead. “You mean you stopped it. For the last time—he’s not Duncan, so why put the brakes on? From the sounds of things, he’s just an amazing guy who can somehow rattle you out of that controlled shell. Count your blessings that you’ve found someone who can jostle your molecules. You need that. Heck, we
all
need that.”

“Mary!” Alexandra grimaced and then ran to the window at the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. “He’s here. Be good.”

Mary stuffed a bagel in her mouth, tossed Alexandra a breath mint, and slipped her jacket on as Scott came through the door. “No hanky
panky
, now,” she called as she walked around him and made her exit.

Alexandra shook her head. “That was Mary.”

Scott laughed. “So I gathered.” He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “You look …”

“So do you,” she whispered.

“Well, Date, do you think our work will suffer because of this sordid holiday affair?”

“Are you kidding?” She grinned. Her work suffer? Ever since he’d come back to town after their trip to Colorado, she couldn’t wait to get to the office. She was at her desk even earlier than usual and stayed later than she needed, all in hopes of just an extra five minutes she could justify with Scott. And with all her newfound nervous energy, she juggled everything at once and found more to do.

Scott made her feel alive at work. Being near him was like the rush she got from closing a new deal, and he was going to be very hard to resist in that tuxedo. He looked so strikingly masculine and so supremely confident in it that Alexandra had to look away before he caught her admiring him openly.

Alexandra held tightly to her little satin clutch. David and his wife rode in the front, chatting away, and leaving the backseat to him and Alexandra. The heat as they drove along was suddenly electric and stifling. She felt their energy move back and forth between them in waves, and was so ready to jump from the car that she almost didn’t wait until Scott opened the door for her. When she stepped from the car, she looked down and noticed Scott’s shiny black cowboy boots on the pavement. That he’d chosen to wear them even with a tuxedo made her smile, and knowing that she approved made him smile back.