Romantic Acquisition (2 page)

Kate sighed, the relief evident.  “Okay.  If you’d like coffee, it has been set up on the table behind you. 
There’s cream and sugar as well as several types of tea. 
I’ll get to work on these reports.  If you need anything else, my extension is…”

“You’ll need to work in here with us,” Carlo said before she could give out her extension.  “Do you have a laptop you can set up to work with us?” he asked. 

Kate looked at Peter and Jeff to see if they also wanted her in there, and received
duplicate
blank
expressions.  She had been afraid of that.  “
Y
es, I have a laptop I can set up.  I’ll get these reports and will be back in about ten minutes.”

Kate left the conference room, closing the door quietly behind her. 

“Why do you want her to work in here?  Isn’t that a departure from our normal routine?” Jeff asked as soon as they were alone. 

Carlo didn’t look at Jeff
.  H
e stared at the closed doors instead.  “I think everything about this process is going to be different,” he
speculated
. 

Five minutes later, Kate burst back into the room, her arms loaded down with reports and charts.  “Here you go.  This is the first batch,” she said and blew a hair out of her face as she carried everything to the table. 

Jeff and Peter instantly jumped up to help her, taking the top folders that were stuffed with information and
carrying
them over to the table themselves. 

“Oh, thank you!” she said
and dumped the remaining reports onto the conference room table
.
  She straightened up and saluted them,
“Okay, off on my second trip
for more
,” she explained and disappeared in another blaze of white petticoat.

Carlo noticed that both Jeff and Peter were staring at the closed door.  He cleared his throat to get their attention and they snapped out of their stare, jumping to find their respective reports and get to work. 

It was another ten minutes, not that Carlo was watching the time, he told himself, before she reappeared.  Again, she was loaded down with bulging file folders, thick reports and stacks of papers.  At the very top, she had a laptop computer perched precariously.
  He watched as she carried everything to the table.  Somehow, she was able to balance everything without the stack toppling over.  He was impressed. 
 
He thought only men wanted to make one trip for everything.  Apparently this fireball was the same way. 

Peter and Jeff again jumped up and took some of the burden off her while Carlo watched in astonishment as his previously well trained acquisition team, who were trained to not get involved with the personnel of a target
, teased this small, fascinating woman about carrying so many items in one trip.  Carlo had trained these men to avoid any kind of personal involvement with target employees
while reviewing data prior to the
acquisition
of a particular company.  It didn’t matter if it was a friendly acquisition, such as this one
, or a hostile takeover
.  Peter and Jeff knew that they were supposed to remain separate in order to maintain the data integrity and not become influenced by employee issues. 

Even Carlo knew that this was going to be a difficult test for his team.  Hell, Carlo wanted to jump up and help her if only to get himself closer so he could capture her scent again.  Her perfume w
as very subtl
e, barely there even, but smelled of lilac and
vanilla.  He liked it
.  Too much, he thought.  He admitted that he was
drawn to her.  But he kept himself apart, determined to maintain the discipline that demanded isolation from a target during due diligence.  Once they had made the final decision to acquire a company, he would then give himself permission to get closer and get to know the personnel.  He had to, in fact.  It would be his job to find out who would be kept on after the acquisition and who would be laid off. 

Carlo watched in fascination as Kate plugged in her computer.  She was definitely a ball of energy, he thought.  Just plugging in her computer took a great deal of movement.  And each time she moved, her hair bounced, her skirt fluttered and her hands were everywhere.  It would be exhausting to watch he
r if it wasn’t so fascinating.

Kate bit her lower lip and tried to concentrate on putting the appropriate plugs into her computer.  She hated to admit it, but she was a computer
k
no
w
-nothing.  She
figured out that
the power cable needed to
connect
into the round hole
in the back
.  She made that assumption with minimal difficulty.  There were only two round holes and one didn’t fit.  She was extremely relieved when the other hole worked.  But then there was the blue plug
that looked like a phone cable
.  She had no idea what that did.  She’d seen the computer support people plug it in and she suspected that it helped her e-mail work, but other than that, she was lost. 
There were two areas that this plug fit into.  Since she didn’t want to blow up her computer by putting it into the wrong one, she just left it unplugged assuming that was the safest plan of action. 

She decided it wasn’t too important since there was no obvious plug in the back of her computer so she laid it aside and started with the mouse connection. 
This one turned out to be a
nother cable that she couldn’t figure out.  Deciding to save face, knowing that the tall, incredibly sexy man at the end of the conference table was watching her, she dropped the mouse into the chair next to her and used the touch pad on her computer, hoping she looked
non-challant
enough to hide her computer ignorance.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at her screen and was relieved to see that she had power.  That was something, wasn’t it?   She felt as if she’d accomplished a small
miracle
.  Clicking on her e-mail button produced no results.  She knew that blue thingy connected her somehow.  Should she try again to connect?

