Falling for the Boss (27 page)

Victoria
wasn’t sure how long she’d been crying but knew it had been too long.  Someone was bound to come look
ing
for her.  She needed to snap out of this so she could get through the end of the day.  After a good talk, where she reminded herself that she’d known all along that this probably wouldn’
t be a long term relati
onship
, she was able to pull herself together.  She stopped crying and looked at her reflection in the mirror. 
Victoria
was shocked at how awful she looked.  Her eyes were puffy and her mascara was all down her face.  Even her lips were swollen from the salt in her tears. 

She ran cold water over her cheeks, attempting to get rid of some of the redness.  She didn’t have her purse with her to repair most of the damage, but she couldn’t do anything about that.  She’d just have to tough it out.  Maybe she could hide in the accounting department for a while to get herself back together. 

Victoria
made it all the way to the elevator.  It was just about to open when she heard her name called from the direction of the conference room.  Thomas was standing in the doorway.  She glanced back and waived to him but stepped into the elevators anyway, ignoring his call for her to stop.

“I’ll be right back.  I just need one more file,” she said as the doors closed. 

Victoria
went into the large filing room and hid among the stacks of filing cabinets.  She leaned against the cold metal and took deep breaths, wondering how she was going to get through the rest of the day. 

She’d have to quit, she told herself and that almost made her start crying again.  She loved this job and all the different challenges each
new city
presented. But she didn’t think she’d be able to work with Thomas, not loving him and watching him love another woman. 

“
Victoria
?” Thomas’s deep voice called from the entrance to the filing room. 

Victoria
quickly wiped the tears from her face. 

“
Victoria
?” he called again.  “Are you ok?” he asked. 

“I’m over here,” she called and quickly pulled a file out of a cabinet and pretended to read it. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, coming around the corner, one hand braced on each side of the filing cabinets. 

“Nothing,” she said, forcing a bright smile. 

Thomas walked down the aisle to stand directly in front of her.  He took a moment to study her face then shook his head.  “You’ve been crying.   Is everything okay?”

Victoria
looked down at the file.  “Everything is fine.  I just needed to look something up.”

He
glanced down at the title.  “An
expense report for a Christmas party?”

Victoria
focused on the words and let out a deep breath.  “Well, I thought it was something else.”

“What are you looking for?  I’ll help you find it.”

“That’s
okay.  I can find it on my own,” she said, looking down so he couldn’t see the tears forming in her eyes. 

Thomas moved closer to her. 
“
Victoria
, something has obviously upset you.  Please tell me what happened.
I promise I can make it better,” he said and started to pull her into his arms.

Victoria
jumped back.  “No!” she cried and small tears formed in the corners of her eyes.  “I’m fine, really.”

He shook his head. 
“You’re not fine.  Tell me what happened?”

“Nothing.”

Thomas pushed a hand through his hair.  “Okay, so you don’t want to talk about it now.  Will you tell me about it later tonight?’

This was going to be the hard part.  She decided the best way to do this was to just spit it out.  Taking a deep breath, she said,
“Thomas, I think we should keep our distance.”

There was a long moment of silence before he responded.  “Okay.  I can respect that.  But I’ll need an explanation.”

Victoria
’s hand shook as she pulled open the filing cabinet and slid the file back into it’s place.  “I just think we should get back onto a professional relationship.”

“Why?” he asked again.  “What happened between this morning and now that has turned you around like this?  You have to admit t
his is rather sudden.”

Victoria
shrugged and turned her back to him, unable to face him.  She was near to tears again and didn’t want him to know it.  “It isn’t really,” she lied.  “I’ve been thinking about it for a while.  I just haven’t said anything to you about it.”

He sighed in frustration.  Leaning his hands against the filing cabinets, he looked up at the ceiling, trying to get control of his temper. 
“I’ve felt like we needed to have a serious discussion.  This wasn’t the way I’d thought it would go though.” He sighed
again
and rubbed his hands over his face.  “Why haven’t you said something before now?  What’s so special about today?  Did someone say something to make you feel this way?”

Victoria
shook her head. 
“I’ve been waiting for the right time
,” she lied
. 
“
That moment just never seemed to arrive.”

“Until now?” he looked around the filing room.  “This is the right time and place?”

“Well, no.  But like I said, it is something that needed to be said and there really wasn’t a good time to do it.”

Thomas shook his head.  “
Victoria
, this isn’t right.  You know we’re good together.  What happened?” 
Thomas took her arms in his strong hands and turned her towards him.  “
W
hat’s going on?  Not even ten hours ago, you were in my arms and we couldn’t get enough of each other.  Now you want to just go back to the way we were before?”
  The last sentence was said in a growl of disbelief. 

