Falling for the Boss (8 page)

Victoria
needed the break.  She was starting to dream about Thomas
at night
and she needed to spend some time with Barry.  He would put things into perspective for her.  She needed to be reminded of what her plans were, where her future was going and what was at stake when she constantly thought about Thomas. 

Despite that, f
or some reason,
she didn’t call Barry when she got home.  She dialed her sister up first
, talking with her for about an hour before hanging up
. 
Victoria
unpacked and started her laundry, knowing she should call Barry and let him know she was in town.  The last few discussions she’d had with Barry had been strained.  They didn’t have enough to talk about when they were an ocean away. 
She told herself it would be better between the two of them when they were face to face and could discuss business or politics like they used to. 
But
for some reason, she still didn’t call him up. 
Victoria
waited for Laci to arrive
at her apartment
instead. 

“I miss you!” Laci said as soon as
Victoria
opened her apartment door, predictable box of pizza in hand. 

“I miss you, too!”
Victoria
said, hugging her sister. 

They walked out onto the small balcony to eat their pizza. “So tell me all about your travels.  It isn’t the same when you call me from some place.”

Victoria
took a sip of red wine and savored the final rays of the setting sunshine.  “Well, it certainly isn’t boring,” she said.

“You’ve been to twelve cities in
four
months and all you can say is that it isn’t boring?
  Come on, give over the details.  What’s the best thing about everything you’ve been doing?  What kind of life is it?  Do you get to do a lot of sight seeing?
”
  Laci crossed her legs and leaned forward, eagerly awaiting romantic tales from her older sister’s worldly travels. 

“Thomas really keeps us moving,”

Laci rolled her eyes.  “You are definitely not giving out enough details, woman.”  She jokingly slapped her forehead, “What am I saying?  You’re not giving out any details.  Come on, spill the beans.  W
hat about
Paris
?
  That had to have been exciting.
” Laci said, already on her third piece of pizza.

“I ate outside on the balcony a few times but other than
that
, we only had one night off and we were back to the states.”

Laci wouldn’t be discouraged.  “Ok, so you’re not seeing much of the world.  There must be something in the conference rooms to make you stay indoors.  What’s this Attracelli guy like?  You constantly refer to him on the phone but I’ve only heard you talk about him in a business reference.”

Victoria
warmed to that subject but knew she had to keep her description of Thomas
brief and
impersonal.  Laci would catch on to anything romantic if
Victoria
even hinted that she had feelings in that direction.  “He’s very nice, incredibly brilliant.  A genius, really.
”

Laci shook her head and put her pizza down on the plate.  “No way.  I’ve seen his picture, remember?  There’s no way that man can be described as
simply
nice
.  He either has to be a real womanizer, a charming seducer or gay
.”

“Well, he’s very intelligent, and kind.  He makes us laugh and teaches us constantly.  I’ve never met anyone as patient as he is,”
Victoria
replied, a small smile on her face.

Laci watched her sister and noted the dreamy expression on her face and the stars in her eyes.  “
Victoria
?”

Victoria
didn’t respond, she seemed to be miles away. 

“Um…tory?” Laci prompted, waiving her hand in front of her sister’s face to bring her back to the present. 

Victoria
blinked and blushed slightly.  “Uh oh.” Laci said. 

“What’s wrong?”

Laci grinned knowingly. 
“You have the hots for your boss.”

Victoria
’s blush intensified
, realizing her plan of hiding her feelings for Thomas from her sister had gone awry
.  “Don’t be silly.  I respect him and his intelligence.  Nothing more
,
”
she stated firmly. 

Laci wasn’t buying it.  “If you looked that way when you talked about Barry, then I’d probably believe you.  But the fact is, you barely talk about Barry.  I know you don’t talk to him very often
on the phone
either and this is your first full weekend off in more than a month and you chose to spend
Friday
night with your baby sister.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad because I miss you so much
.  B
ut I also know that look.  The only other time you looked like that was when you were fifteen and Dennis DiMarco asked you to Homecoming.”

“Not true,”
Victoria
argued.  “I’ve felt like this for other guys,” she started only to be interrupted by her sister.

“So I’m right!
” Laci exclaimed and she jumped up to throw her arms around
Victoria
’s shoulders.  “
You do have the hots for The Great Thomas
Attracelli!” she said smugly, settling back down and picking up her pizza again.

Victoria
sighed.  “I guess I’m a little attracted to him but I guarantee that nothing is going to come of it.  It is just natural to be mildly interested in
someone so…”

Laci waited but
Victoria
didn’t finish.  “So what?” she prompted.

