Page 13 of A Powerful Attraction
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Sherry droppeda stack of printouts onto Alex’s desk. He wasn’t in the office at the moment, thank goodness.
The last four days had been torture, but she’d brought it on herself. She stayed in a constant state of arousal, which made it hard as hell to concentrate. She shouldn’t have insisted on staying on the project. She still wasn’t sure why she did when Alex had given her a way out of the torment of working with him for hours on end in his office. It was one of the biggest offices in the company, but way too small for the tension that constantly hovered between them.
“Is that everything?” Gina asked, walking up beside her.
Sherry nodded and tapped the pages. “Yep, and just in time for lunch.” She laughed. “Everyone completed the risk assessment modules, and all the analyses are done. Monday we can start setting up meetings to offer advice on products for each employee’s portfolio.”
“That’s great. You guys are moving really fast on this,” Gina said.
“Yeah, we are, aren’t we?”
Sherry didn’t doubt for one second that Alex wanted to complete the Ovation project as quickly as she did. The sexual tension that had always existed between them had only intensified. Two nights this week they had worked late, poring over the data, each at opposite ends of the office so as not to get too close.
Gina propped one hand on her hip. “So, we never got to talk about your date last Friday night. I know you’ve been busy, and I’ve been trying to be polite and not be too nosy. But I can’t wait for you to broach the topic anymore. What happened with Stan?”
Gina had encouraged Sherry to try online dating. She’d had successful relationships over the years and had recently gotten engaged to a man she met online.
“He stood me up.” Sherry grimaced.
“Oh no! That jerk. Have you heard from him since?”
“Not since Friday night, when he texted to say he was getting back together with his ex-girlfriend.”
Gina groaned and sympathetically rubbed a hand up and down Sherry’s arm. “I’m so sorry, girl. I hope you don’t give up on online dating. There are good guys on there, you just have to weed out the bad ones like you would anywhere else—at church, at the club, wherever you meet men.”
Sherry nodded. “I haven’t given up. My account is still active. I just hadn’t paid much attention to matches or messages in a long time because of Stan. Since he and I didn’t work out, I guess I’ll continue exploring my options.”
“If you ladies are finished talking about your dating life, maybe we can get back to work now?” Alex stood in the doorway.
How long had he been standing there? How much had he heard?
“Excuse me. Off to lunch,” Gina murmured. She slid past Alex, who shut the door with a firm flick of the wrist. Agitation rolled off him.
Sherry ignored his foul mood and the way her skin prickled with him in the room. “I printed out the copies of all of the accounts, as you requested.” Her eyes followed him as he came toward her, using the same smooth, confident walk he always did.
“This is everything?” Alex frowned at the sheets of paper. Using his thumb, he fanned through the pages. Sherry’s eyes focused on his big hands, which had palmed her bottom and squeezed her breasts, and that broad thumb that she’d sucked on Friday night.
She shivered with lust. “Yes, that’s everything,” she said in a low tone.
Alex thumbed the pages again, keeping his gaze downcast. “I thought you’d wait a while before you jumped back into dating again.”
“Why would I do that?”
His gaze lifted to hers, and from the light coming through the window, she saw the flecks of brown and green that fought for dominance in his eyes.
“Don’t.” The word seemed to be torn out of him.
“Don’t what?”
Alex fully faced her, eyes blazing with some emotion. “Don’t do it.”
Energy vibrated in the room. He clearly wanted to say more, but held back.
“You have no right to tell me what to do, Alex.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
