“Oh, uh, yeah.” She stared down at it with distaste, as if expecting it to jump up and bite her. “It was on the floor. You must have dropped it.”
Marcus closed the door behind him and leant back against it, amused at the polite dance of words between them. Her bright blue eyes looked nervous, worried, and a tad, angry? His mood brightened despite the circumstances. He thoroughly enjoyed watching Tessa lose her temper.
“I suppose I should ask what you’re doing in here.” He studied his fingernails, then glanced up casually at her stark-white face.
“Uh, well, yes, you probably should.” She licked her lips and he wanted to groan. Of all the actions to take to get out of this mess, seducing him would by far be the worst, for both their sakes.
“Tessa?” he prodded.
“My mouth is drier than a field of cotton.” A sudden clamour from the vicinity of his mini-refrigerator caught his attention, but he swiftly turned back to Tessa when he heard a groan.
She had her head in her hands, her face pressed against the top of his desk.
“Are you alright?”
“Fine,” she mumbled and lifted her head, then whipped off her hat, showcasing her glorious, fiery red hair. “I’m dandy. Just great. Another five minutes and we could have avoided this.” She looked from him to the refrigerator.
“About ‘this’,” he began, determined to keep the desk between them as he sat across from her. All too easily his mind recaptured the feel of her breasts under his palms, of her sweet mouth melting like candy beneath his tongue. “I think I’m due an explanation.”
Her baby-blue eyes widened until he swore he could see an echo of blue tile from his earlier dream. “You have to be royally pissed I’m in here, not to mention secretly jumping for joy that you’ve now got something to hold over my head for the rest of my life. How can you sit there so calmly?”
His heart raced, the thought of having Tessa under his thumb extremely tempting. Imagining the fiery woman on her knees shook him to the quick. But a backbone of honour steeled his thoughts, and he mentally shook his head.
“Before we get into what promises to be your extremely interesting explanation, I need to say something.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for my unwanted attentions yesterday.”
His voice sounded stilted to his own ears, so he could imagine how inane he must sound to her. Odd, but he’d never had so much trouble dealing with a woman before in his life.
She didn’t blink. “You’re sorry?”
He nodded.
“Sorry for your, and I quote, ‘unwanted attentions’?”
“Yes.” He held his irritation at bay. He had wronged her, no matter that her body had accepted his all too readily.
“You sure are a piece of work, Storm.” Her eyes glittered, and he realised, with some surprise, she was angry.
“Now what?”
“Nothing.” He could see her eyes smouldering, and his body responded with unadulterated desire. She cleared her throat. “I had planned on offering my apologies as well. I shouldn’t have accused you of sleeping with one of your clients.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” he said, mystified to hear her apologise.
“But you must know everyone’s been talking about it,” she added. “The only reason I actually believed the rumours is because Sheila Covington herself up and told the secretaries you slept with her.” She blushed as she said it, but maintained eye contact.
So, Sheila had told everyone they’d been intimate. He should have guessed. She hadn’t taken his rejection well at all, even as gently as he’d given it.
“For the record, Tessa,” he said, his voice low. “Sheila Covington doesn’t like to hear the word ‘no’, any more than Michael Davis does, I’d imagine.” She stared, her expression turning from one of understanding to one of contrition. “I love Craiger-Mim’s possibilities, so I suppose I’ve been overly tolerant where Sheila’s concerned. Had I known to what lengths she would go to get my attention, I’d have handled her differently,” he said quietly, more to himself than her.
“I really am sorry,” Tessa said after a pause. “I don’t listen to office gossip as a rule, but, well, you are known for being, ah…”
“Discerning?” he finished for her. “Choosy? Popular with the ladies? Is that what you were going to say?” He couldn’t help but grin.
Her eyes sparkled with laughter and a grudging smile curled her lips. “More or less.”
“Well, now that’s out of the way, how about you tell me what this is all about?”
He wanted to see the paper she edged closer to her jacket and gave it a subtle mental tug. With a gasp, she watched it fall over the edge of the desk towards him. He leant to grab it but could only stare in amazement when the paper reversed direction and glided back across the desk to land in her hands.
Their eyes met across the desk, his questioning, hers accusing.
“It’s you,” she said and rubbed her eyes. “I should have known.”
Marcus’ thoughts racing, he stared from the paper to Tessa’s suspicious gaze. “You moved that. With your mind,” he said evenly, almost hoping she would deny it.
“Well, the only reason I can do that is because you can.”
“What?”
“Tell me you didn’t just take it from me. Come on, Marcus. I dare you to try that again.”
Amazed he was having this conversation when he still wanted answers as to why she was in his office at midnight on the weekend, he stole the paper back from her with a brief telekinetic snap.
She shook her head, angry again. “Of course it had to be you.”
His attention caught by the list in his hands, he frowned as he read it. “What is this?”
“Why not tell you? If I don’t, you might read my mind.” Her voice was hard, and not at all wary of his telepathy. “That is a list of all the people who might want to see me fired from Tomanna.”
“What?” Then a new understanding dawned. “I’m on this list!”
She sighed. “Well, we did argue yesterday before locking lips.”
He couldn’t help feeling affronted. “I’d never try to do you harm.” He couldn’t believe she thought so badly of him. Well, that’s what came of succumbing to base instincts, he thought as he remembered attacking her in front of his desk. “Yesterday—”
“Forget about it.” She blushed. “I’m sorry I mentioned it. And I wouldn’t have added you to my list except,” she paused, flagging his curiosity.
“Except?”
“Never mind. Can’t we just forget about this?”
He could only stare at her. “Forget about this? First you break into my office. Then you use your mind to move my pen, which I know for a fact is far beyond normal for,” he paused, about to say one of your kind, “anyone. You have a list of people who want to ruin you, and I’m on it! By the Light, we’ll talk about this!”
She frowned. “By the Light? What light?”
The woman had trouble staying on subject. “Never mind. Tell me again what this list represents.” He noted Michael Davis on the list, as well as several of Tomanna’s logisticians. “And don’t think we’re not going to discuss our tug-of-war over my pen.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course we’ll discuss it.” Then she arched her brow into an exact replica of his favourite expression. “We’ll also talk about your macho seduction yesterday.”
“Which worked,” he added smoothly, pleased when she flushed and stammered a denial. “Much as I regret my behaviour, I don’t regret what I learned from the experience. But we’ll return to that later,” he promised, in control once more.
Sparring with Tessa revitalised him, made him feel strong and surprisingly like a man worthy of holding his own with his contemporaries. He eyed her with a mixture of desire and curiosity, wanting to know about her now more than ever.