Victoria
couldn’t look at him so she just nodded her head. 

“Why?”  His anger was barely contained. 

She took a deep breath, praying she wouldn’t break down in front of him.  “I just don’t think I can handle the kind of relationship you expect from me.”

“What are you talking about?” he demanded. 
“What kind of relationship to you think I want?”

“I think you expect something I’m not emotionally able to give you.  So I think we should just go back to…”

“Don’t say it,” he said and took a step back.  He pushed both hands through his hair in frustration and walked away from her a few steps.  Then turned back, both hands on his hips.   “You’re saying you want us to work together, just like we used to, but pretend we don’t feel the way we do
, that the last two months never happened?
”

Victoria
shivered at the idea.  It wasn’t what she wanted.  She wanted, needed
,
to
feel his strong arms around her again.  She needed for him
to tell her that whoever Antonia was,
that
she didn’t mean anything to him and that he was starting to care, just a little bit, for her.  Instead,
Victoria
nodded, unable to speak
for a moment
.  “Maybe it would be best if I just left the team,” she said, her voice cracking at the ide
a.

“Don’t even think about it!” he hissed.  “If you try, I’ll slap a lawsuit on you so fast you’ll never see the outside of a courthouse.”

Victoria
couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  “But….”

“No
,” he sliced his hand through the air, cutting her off
. 
“
You can’t handle what we have together, fine!  But you’re not leaving this team until the end of your contract” he said and walked out of the filing room. 

Victoria
stood there shaking.  She’d never seen Thomas so angry.  Would he really sue her for breach of contract?  She guessed he had every right. 

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.  She stormed back upstairs and sat down in her chair.  She was glad that he’d said that. 
It made her angry instead of sad. 

She worked until
ten
o’clock
that night, not noticing Bob and Mike
’s curious expressions
throughout the day
as they glanced from her to Thomas.  They understood that something was wrong, but not sure why there was suddenly tension so thick it was almost palpable
. 

“I’m going back to the hotel to work.”
Victoria
declared
, frustrated with the constant concerned looks from either Bob or Mike
.

“Can
’t
handle the heat, can you?” Thomas challenged, looking up from his papers. 

“Can’t handle the company,” she fired back and stuffed papers and files into her briefcase and turned on her heal to leave.

Thomas didn’t say anything else but he watched her leave, feeling frustrated and furious that she was doing this to them.  He had been about to propose.  He even had the ring in his pocket.  He was glad she’d stopped him before he made a complete fool of himself.  He had no idea what was going on, but if she couldn’t handle an affair with him as she’d stated, then he doubted she could handle marriage to him. 

He threw his pen down onto the conference room table and shoved his chair away.  Standing up, he walked over to the window and looked out unseeingly at the darkened window. 

What the hell had happened, he wondered?  All
morning
, she’d been giving him looks that told him she felt exactly how he felt – that they’d both rather be alone and curled up in bed rather than dealing with all this mess.

Striding back to the table, he sat back down and pulled the papers back towards him, determined to get his work done. 

Good riddance, he told himself.  As long as she did her job, he could handle the situation.  But the minute she started slacking off, he’d fire her.  He had no intention of letting the rest of the team suffer because she was too scared to handle a long term relationship with him. 

S
he’d been with him just for the sex!  He could handle that.  It had been the best sex he’d ever had in his life.  Usually, the best sex
with a woman
was the first time with a partner.  The mystery, the newness of the relationship
created the tension that made the sex better and more interesting.  After a while, the sex
bored him. 

W
ith
Victoria
,
Thomas discovered,
he’d only been drawn in
deeper
with each encounter. 
Each time they touched, the heat was hotter, the passion more intense and the flames between them reached out and consumed everything around them.  There was no place for anything between the two of them. 

He slammed his file closed five minutes later, not able to concentrate on the words in front of him.  “I’m done for tonight,” he said and left the conference room, leaving both Mike and Bob with their mouths hanging open in shock. 

Back at the hotel, he was too restless to sleep and there wasn’t anything on television to watch.  He went down to the hotel pool and swam laps, trying to exhaust himself.  But that only brought back memories of their firs kiss. 

He dried himself off and went back to his hotel room.  Within five minutes, he was changed into a pair of running shorts and shoes.  He went out the front of the hotel and started jogging, not caring about the streets or where he was going. 
He pushed himself harder, trying to rid himself of her memory. 
The pavement under his feet usually tapped out anything that was wrong and he was able to sort out whatever issue was bothering him.  But after five miles, he headed back to the hotel.  The run wasn’t doing it for him this time.  He couldn’t get her memory out of his brain.