Falling for the Boss (19 page)

“Too tough?”  Thomas chuckled at the idea.  “I’m actually putty in your hands.  Care to try me?”

Victoria
blushed and her mouth dropped open.  Yes, she wanted to try but didn’t dare. 

“No response?  Am I getting too close to your thoughts?  I know they’re pretty close to mine.  Care to swap dreams from last night?”

Victoria
’s face turned even redder because she’d been dreaming of making love with Thomas every night for the past month, she thought.  “That probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“From the blush on your face, I’m guessing it would be a great idea,” he said softly, his dark blue eyes intense as they watched the emotions flit across her face. 

“No, I think we should just stop thinking along those lines.  It is too dangerous,” she said. 
Victoria
grabbed the deck of cards, shuffled quickly and dealt a new hand of poker.  “Twos and threes wild,” she said absently, not really thinking about what she was saying as long as the conversation moved away from the titillating subject of her and Thomas making love. 

They played three more hands. 
Victoria
won the first one but then lost the next two easily. 

“How about if we play for some real odds?” Thomas suggested.

“I think the stakes are high enough,” she countered and pulled the deck back towards her.  Her mind told her she should play this safe and call it a night, head back to her room.  But she really was having too much fun.  It was a new experience to beat Thomas at something.  Besides, he was a great loser and a charming winner.  Each hand, he had her laughing
or moaning inside.  One moment he was chiding her for being too rash at her challenges.  The next he was teasing her for beating him with such a weak hand. 

“I think we should raise the stakes,” he said and dealt the next hand. 

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” she laughed, noting the glimmer of mischief in his eyes. 

“You never know.  It might be something great like a weekend off or a night at the opera.  Why would you ignore that possibility?”

Victoria
eyed him suspiciously.  “Because you’re a very generous boss.  If we wanted to go to the opera, you’d arrange it.  I wouldn’t have to win it.”

“What about the possibility of a weekend off?”

That made her laugh harder.  “You’d never allow it even if I won the hand.”

“Good point,” he sighed.  “But that wasn’t what I had in mind anyway.”

“I don’t want to know,” she said, knowing full well what he was going to suggest.

“Even another kiss?  Winner takes all?”

That made her gasp in anticipation. 

She saw the heat come into his eyes.  “I can see that you like that idea,” Thomas said, picking up his cards.

“No, we can’t.  It’s one thing to joke but it can’t go any farther,” she said breathlessly.

“I disagree,” he countered, moving his cards around in his hand.  “And I can tell that you don’t really believe it either.  Admit it, you’ve wanted to see if that one kiss was nothing more than a fluke.”

She couldn’t deny it.  She’d thought that very same thing several times.  Had tried to convince herself of it in the wee hours of the night when she was thinking about him.  “No,” she lied.

He shrugged his shoulders and sighed.  “Deny it
all you want but I know you’re lying to yourself and me.”  He smiled and changed the subject.  “And now, my lady, you’re going to lose all your ill-gotten gains,” he teased. 

She blinked, trying to keep up with the topic and his mood.  “What?”

“Ante is one dollar.  I’m raising the bet to twenty five dollars.  Are you in?” he asked. 

“Oh, no.  That’s too much for me,”
Victoria
said.  “Fold.  And I think without the cautioning effects of Bob and Mike, I’ll take the coward’s way out and call it a night.”

“I thought you’d say that,” Thomas laughed and leaned back in his chair, taking a long swallow of his beer as he watched her stand up, collect her winnings and push her chair under the table. 

She made the mistake of glancing at him one more time.  He winked at her, his smile indicating that he knew she was running away from what they were both feeling towards each other. 

With that, she stood up and waived as she
hurriedly
disappeared into her room. 
Victoria
leaned against the door, closing her eyes as she pictured Thomas watching her walk away.  There was no expression on his face, but the look in his eyes showed the fire she was also feeling. 

A few days later, s
he was sitting in
the
conference room
of the
Tulsa
office,
making notes on a legal pad while conferring occasionally with some reports.  She’d been alone most of the day while Mike and Bob were out doing site surveys. 

So when she heard Thomas’s deep voice behind her, she jumped a foot out of her chair. 

“It didn’t work, you know.”

Victoria
spun around, worried that she knew exactly what he was talking about.  “I’m sorry?” she said, feigning ignorance
and grabbing a file, pretending to be absorbed in the numbers
. 
She hoped he couldn’t see her fingers that were shaking as she held the file folder. 

Thomas came over to sit on the conference table beside her.  “It didn’t work and you know it.”

