Falling for the Boss (7 page)

Unfortunately, along with the good came the frustrations.  The more she worked with Thomas, the more
fascinated
she became with the man.  He was always a gentleman, never making any inappropriate comments.  But
Victoria
loved watching him work, listening to him brainstorm with the team or just sift through information on the computer. 

One night
in July, they were working
in
the
Bankok,
Maine
office
,
she found herself alone with Thomas
in the conference room.  She hadn’t realized that Mike and Bob had already left for the evening, having been absorbed in her own tasks.  S
he was pouring over some files when she discovered some discrepancies
in the numbers
.  In the process of pointing them out to Thomas, he leaned over her shoulder. 
She could feel the heat from his body through her yellow silk blouse and became flustered but tried to hide it. 
It was difficult for
Victoria
to remember what she was explaining to him. 

It took her several minutes to concentrate.  Thomas listened patiently as she stammered out her problem and was relieved when he stepped back from the table so she could breathe more easily. She definitely needed space from this man in order to think clearly. 

She avoided his eyes when she finished her explanation that night and thankfully, Bob came back into the room and helped ease the tension.  The three of them discussed her findings and came up with a plan to dig further into the numbers. 

Another time,
Victoria
was reading a file and waiting for the elevator. 
Since it was so late at night, n
o one else was
in the building except Thomas’
team so she didn’t bother to look up when the elevator opened.  She simply walked forward
, assuming the elevator
would
be empty
at that time of night
.  She was wrong.  She walked
right into Thomas.  The next thing she knew, she was being held in strong
, incredibly muscular
arms, papers floating everywhere as they gently
floated to
the floor
in every direction. 
Victoria
had trouble un
derstanding what had happened as she stared up into Thomas’ dark blue eyes
, his arms still wrapped around her waist
. 

“My fault,” Thomas said, steadying her.  “I need to slow down.”  He took a step back and looked her in the eyes.  “Are you ok?”

Victoria
could only nod, her voice refusing to come while he was still touching her arms. 

Then they both bent down to pick up the errant papers. 
Victoria
was instantly aware of her skirt sliding up her thighs.  She tried to inconspicuously pull the
soft green
linen
skirt
down, but it
slipped back up as she reached for the papers farther away. 

She turned around to grab the last paper and realized
that the lace
at the top of her thigh high stockings
was exposed
.  “Oh,” she said, and stood up immediately
, her face turning red with embarrassment.  She glanced over to look at Thomas, hoping he hadn’t seen her exposed intimate apparel.  The hooded look in his eyes told her he had
. 

Thomas just stared at her thigh for another moment, then stood up with her, handing over the papers. “I’ll be more careful,” he
snapped
and walked quickly away
without another word
. 

Victoria
was confused by his angry tone but took the papers he handed her and watched him walk towards the conference room. 
Telling herself that he must be overworked, just like the rest of the team, she pushed his tone aside and continued down to the filing room where she had originally been heading before her embarrassing encounter. 

Thomas
entered the conference room
a few minutes later
and poured himself a glass of ice water, knowing that his body needed something stronger.  He wished he hadn’t seen her sexy
lingerie
. 
For the past three months, he had been able to keep his space from
Victoria
only by sheer force of will.  She was one of the best accountants he’d ever had on his team and he didn’t want to mess that up because he couldn’t keep his libido in check.

For his peace of mind, h
e
needed to think of her
wearing plain, white cotton underwear and normal panty-hose. 
When she’d first started working on the team, she’d worn stiff, navy or black wool suits that hadn’t flattered her figure in any way.  They were serious suits that, although they didn’t detract from her physical beauty, they didn’t enhance her looks in an
y way.  And they definitely hid most of
her stunning figure from his hungry eyes. 
He’d had to really look to know that the
severe
, navy and black fabric covered up a tiny waist, slim hips and breasts that he knew were not too large but definitely not too small.  From the brief glimpses through the formal silk blouses she’d worn, he knew they’d fit perfectly in the palm of his hands. 

But over the months, she’d acquired almost a whole new wardrobe made of
more feminine colors. 
She wore suits made out of silk and linen in soft, pretty shades of pink, yellow and mossy green, a green that perfectly matched her beautiful eyes, he remembered. 

He needed her to be unfeminine in some way and her underwear was the most obvious place.  But he now knew what lay underneath those feminine suits and his mind reeled at the idea, wondering what else she was wearing.  Would her bras be as pretty?  Did the lace of her underwear match whatever outfit she was wearing?  He knew the idea would be bothering him now.  And he had no right to find out, which frustrated him. 
Her fiancé was the only man who had the right to view her beautiful body and he wanted to punch the man even though he’d never met him. 

