Scandalous (17 page)

She closed her eyes, the need to be in her soothing and predictable environment consuming her and making her heart beat faster, until she felt the officer release his arm back down to his side, effectively freeing her. As soon as he did, she started putting one foot in front of the other as quickly as she could. She heard him saying something as she walked away, but didn’t wait to find out what it was. If he needed to talk to her badly enough, he could damn well follow her.

She entered the lobby of Red Hot and felt as though she had tunnel vision. She could see people in her peripheral vision, but did not stop until she made it to the safety of her office. Shutting the door behind her, she leaned against it and tried to calm her racing heart.

“Good morning sunshine. You OK?”

She jumped at the sound of a man’s deep voice. Turning, she saw Mateo sitting at the once unoccupied desk in her office. Now, it certainly looked occupied. Very occupied. His laptop was sitting to the right on the desk and next to it sat a coffee cup and a bottle of water - neither of which had coasters underneath them, she noted with mounting irritation. Not only that, but there were several stacks of papers strewn about on the desk, and none of them were contained in folders or wire baskets! Dammit, none of them were even in symmetrical PILES for God's sake.

What are we, animals? She thought to herself incredulously.

“What are you doing in here?” She asked curtly as she made her way past him and stood behind her desk. She felt the tight knot inside her belly loosen just a little. Looking down at her pristine workspace did make her feel a little better. Everything was just as she had left it the night before. In perfect order. Just as things should be.

She sat down in her ergonomically designed desk chair and placed her hands on the flat, empty surface of her desk. This was her happy place, her safe place. She wasn’t going to let some unwanted visitor take anything away from that.

She turned to look at him, waiting for an answer. He had invaded her personal space, her sanctum, and now he had some explaining to do. But, rather than turning toward her and illustrating the proper contrite manner, he simply sat with his back to her and continued typing away on his computer, not a care in the world. Ignoring her. He could be SO frustrating.

“Mateo,” she said, carefully modulating her voice so that it sounded friendlier...sort of, “What are you doing in here?”

Still no answer. Damn him, she knew what he was waiting for. She just didn’t want to play his little games. Not today. Not after what she had just seen. But she knew for a fact that if she wanted information, she had to play.

Rolling her eyes and trying desperately to suppress a loud sigh, she put a smile (sure it was fake but, oh well) on her face and into her voice and said, “Good Morning, Mateo. You startled me. What, may I ask, are you doing here?”

He turned and she saw a satisfied smile forming across his handsome, chiseled face. “Well, since you asked so nicely - I’ve been assigned to be your office mate. Because of all of the recent personnel changes that have been going on, with Dominic and Cristal bringing on more people, space is at a premium. So we have to double up.”

Cristal Hart was Raiza's best friend and mentor, and now boss, as well. She and Dominic Charles had recently become equal partners in the firm of Red Hot Private Investigations. They each owned 40% and Red, who had started the agency, retained 20%. Raiza knew that things would probably be shaken up a bit when Dominic and Cristal took over, but she hadn’t been prepared for the possibility of having to share her office with someone. Even someone as sexy as Mateo. Hell,
especially
someone as sexy as Mateo.

She needed to talk to Cristal and get this resolved, asap.

--- ~ ---

Mateo knew that technically he should have waited until after the Monday morning meeting, where Dominic and Cristal were going to announce all of the new changes, to move into Raiza’s office. But he thought that she might take it better if she didn't hear the news in front of ten sets of prying eyes. He knew Raiza. She would need time to process it.

She stood and crossed the small room, quickly heading towards the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

“To talk to Cristal,” she replied shortly, anger as evident in her voice as it had already been in her body language.

“She's the one who signed off on the move,” Mateo said lightly, “If that influences your decision about whether to go and talk to her. I mean, maybe you're just going to thank her for giving you such a fine-ass office mate. I know that's what I would have done if I had walked in this morning and seen all of this,” Mateo gestured at his face and body, “sitting up in my office.”

This piece of information got Raiza to stop in her tracks. When he was done talking, she pivoted on her heel and crossed her arms as she turned her head and met his eyes, just in time to see him give her a huge wink. He was slammed with the same overwhelming feeling he always experienced when her large golden brown eyes looked into his. Desire.

“She did?” Raiza asked suspiciously.

It was asked more as a challenge than a question, and was probably meant to be rhetorical, but he decided to confirm it anyway.

He nodded, “She sure did.”

“What happened to your office?”

“Well, since I shared a space with Dominic, and he is now an owner, the general consensus was that he should have his own office.”

“Cristal shares an office,” she snapped back.

“Not anymore. She moved into Red’s old office.”

Raiza stood still, seeming to be assessing the ramifications of the information he had just shared with her. He waited, letting her work it out in her own time.

“Why didn’t one of the guys in my department move in?” she asked suspiciously.

He lifted one eyebrow, barking out a short laugh. “They're terrified of you. From what I hear, Jerry practically peed himself at the mere mention of it.”