“So…strong,”
Victoria
finally said. 

“Strong?”

“Well…yes.  Strong.  He’s a pretty amazing man.”

“In what way?”

“Well, in every way.  But we really need to change the subject.  I’m marrying Barry so this is just a school girl crush that I’ll get over soon.  And you’re right.  I should have called Barry to see if he wanted to do something.  I just thought he’d already have plans since this was a surprise weekend off.”

Victoria
called Barry
Saturday
morning and they
went
out to dinner that evening.  But no matter how much
Victoria
tried, she couldn’t stop comparing Barry to Thomas. 

Where Thomas was tall and had an overpowering presence,
Barry
was only a few inches taller than
Victoria
.  He had a lawyer’s presence which was nice and confident, but
Victoria
saw small points of insecurity that she hadn’t noticed before meeting and getting to know Thomas.  Barry’s smile was comforting, Thomas’ smile turned her stomach to jelly. 

When Barry laughed it came out as harsh and a little malicious since he was laughing at someone’s outfit at the restaurant. 
Victoria
realized that Barry didn’t have very many nice things to say about anyone and spent most of the evening complaining about his co-workers and boss. 
She thought back to all the times Bob and Mike had discussed personnel issues with Thomas and never had a derogatory comment been uttered.  All issues were performance based.  Barry criticized personalities. 

Thomas made her laugh and his intelligence continued to astound her.  His very
presence made her think of wearing
a sexy dress and wondering what he would do to her, with her.  He set her blood on fire with just a look. 

Victoria
left Barry with a chaste kiss on her doorstep and that didn’t do much to stir her passion.  Barry
definitely came out on the lower end of the attraction scale. 

Barry was soft where Thomas was strong and muscular. 
Victoria
wasn’t sure how or when he found the time to work out, but Thomas definitely had some attractively bul
ging muscles.  She realized that Barry was sagging slightly around the waist.  She wondered if that was a new occurrence or if she was just used to the flat stomach Thomas had.  She’d seen
Thomas
swimming a few times in the hotel pool and
knew
that he was an amazing specimen of a man. 

It wasn’t just the topic of conversation from the previous night with Barry that
Victoria
objected to.  She
even found it difficult to converse with Barry
Saturday
night, she realized as she stepped onto the plane that would take them down to
Atlanta
.  She
figured
that she was getting used to Thomas’s
rapid fire
conversational style and kept waiting for Barry ‘s slow
, well thought out
questions and
answers. 

While they waited for the plane to get permission to take off
, Thomas immediately started talking about their new assignment and she understood that her impatience was due to Barry’s deliberate conversational style.  He
considered
everything he was going to say before he said it whereas Thomas was always thinking about five steps ahead of all of them, shooting questions and issues out as they occurred to him.  It was a very invigorating style and
Victoria
fell right
back into the stream of convers
ation, thrilled that she could keep up her end of the
discussion
.

Chapter 6

Thomas watched as
Victoria
took a seat and strapped on her seat belt.  He had spent the weekend with his
family
but
had
wondered the whole time what
Victoria
was doing. 
The thought of her in her boyfriend’s or fiance’s arms tortured him. 

Thomas
wanted to find the man and smash his face in when he thought of him touching
Victoria
.  He didn’t even know the man and he already hated him.

“So what did everyone do this weekend?” he asked, turning to Mike as the plane prepared for takeoff. 
Thomas didn’t really care what Bob or Mike had done for the past three days. 
He wanted to hear what
Victoria
had done but didn’t want to be obvious about it.

“Alas, no woman would have me.  Bob and I hung out at several bars but we were both turned down,”
Mike revealed
, shaking his head in mock grief. 

“
Speak for yourself,” Bob laughed, a charming smile on his face as he wriggled his eyebrows.  “
You left
‘
Shasba
’
too early,” he said, mentioning a new bar in
Washington
,
D.C.

Thomas laughed as
the two younger men discussed the wome
n at the bar.  “And what about you?”
he asked softly
, turning to
Victoria
. 

Victoria
had to fight the
incredible
feeling she had whenever he spoke to her directly.  He a
lways made her feel special with the looks he gave her. 
When he directed a question to her, his whole body indicated that he genuinely cared about her answer and that he wasn’
t just asking to be polite. 

“I had dinner with my sister on
Friday
night,” she said.  For some reason, she didn’t want to admit that she’d also had dinner with Barry on
Saturday
night.