6

Despite the innocence of her words, he was forced to gulp down a deep breath when tingles of pleasure shot straight to his cock. He wanted to help himself to something alright, but it was certainly not down that hallway.

They rounded a sharp corner and walked into a large home office that rivaled her space at work. And like her work office, Lana had everything from a fax machine to a paper shredder tucked away in a neat and tidy fashion. He bit back a grin. She was just so organized. He

wondered what it would take to rumple her feathers and her carefully

ordered life.

“You can put everything right there.” She gestured to a sturdy glass coffee table on the other side of her desk.

He nodded and began to pull everything from the bag he’d carried

inside. Flipping open his laptop, he took a seat on the couch behind the

table. He sat there, his lips twisting into a slight frown as he stared back at the computer screen. He didn’t relish the thought of working on an account that technically was already done, but then he glanced across the room and honed in on the reason why he was there in the first place.

He cracked the knuckles in his fingers and stretched out his hands.

This was going to be a rough two weeks of endless work, but he comforted himself with the knowledge that it would be worth it to spend most of it with Lana. Then he pushed his cursor across his screen, clicked on the files he needed, and hunkered down for a long day of work.

*****

Lana pulled off her glasses and with the same hand stifled a yawn. She glanced at the clock against the wall—12:13. It was past midnight. They’d been working for over twelve straight hours and they hadn’t even made a dent in pulling together the account. She reached up and massaged her sore neck, releasing a weary sigh. She couldn’t believe she had to spend the next two weeks of her life working on a stupid account

she’d finished months ago. It was just so frustrating. Closing her eyes, she leaned back in her chair, rotating her neck in a slow circle.

“Is your neck sore?”

She snapped her eyelids open and stared back at Matthew, a tiny smile on her face.

“A little,” she shrugged, dropping her hand from her neck. “Here, let me see if I can help,” he said, standing to his feet.

Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. You don’t have to do that,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

A grin tugged at the corners of his lips as he crossed the room in three easy strides.

“It’s no problem,” he said coming to stop directly behind her. “Here, let me see,” he murmured, his large hands settling against her shoulders.

She suppressed the urge to stiffen when his warm palms began to

stroke her bare skin. Tiny flickers of heat spread across her back, down

her spine and straight to her nipples. She gasped when they suddenly tightened, and she instantly jerked away.

“I—that’s good. I—it feels better already,” she stammered as she pushed out of her chair to rocket to her feet.

“Are you alright?” He asked, his brows lifting above searching

eyes.

“Of course. Thanks for the massage,” she hastily murmured, flashing him a weak smile.

He studied her for several moments in silence, his blue gaze intense as he focused solely on her. The scrutiny unnerved her and for some reason she felt nervous. She moved to step around him, but stopped when his arm shot out to block her path.

She glanced down at his arm and then up at his face. At the same time he lifted his other hand to remove her glasses.

“You know, you have beautiful eyes, but it is hard to tell when you wear these things,” he said softly.

She blinked at him for just a moment before she instantly gathered herself together. She didn’t know what he was up to but she was too old for whatever game he was playing. “Well, at my age it is more important to be able to see than to look good,” she said tersely, and held out her hand for her glasses.

He shook his head as if to say he wasn’t returning them. “You’re not old and I think you look good with or without them—beautiful actually.”

A curious warmth swirled in her belly, but she pushed it aside.

Matthew had never shown the slightest interest in her before and now all of a sudden he was flirting with her. Well, she wasn’t buying it.

“Look Matthew, I don’t know what you’re up to, but as long as we’re working on—”

She stopped when he abruptly reached behind her head and unfastened her hair clip to release her hair so that it fell in soft waves to her shoulders. She was so stunned by his actions that she stood there

speechless.

“I also think you look lovely with your hair down. But again, I just prefer you that way. You look beautiful no matter how you wear it.”

She took a step back but was forced to stop when she backed into her desk. Matthew was acting so strange and she was at a loss. She lifted her hand to press her palm against his chest and almost regretted her actions when she felt the subtle bulge of muscle ripple beneath her hand. She met his gaze with wide eyes, but froze at the look on his face. It was desire? She had to force herself not to gasp. He was a handsome man, but

he was young—too young. And now with the late hour he was probably

feeling—she blanked—she didn’t know what it was he was feeling but she

did know that he needed to take his strange behavior and go.

“It’s getting late and I’m tired. I think it’s time for you to go.” Desperately needing to put some space between them, she moved to duck around him, but didn’t manage to get far when his arm snaked around her waist and he dragged her up against his body.