Bachelor Boss

Surely not. Surely it would be better to backpedal out of the office. A woman who wanted—no, needed—to succeed at this job should go back to her desk. A woman who needed—and yes, wanted—to prove to herself she was over her unrequited crush on her boss should do nothing to bar the man from getting lucky.

Or from Carlo getting kissed. She should be happy for him as she snuck away. That’s what a grown-up, dignified, over-the-infatuation woman would do.

Grown-up, dignified, over-the-infatuation Lucy heard her throat clear. Not too loudly. But loud enough that her presence couldn’t be avoided or ignored.

Argh. How could she have done something so intrusive? Now Carlo wasn’t going to be pleased. Now she wasn’t feeling the least bit adult and dignified during her first moments on the first day of this new job. And then she heard herself make that attention-demanding, throat-clearing sound again.

Carlo’s head turned. He looked her way. “Hey.”

Lucy’s heart wobbled. There it was, that handsome face she’d never forgotten, those dark eyes taking her in. She couldn’t read their expression. Displeasure? Or was that relief?

She wiggled her fingers in return greeting. “Hey.” She hoped she looked more together than she felt. Dignified, remember? Adult. But…but…Carlo about tobe kissed by someone else! Did her weird reaction to that show on her face? “I’m sorry, but you, um, you told me to come in and…”

“No problem.” He was moving away from the woman in the teensy suit. Her expression was annoyed, but Carlo didn’t appear to be the least affected, let alone angry that Lucy had interrupted his tête-à-tête. If a kiss had been in the offing, he didn’t seem worried about the missed opportunity.

Her spirits lifted a little. Maybe this particular first day wasn’t going to be too bad, despite her fears. As a matter of fact, Carlo did look somewhat pleased as he came toward her. See? It was all good. He didn’t appear aware of that little crush she’d once had on him. He may not even recall that impulsive lip-lock she’d laid on him herself two years ago.

Though his nonreaction at the time had only added to her embarrassment, now she was grateful that he seemed to have forgotten it. Yes, in his eyes at this minute she must appear dignified, not to mention all of her twenty-five grown-up years. She took his attitude as an omen for her upcoming job success.

“Damn,” he said as he came to a stop in front of her. His long arm reached out to muss her hair the way an uncle would do to a favored young niece. “Long time no see, Goose.”

Apparently if she hadn’t interrupted a smooch between Carlo and Little Blue Suit, it would have been a kiss-off kind of kiss, anyway. At least that’s what he intimated to Lucy—“Please, Carlo, no one calls me Goose anymore,” she’d said firmly—when, after ushering his chestnut-haired guest from the office, his first request as her brand-new boss was to ask her to send two dozen roses to the lady who’d just departed. Recipient: a Ms. Tamara Maxwell. Message line: It wasn’tyou, it was me.

He didn’t quite meet her eyes when he imparted that interesting nugget, but muttered as he turned back to his office, “Look, we only went out a few times and she didn’t get it. I don’t do the couple thing.”

Lucy got it. She’d always gotten it, though the knowledge had never seemed to cool the particular thing she had for Carlo. Besides the paycheck, putting out that fire for good had been the most pressing reason to accept the job at his company.

When she’d moved back to San Diego, her dad, who was old friends with Carlo’s dad, suggested she fill the temporary position at McMillan & Milano before she started a serious search for an accounting position in town. It was supposed to be a favor to Carlo, but it worked for Lucy, too. Moving back to California from Arizona had left her strapped for cash, and acting as his secretary would solve another lingering problem.

The way she figured it, three weeks at McMillan & Milano would finally, for-once-and-for-all, extinguish what she’d always felt for him.

Heck, she decided, watching him walk away from her without a second glance and remembering how easily her humiliatingly juvenile nickname had tripped off his tongue, by quitting time today her libido should finally have heard the message. There was no hope. Carlo would never look at her with the kind of heat a man should hold for a woman.

The idea didn’t depress her in the least.

Really.

So she went about her duties, finding this office not so different from any other—including walking into the break room in the late afternoon to find the water cooler drained desert-dry. Stacked on the floor beside it were several full, capped bottles.

