Page 76 of Off Her Game
She glared at him, but then her gaze turned naughty. Her eyes dropped to his wet groin, now level with her head. She moistened her lips. “Got wet in the wrong area, did you?”
“Don’t do that.”
Her eyebrows quirked upward.
“Don’t mess with me right now,” he warned.
“Call it payback for staring down my shirt.”
The blower ended its cycle. Noise from the bathroom’s anteroom prompted him to grab her hand, yank her to a stand, and pulled her into a stall. “Someone’s coming in.”
“Are we supposed to pretend we’re having wall sex in a public restroom now? Couldn’t we get arrested for that?”
“Even I have standards, although there’s a first time for everything. I don’t want you caught by reporters while drying your shirt in a men’s room. Go in that stall. I’ll stay out here.”
“Doing what? Pretending you have difficulty peeing? I mean you did pee your pants.” She doubled over, laughing hysterically as he continued to push her into the stall.
“Lock it. Damn it, stop laughing.” He heard a few residual snickers from her as two guys came in, did their business, did a cursory hand wash and left.
She walked out and resumed drying her shirt with the blower. “How’d it go out here? Able to perform and all that jazz?” Laughter burst out of her when he resumed drying his pants in front of the dryer next to her.
Laughter burst out of him. The whole thing was absurd.
“You wet there…me wet here…this really doesn’t look good.” She fanned her shirt and pointed at his pants.
After a few minutes of blow-drying, or maybe it’d been ten minutes he asked, “What phone call?”
She glared at him. “My shirt’s dry enough. Don’t want to get caught in the men’s room. See you in there.”
Damn it.
Tori plucked at her stiff T-shirt, thankful it had dried enough to no longer be see-through, although it’d lost its fresh look. She’d left Noah in the bathroom still trying to dry off.
He hadn’t returned. Showing up independently to avoid speculation had probably been smart. The press did love scandal. What better than to feed them a story of the two of them messing around during the press event?
On her way into the conference room she heard, “Tori, great job.”
A head swivel found Sam over by a table full of coffee carafes looking a lot less cheery than his tone. “Just wanted to shake your hand. Welcome you on board.”
When her hand connected with his she felt the small drive in her palm.
“It’s a one-time read,” he said quietly as he turned to fill a cup with coffee. One time meant it’d corrode after the first time it was opened. Symphis could confirm the code was there, but then he couldn’t do anything with it after opening.
Sam poured creamer in the coffee and whispered, “This has to be on you. You need to go to Noah’s office on the twelfth floor before he gets back from the hotel. He and Jake are scheduled to remain after the luncheon to speak privately with a marketing group for about twenty minutes. I gave you access to the building. Just show your driver’s license. His password is NH762. There’s no other way. I’m sorry. Think we have a spy for Symphis working for us. You caught on camera getting into his system will help the illusion.”
“Thanks.”
Louder he said, “See you around.”
She stuffed the flash drive into her jeans, saying goodbye to everything she had with Noah. This had to be dark and dirty. And fast. Would he forgive her?
Jake squeezed her shoulder supportively as he took his seat on her right. He leaned in a whispered, “You’re doing great. And Noah? Damn, I’m proud of him. He’s only here because of you. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
Before she could reply Jake initiated conversation with the guy next to him. Charming, witty. He was really good at this.
She sensed a familiar blue gaze burning into her and she glanced up. The power of Noah’s gaze strengthened as he closed in, making it hard for her to concentrate on anything else, although she had to. Her body cranked up to preheat.
“Ready for lunch?” Noah asked her, his tone edgy.