The reminder that she had a fiancé should have cooled his desire for her.  The fact that she had a fiancé should mean that the woman was unavailable to him.  E
ven if she
wasn’t otherwise committed, he told himself
, she was completely off limits as a member of his team.  She was fantastic at her job and he respected her intelligence so he needed to keep his hands, and mind, off
of her long, sexy legs and her perfect derriere…. Thomas stopped his mind from traveling further up her body, knowing he needed to get in control before he burned up in flames just thinking about her. 

By the fourth month,
Victoria
felt as if she was
finally a
part of the team.  Bob and Mike both teased her about her weekly calls to Barry, telling her that she needed to find someone who called her once in a while. 
In turn, s
he laughed as they
traipsed
out to find dates for the night and felt more like a sister with the two of them
as they told her about their conquests at the various bars
in the morning, trying to shock her at the lengths they would go for a lady
. 

Thomas, although the leader of the team, seemed to keep himself out of the teasing.  He was always within ear shot and she’d caught him laughing when either Mike or Bob made a crack about one thing or another.  But he didn’t participate.  Which both Mike and Bob mentioned was a little odd. 

As the team meshed more and more,
Victoria
found her niche in the group and felt more comfortable.  Unfortunately, as her comfort level increased, so did her attraction to Thomas.  She found herself watching him while he talked on the phone, fascinated by the aura of authority that surrounded him.  She caught herself staring at him one afternoon on the plane to
London
while he worked through some report.  She looked at his hands and
fantasized
about what they might feel like when they touched her
skin
.  She had to quickly look away when he unexpectedly glanced up and caught her.  She tried to hide her flaming cheeks, but she suspected that he’d noticed. 

At the end of
August
, Thomas had the team auditing the
Paris
offices. 
The city of
Paris
was a wonder to her.  They arrived in a hotel that was only a few blocks from the
ATI
offices they were auditing and
Victoria
insisted on walking everywhere.  She always volunteered to get the lunch sandwiches instead of asking one of the office secretaries to order something in. 

Thomas refused to let her go out for the dinner run though, not giving her any explanation. 
Victoria
didn’t mind
as long as
she could take her lap
top out onto a balcony and work while she was eating a sandwich or whatever was ordered for the evening.  The air was only a little bit polluted from
the top
floor
of the building where they were working
and the summer heat was in full swing
but
with balmy breezes pulling wisps of hair out of its neat chignon. 

They had one night off and Thomas
announced that he would treat
them all to dinner at
the famous
Max
i
me’s
. 
V
ictoria
was thrilled and couldn’t contain her excitement.  Bob and Mike teased he
r but she didn’t
mind.  She was in
Paris
and she was about to dine at the most famous restaurant in the world.  What more could a woman want, she thought?  Her eyes instantly moved to see Thomas sitting at the head of the conference table, talking on the phone.  She wondered what he was saying, his French much more fluent than hers ever was and she was only able to catch a few phrases. 

Victoria
reminded herself that he
had a girl friend.  There was a woman named Antonia who called occasionally and he
had
called her
on several occasions
. 
Victoria
just left the room whenever she knew he was talking to her and pretended she wasn’t insanely jealous that some other woman got to talk to him so carelessly. 
She knew it wasn’t about business.  They talked about personal things, nothing intimate, but just casual.  Thomas joked with this woman and laughed with her, his deep voice telling her to stay out of trouble and letting her know when he would be coming back or what city he was heading to next. 

Suddenly,
Victoria
realized that she’d been staring at Thomas for quite a while because her eyes focused and she
saw that
one
of his
eyebrow
s was
raised in inquiry as he looked back at her. 
Victoria
instantly dropped her head back down to study the file in front of her and hoped her cheeks weren’t really as red as they felt. 

Fortunately, Bob and Mike burst into the conference room
at that moment
, both arguing about some issue that
Victoria
couldn’t grasp as she calmed herself down from Thomas’s intense look.  It was a look that told her he knew what she was thinking about
but she reminded
herself that
, although he was the smartest man she’d ever met,
he couldn’t read minds. 
At least she hoped he couldn’t, she told herself.  She’d be mortified if he ever knew what she had been thinking.

The following week, they were in
London
and Thomas apologized for not giving the team any time off but promised that they would the next round in
London
which would be soon.  They only stayed for three days and then were back stateside. 

Victoria
was grateful when Thomas announced that they would have a whole weekend off with a late start on Monday when they
would be
off to
Atlanta
,
Georgia
.