She tilted her head and placed her hands on her hips. Damn those hips, he had wet dreams about those hips. “They are
not
scared of me!”

“They are,” he stated simply.

“They respect me and like me. I’m always fair,” she seemed a little hurt at the implication that her team was afraid of her. He hadn’t expected that.

“As a supervisor, yes. Absolutely! As an office mate? Come on. Do I really need to remind you of poor Kim? That girl barely lasted a month.”

Her sexy, full lips turned up slightly at the corners and he could tell that although the thought of someone who worked for her actually being afraid of her had genuinely bothered her, the thought of someone being scared to share an office with her amused her.

“She lasted two months and six days, for the record. And she was a basket case. Her leaving had nothing to do with sharing an office with me.”

“Really?” he questioned lightly as she moved back behind her desk, apparently giving up the notion to go confront Cristal about his presence in her sanctuary.

“Really,” she confirmed as she sat at her desk and turned on her computer. What was her computer's name again? Greg or Gopher...something with a G.

“So what about Ken, Samuel, Trent, Laura…”

She lifted her hand in dismissal, “They all had issues, none of which had anything to do with me.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said, “but that doesn’t change the fact that people aren’t lining up to volunteer for the risk.”

She leveled him with a stare that was equal parts question and challenge, “You’re here. So...what? Did you draw the short stick or lose a bet?”

“No, I volunteered,” he heard his voice get a little gravely as he said it. That always happened when he got turned on, he couldn’t control it. Most of the time it worked for him. Most of the time women ate it up. He didn’t think this was one of those times.

Her eyes widened, and she finally looked intrigued. “OK, I’ll bite,” she said warily, “Why?”

He leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees. He raked his hands through his hair. He shouldn’t say what he wanted to say, even though it was the truth. He needed to keep things professional, especially now that they were going to be working in such close proximity.

Screw it. He wasn’t big on doing what he
should
do. Fortune favors the bold.

He stood and crossed to her desk, setting his hands down he leaned forward. She looked up at him, surprised, as he began to speak from that vantage point.

“Sharing an office with you,” he began, his voice more ragged than ever, “Seeing you all day every day...in my book, that’s not losing a bet. That’s winning the lottery.”

Her breath hitched and she licked her lips.

“Meeting time!” Cristal announced as she flung open the door.

Raiza quickly stood, her sudden motion knocking the tape dispenser off of her desk. Mateo reached out and caught it before it crashed to the floor. After replacing it on the desktop, he noticed that Raiza moved it about an 1/8 of an inch to the left and straightened it.

He shook his head. OK, so maybe all the office gossip about Raiza being OCD held a little truth, Mateo thought.

"Am I interrupting something?" Cristal sounded more than a little amused.

“Nope,” Raiza said briskly as she grabbed her iPad and purse and brushed past Cristal in her hurry to leave the room.

Mateo's eyes automatically traveled to the sway of her hips. He honestly hadn’t meant to look at her ass as she exited, he had really tried to break himself of that habit. But, damn...it really was one fine ass.

Cristal cleared her throat, reminding him of her presence. He snapped his gaze up to meet hers as she asked faux-innocently, “Enjoying the view?”

Mateo had initially looked up expecting to see one very pissed off Cristal, but instead she just smiled and shook her head before heading out of the office. Just as the door was about to close, she shot one last parting remark through the remaining crack, “I gave in to your near-constant pleas to move into this office with my best friend, Mateo. Now, you kids better behave in here.”

He looked around the small room and immediately only saw it in terms of a collection of surfaces that he wanted to “behave” with Raiza on. The desks, the walls, the chairs, the floors...he sighed. Damn. What had he gotten himself into?

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She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She snapped it shut. She tried again. Same result. She imagined she looked like a trout on the banks of a river, flapping her mouth open and shut for no apparent reason.

The realization of how silly she must look gave her just the extra edge of courage she needed to jump off the cliff.

“Jason, I...I wanted to...I wanted to tell you that...” she steeled herself for what she knew her physical reaction would be as she forced herself to look up into those gorgeous brown eyes, which resembled nothing so much as pools of warm and melty milk chocolate...

The expression on Jason's face when she raised her eyes brought her up short. She narrowed her eyes.

“Why do you look so smug?” she asked suspiciously.

Rather than answering, he smirked and bent down, putting his mouth right next to her ear. His hot breath assailed her neck and she began to feel light-headed again.

Wait...was this....OH NO! Panic attack #2 might be on the horizon.

Not in front of Jason, PLEASE, not in front of Jason, Katie begged the Universe.
It seemed like the Universe must have more important things on its mind, however because - oh, lord. Now the shallow breathing was starting.

Jason's breath on her neck, however, was anything but shallow. It was deep. And heavy. And warm. And full of desire. And...oh, man, that lightheadedness was just getting worse and worse.

Jason had her pinned up against the trunk of her car. Her mind was screaming at her to push him away and RUN as fast and as far as she could. Hey, it had worked in the past. Her body, however, was sending her some very different signals.