Page 6 of Breathe
Chapter 3
Lucía walked her out past Gloria, who gave her a big smile, to the elevators. By the time they reached them Ellen had the blushing back under control. It was the first time in years that she’d needed to do that. “Thank you for seeing me,” she said.
“It was good to see you somewhere other than the gym,” Lucía answered. “But to be honest, I don’t know if we’ll have a deal here. With you not staying on, it might be too unpredictable. And we don’t need any more unpredictable.”
Ellen frowned. What did she mean? But she focused on the job at hand. “Come and meet the rest of the department,” she said. “You’ll see.”
“Well,” said Lucía, “I’ll think about it.” Then her dark eyes brightened. “I think the boss is on your side, though.”
“Oh God.” The flush raced back into her cheeks.
Now Lucía was grinning. “Yeah, thought so. For a second there I felt like I wasn’t even in the room.”
Stupid blushing. Two minutes with Play-the-Field Fielding and she reddened up like a traffic light. “Look,” she said, lowering her voice, “I know you’re always trying to tell me he’s a good person, but look at his social life. Don’t you find it just a little reprehensible?”
The elevator arrived, and Lucía got on with Ellen. “He’s not twirling a mustache and tying those women to railroad tracks, Ellen,” she said as they went down. “I assume—not that I think about it because, eww, he’s my boss—that they know what they’re doing. Have a little faith in your fellow females, hon. We can’t all get by on tea and a good book.” She squeezed Ellen’s hand to take the sting out of the jab.
Ellen could say nothing to contradict her, since that pretty much had been the extent of her social life for the last four years. She stuck her tongue out instead. “Not just tea and books. Russell Crowe movies too.” The blush in her cheeks hit radiation levels. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
Lucía cracked a laugh that echoed around the elevator cab. “Ooh, she likes ’em rough around the edges, huh? I never would have guessed!”
“Stop laughing. You tell anyone I said that, and I’ll...”
“Oh, m’ija.” The elevator stopped at the ground floor, and Lucía walked out of the main doors with her. “I won’t, but damn, it’s the first time I’ve seen you riled up about anything. Maybe you should ask yourself why that is.”
Ellen opened her mouth to give some form of denial, but Lucía had blown her a kiss and was already back inside the building.
• • •
Kane remained standing in front of his desk for a minute after Ellen left. What the hell was that? Why had she looked at him like she needed to wipe him off her shoes, as if she wanted to kiss him, and as if she was afraid of him? When had he started ogling women in his office? Had she been able to tell? What had her presentation been about again?
Where the hell were his cigarettes?
Given his family’s history, disassembling the smoke detector in his office was not an option, so he’d gotten in the habit of thanking his great-grandfather for buying a building whose windows opened, and leaning out like a schoolboy, looking down ten floors to the noise of downtown below while he smoked.
Perched on the sill, he was soothed by the sounds of his native city. With a clearer head, he could decide that he’d enjoyed looking at her. That was all it was. Her face looked carved from ivory, but those lips... When she forgot to keep them pinched tight he could see himself... There he went again.
And the blushing. What was the point of all the ice-queen daggers she’d thrown at him when she’d spent half the meeting warming him up with those rosy cheeks?
No big deal; she’d just been a nice distraction. Looking at her had been a hell of a lot more fun than the thoughts that were rapidly crowding back into his head: the memories of the first fire, the shudders of fear that there might be more fires, more damage to the company. To an employee.
Think about something else.
But why had she cringed away from him like that? All he’d done was stand up. She’d seemed happier when he moved far from her, so he hadn’t tried to go back to his place at the conference table. But her whole body had still been rigid when she came to shake his hand. What was that about?
Ah, forget it. You’re never going to figure it out on the sleep you’ve had recently. She’s Lucía’s problem now anyway.
But the line of her calves and the sweep of her hair remained his problem.
He brought the coffee tray out to Anna. Thank God for Anna. Ever since he’d hired her, she’d helped him to keep the office atmosphere light. With the trouble the company had been in when he took over, he’d needed to make jokes and tease the managers just to make it through the days. It had become a habit he, and his employees, were happy to continue now that things were better.
Had been better...
While Anna took the tray to the kitchen, he looked through the stack of messages for him on her desk. Three from the insurance company. One from Leo, his communications director. The rest from managers at other mills.
“Don’t look at those now,” Anna said behind him. “Go home, go on. There’s nothing that won’t wait till tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday.” But they both knew with this kind of incident, there was no such thing as a weekend.
