He’d seen the high heeled shoes before but paired with the short skirt, they made her look sexier, more feminine. Max couldn’t help staring at her as she walked, enjoying the view despite his anger over last night.
Very nice, he thought to himself. His body thought so as well. It was already reacting to his thoughts, and it was becoming painful as he watched her bend down and file something in a filing cabinet that wasn’t in his line of vision through the doorway. But her legs were. And his eyes feasted on the vision as if he’d been starving for years.
Max shifted in his seat and pushed those thoughts out of his mind. He’d messed up this morning, demanding information he had no right to ask. But dammit, he wanted her! She preferred going out with a complete stranger to dating him? He wasn’t vain but that just didn’t make any sense. What was it other women saw in him that she didn’t?
She just wasn’t interested, Max told himself. He needed to be magnanimous about this issue. If she would be happy with someone else, he should just let it go and hope she fell in love and found happiness.
Max buried himself in work for the next hour, plowing through the administrative needs that came with running a country. He’d been taking on more and more of these kinds of issues as his father moved into retirement, if that’s what one could call a king.
He was congratulating himself on his concentration when he saw her bend over and file something else. Tossing down his pencil, he gave up and considered his position. He could either apologize for his behavior this morning or just ignore the woman completely. Apologizing wasn’t something he did very often but ignoring her was out of the question, especially if she was going to keep filing whatever she was filing, allowing him an enticing view of her long, sexy legs.
The latter just wasn’t a possibility so he’d have to apologize. Walking out to her office, he stood in his doorway for a moment, waiting for her to get off the phone. She had her back to him so she wasn’t aware that he was standing in her office at the moment.
“No, I have to go, Nancy,” Tara said. A moment of silence. “No. I’m not going out with that man again. He was awful.”
Max knew he was eaves dropping but didn’t care. She had to be talking about her date last night and wanted to hear more. The beginning of the conversation was just too interesting, a soothing balm to his wounded ego.
Tara shook her head, obviously rejecting whatever suggestion the person at the other end of the phone was saying. “He was obnoxious and self-centered and irritating. I’m sorry. I know Jeffrey is a friend of your husband, but there’s no way I’m going out with him again. I just wish he didn’t know where I live but he wouldn’t drive me back to get my car last night so I didn’t have a choice. It was either have him drive me home or go out to a bar with him and that was definitely not on the agenda after that awful evening.” Tara shivered in revulsion and leaned back in her chair as she continued to listen to her friend.
Max felt a weight lift off his shoulders with her words. He wanted to slam down the phone and lift her up onto her desk and kiss her until she realized that he could make her happy.
“Kiss him? Are you nuts? The man actually whined when I left him in his car. I’m not really attracted to men like that, Nancy. You should know me better than that.”
Now Max definitely wanted to hear more. What kind of man was she attracted to?
Tara picked up a report and started making notes in the margins, obviously not completely focused on her phone call. “Yes, well, I know you’re opinion on my love life. I’ve definitely heard it enough times before.” A long pause. “Yes. I agree. I don’t want to die a virgin. That isn’t on my priority list, but so far, I haven’t been able to do much about it.”
If he hadn’t been leaning against the doorjamb, he might have fallen on the floor with that bit of information. Tara was a virgin? How could that be possible? A woman as sexy and gorgeous as Tara? Not to mention funny and intelligent?
He wasn’t sure how it was possible, but Max was thrilled with that news. He stepped back into his office and smiled to himself. He knew himself well enough to realize that he was somewhat of a sexist. And the news that no man had ever touched Tara the way he wanted to touch her just confirmed that fact. He wanted to be the one to initiate her into the world of lovemaking. The ideas that popped into his mind just intensified the painful feeling in his groin and he had to breathe heavily to get his body back under control.
He didn’t examine his possessive feelings too deeply. He definitely wasn’t a virgin so why did he like the idea in Tara so much? He had been enjoying the company of women since he was a teenager. And he had been continuing to enjoy women ever since. Well, not much since Tara had been working for him he realized. Max thought back and, although he escorted women to several events each week, he realized that he hadn’t been with any woman for almost a year and a half. Just about the same amount of time Tara started working for him.
That thought irritated him and he looked out the window, wondering what that meant about his feelings toward his secretary. It couldn’t be good.
“Are you okay?” Tara said from behind him.
Max turned around quickly but didn’t know she was so close to him. He almost fell on top of her but caught himself, and her, just in the nick of time. He put his hands around her waist and pulled her close, keeping them both from falling onto the floor.
Tara’s face flamed up and her hands automatically grasped his shoulders. As soon as they were steady, she stepped back two steps but her face was red and her breathing was slightly increased. He noticed that she wouldn’t look him in the eyes either.
Interesting, he thought. Had he been missing something all these months? Max considered all the possibilities to see if there was something more to her feelings for him. Was she attracted to him as well and just not showing it? He liked that idea.
“I brought you some tea,” she said and waved a hand at his desk where a fresh cup of tea and his favorite biscuits were sitting in the middle. “I’m sorry to disturb you. I know you’re extremely busy today.”
“That’s okay. You didn’t disturb me. And I needed to apologize,” he said, and waved her into the chair she’d vacated over an hour ago. Once she was seated, he sat down in his own chair behind his desk. “I’m sorry about my comments this morning. They were out of line and uncalled for. I guess my only excuse is that I wasn’t used to you looking like you did last night and it threw me for a curve ball,” he explained. He watched her eyes, wondering if she understood