Page 7 of Her Forbidden Prince
“Actually, I studied marketing.”She shifted on her feet and he watched her eyes.They were so pretty!And so revealing.He watched as several expressions flitted through those eyes and wondered what she was thinking.
“Why don’t we…?”
“Sir,” Dave interrupted, poking his head back into the room.
Rafi turned to frown at the marketing director.Then straightened to his full height when the ass glanced at Carys and smirked knowingly.
“Sorry to interrupt, but you wanted to discuss the marketing budget for the next launch, sir.”
Rafi nodded sharply, wishing he could just fire the ass on the spot.Instead, he said, “I’ll be with you in a minute.”He waited until they were alone again, then sighed.“What about it?Dinner tonight?Will that work?”
She nodded, the overhead lights making her blond hair sparkle around her shoulders.“Yes.Fine.Dinner would be great.I’ll bring my other ideas and we can discuss them in more detail,” she agreed and grabbed her sketchbook, pressing it to her chest.Lucky sketchbook, he thought as he watched her hurry out of the conference room.
Damn, she was lovely!And intriguing!What was in the letter she’d hurriedly shoved into her pocket?He should have read it when he had the chance, but hadn’t wanted to intrude more than he already had.
An unexpected noise behind him interrupted Rafi’s contemplation.
Dave.The marketing director really was a pain in the ass!And, apparently, an eavesdropper too.With a silent sigh, he turned and left the room, fighting to hide his dislike for the marketing director as he passed him in the hallway.The man seemed to run a tight program.Too tight.The creativity was smothered and that wasn’t the way to produce good ideas.
Chapter 5
It felt like days instead of hours until dinner time arrived.But finally, Rafi finished up his last meeting of the day.At this point, he accepted that he was going to have to fire Dave.It was still undetermined if Tanya was a good fit for a leadership role.But Rafi wasn’t going to make a move until he had more information.
And now, it was time to shut down the business for the night.Rafi headed out of his office to look for Carys.Interesting name.He’d never heard of anyone named that before.It was unique, just like her.
“Are you ready?”he asked, peering over the edge of her assigned cubicle.Another thing he wanted to do is get rid of the cubicles.He’d never thought they were conducive to productivity.Companies installed them because cubical walls were less expensive than real walls, but they tended to cause more distractions.Oh, he knew that companies claimed that cubicles encouraged team building, but that was a load of crap.
Stepping back from the wall, Rafi watched as the woman he’d been thinking about all afternoon stood up, her sketch pad pressed against her chest again.
For the first time today, he noticed the dress she was wearing.It was just a simple, black dress, but it hugged her curves delightfully.She’d topped the dress with a red and black patterned scarf around her neck, but between those blond tresses and her sparkling blue eyes…not to mention the leather, heeled boots…he hadn’t noticed what she’d been wearing until now.
She looked nervous and gestured vaguely toward the conference room.“We don’t need to go out to dinner.I could update you quickly right here.”
“But I’m starving,” Rafi countered.“And you haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast, have you?”
Her mouth fell open slightly and he knew that he was right.“How did you…?”
Rafi chuckled at her surprise.“I didn’t until this moment.”He turned and started walking, hoping that she would fall in beside him.He definitely didn’t want to have this conversation in the office, where anyone could overhear.Not that they were going to discuss anything but business.Still, he wanted to discuss business with the lovely Carys Remington more privately.
He knew the exact moment when she fell into step beside him.He could literally feel her presence.Later, Rafi would ponder that reaction, but for the next few hours, he was just going to enjoy this beautiful woman’s company.
Chapter 6
Carys stood very still as the elevator doors closed, trapping her in a confined space with an intensity she could almost taste.There were four other men in the elevator, but they barely registered in her consciousness.Every nerve, every instinct was focused on the man beside her.The tall, intimidating presence that seemed to dominate the small space.Who was he?Rafi…what was his last name?Her mind raced with questions.
Her heart pounded in her chest, each beat reverberating in the tense silence.The air felt charged, as if any moment a spark might ignite a wildfire.She stole a glance at him, his profile sharp and unreadable, exuding an aura of controlled power.There was something about him that whispered of danger, something that set her on edge.The other men in the elevator were inconsequential shadows compared to the palpable force of his presence.The slight, almost imperceptible shift in his stance as the elevator descended only heightened her awareness of him.
Carys’s pulse quickened.She could feel a bead of sweat trickling down her spine.What was it about him that appealed to her so?The questions gnawed at her, her curiosity mingling with a primal sense of awareness of her femininity.The elevator seemed to crawl downward, each second stretching into an eternity, amplifying the tension that coiled tighter with every passing moment.
So many questions popped into her mind.Where was he from?Where had his soft, almost melodic accent come from?Just how tall was he?And what would it be like to kiss him?
Her mind’s eye immediately conjured a scene where they were sitting together at a conference room table while they dug into Chinese food containers.He’d be next to her so that he could see her sketches.His knee would bump hers.She’d go very still.Or maybe they’d both be reaching for the last broccoli floret and…?Nope, that wouldn’t happen.Carys hated broccoli.He could have all the broccoli.Ick.
She substituted the broccoli with a fortune cookie.They’d both reach for it, their fingers would touch, and she’d smile awkwardly, trying to play it cool.
Except she’d probably end up knocking over the soy sauce, making a mess, and they’d laugh about it.Yeah, that seemed more realistic.She could already imagine him teasing her, making a lighthearted comment about her fortune-reading skills.She snorted in amusement before she could stop herself.
“What’s so funny?”he asked, gesturing toward the open elevator doors.
