Her Gentle Capture (3 page)

He thought about that blush and her glance backwards, wondering if it indicated
what he wanted it to mean. Could she be attracted to him as well?

Time to test the possibility, he thought with relish.

Adriana placed the report in the middle of his desk, right where he couldn’t miss it. She was very proud of the report. And also proud that she hadn’t called her father or one of her brothers for help. They would have given her advice in a heartbeat, but she didn’t want them to think she couldn’t handle the job.

Besides, they were all too busy with their own lives. Not that they
wouldn’t stop what they were doing if she called. They were always calling her, poking their noses into her life, trying to find out what was going on. Her father would have been proud to have helped her and her older brother Dylan? He would have probably flown into town last night, just to help her write the report. Marcus, the scientist of their family, might have written a computer program
to help her write the report and Antonio probably would have sent an accounting spreadsheet to help her. Davis would have laughed and told her to quit and come work with him; he had his own ideas about the business world.

She sighed as she straightened her shoulders, looking out the magnificent windows of Mitch Powell’s office, staring at the early morning sunrise. Her four brothers were all
wonderful guys but they didn’t understand her. They thought she should be in some bubble where no one could hurt her. And her father? Good grief, he was possibly the most overly protective man on the planet! He was extremely proud that she was working for Mitch Powell so she couldn’t tell him how much she disliked the man. Her father would only explain all the reasons why Mitch Powell had
done so well in the business world. Her mother would probably try and sell him a horse. Actually, that wasn’t fair. Her mother never had to convince anyone to buy one of her horses. She was turning away clients because her horses were in such high demand.

If only she could do this analysis for someone else in this company! Why had she been transferred to this job? She looked around at the
man’s office, irritated by the size and the luxury. She supposed the man deserved it. He was one of those self-made guys instead of someone who had inherited his wealth. She had to respect that about him even if she didn’t like anything else about him.

With a sigh, she turned around and…ran into a strong, muscular chest. She knew it was muscular because her head ran into the middle of it
and then her hands reached up to grab onto anything to stop herself from falling, which meant she was grasping his lean waist, also rock solid with muscles.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” she gasped, blinking to regain her balance. She pulled her hands away, suddenly realizing that she was touching the man, but then started to fall again in her effort to stop touching him.

He reached out himself, his
hands holding her waist securely and she felt some strange, tingling sensation which caused her to stumble backwards, trying to make the feeling stop. It wasn’t something she liked. Or at least, she didn’t think she liked it. The sensation was similar to other feelings she’d experienced in the past but stronger, more intense and sudden. And it was much more disturbing.

Her eyes slowly traveled
upwards, clashing suddenly with his sharp, blue ones.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “That was clumsy of me.”

He was still very close. And there was that smell! Darn it, he smelled way too good!

Her eyes dropped to his lips and she watched in fascination as a smile formed. For some reason, that smile made her heartbeat increase, her pulse race through her body. “Fall on me anytime,” he came
back with his low, husky voice and she shivered when his strong hands flexed slightly on her waist where he was holding her steady. “What were you doing in here?”

Adriana realized that she was simply standing in his arms, looking up at him with a stupid expression on her face. She wasn’t falling any longer and there really was no rational excuse for why she hadn’t stepped out of his embrace
except….

Woah! She definitely didn’t like the irrational reason that suddenly popped into her mind. She quickly took several steps backwards, tripping over the chair behind her and righting herself just in time. Grabbing onto the back of that chair, she pointed lamely towards his desk. “I finished that report with all the changes we discussed yesterday.”

Immediately, anger formed in those
blue eyes and the lips that had just been smiling were suddenly compressed into a frown. He glanced at his watch. “It’s only seven o’clock in the morning. I told you to get it to me by noon today.”

She shrugged one shoulder, avoiding eye contact because those blue eyes were sending secret thrills right down to her stomach. “I got it to you early.”

