It couldn’t be her beauty. He’d seen beautiful women before. Lots of them. Many had all but thrown themselves at him. But this one…there was just something about her that made every single one of his nerve endings stand on end. He’d never been more aware of anyone in his life.
But, he reminded himself, under the circumstances there was nothing he could do about his intense attraction for this woman. She was his employee, after all. So it was either fire her and then pursue her or leave her the hell alone. Be sensible, Rock. There’s really only one option. Take your pathetic mind off Dana Daniels. The woman’s not even interested in you. Suitably chided by his inner self, Rock turned down the hallway with Dana on his arm. It was time to get back to the matter at hand. Dinner.
To Rock’s surprise, dinner with Dana turned out to be a lot more relaxed than he had anticipated. He’d felt like kicking himself for getting them off to a bad start with his embarrassing outpouring of praise. But then, once they’d settled down to eat, Dana had begun to seem more at ease in his presence, smiling at his gluttony when he ate all of four bread rolls before the soup even arrived, and laughing out loud when his stomach let him down by giving an embarrassing rumble.
“You’re human, after all,” she said, giving him a cheeky grin.
She didn’t know how right she was. He was so human he could hardly keep his eyes off her, let alone his thoughts. And those thoughts weren’t so innocent, either.
Pushing his wayward musings to the back of his mind, Rock gave her a wink. “If you doubt that, just ask my brothers.”
That seemed to pique Dana’s interest because she leaned forward, her brows raised. “You have brothers?”
Rock laughed. “I do. Two of them. And a mother and a father, too. I even have a grandmother. Did you think I was birthed on an alien planet and arrived in a space ship?”
That brought a bright shade of pink to her cheeks. “No,” she said quickly, “of course not. I just…never thought of that side of you. You’ve always been so serious, I’ve always thought of you…in the context of the office.”
“Well, now you know my secret.” Rock chuckled as he reached for yet another roll. “I’ve got an older brother who still likes to boss me around, or at least he tries, and a younger brother who bugs the heck out of me sometimes. My dad’s still a workaholic at age seventy but, luckily, he loves what he does. And my mom…well, she’s the kind who’ll love you to death but she doesn’t take any lip,” he gave her a rueful grin, “not even from her favorite son.”
“Oh, so you’re her favorite?”
“It would make sense. I’m the most stable of the three sons.” Then he shrugged. “Of course, we all say that.”
Dana laughed and when she did, her eyes sparkled in the light of the rose-shaped candles. