“What? Why?” His hands still rested on her shoulders.
Given their collision, they were still just about on top of each other and Reese grabbed the lapels of his suit jacket and shoved, panic setting in. This wouldn’t look like a casualsure, I’ll send that request for you, sir.Now if they were seen, they would look like they were a little too friendly to be just an exec and an assistant, and the thought of sending that message grossed her out just a little. A lot.
“Jenkins and Goldberg are by the elevators.”
Markson swore and backed up, tugging her with him.
“No, you’re not supposed to take me with you!” Yikes, now they were practically holding hands.
Yuck. Reese stumbled forward right as she heard Jenkins say, “What the hell? Is that Markson with Reese?”
That other deep voice had to be none other than Goldberg. “I’ll be damned.”
Reese ended up catapulting into Markson when his backward progress was stopped by the shoe-shine stand. A fern hit her in the face and she put her hands up to knock it out of her way, considering knocking Markson on the head while her hand was airborne.
Great restraint prevented her from doing so, though she did put her hands back on his chest to shove him out of her way.
“Oh, my God, she’s all over him,” Jenkins said in wonder.
Idiots. Reese prepared to turn around and hurl her purse at Jenkins. Markson grabbed her hands and squeezed hard, holding her in place. “Just stay still,” he whispered fiercely. “This is better than getting caught spilling company secrets to a reporter.”
“Yeah, great, fabulous idea. This looks way better.” She didn’t know what could explain her having an affair with a marriedman fifteen years older than her who looked like a bowl of custard with glasses.
The last thing she expected him to do was laugh, but he did, a low chuckle. “I would have loved for something like this to happen in high school, but it never did. You know, having guys think I scored the hot girl.”
She frowned, relaxing a little, though she wished he would drop her hands and back up. Markson was right about keeping his secret her secret. If either of their covers were blown, she wouldn’t get the interview, or the Delco story. Let those guys think whatever they wanted, no matter how insulting it was.
“I’m not kissing you or anything like that.” Just in case he got any ideas.
“I don’t want to kiss you. I’m a happily married man.”
That further relaxed her. Markson was a good guy, trying to do the right thing. And it didn’t matter what any of those other guys thought about her. It’s not like she had a long-term career planned with Delco. Let them think whatever the hell they wanted.
“What does he have that I don’t have?” Jenkins complained. “I flirted with her and she blew me off.”
“Money,” came Goldberg’s reply. “He makes more than you and he saves more than you. And a quiet guy like that, she’ll have him wrapped around her finger in no time. Hell, he probably got her the job at Delco in the first place. She’s the shittiest assistant I’ve ever seen.”
As the voices receded, Reese looked at Stan, whose amusement had disappeared. Tugging her hands out of his, she said, “Do you want to maul them or should I?”
A slur like that couldn’t go unchallenged.
She wasnota shitty assistant.
Okay, not a great one. But shitty was overstating it.
FIFTY-TWO
Wyatt Maddock tooka sip of his coffee and scoped the lobby of the hotel. This place was dead. Nothing but business travelers. Everyone was bustling around, looking very busy.
Now, if White had come along… He shook his head. He could what? Listen to her insult him?
It wasn’t like she was even attractive. She wore bulky clothes and had a bitchy look on her face all the time. He could not understand why she occupied so many of his thoughts lately.
Maybe he was just lonely and bored. The last few women he’d gone out with he hadn’t really clicked with, and watching the sparks fly between Knight and Reese had made him a little jealous. He wanted to feel that kind of connection, that kind of attraction so intense that you got into bed and never wanted to get back out.
White would never do that for him. He wasn’t sure she even had a body under those oversized gray suits and white blouses. Maybe she just wanted to be taken seriously. Not mix business with pleasure. That made sense. What didn’t make sense was why he spent so much time trying to figure out what, in fact, she would look like with one of those boring suits crumpled on the carpet by his bed and her hair falling across her face.
Tossing his cup in the wastebasket, Wyatt walked to the elevator, seeing two Delco executives talking while waiting. This always amused him when he was working a case. Standing feet away from people who had no idea he was working to put them away.