He scowled at her, his eyes taking in yet
another elegant suit. She had to have spent most of the night updating those reports and he didn’t like her losing sleep. She was lovely, but the dark circles under her eyes told him that she was pushing herself too hard. “We’ll discuss this over lunch. Until then, I need you to come with me. You’re sitting in on the marketing meeting,” he told her.

He turned around and picked up a file that
was sitting on the corner of his desk. He was already walking out of his office when he turned back and raised an eyebrow.

She jerked forward, not sure why he wanted her in this meeting but she knew better than to question the boss. “Yes, sir,” she said, then saw the irritation in his eyes. She didn’t understand it, but she was too flustered by her strange reaction to his closeness a moment
ago to try and figure it out. “I’ll just go get a notebook to take notes.”

“Don’t worry about going to your office,” he told her and walked out of his office. He stopped by his assistant’s desk. “Do you have a pen and paper Ms. Alfieri could use for our next meeting?” he asked.

A split second later, the assistant handed a leather bound notebook and an expensive looking pen to her and then
she was hurrying down the hallway right behind him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have his suit jacket on and she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off of his really nice, really tight butt! She almost groaned when he stopped to talk to someone and she stayed a few feet away. Just looking. She imagined his butt without the slacks. He probably wore boxers she thought. Goodness, she hoped he didn’t wear
whitey tighties. She really didn’t like it when men wore those.

Funny, she thought as she tilted her head slightly when he shifted, but she’d never really thought about the underwear men chose. Boxer briefs were pretty nice. She looked at his butt again, shifting to the other side of the hallway when someone stepped into her line of sight. Yes, boxer briefs were perfect. She wondered
if he wore those. The cotton fabric was like whitey tighties, but looked like boxers. Even better, where boxers were loose around….well….the important parts, boxer briefs held everything close in. And showed everything to the viewer.

She knew that her brothers wore the boxer briefs simply because she’d had to do laundry growing up. Her father might be disgustingly wealthy, but her mother
demanded that her children were going to be raised as “normal” kids. That translated into chores every week. And the dreaded chore everyone tried to get out of was folding laundry. With four brothers, sorting all the white sox was an absolute nightmare!

But the experience did give her an education on men’s underwear. After all the torture her brothers put her through, she had to thank them
for that at least.

“Are you coming?”

Adriana looked up, realized that she’d been caught daydreaming and her notebook and pen fell out of her hands onto the floor. “Darn it!” she grumbled and dipped lower to pick them up, scrambling to grab both articles while keeping her skirt as low as possible on her legs at the same time.

But when she stood up, she knew that he had been looking. Her
skirt was too tight and just short enough that bending down like that had most likely revealed the lace portion of her thigh high stockings.

She blushed, but couldn’t justifiably get angry since she’d been contemplating his underwear herself only moments before. Perhaps if her own thoughts had been innocent, she wouldn’t have dropped the notebook. Perhaps the notebook issue was payback for
her own less-than-innocent imaginings.

She quickly smoothed down her skirt, praying that he hadn’t seen anything he shouldn’t have. That definitely wouldn’t be fair, she thought. She might have been looking at his butt, but that didn’t mean she wanted him to actually see what she was wearing underneath her business suit. But the look in his eyes told her he’d started doing exactly what she’d
been doing only moments before. She hurried after the man, trying to get his heated glance out of her mind. Those stupid, blue eyes!

He’d seen! She ran her fingers over the lace top of her thigh high stockings. She shouldn’t have worn them today, she admonished herself as she carefully prepared to sit down in one of the big, leather chairs. She was just about to take a seat against the
wall when Mitch’s strong hand stopped her. His fingers were down low on her back and she felt a burning sensation as he led her over to the chair right next to his. She almost fell into the leather seat but shifted her legs quickly when he sat down in the chair at the head of the table. His long legs stretched out, coming precariously close to hers and she held her breath as he called the meeting
to order and started business.

