She didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean, ‘you know’?” she demanded. “Have you been spying on me?”
The elevator doors opened up and he nudged her out through the lobby and parking lot, stopping at a grey, sexy, low slung Jaguar convertible. “I know you haven’t done anything illegal or unethical since arriving here, besides breaking into my house, because you’ve been too busy on that project. It was a difficult concept to take on and from what I’ve heard, you’ve contributed some great work to the effort. And yes, I’ve been keeping tabs on you. What good security expert wouldn’t, with your background? One of the major benefits of you working for me is your brilliance at computer programming but it has the added benefit of keeping the devil’s hands busy.”
“You think you’re so smart but…”
He rolled his eyes at her continued arguing, then looked down at her furious face, obviously striving for patience. “Claire, if you don’t get into the car right now, I’m going to kiss you right in this parking lot. The entire building probably noticed us leaving and are right now staring out of every window of every floor. And anyone on the back will hear about anything that happens between us in the next ten seconds. So if you don’t want it known around the building that your seeing me, I’d suggest that you duck your head into the car and shut up.”
Claire’s eyes snapped to the building, then back to his before she mutinously ducked into the vehicle. She slapped the seat belt into place while he walked around the hood of the car but crossed her arms over her chest before he got in next to her.
“I don’t know where you think we’re going. I gave you a lot of information but none of it makes any sense. You’re not going to find him on the piddly information I gave you earlier in your office.”
He started the engine while saying, “We’ll see.”
They drove for about thirty minutes, Claire sniping at him that he had no idea where he was going, Mitch just ignoring her and continued in the same direction. When he finally pulled into a parking lot, she looked up to see they were in front of an Italian restaurant.
“Come on,” he said and picked up the papers while he exited the car himself.
Claire unbuckled her seat belt and was about to open the door but Mitch was already around the car and opening it for her.
She glanced up at him, wondering how such a large man could move so quickly. She could have sworn he was just getting out of the vehicle when she unlatched her seat belt.
“Why are we here?” she asked, her curiosity over his investigative skills overriding her anger at his earlier comments, which were not completely forgotten.
“To find your gentleman,” he replied without any additional details and led her up the stairs and into the dark interior of the quaint, old style restaurant.
A tall, willowy blond woman looked up from the hostess stand, immediately dismissing Claire as unimportant and zeroing in on Mitch as a meal more to her liking. The woman’s smile brightened by several volts and her shoulders sprung backwards, pushing out her near nothing chest as if she were a proud bearer of double Ds.
Irritated by the woman’s immediate dismissal, Claire took the last few feet at a much faster pace, and stepped in front of Mitch, effectively blocking off the taller woman’s perusal of Mitch’s more than obvious physique. “We’re looking for a guy.”
The woman looked past Claire, her smile changing to enticing. “If you don’t want the one you already have, may I have dibs?”
Claire rolled her eyes and a second later, a piece of paper was put in front of her face. Mitch said from behind her, “We’re looking for this man. Have you ever seen him?”
The woman barely glanced at the paper before looking back at Mitch. Claire snatched the paper from his hands and turned it around, amazed to see a good likeness of Gary staring back at her. “Where did you get this picture?” she asked, turning around herself.
Mitch ignored her and took the picture back from Claire, patiently speaking to the blond hostess. “Can you take another look? It’s extremely important that we locate him.”
The woman must have realized she wouldn’t get anywhere with Mitch so she glanced back at the picture, her eyes genuinely looking this time. “Are you police?” she asked distractedly.
“No. We’re just friends trying to locate him.”
Her eyes strayed back. “Pity,” she quipped. “I like handcuffs.”
Claire’s mouth fell open at the blatant invitation, shocked that any woman could just announce her sexual preferences in that manner. Good grief, that woman was brazen! “Do you know him?” Mitch asked, his voice filled with amusement even while his hand not so subtly came up to close Claire’s mouth.
The woman studied the picture, then shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Thanks,” Mitch said and took the paper back. “I appreciate your time. If you think of anything, call this number.”
Claire snatched the business sized card out of Mitch’s hand before the other woman could grab it and looked at the number. When she realized it wasn’t his personal cell phone or house number, not even his office number, she handed the card to the woman with a satisfied smile. “Thanks for any information,” Claire said as politely as possible.
Mitch only rolled his eyes again and nudged her out of the restaurant. “What was that all about?” he asked when they were driving to the next place.
Claire shrugged and looked out the side window.
“Don’t worry Claire. I wouldn’t give a woman like that my phone number.”
She turned to face him, amazed by the hard angles of his profile. “What kind of woman?”
The car came to a stop light and he looked over at her. “She’s not you.”
Claire’s entire body heated up at those words and she felt all warm and gushy inside. Even if he didn’t mean them, they were still nice to hear. With a sigh, she realized what a charmer this guy was. And dangerous!
The light changed again and he turned his attention back to driving while Claire tried to put this day into perspective. Mitch was not Gary, she kept repeating the words to herself. Gary was the kind of man she wanted. Gary was kind and considerate. Gary was the one who brought her flowers and treated her like more than just someone to get into bed. Gary knew she had a mind and intelligence.