Fresh Temptation: Barboza Brothers, Book One (12 page)

When the call ended,
Victor shot Gary a wicked grin. “Great way to start a Monday, huh?”
he said. “You sure you wanna piece of this business?”

“Absolutely.” Gary stood
and returned his grin. “I better get started on this report.” He
read his notebook as he turned around to head to his desk outside
the room.

Victor waited until Gary
shut the door before his eyes flew to Cara’s. His tone was soft.
“So, how are you this morning?”

“Um…” Cara stammered,
caught off guard by his easy question after the tense phone call.
“I’m not quite sure what to say.”

“Not quite sure, huh?” He
stood up and casually strolled around the desk to sit in the chair
where Gary had been. He swiveled it to face her then leaned
forward, elbows against his knees. “Tell me the truth. How are you
this morning?”

“I don’t know. I expected
it to be awkward.”

“Yeah. Me too. But you
know what? I woke up this morning and realized it didn’t need to be
awkward. I don’t
need
to feel embarrassed that I made a pass at you. I don’t
need
to be paranoid that
you’ll try to file sexual harassment charges against me.” He
chuckled and flashed her a lazy smile. “What I
need
is a way to spend more time
with you so we can let things happen naturally. And I think Mr.
Kincaid may have just made that possible for me.”

Cara was so flustered, it
took a few seconds to remember that Mr. Kincaid was the client with
whom Victor was speaking. “What?” She swallowed. “More time with
me?”

“Yes.” Victor held her
gaze for another moment then picked up a file on his desk and
handed it to Cara. “Familiarize yourself with this company. The
Lochmere Group. It’s Kincaid and his partners. I’ll need you to
provide some expertise.”

“Me? What about Gary?
You’re training him to do what you do, right?”

“Yes, but I need him here.
He takes care of everyone while I’m out of the office, which is
almost constantly these days. From the call just now, you know The
Lochmere Group has a lot of political interests and they’re afraid
of being seen in a negative light for investing in a foreign
company. It’s not true, though. There will be absolutely no jobs
added overseas and the U.S. factories will see significant growth.
Anyway, we’ll need your public relations help to put the right spin
on this endeavor.”

Cara cleared her throat,
determined to act like she had actually been able to pay attention
to the phone call. “Don’t they have their own public relations
staff?”

“No, actually. It’s not a
big corporation, just a group of investors. They can either hire a
publicist or they can let me take care of it so they’ll like me
enough to continue to give me their business.” He smiled. “So, what
do you think? Will Isaac be okay with me taking his mommy away for
a few days?”

“What?” Cara’s eyes were
wide. “You want…me…away…with you? For a few days?”

“Yes. Is that a problem?
Because you don’t have to go. I won’t fire you.” He lifted an
eyebrow. “I’ll be disappointed, but I definitely won’t fire
you.”

Cara gulped. “Are you
sure?” Her stomach was suddenly in knots. “Listen, no matter what
happens, I really can’t afford to lose this job. I—”

“Stop.” He put his hand on
her knee for a brief moment. “I know what you’re gonna say and you
have nothing to worry about. If, for some reason, you end up hating
me and you don’t want to work for me anymore, I’ll make sure you
still have a job. I promise. I can always have you transferred to
another department or find you a job opening with one of my
clients. Honestly, don’t let yourself be worried about that.” He
looked in her eyes. “Just say you’ll come on this trip to Houston
with me. It’s only for a night. We’ll fly out first thing tomorrow
morning. I’ll have you back here before the end of the next
business day, if all goes well.”

“Just so I understand, you
want me there because you really need my help?” She paused for a
deep breath. “And, you want to spend time with me?”

“Yes. Please, don’t be
nervous. I don’t like to play games.” With a lighthearted shrug, he
added, “And I guess that means I’m not very good at this. I’m a
simple man. I see something I want, I go after it. No
games.”

“And that’s why you
offered me this job?”