His thigh was so close to her hand, she could just stretch her fingers and she’d be touching the gabardine fabric of his slacks.  Glancing away in an effort to avoid the temptation, she asked,
“Thomas, could you be more specific?  I’ve given you several suggestions lately and I’m not sure which….”

“Stop it
Victoria
,” he said
, his voice soft but firm
.  “You know what I’m talking about because you’re feeling it as well.”

She put her forehead in her hands, knowing she couldn’t feign ignorance any longer.  He was too perceptive and she wasn’t any good at lying anyway. 
“We need to get back to where we were before you kissed me.”

“You kissed me as well.”

She looked down at her paper, embarrassed at the reminder of how she had lost control in the pool. 
“Yes, well, that’s true.  But I don’t think it
will do any good to dwell on it,
”
she said and pulled another file closer in an attempt to change the subject. 
“If you’ll just check out these numbers, I think you’ll….”

Thomas shook a pencil in her general direction as he said, ‘Well, you see, that’s pretty much the problem.  I dwell on
that kiss
all the time
.  As well as your participation in it
,” he explained. 
He stood up and walked over to the window but didn’t take his eyes off her.  “I think about it when I’m in the shower, or in bed at night.  I’ve even started dreaming about that one kiss.”

Victoria
gave up on the file and
looked down at her hands folded in her lap.  “So what do you suggest we do now?”

Thomas shrugged his shoulders.  “It’s as if we’ve opened Pandora’s Box.” 

Victoria
considered that comment and
nodded.  “You’re right.  So where do we go from here?”

“How about if you come out to dinner with me and we’ll discuss it?”

Victoria
laughed nervously.  “I think that is a supremely bad idea.”

“Why?” 

“Because I think we should just pretend it didn’t happen and move on.”
  She knew her idea was lame.  They’d both been trying to forget about it and neither had been successful, apparently. 

Thomas shook his head.  “I’d
like to as well.  But you see,
I’ve been losing sleep because of that one kiss.  I keep wondering what would have happened if that couple hadn’t come in.”

“Nothing,”
Victoria
said, shaking her head for emphasis.  “Nothing would have happened.
  We still would have stopped.
”

“Are you sure?” 

Victoria
considered repeating her statement.  But she
looked into his eyes and
knew she had to be honest with him.  She
shook her head.  “No.”

“Good.  I’m glad you’re honest about the situation.
”  He came back around the conference room table so he was again standing next to her.  “
So come out to dinner with me and tell me all your awful little secrets.  I’ll tell you mine and we’ll get this thing out of the way. 
There’s n
othing like a little
familiarity to douse the passion
in any relationship
.”

“You don’t seem like the type of man to have many awful secrets,”
Victoria
said, laughing despite the skeptical look on her face.  She wished he wasn’t handsome and charming. 
It would be much easier to refuse him.  But facts were facts and she had to admit that he was the most handsome specimen she’d ever met. 
And the most intelligent person she’d ever worked for, the funniest and most charming man she’d ever conversed with.  Why couldn’t he be a little irritating in some regard?

“You won’t
know until you come to dinner with me,” he smiled and took her hand, pulling her out of her chair. 

Victoria
only had time to grab her jacket and purse before he got her through the doorway. 

The restaurant he chose was only a block away and sat right on the waterfront.  They were shown to a table right by the window and Thomas ordered a bottle of wine she’d never heard of. 

“So tell me some awful stories of your childhood,” he started. 

Victoria
couldn’t help it.  She burst out laughing at his hopeful expression.  “I’m not sure I can come up with very many awful stories.  I was too much of a bookworm to do much.”

His eyes scanned her soft blond hair that framed a face of perfect skin, glowing eyes and rosy red lips.  Lips that had haunted his dreams every night for months.  Top that off with her figure and…well, he didn’t go down that path.  His thoughts were already un-boss-like.  He wouldn’t be able to think about anything at all if he started to picture her breast
s
or her long, sexy legs.  He cleared his throat slightly and concentrated on the topic.  “I can’t believe that.  You’re too beautifu
l to not have some awful stories
lurking from your past.”

She flushed at his compliment.  Why did he have to say all the right things?  “I’m sorry, but it’s true.  Ask my sister.  She’s the one that went out with all the cool guys while I helped her get through math class.”

“Didn’t you have loads of boyfriends in high school you took advantage of?”

“Nope.  I didn’t even really date until I got into college.”

“Not even for homecoming?  Or Prom?”

“Well, I had friends and we went as a group to those things but nothing that anyone would call serious.”

The wine steward arrived at their table and T
homas dispatched with the formal wine tasting and just waived him on to serving, eager to get back to the conversation.  “Who did you date in college?”

“I dated two different men in college.  One was a law student and
the other
a medical student.”