Lush (11 page)

Still too
tense to consider heading home to bed, he loosened his tie and
strode over to the office bathroom. His office was his home away
from home, and the shower and assortment of clothing in its large
closet was evidence of that.

He changed
from his Kiton suit into his workout clothes and running sneakers.
He’d had a full gym installed on the top floor of the Cogent
Building, and he’d made it available to all his employees.

Not that
anyone would be taking advantage of it that night, since the
building was apparently empty. He took that irritation to the
treadmill and started running, welcoming the initial discomfort as
his tight muscles were pushed to stretch and perform.
Pain is
weakness leaving the body. Best to work through it.

As I always
have.

An hour later,
after completing a long run and doing a circuit of weights, Gio
grabbed a towel and headed back down to his office. His blood was
pumping and his mood had improved. Half-smiling, he considered
calling one of his usual friends with benefits.

He reentered
his secretary’s office, then swore when he realized he had closed
the door to his office, effectively locking his cell phone, keys,
and everything else inside.

What the
hell?

He picked up
Rena’s phone and called down to the security desk, but it rang
repeatedly without being answered. Heads would roll the next
morning.

Looking down
at his secretary’s desk, he noted the calendar
. September 1.
Labor Day. No wonder the offices are empty.
It didn’t explain
the absent security, but it did reinstate his opinion of his
usually dedicated secretary.

Angry for
allowing himself to become distracted enough to lose track of the
day, he impatiently searched the top of her desk.
Rena must have
a key to my office.

He tried the
drawers of her desk but they were locked. Which made sense, he
supposed. He wouldn’t have appreciated if the key proved easily
accessible. Still, her competence wasn’t helpful at the moment.

Losing
patience, he tugged at the top drawer more aggressively.

Seated at a
security console in a small room on the Cogent Building’s first
floor, Julia Bennett neglected watching the monitors in favor of
checking her makeup in her compact mirror. She hoped her brown hair
held a sophisticated amount of curl. She still had the top of her
security uniform on, but there wasn’t much she could do about that
for—her eyes flew to the clock on the wall—thirty more minutes.

She let out a
nervous breath and smoothed her hands down the tight black skirt
that ended a few inches above her knees. She glanced down at her
Marc Jacobs four-inch heels, shoes that would not pass dress code,
but would have to for one night. In twenty minutes, she would
replace her tan blouse with a much bolder red silk one
.

Red was a
power color.

And she needed
all the mojo she could muster.

The door to
her security cave opened and Paul, one of the front-desk security
men, shuffled in. He was a couple of years older than Julia and,
due to the number of hours he put in at the gym each day, nearly
twice her size. “Julia, can you cover the front desk for me for a
few minutes? I have to run across the street to the pharmacy. I
won’t be long.”

Shit.

“Paul, I don’t
even know how to sign someone in.”

“You won’t
have to. It’s a holiday. No one is here. No one is coming. Listen,
normally I would never ask you to do this, but you know that I’m on
by myself tonight. Tom has a stomach bug.” The six-foot-six giant
of a man looked more like a sad little boy when he added, “I think
he gave it to me. I probably have a fever. Feel my head. Do I?”

Dutifully,
Julia stood, walked over, and touched his forehead, noting that he
did feel overly warm. She glanced at the clock. Twelve past.
Shoot.
“You might. Tell me what you need. I can run over and
get it.”

He shook his
head. “No. I have symptoms I don’t want to discuss.” He gave her a
sheepish smile. “I’ve been in the bathroom half the night.”

Although Julia
had only worked at Cogent for a little more than a month, Paul and
Tom felt like old friends. Working overnight shifts had given them
many opportunities to bond over the coffee breaks Julia still
needed to keep awake. Normally her job consisted of nothing more
than watching a panel of monitors and reporting anything unusual to
Paul or Tom. Not the most exciting job, but one that paid the
bills.