“That was a coincidence. I
knew you had a need. I had a way to fill it. You shouldn’t have to
struggle unnecessarily. If I’d met you another way, I’d still be
interested. Trust me.”

She scoffed
inwardly.
Trust him? If only it were that
easy.

Victor looked at his
watch. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in meetings the rest of
the day.” He gently tapped her knee. “Gary will have all the
details to you before you go home this evening. That is, if you
decide to come. And I hope you will.”

Cara watched Victor reach
for a folder on his desk, then stand and turn around in the
direction of the door. “You’re leaving already?”

Victor walked fast. With
his hand on the doorknob he glanced at her over his shoulder. “You
don’t think I’m stupid enough to attack you at work, do you?” He
winked. “That’s what private planes are for.”

* * *

About two hours later, as
Cara was browsing online for information about Houston, Rhonda
appeared at her door.

“Hey!” Rhonda said. “How’s
it goin’ over here?”

“Pretty good. How are
you?”

“Fine. So, you maybe wanna
do that lunch today? Welcome you aboard? It’s been a week now.”
Rhonda walked around Cara’s desk to stand beside her chair. She
gawked at Cara’s monitor. “Houston, huh?”

Cara instantly clicked
away to a blank browser. “Yeah. Just researching a
client.”

“Mm hmm.” Rhonda’s voice
got quiet. “I already heard your boss requested the company jet
tomorrow. He taking you with him?”

Cara struggled to keep her
voice steady and not show her surprise at the question. “I don’t
know yet.”

“Oh.” Rhonda’s eyebrows
shot up. “You don’t know yet? You mean, he gave you a
choice?”

I should’ve just said
no.
Cara mentally kicked herself for what
she’d already told Rhonda. Daily, she received subtle warnings from
Gary to keep Victor’s activities quiet. “No, he’s just not sure if
he needs me. That’s all.”

“Oh yeah? Well who’s he
taking then? His trip request said there were two people. Gary
never travels.”

A throat cleared. Rhonda
and Cara looked up to see Gary in the doorway, head cocked sideways
as he glared at Rhonda.

“How’d you hear about the
trip request, hmm?” Gary asked. “Sally in accounts
payable?”

Rhonda smirked. “If you
must know, it was my boss, Mr. Noonan. He was ranting about it in
his office because he wanted the jet tomorrow but Barboza beat him
to it.”

“Well then,” Gary said, “I
guess Mr. Noonan will have to settle for brushing his legs against
the commoners in first class. Or worse.” He let out a small gasp
and brought his hand to his chest. “Coach!”

Rhonda and Gary shared a
hearty laugh as Cara closed the browser Rhonda had caught her
using.

After Rhonda settled down,
she said, “Well, for what it’s worth, if it were me, I’d love to
get that man alone in an airplane.” She made a grunt of approval.
“Yes, Victor Barboza could take me on an airplane. An elevator. A
backseat.”

Gary’s eyes rolled. “I’m
aware.”

“Oh, please,” Rhonda said
to Gary. “Don’t act like you haven’t thought about it.”

Gary squared his
shoulders, his eyes playful. “Look, you can have your little trashy
conversations with the sluts over there in acquisitions but here in
Mr. Barboza’s department we keep it classy.” He grinned.

“Oh, get over yourself.
So, how about lunch today?” Rhonda waggled her eyebrows at
Cara.

“How rude.” Gary scoffed.
“I’m standing right here.”

Rhonda sighed. “Oh, you
can come too, I guess.”

“Great,” Gary said. “Cara?
You in?”

“Sure,” Cara said. “You
guys pick the restaurant.”

“Sounds good to me.”
Rhonda smiled and walked past Gary to go back to her office. “I
have a few things to do before we leave. Meet you guys downstairs
at noon.”

As soon as she left, Gary
stepped outside the door to make sure Rhonda was out of earshot,
then he reentered Cara’s office and shut the door.

“Okay, she’s fishing,”
Gary said. “That’s why I invited myself to lunch, to make sure you
don’t say anything.”