“‘Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink,’” Lucy murmured, paraphrasing Coleridge to the empty room. She hadn’t just crunched numbers at school. Shaking her head, she pushed up the cuffs of her sleeves. Even though she wasn’t the one who’d tapped the last of the liquid, everyone knew first-day employees couldn’t leave the rest of the staff waterless.

No matter that at five foot two and a mere few orders of French fries over her ideal weight, it would be a struggle to replace the bottle. The task was still up to Lucy.

The empty one was a snap to lift away from the top of the water cooler. The blue cap on the closest full bottle took only seconds to peel off. Then, staring down the plastic barrel at her feet as if it were a wrestling opponent, she bent her knees to grasp it around its cool, rotund belly. As she straightened, she staggered on her feet, her heels clattering against the smooth hardwood floor.

Oh, Lord, don’t let me drop this.

“Goose, what are you doing?”

Instinct had her swinging toward the voice—Carlo’s voice—but that only made her more unsteady on her business-beige heels. Before she could do more than wheeze, there were a man’s arms around her—Carlo’s arms. Her back was up against his chest, her butt pressed to his—

“Stop,” he ordered into her ear.

“I wasn’t thinking anything!”

“Obviously not. You’re too small to take care of this. I meant ‘stop trying to help.’ Let go and let me have the bottle.”

“Oh.” She dropped her hands from the heavy plastic, but that still left her in the circle of Carlo’s arms. His warmth was at her spine, his delicious aftershave in her nose, his breath stirring the hair at her temple.

As a wild rash of prickly awareness broke out like more hives over her skin, she dipped under his arm and freed herself from his faux embrace. Without a glance at her, he stepped forward to flip the bottle on top of the cooler.

He turned to find her fanning her face.

“Goo—Lucy…” His voice trailed off as his gaze dropped lower. His eyes widened, then he looked back up. “You, uh, have a couple of buttons that came loose.”

She glanced down, gasped. In her struggles with the water bottle, apparently some of the buttons on her all-business blouse had popped free, revealing most of her white lace demibra. Her face burning, she clutched the shirt’s edges together with one hand while hastily refastening with the other.

“Relax,” Carlo said. “It’s just me.”

“Yeah. Just you,” Lucy repeated.

Just the man she’d dreamed about since she was fifteen years old.

She managed to get decent once more, but was still struggling with the top buttonhole when her new boss made a brotherly noise and moved in as she continued to fumble. “Here. Let me finish it up.”

He was wearing an easy, indulgent smile as he pushed her hands away and reached toward her collar. For an instant, his fingertips brushed the hollow at her throat and she jerked in helpless reaction, her pulse pounding against his touch. He froze, his fingertips now only making contact with button and fabric.

Still, his nostrils flared and she could smell her perfume rise around them, the scent surging stronger as her heart continued to hammer in her chest.

He cleared his throat. “Goose,” he said. “You smell like a girl.”

A nervous bubble of laughter escaped her throat. “Carlo, I am a girl.”

“Right. Yeah.” He made quick work of the stubborn top button, then retreated toward the doorway. There, he shoved his hands in his pockets and cocked his head, studying her. “Actually, you’re more than a girl. You’re a woman.”

“You noticed?” If it hadn’t been obvious before, this little comment made it crystal clear that the kitchen-kiss two years before hadn’t even rated his attention.

He leaned one shoulder against the jamb and gave her a half smile. “Now I think I’ll find it hard to forget.”

The deep note in his voice stroked like a brush down Lucy’s spine, bumping against each vertebrae. Her tongue swiped at her dry bottom lip and she watched his eyes follow the movement.

Suddenly, her heart sped up again, her pulse fluttering against the place at her throat that still throbbed from his accidental touch. Was…was Carlo looking at her with a masculine kind of interest?

She took in the gleam in his deep-set, dark eyes and then tried to find more clues in the aquiline line of his masculine nose and the sensual curve of his full mouth. He was a beautiful man, every artistic angle of his face a testament to his Italian heritage—but she couldn’t read his expression.

She licked her bottom lip again.

Carlo abruptly straightened, his gaze dropping away. “So, uh, Goose—”