Everyone had
been so nice to her that she felt guilty about not instantly
agreeing to Paul’s request. “Okay, go. But hurry back. I put in to
leave early. I feel awful, but I’m meeting that buyer tonight. This
could be it—what I came to New York for.”

“Is this the
same guy you told me about the other day?”

“Yes. He works
for Platinum and Onyx. It has stores all over the world. An order
from him could change everything for me. Now, go. I’ll watch the
desk.”

When she
walked by him, Paul said, “That skirt is short for a business
meeting.”

She frowned
over her shoulder at him. “I’m not going to sell to anyone if I
keep dressing like a small-town bumpkin. Trust me, I’ve researched
power outfits. This one says, ‘I’m a strong and vital woman. Buy my
jewelry.’ ”

Paul looked
unconvinced. “If you’re meeting a guy, that skirt says, ‘I’m hot,
buy
me
.’ ”

Julia stomped
one of her high heels in frustration. “To win in business, you have
to take advantage of all of your assets. If he gets a little
distracted by my skirt . . . well, that’s the way of the
jungle.”

Shaking his
head, Paul said, “Call me if he turns out to be a creep. One of my
buddies will meet you.” Having met some of his beefed-up friends,
Julia had no doubt they would. They were brawn looking for a
brawl.

“I won’t have
to because I’m fierce. I have my whole presentation ready. He will
be so wowed by the items I show him, he won’t have drool left for
my legs.” She hovered behind Paul’s seat at the front security desk
cautiously.
What are the chances he sanitized any of it?

With a grunt
of disapproval, Paul headed toward the large glass-door exit.

Julia couldn’t
stop herself from calling out, “Hurry, Paul. I can’t be late.”

Julia paced
behind the desk and watched the clock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Crap, I should have brought my clothes out here. I could change
in the ladies’ room while waiting.

She sprinted
back to the surveillance room to gather her things. While scanning
the area to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything, she noticed
something on one of the monitors: a door to one of the
administrative offices was open. All offices were supposed to be
closed and secured after the cleaning staff left. Paul would hear
about it in the morning if nothing were done.
Don’t forget to
tell Paul about it. Don’t forget. Crap, I’m going to
forget.

Back at the
front desk, Julia couldn’t stop thinking about that open door.
I
can get up and back before Paul returns.

She rushed to
the elevator bank and pushed the button to the highest office
floor. She flew across the carpeted hallway to the open office and
had her hand on the doorknob when she noticed a tall man in
sweatpants trying to break into the desk in the outer office.

She said the
first thing that came to her head: “Halt right there.”

The man slowly
straightened to an impressive height and turned. Julia gripped the
door handle tighter. Eyes as dark as coal slowly raked over her, as
if they had every right to. Gorgeous eyes. Thick, dark hair that
was tussled just enough to set a woman’s imagination afire. Who
knew burglars could be hot?
Yes, officer, I did tackle him, but
I had to. It had nothing to do with those perfectly muscled
shoulders and that flat stomach. I admit, we rolled around on the
floor once or twice together, but purely so I could restrain
him.

Julia shook
her head to clear it.
Down, libido, down.
This is not one
of those dreams where someone like him kisses someone like me, and
I wake up frustrated and reach for my vibrator. This is reality,
and even though he’s gorgeous, he could still be dangerous.

One of his
beautiful eyebrows arched at her prolonged appraisal of him, then
his gaze settled appreciatively on the exposed length of her legs.
“And you are?”

“Security.”
She referenced her uniform and name tag. “You don’t belong in
here.”

“You’re
security?” he asked incredulously. “The singing or the stripping
kind?”

Instantly
angry, Julia put a hand on one hip and demanded, “Do I look like a
stripper?”

His eyes
slowly, ever so slowly, roamed over her high heels, short skirt,
and riotous head of hair.