Cara smirked. “I didn’t
mean to tell her anything, I swear. She looked at my
computer—”

“No, no, no. I didn’t mean
you were untrustworthy. She’s just
that
nosy. She’ll trick
you.”

“I don’t get it. Why is
this such a big deal to everyone around here? It makes me
uncomfortable.”

“It’s because of Alexis
Whitt. I’ve suspected for a while she has some spies around here
but I don’t know who they are. Could be Rhonda. Either her, or
someone in accounting, I think. Someone who sees purchase
orders
and
human
resources activity.” He stared off at the wall, suddenly deep in
thought. “Yeah, it’d have to be.”

“So, that’s why I have to
be careful who I talk to and what I say? Because Alexis has spies
around here?”

He shrugged. “Well, that,
and the fact that Mr. Barboza’s always a topic of conversation. I
mean, think about it. He’s young and single. Of the three partners
here at Monarch, he’s the only one who doesn’t have a whole
department reporting to him. He has me, and now you.” Gary
chuckled. “Believe me, rumors were flying when he hired me,
too.”

“You mean, people
thought…you and him?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “Yes,
they did. And it didn’t help that I made the mistake of telling
someone how hot I thought he was.”

Cara laughed out loud. “Oh
no.”

“Yes.” Gary let out an
exasperated sigh. “I won’t make that mistake again. The rumors were
already going but I sure didn’t help. That’s when I found out how
much Mr. Barboza likes to stay out of the office gossip. He doesn’t
care what people say until it affects him somehow, and one of the
other partners mentioned it to him. That’s when he sat me down and
told me he didn’t have time for drama and he expected me to keep
everything private in this office.”

“He actually approached
you about it?”

“Yes. But the odd thing
is, he thought it was kind of funny that anyone thought he and I
were an item.” He chuckled for a few moments then cleared his
throat. “We had a similar talk before you started. He wanted to
make sure the rumors were kept to a minimum. He said it was to keep
you from feeling uncomfortable around here.” He smiled. “Mr.
Barboza cares
very
much about your comfort.”

Cara put her elbows on her
desk, palms against her forehead. “I don’t know what to think,
Gary! This is crazy! A few weeks ago I didn’t even know him and now
I work for him? He cares about my comfort? Whatever that means.”
She groaned. “And he wants to take me on an overnight trip.” She
looked up at him. “
Tomorrow
. I’ve only worked here for
a week but he wants me to travel with him,
tomorrow
? What’s going on? Is it
because of Alexis? He wants revenge on her that badly?”

Gary shook his head.
“Honey, I really don’t know what to tell you.” He winked. “But if I
were you, I’d be on the plane tomorrow.” He reached for the door.
“I have to go take care of a few things before lunch. See you at
noon.”

Cara’s first instinct was
to calm her nerves by calling Marcy, but she could already hear
Marcy’s voice saying, “Loosen up and take the trip.”

Maybe she’s right.
Cara felt her palms sweating as she imagined
being alone with Victor in close quarters.

Silence. Two whole minutes
of silence had passed since either Cara or Victor had spoken a
word. Neither had anticipated the sexually charged thoughts that
would go through each of their minds as they sat across from each
other on the small plane.

To distract herself, Cara
spread out the Lochmere file on the tiny table between them and
pored over the documents for the tenth time. Every time she looked
at him, Victor was either staring at her or gazing out the window
like he was annoyed with her.

Do I want him to make a
move?
That was the question she pondered
since yesterday morning’s meeting…including a very restless night;
she had lain wide awake for hours, tossing and turning as fantasies
consumed her.

Victor put his elbows on
the table and leaned forward. “You sure you don’t want a drink? It
might help.”

“No.” Caught off-guard,
Cara gasped under her breath. Every time he moved she caught a
subtle hint of his cologne. It didn’t seem like his usual scent. It
smelled more sensual and earthy, like he had worn it just to seduce
her.