He smiled briefly, but shook his head. “No, I’m trying to point out that when someone in my organization is messing up, the worst thing she or he can do is hide it like my father’s deputies used to do. It’s never good and the problems only get worse. But if they come and ask for help, they always get it and I never think worse of them for it. In fact, I consider their request for help a sign that they’re actually maturing in their management skills since they know when to ask an expert.”
“Are you always the expert?”
He chuckled. “I’m usually the one in the meetings asking the questions. I hire the experts in their field and demand assistance when there’s a problem.”
“And you’re saying I need to ‘fess up and ask for help?”
“Exactly.”
She took a deep breath and the tears formed in her eyes. She blinked to keep them at bay but she wasn’t sure if she was successful. “I can’t keep up with the work that’s been coming in. I don’t have the personnel to accomplish all of the orders, we’re running on fumes now and we don’t have the time or personnel to find additional space. We’re so swamped with orders from all the publicity you’ve generated for us that we’re drowning in it and I’m falling behind on my normal schedule.”
With that, she took a long, deep breath and let it out, feeling enormously better for admitting it to him. “And I can’t even consider how to make things better. There’s only so much time in the day.” She put her wine glass down on the coffee table and angrily walked over to the window, but she didn’t see the lights of the city as the sun set. All she saw was her work table covered with papers and another weekend where she had so much paperwork to do she couldn’t even design, something she needed as a mental outlet, not just as a business task.
He came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, soothing her when she jumped. “Does it feel better now that you’ve told me all that?”
She hiccupped out her laugh. “Not at all. You’re the big boss man who’s probably never done anything wrong in his life when it comes to business. So admitting that I’m basically an organizational failure is not liberating, it’s humiliating.”
She heard him chuckle behind her and wanted to turn around and smack him. “This is not funny, Marco!” she growled.
“What’s funny is you thinking I haven’t done anything wrong in business. I wish that were the case, but it’s simply not true. Don’t put me up on that pedestal. I’m not perfect. I might have more experience, but I’m definitely fallible.”
She turned around and looked up at him. “Okay, so who do I turn to for help?”
“Well that would still be me.”
“But you just told me you don’t have the answers.”
“I have many answers, both business and personal. The business ones you just have to ask me the questions and I’ll give you some ideas and will help you implement anything you decide.”
She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she did anyway. Some compulsion, or curiosity deep down inside her, a penchant for danger perhaps, forced the words out of her mouth. “And the personal questions?”
“Ah, I have the answers to that too.”
“What are the questions?”
“When are we going to become lovers is at the top of your mind,” he said softly, his thumb rubbing against her lips. “What will it be like once you finally give in and taste the full passion we can have together, is another.”
“I’m not thinking that,” she whispered, mesmerized by his touch and the heated look in his eyes.
“Yes you are,” he argued before his lips touched hers carefully.
“No I’m not,” she countered, trying to shake her head.
But he stopped her by covering her mouth with his, taking her gasp in his mouth. “You’re lying, Zoë,” he said softly, and deepened the kiss.
When his lips took over hers, she couldn’t resist the allure of his scent any longer. She gave in to the need to touch him and reached up so her fingers were skimming along his neck. When she became frustrated at the lack of skin, she pulled his tie loose, and then unbuttoned several of the buttons so her fingers could feel more.
She didn’t know how it had happened, but when she felt the cooler air on her shoulders, she realized that Marco had somehow undone the tie on her dress and was in the process of pulling it down her shoulders. She wanted to help him, but her fingers wouldn’t leave the warmth of his skin on his chest long enough to get rid of the fabric.
“Zoe, please tell me you don’t wear things like this all the time under your clothes,” he said, looking down at her black lace bra and thong underwear. Her black garters were trimmed at the top with lace and he groaned as his fingers circled her tiny waistline.
“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
He groaned as his hands slid down her back, cupping her bottom and bringing her closer. “You have got to be the sexiest woman I’ve ever met,” he said before his mouth covered hers again. He lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist as he carried her upstairs.
Laying her on the bed, he stood back up and ripped the tie off, tossing it behind him before working on the buttons of his shirt. “Stay where you are,” he said when she started to sit p. “I’ve wanted to see you like this for so long and it’s better than my fantasies.”
She smiled seductively up at him with those words, her hands moving up to the straps of her bra, slipping one off her shoulder as she watched his eyes. Marco’s eyes never left her hands, waiting, his fingers frozen against the front of his shirt as he waited for her to move it lower.
“Keep going,” he demanded when she stopped.
Zoe licked her lips, her nervousness disappearing with the intensity of his gaze. She felt powerful, sexy and desired. She moved the strap lower, slowly shifting the fabric down. When her breast was revealed, she saw the shift in Marco’s eyes. Gone was the patience, replaced with a fire so hot she wasn’t sure what to do. But she didn’t have time to be concerned. His hands stopped working the buttons and simply pulled the fabric over his head, dropping it on the floor before moving back to the bed, his head zeroing in as his mouth covered her breast, sucking on the nipple, teasing it until she was screaming with need before moving to the next, pulling the strap down on the other side just as she’d done, but without the hesitation.