Back In The Bedroom (The Wrong Bed #29)(30)

Not as a woman.

But she was. She was a woman who loved responsibility and tethers on her heart. She craved them.

And yet she couldn’t seem to get them.

But this job…it was good. It made her feel important. She sat surrounded by numbers and ledgers and accounts, thoroughly engrossed, so engrossed she nearly fell out of her chair when a Taco Bell bag suddenly appeared in front of her face.

“Just me.” Reilly dropped it onto the accounts receivable report she’d been lost in. “You’re getting better. You didn’t jump all the way out of your skin that time.”

She had no idea why she liked that he noticed she still felt a little jumpy. She had no idea why watching him watch her made her feel a little…soft. Feminine. “I didn’t even hear you leave.”

“I know. You get pretty into your work.”

“I’m single-minded,” she agreed. “My family doesn’t think that’s a virtue.”

“There’s nothing wrong with single-mindedness when you’re in accounting. Now, maybe if you were an air traffic controller or something…”

She laughed, though emotion backed up in her throat a little when he smiled. Good Lord, he should do that more often.

“Anyway…” he said, plowing his free hand through his hair, as if it wasn’t standing straight up already. “My stomach’s growling. It’s lunchtime.”

She glanced at the wall clock. One o’clock. No wonder she felt light-headed. “So, did you take the money from petty cash? Because the boss doesn’t like it when you spend money on another employee here.”

“Consider it payback for the doughnuts.”

“I didn’t buy you the doughnuts so you’d buy me lunch,” she said, opening the bag and the heavenly scent of a steak quesadilla wafted up. “But I’m so glad you did.” She took a large bite. “Where’s yours?”

Looking amused, he watched her stuff her face, then lifted another bag and a drink-holder with two large sodas in it. “I thought we’d actually eat at a table. Like in the staff room—”

“Oh.” Embarrassed, she licked the cheese off her lips and laughed. “Right.” She stood up and grabbed the quesadilla. She followed him down the hall and into the small room designated as the staff room. There was a refrigerator, a well-stocked little pantry she suspected Cheri took care of and a small wooden table with four chairs around it.

He pulled out a chair for her, waiting for her to sit and she suddenly felt a little off-kilter. A little nervous.

They were on a lunch date. Sort of.

“What’s the matter?” he said, handing her a drink.

“It’s our first date. It feels a little weird,” she admitted. “Given that we’ve already slept together.”

“Eating at work does not constitute a date. And we didn’t exactly sleep together.” That said, he took a large bite out of his chicken soft taco.

She tried not to name the emotion that went through her at his words, but it felt an awful lot like disappointment. “So what would constitute a date?”

In the act of adding hot sauce to his taco, he paused, then said, “I don’t even know. I haven’t actually dated in a long time. Not since…”

Not since he’d been betrayed while at the CIA. He didn’t say it; he didn’t have to. She hated that he’d been hurt and was shocked at the thoughts of violence that flowed through her for the woman who’d done it. “What was her name?”

“Her real one? Or her alias? I knew her as Loralee. And we didn’t date in the traditional sense. We were always out of the country, on various missions. Dating was impossible.”

“What about before her?”

He took a bite and chewed while he thought about that. “I hate to admit this, but I can’t remember.”

“That’s just sad, Reilly.”

“Really?” he said, smiling as he took another bite. Chewed some more. Eyed her just a little knowingly. “So, what have you done in the dating department lately?”

The big zip, not that she wanted to admit it, so she busied herself pulling apart her quesadilla.

“Well?”

She met his gaze and then laughed sheepishly. “Okay, so we’re tied. We both are equally pathetic when it comes to the opposite sex.”

“Oh, no,” he said silkily and brushed off his hands. His gaze ran over her features. “I never said I was pathetic with the opposite sex.”

Her tummy quivered just a little. “I think I hear your phone ringing.”

He cocked his head. “Chicken, Tess? Now, after all we’ve done?”

“All we’ve done is kiss,” she whispered.

“More than kissed.”

“We’ve…touched.”

“Yeah. Did it feel pathetic to you?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” His voice was low, hypnotic and so sexy her entire body hummed. “Because maybe you need me to prove to you that I’m not a bungling idiot when it comes to physical matters with the opposite sex.” His eyes flamed. “That I do know what I’m doing.”

Oh boy. “I—” She broke off when his cell phone rang, grateful because she had no idea what she would have said anyway.