Page 7 of Defying Her Arrogant Boss

Lissa felt her face flush but dampened down the feelings of embarrassment and focussed on Gina’s own exploits. ‘Well what about you? You must be feeling pretty happy this morning!’

‘Why? Complete opposite, actually.’

‘Why? It looked like things were going great! You guys looked totally hot for each other!’

Gina looked at her, perplexed. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘You and Rory,’ Lissa said impatiently. ‘He couldn’t take his eyes off you.’

‘Rory? He wasn’t even there!’

Lissa’s head snapped back. ‘Yes, he was. I saw him talking to you; tall, dark, wearing a black leather coat.’

‘Oh!’ Gina started to laugh. ‘That wasn’t Rory, that was Karl.’

The earth tilted under Lissa’s feet. ‘Karl? The guy you were talking to? That was Karl?’

‘Of course!’

‘Oh, God,’ Lissa breathed, her heart pounding. ‘Then who was—’ She broke off.

Gina watched her curiously. ‘Who was...?’

Voices came louder along the corridor and Gina hurriedly put her bowl of cereal behind a stack of books on the comer of her desk. Lissa reached behind her to put another magazine on the pile to hide it effectively. They stood side by side as a group of consultants came in with Hugo, the head researcher.

‘Gina, Lissa,’ he began with an evil smile, ‘we have some fresh blood for you. Gina, you must remember Rory—he’s back from the New York office.’

Lissa saw Gina’s sharp glance at Hugo. Hugo was by no means deaf and was fully aware of the numerous times Gina had discussed The Return with Lissa. There wasn’t much Hugo didn’t know. Oh, the joys of working in an open-plan environment.

Then she looked at the tall man stepping out from behind Hugo.

Oh. My. God.

Tall, devastatingly handsome in a suit and smiling straight at her was ‘Karl’ of the previous evening. He was Rory? Those fabulously unforgettable green eyes were now honed in on her with wicked laughter lurking in their glowing depths. She stared, unable to think anything but that he was even more handsome first thing in the morning freshly shaved and suited.

Hugo was going on to introduce the other men, but Lissa didn’t catch any of their names. Her legs were as wobbly as a newborn lamb’s. Finally she dragged her gaze away from him and tried to start breathing again. She smiled in automaton fashion at the others and simply wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. Snatches of conversation came back to her:‘God’s gift’, ‘when he looks at you...’

Oh, my God, what had she said?

She became aware that they were moving off to inspect the database terminals in the main library area. Lissa stood right where she was, looking down at Gina’s swivel chair.

‘I should have told you.’

She looked up, horrified to see that Rory had not moved away with the others, but instead had moved closer to her, too close. He was still smiling and she watched as he looked over her with a glint of appreciation. A trace of anger flicked through her, raising her temperature even higher. She eyeballed him, refusing to acknowledge the flicker of attraction that also sky-rocketed unbidden.

‘Yes, you should have,’ she whispered.

Annoyingly his smile widened further. Charming, cajoling, overwhelmingly attractive. ‘I’m sorry; it was irresistible.’

‘It was unforgivable. You must have known I’d mistaken you for someone else.’

‘Mmm.’ He looked back at the group of consultants before asking with seemingly genuine concern, ‘Have you got a headache this morning?’

‘Certainly not.’ Irritation caused her to raise her voice louder than she had intended. She looked across to the others and saw Gina was watching, round-eyed.

‘You’d better go and join the others.’ Her body chose that exact moment to reminisce on how well his frame had melded to hers. She felt the fire in her cheeks and swallowed hard. She began to realise the full implication of his true identity. The situation had taken a total dive. He worked here. She couldn’t avoid him and she really needed to. She couldn’t be into this guy, not if he worked here, not at all.

‘I’ve only been away six months,’ he replied. ‘I think I can still find my way round the library okay.’

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