Adriana had no idea what she was doing in here but almost her whole focus was on keeping her knees and legs away from his. Unfortunately, the man wasn’t making it easy for her! His legs were so long, they took up a lot of space. And every place she moved her legs, his knee or his leg invaded. She was tense and acutely aware of him as a man, probably because
she was still trying to guess what kind of underwear he wore underneath his tailored slacks. And even worse, her mind had started wondering what his legs would look like. As people droned on about marketing and statistics, her mind was making the argument that, since his chest and arms were so muscular, he probably had really hot legs. Goodness, she could just imagine her brothers’ reactions if
they knew that she was picturing a man’s naked legs. And chest. Oh, and that butt too!

As she sat there, pretending to take notes, her eyes strayed to his thigh, trying to see if there was any indentation under the material of his slacks that would indicate he was wearing boxers or briefs. Or the more anticipated boxer briefs which would cling to his tight….

“Ms. Alfieri?” he snapped.

Adriana jerked her eyes up, her face flaming with color as she realized she’d been caught! “Yes?” she choked out, sitting primly in the leather chair.

“Don’t you have numbers to counter that statement?” he asked.

Adriana looked down the long table, swallowing painfully as she realized that twelve pairs of eyes were looking at her patiently. And not so patiently. “I’m sorry. I was reviewing
something in my mind. Would you repeat the question?”

The man about halfway down the table spouted his numbers again and Adriana knew exactly what Mitch wanted. “The numbers were about four percent lower this month,” she explained. “They directly correlated with the rise in fuel costs and the increased labor costs.” She went on to explain in more detail, citing several numbers she’d just
reported yesterday, feeling more confident as people asked her questions and she was able to reply, giving additional information or clarification.

After that, the meeting moved on to other issues and Adriana leaned back in her chair, relaxing somewhat. Unfortunately, that sense of peace wasn’t to last. About ten minutes later, Mitch leaned towards her, saying something in her ear.

She looked
up at him, his mouth so close, his eyes almost painfully blue. And she had absolutely no clue what he’d just told her.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” she whispered.

Mitch leaned closer, his shoulder bumping against hers and his knee pressing against her leg. She shifted, trying to put some space between their heads but his voice and his breath were tickling her ear, causing rippling
sensations to wash over her.

She nodded her head as if she understood and sighed with relief when he leaned back against the chair. It still took her several minutes to clear her head enough so she could hear what the others in the room were saying. And the horrible man didn’t help much. His blue eyes continued to watch her, seeing her as if he could know what she was thinking and feeling.
But that was impossible! She didn’t even understand what she was thinking or feeling. Everything was crazy right at the moment, all because he’d whispered in her ear and his leg had touched hers!

Yesterday at lunch, less than twenty-four hours ago, she knew exactly what she thought about this man. But now? Well, if she could just keep her eyes off of his butt…and his thigh muscles! Oh
and those amazing shoulders! And if she could just refrain from trying to figure out what he wore underneath that stupid suit! It was nothing!

Oh goodness, what if he didn’t wear anything? That thought hadn’t occurred to her before but her eyes now dropped towards his leg again. When she realized what she was doing, she shook her head, mentally admonishing herself for being so invasive.
It didn’t matter that he didn’t know she was undressing him, it was still insulting! Besides, she didn’t need to know what he wore underneath his clothes. It was none of her business!

Unfortunately, the image of him completely naked popped right back into her mind. Had she no self-discipline when it came to this man? He constantly irritated her. How had her mind gone from trying to think
up ways to torture him yesterday to imagining him in the nude today? Was she losing her mind?

Maybe that was it, she thought. Maybe she was just exhausted from too much work and no play. Perhaps she just needed to go out dancing with her friends, meet a guy and…her eyes flashed over to him again, then quickly away.

She felt her cheeks turn pink and she lowered her head, hoping her hair
would fall forward so that he couldn’t see her blush. Why was she here?! What was her point to attending this particular meeting? Why was he insisting she sit next to him?