Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(21)

Sean chuckled again. “It’s who you know, though sometimes the cost isn’t worth the end result.”

He had that right.

He paused for a minute before he moved to the visitor chairs facing the desk. “Are you wearing a new scent?”

“What?”

“Your perfume. New?”

“Oh, yeah. My friend Kate gave it to me. Well, not true. She left it at my house and I failed to return it.”

“Finders keepers.”

She laughed. “Exactly.”

When the slide show came up she had a good look. The art portion wasn’t all that exciting, but looked way different than her presentation. The colors, for starters, clashed with her colors. They looked like two different presentations altogether. If what she was looking at was set in stone, she needed to redo her whole design format.

That would mean she wasted a ton of time on this! It was short-sighted on Sean’s part to wait this long before letting her know.

“Is this what you’re going with? Final, final?” she asked, irritation seeping back into her voice.

Sean sat in the visitor chair, eyes glued to her face. “Yes. There might be one or two changes, but they would be minimal.”

“Just a curiosity, has Mr. Montgomery seen this?”

Sean’s head tilted. “No. Why would he?”

“To check it against my stuff?”

He shook his head, clearly not understanding what she was rambling about. It seemed like no one in the company cared about efficiency. Everyone worked independently of each other, thus making the project roll around in circles. It affronted Krista’s organized nature.

She shrugged and let it go. She was too new to raise those kinds of questions to the top salesman. She also doubted Mr. Montgomery would care about the work of other departments. His personality clashed, why shouldn’t his colors?

“Okay, got it.” She leaned forward with the intent to get up, but her butt had fallen in love with soft, supple leather. She couldn’t stop herself from leaning back, instead.

Sean, still watching her intently—here’s another word, staring—took her cue and settled a little more firmly in his own, much less comfortable, chair.

“Sorry.” She sighed, wiggling her butt. “It’s just… this freaking chair has a hold on me and doesn’t want to let go.”

“Then I’m jealous of the chair,” Sean whispered.

The words wound their way through the air like silk, curling under her skin, stroking her in all the right places. He sounded so sincere. As a woman listening to a man she found startlingly attractive, she wanted to believe.

Like Theresa believed. Like the Boob Market from a moment ago believed.

Krista was out of the chair as if on springs, climbing over the garbage can like an explorer running from a raging elephant. She didn’t even care about the gossip end of it anymore. She was more concerned with not falling for that old bullshit. She was better than that. She deserved better.

“Krista…” Sean stood quickly, partially blocking her way.

“Excusez-moi.” She didn’t meet his eyes. Instead she drank in the sight of his large expanse of shoulder. The air was stuffed with unsaid words as he slowly stepped aside.

“Your mug,” he said softly. He sounded forlorn. He sounded like he had been unfairly tried; guilty until proven innocent.

Yeah right, dude. You own the world but you’re oppressed? Such a douche.

Her mug, though, was serious business. In a twirl of locomotion, she snatched her mug off the desk, but didn’t account for her shaky grip. It jumped ship and fell toward the floor.

“Oh God no! I am such a complete moron!”

She dove head first after it, already having bruised half her face, and now not caring if the other side matched or not. She could not break another lucky mug. Not two in the same job. It would be doomsday for sure.

In a struggle of life-and-death, the mug bounced once, spilled its contents, and then came to a rest under Sean’s desk in one piece. She sighed hugely in relief, her head and shoulders uncomfortably wedged between wood and chair.

My mugs try to commit suicide in Sean’s presence. Don’t think I don’t notice!

“Crap, Sean, I’m so sorry! Let me clean it up.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Really Krista…” Sean was trying not to laugh. He was also looking at her in bewildered shock.

Apparently he didn’t believe her when she said her mug was important. If he did, he would have known that of course she would dive under the desk to save it! Small price to pay for job longevity.

He put a large, warm hand on her shoulder to prevent her sprinting out of the office in search of paper towels. The shock of it was so intense she stopped moving in wonder. She felt a zing of electric current slide up and down the middle of her body, tingling off her rib cage, sizzling down her thighs, and alighting all her pleasure sensors one at a time as if they were light switches being turned on. It was like touching a live wire, but instead of being painfully electrocuted, she was injected with adrenaline.

She did look up then. His eyes were soft with immeasurable depth. Looking into them was looking to the center of his soul. He returned her look, deeply. Wanting the connection. Wanting to be close to her.

He brought his hand up, needing to touch her. Needing to know this intimacy was shared. But the horror, surely represented on her face, stilled his movement. She didn’t want this. She couldn’t want it. She didn’t want to take a chance and be let down, because he would let her down. She didn’t need Jim’s example to know that, she had proof all around the company.