Kate sighed longingly.  She wished she could work
in
her office.  There, she just snapped her laptop onto what the computer guys called a docking station and everything worked.  She had another docking station at home and
it was easy enough to plop her computer in and
, again,
everything worked.  She didn’t have to worry about connecting plugs or power cables or anything. 

Suddenly, there was a large form leaning over her and Kate’s whole body went into
overload
.  It was him!  Carlo!  And he was leaning over her computer. 

His shoulders were so broad, they blocked out the sunshine as he leaned over her computer.
Kate’s skin warmed with his closeness.  He accidentally brushed her arm and her whole body shivered in reaction. 

“Need some help?” he asked. 

With a few snaps, her e-mail came to life.  He picked up her mouse from the seat next to her and snapped that into place as well.  Then he casually walked back to the oth
er end of the conference table, leaving Kate trembling with curiosity and awareness of this incredibly attractive man. 

Kate watched him as he took off his suit coat and draped it on the back of a chair. 
Good grief!  The man’s shoulders filled out that suit
!
  There was supposed to be padding there to make his shoulders look broad but there wouldn’t be any room with those shoulders.  The man looked like a body builder!

Kate snapped her mouth closed and forced herself to stop staring at the man. 

He was talking on a cell phone but she didn’t understand anything he was saying.  He w
a
sn’t talking in a foreign language, but
the numbers and references were
so foreign to her, she couldn’t
decipher his words.

Who was she kidding?  She couldn’t understand him because her blood was humming in her ears
after
he’d gotten so close
to her
. 
And she’d s
een those magnificent shoulders
.
  “Wow”, she thought again. 

Looking up, she noticed all three men were staring at her again.  She’d done it again!  “E-mail message,” she said quickly as an explanation for her outburst.  Obviously she had spoken her thoughts out loud once more.  She really needed to stop doing that.  The man wasn’t that gorgeous, she told herself but she didn’t look up at him again to confirm that opinion, knowing he was still looking at her after her previous outburst.

Kate forced him out of her mind.  Peter was asking her a question about how to read some receiving reports and she concentrated on explaining the procedures and how the items
were
checked into the various stores.  She pulled up the posting application and compared the various lines on the report
to the numbers on the screen and explained the checks and balances the store had instituted years ago to
guard against employee
theft. 

The day went by quickly and Kate spent almost all her time answering questions.  She knew a great deal but when she didn’t, she knew who to call to get the information.  By
seven o’clock
that evening, Jeff and Peter were pulling on their jackets and thanking her for her help that day.
 

As soon as they left, Kate looked down at the other end of the conference table.  “Are you going to continue working?” she asked Carlo.
  She had been exhausted but after Peter and Jeff left, her body had become wide awake, knowing that she was alone with Carlo and his extra broad shoulders. 

“Yes, but you don
’t
need to stay.  You’re kids probably needed you home a long time ago,” he said, not even looking up from his reports.

“Oh, don’t worry.  I don’t have
any
kids.”

Carlo looked up and stared at her
intently
.  “
What about y
our husband?”

“Nope,” she said and shrugged her shoulders. 
She prayed he wouldn’t ask if she had a significant other.  She didn’t want to admit that she wasn’t dating anyone.  He probably had several women waiting at his beck and call.

“Well, thanks for your help.  Will you still be available tomorrow?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said and smiled as she stood up, stretching her arms and yawning.  “How much longer are you going to work?” she asked, unplugging her computer but noting wh
ere the various plugs went in so she could replicate the process tomorrow. 

“I’m wrapping things up,” he said but kept his eyes on the papers. 

“Okay, well, I’ll see you in the morning,” she said and closed down her computer.

Kate walked out, feeling his eyes on her back the entire time.  She was self-
conscious
for some reason.

Carlo watched her leave, liking the way her hips swayed gently, giving him teasing glimpses of her petticoat with each step.  She was a fascinating combination of a sassy and outrageous, brilliant and intuitive. 
The knowledge that she was not married was going to make the next two months difficult.  As soon as the due diligence was over, he knew he was going to ask her out for dinner. 

It was going to be a long two months, he thought as she disappeared into an office a few doors down the hallway. 

The next morning was about the same as the day before except that Kate didn’t have to escort the three men to the conference room. They were already there when she walked in at
seven thirty
that morning.  She was a little disappointed since she had been hoping to get a few other things done prior to meeting with them.  She wasn’t usually in this early in the morning.

But since the three of them were already hunkering down in their files, she slipped into her seat and started her computer
, proud that she remembered where the plugs went today
.