She stomped a
foot at his lack of appropriate response. “This is a power outfit.”
She looked down and tugged at her uniform top. “Not this. But it’s
coming off.” When his eyes widened, her ire rose. “Not for you. And
that’s not what I meant. I have a beautiful red shirt that goes
with this skirt. A nice conservative shirt. And this skirt is a
perfectly appropriate length for a business meeting, according to
Entrepreneur Today
.” She took a deep calming breath. “Why am
I justifying my outfit to a possible criminal? I don’t know what
you’re doing here, but you need to leave.”

“Or what? What
would you do?” He stepped closer.

Good
question
. Julia looked behind her, then back at him.
See,
this is why I should have taken the salesperson job at the mall.
But I thought, Night security—that will give me more time to read
and network during the day. Where are you, Paul, when I need you?
That’s it. Paul.
“I won’t have to do anything, because my
partner is already on his way up. In fact, the next time that
elevator opens, it’ll be him, and he is twice your size and has
taken just enough steroids to have a little rage, if you know what
I mean. I’ll do what I can to hold him off, but if he catches you,
that gorgeous face of yours will never look the same.”

A predatory
smile stretched his lips. He closed the short distance between
them, effectively pinning her against the wall between his arm and
the door. “I don’t believe you,” he said, his voice deep and husky.
He studied her as if he were trying to solve a puzzle. “Are you
going to tell me what you’re really doing here?”

Her voice
tight in her throat, she said, “I told you. I’m security.”

He opened his
mouth to say something, and Julia lost control. Attraction peaked
and collided with panic. Her frantically searching hand closed on a
lamp on the table beside them. With one swift move she cracked him
in the temple with it. He stumbled back and raised a hand to the
assaulted area. “What the hell . . . ?”

They both
froze. His eyes lit with a fire that set her heart racing.

In the
doorway, a male voice broke in. “Mr. Andrade. Are you okay? What
happened?”

Julia put the
lamp down quickly and swayed a bit beneath the realization of what
she had just done. “Mr. Andrade. As in, George Andrade?”

Still looming
angrily over her, he said, “Gio. No one calls me George.” He
addressed Paul curtly. “She works here?”

“Yes, sir. For
over a month.”

Glittering
black eyes bored into Julia as she smiled awkwardly back at him. “I
didn’t recognize you.”

“Evidently.”
He rubbed the red mark on his left temple.

Paul stepped
forward with concern. “I’m so sorry, sir. This is my fault. I ran
next door to get medicine—”

Gio held up
one hand to silence Paul, and the gesture proved impressively
effective. In this jungle, money trumps muscle, Julia thought
sarcastically. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Right now—”

Tomorrow.
Tonight. Time. Crap.
Julia glanced at the clock.
Seven
thirty. Shit
. She turned apologetically to Paul. “Oh, my God,
Paul. I am so sorry. I’ll take the heat for this. I promise. This
was all my fault. Write it up however you need to. I would, but I
can’t stay. I’m already late.”

She made the
mistake of meeting the eyes of the man who still looked dazed from
his encounter with the lamp. She instinctively reached toward his
temple in sympathy, then dropped her hand. “I’m sorry. I should
have studied the photo book Paul gave me better. It’s just that you
were dressed like . . . and then you were all . . .” She frowned.
“You could have just told me who you were and none of this would
have happened, but we don’t have time to go into that now. Don’t be
mad at Paul, okay? He has a stomach bug. But normally, he’d die to
protect you. Who else can you say that about?” She glanced quickly
at the clock again and said, “I totally understand if you need to
fire me, but can you do it tomorrow?”

She turned and
fled.

After her
whirlwind departure, Gio looked across at Paul. “Just tell me you
didn’t issue her a gun.”

***

Sadly that’s the end of
the chapter, but you can purchase this book at smashwords.com by
simply following this link
: Come Away
with Me

*

Secondly I would
recommend
Dakota
Madison’s
books. Especially
Community
Service
and
After Alex
Died
.

These romance books
brought me to tears at times, but in a good way. The characters
were beautifully delineated. They were damaged but perfect, and I
could not leave them even after the last page. This writer has a
gift for capturing the anguish and courage of the human soul.