Page 41 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

She met the look and murmured softly in his ear, ‘How many of the women in this room have you slept with?’

‘Not even a tenth of how many you’re thinking.’ He lifted her hand to his chest, pressing it against the fine merino sweater so she could feel the steady beat of his heart, and grinned broadly at her. ‘Not feeling insecure, are you?’

‘Oh, no.’ Hers was going machine-gun-style.

He grinned. ‘They just want to get to know you.’

More like they just wanted her out of the way so they could get to him. Now she understood why his arrogance was so innate. People thought he was wonderful—they just about bowed and scraped as he made his way across the room. And now they were doing the same for her—granting her a kind of power just because of her perceived association with him. Except for her they had sharp eyes, even sharper smiles. She didn’t fit in and they knew it.

She looked around desperately as Alex chatted to an older couple. Another jeans-clad woman stood across the room, alone and on the outer. The thoughts so readable on her face mirrored the ones inside Dani—she wanted to get the hell out of there.

Dani murmured an ‘excuse me’ and walked towards her, ignoring Alex’s movement to keep her close.

‘Hello,’ Dani introduced herself to the woman. ‘I’m Dani.’

‘Sara.’ The woman smiled shyly. ‘It’s my first time.’

‘Me too.’ Dani gave her a look and both their smiles went wider. ‘What brings you here?’

‘I’m representing one of the charities the fund is considering supporting. I’m doing a presentation at next week’s board meeting and they invited me along tonight so I could meet some of the board members. To break the ice.’

Well, the ice was shatterproof in some comers of the room.

‘Tell me about your charity.’ Dani grinned. ‘You can practise on me.’

It was so nice to talk about someone and something else for five minutes. Dani was tired of smiling and ‘mmming’ and ‘ahhing’ and trying not to give her secrets away. They took a drink from a passing waiter and bonded.

Every so often Alex would glance across to her and she saw the keen question in his eye—not so much an ‘are you okay?’ kind of caring question, but a ‘what are you up to?’ keen observance. She turned her back on him and made herself relax. Another charity worker joined them, then another, and they found chairs and talked about their projects.

‘How’s your head, Dani?’ Alex bobbed down behind her seat and enquired—all seeming solicitude.

‘It’s fine.’ She smiled brightly, deliberately missing the message in his eyes. ‘Honestly, that delicious dinner really seemed to do the trick. I feel so much better than I did an hour or so ago.’

She turned back to Sara and the other women sitting beside her and smiled. ‘So tell me more.’

Sara’s cheeks were deep pink as she looked from Dani to Alex and back again. ‘Are you sure you have time?’

‘I have all the time in the world.’ Dani looked up and smiled sweetly at the tall man towering beside her. ‘Don’t I?’

‘Of course.’ His smile was set charm, then he walked off.

Dani beamed at Sara, savouring the moment—she did like to tease him.

Another half-hour passed and she was engrossed in conversation. Well, almost engrossed—her Alex-radar was as on as ever. She was aware of him watching her almost stalker-like. And she lifted her head when he approached again—with unmistakable purpose.

‘I’m very sorry to interrupt, Dani—’ Alex broke through the circle of chairs and held his hand out to her ‘—but it really is time for us to go.’

‘You haven’t met Sara—’

‘Alex Carlisle.’ Alex immediately turned and took Sara’s hand instead. Shaking it briefly. Then he wrapped his arm around Dani’s shoulders and literally hauled her to her feet.

‘I’m sorry I’ve talked at you all evening.’ Sara stood too.

‘Not at all,’ Dani reassured her with a genuine grin. ‘I really enjoyed hearing about it.’

He didn’t drag the goodbyes to the hostess and Dani was so amused by his impatience she was able to rise above the cool nods she got from some of the queens.

Outside they walked to where he’d parked.

---