Subordinate Position

“Where are your flowers?”

Danica resisted the urge to turn her leather bound executive chair in the direction of the sexy baritone. She kept her eyes on the computer screen and continued to run her fingertips rapidly across the keyboard. She knew who had asked the question.

Marco.

“I didn’t know you sent any,” she responded, not making eye contact. She kept her voice cool and neutral. “As you can tell, they haven’t arrived yet.” She completed the paragraph she was in the midst of typing.

Schooling her features into a polite expression, she turned to face him. She had to be sure no emotion showed in her eyes as she looked at his trim body lounging against the door jamb, one hand shoved into a pocket of tailored trousers that hinted at his powerful thighs. Today his wide shoulders and muscular chest were clothed in a white shirt under a dark jacket and solid blue silk tie.

“They haven’t arrived yet?” he asked. “Well, I better call and find out where they are then, huh?”

A smile hovered at the corners of his sensuous lips, and her heart tripped in anticipation of seeing that charming smile spread all the way across his face.

“No, they haven’t.” She played along with his joke.

As Marco opened his mouth to speak again, an excited squeal pierced the air from the direction of the cubicles.

He grinned, and Danica could practically hear the roar of blood rushing through her veins. Arousal stole up her inner thighs and she shifted uneasily to dispel the shameless way her body responded every time he was near.

“Another happy recipient of all St. Valentine has to offer.”

“So it would seem,” Danica agreed. She managed to succeed at the monumental task of keeping the envy out of her voice. “Was there something I could help you with?”

She tapped her finger against the solid wood of her desk as she feigned impatience at his interruption. As always, she was pleased and displeased to see him at the same time, unable to settle on which emotion was the stronger of the two.

She especially didn’t want to see him today. This was the worst day of the year for her.

She had considered calling in but changed her mind at the last minute. So what if she didn’t have anyone to spend Valentine’s Day with? So what if it was the second year in a row she’d had to walk back and forth through the Accounting and Finance Department and watch it transform into a garden of bouquets, teddy bears, and balloons her staff collected from their boyfriends and husbands like trophies?

It was only one day, and it would soon be over.

Marco strolled into the room with the same long, easy strides he used when he walked through the halls of the company. His dark brown eyes never left Danica’s face, and she had the uneasy feeling he could see right through her pretense at composure to the uneven beating of her heart.

“Did you have a chance to look at those figures I emailed to you yesterday? I wanted to get your approval before I sent them downstairs to be copied and bound.”

Danica waved her hand across her cluttered desk, a tactic she used to avoid looking directly at him, to avoid staring at the perfection of his lean, strong jaw and honey-hued skin. Her weakness for this man was appalling.

“I haven’t had a chance. I’ve been really busy.”

“What would you like me to do? Should I have the packets prepared as-is, or will you have time to review the data beforehand?”

Danica glanced at her watch. “It’s . . . three o’clock . . . I’ll review them later this afternoon.” She looked up at him. “What time will you be leaving tonight?”

Marco shrugged. “I’ll probably pull out around six.”

“Okay, well, I’ll have an answer for you before then.” She turned to her computer screen, a signal the conversation was over.

“What about you?” Marco asked.

She returned her attention to him. “What about me?”

“When will you be leaving tonight?”

“I’m not sure.”

Marco looked directly into her eyes; in the bold manner he had a habit of doing. “No plans tonight?”

The audaciousness of his question surprised her. Her stomach tightened as he brought stark attention to the fact that she would be alone tonight.

“I’ve got too much work to do,” Danica answered, then turned back to the refuge of her computer screen. She continued to work on the report that had occupied her time before his arrival.

“All work and no play make Danica a dull girl,” Marco sang on the way out the door.

Danica closed her eyes in relief. And a horny one.