Joseph chuckled to himself feeling downright giddy. Oh yes, his son was falling hard. He’d picked out the perfect match for him.
“Amy, we have some work to do," Lucas said as he approached her and Mike. He didn’t even acknowledge Mike’s presence. Mike, not wanting to upset the boss, slunk away without another word. Amy lost a bit of respect for him. She turned around, inwardly sighing.
“Yes sir, I’m sorry. I’ll get right on it,” Amy replied with her head held high while heading towards her office. She didn’t understand why he sounded so irritated. Everyone was at the party.
It wasn’t like she was the one who’d thrown it.
Lucas followed her into the office, then stood there looming over her as she sat down. “I don’t like office romances, they cause nothing but trouble,” he informed her in his most stately tone of voice, which caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. She had to silently count to ten before responding.
“First of all, Mr. Anderson," she said through clenched teeth, “I was simply socializing with another employee. And second of all, who I do choose to have a romance with is none of your business.” Amy was surprised by the acid in her own voice Suddenly he was only inches from her face. “When you work for me you will listen to what I say. Mike’s a womanizer and I don’t want to deal with the repercussions when he throws you out like stale bread and believe me, he will.”
Amy leaned back from him as her heart started beating hard. She was sure it was visible to him, even through her shirt. She forgot all about her anger with the man as the urge to reach out and grab him was so overwhelming. She wanted Lucas. Everything about him screamed sex and if he leaned in a couple of more inches and claimed her mouth she would welcome it.
For what seemed like an eternity she couldn’t break contact with him. She felt liquid heat pooling inside of her. Look away, look away, look away, she shouted at herself until she finally found the will-power to turn her head, wondering how long they’d stood there face to face.
Realizing how close he was to her and also the intense desire he had to kiss her shocked Lucas enough into standing up straight and retreating from her office. Before he could think about it he slammed the door, causing the pictures on the wall to shake.
Lucas leaned against the door and willed his body to return to normal. He hadn’t felt so much desire for a woman since his college days. Even then he knew he’d possessed more control. If she hadn’t broken their eye contact he may have ended up taking her right there on her desk, just a few short feet away from hundreds of employees who could’ve walked in at any moment.
It was most definitely time to go work out and expend some of his pent up energy. He went down in his private elevator, avoiding Amy the rest of the day, choosing to communicate through email only. It seemed to be much safer that way for the both of them.
Chapter Two
Time flew by quickly for Amy as she learned her new job. Lucas was away the most of the time and communication was done through email. Joseph stopped by the office a few times to help her with things and they ended up chatting for hours.
Lucas fired the blond receptionist, which thrilled Amy as the woman had shot daggers at her every time she came in and out of the office. Amy had wanted to shout at her that she wasn’t interested in the boss and she could have at him but somehow she’d managed to maintain her composure.
The new receptionist was a great guy and with the boss gone, when she had spare time, she would sit there with him chatting about everything. She’d only been working with him for a few weeks and he was quickly becoming her best friend.
Her buzzer sounded. “Amy darling, it’s lunch time. I need to get out of this place before I go insane. Let’s head out for some far too greasy pizza and soda,” came Tom’s energetic voice through her speaker.
“I’m on my way out. Give me five minutes to finish this email for Mr. Anderson and then I’m all yours.”
Amy came out of her office and Tom threw his arm around her waist as they headed for the elevators. The door came open just as he was leaning down towards her in what would seem like an intimate moment to an observer, which was what Lucas saw as he stepped through the open doors.
“What’s going on here Amy?” he practically shouted. “Have you forgotten this is a place of business? I’m gone a few weeks and you think you can parade your boyfriends in and out of here? What if I’d been a customer?” The barely suppressed ire in his voice surprised Amy.
Tom smiled to himself, turning so his new boss couldn’t see. He could instantly tell the boss was jealous. Well, this is certainly interesting he thought to himself. He decided to have a little bit of fun, “Hello Mr. Anderson, Ms. Harper and I were just stepping out on our lunch break. We already set the phones and will be back in one hour.” With that he pulled her into the elevator and they were gone.
Before Lucas had time to react the doors shut, leaving him stunned and more than a little angry.
He almost followed them down so he could drag her back up to the offices. Only years of tightly managed control had him staying where he was. What he really wanted to do was pitch Tom out of a window and haul Amy into his arms. He’d avoided her as much as possible in hopes that he would get over his infatuation but the way she looked at him didn’t help. He could see it was a mutual attraction and she was fighting her growing feelings for him as much as he was fighting his for her.
He sat there stewing the entire hour they were gone, not getting any work done. He just paced from one end of his office to the other, waiting impatiently.
“You know you let him think we were sneaking off for some illicit affair during our lunch hour.
I’m going to catch hell for that,” Amy tried to say as sternly as possible as her and Tom sat down.
“I couldn’t resist. He had such a sour expression on his face at seeing you locked in the arms of my beautiful self,” he chuckled.
Amy had been fighting her attraction to Lucas from the moment she’d met him. She knew he wanted her but she also knew it was a really bad idea to get involved with her boss. She wasn’t one of those women who slept her way to the top. She wasn’t even close to being one of those corporate barracuda women anyway. She was working hard so that one day she could provide a stable home for the family she’d always wanted. She would never bring a child into the world without first making sure she could give that child the best possible home life.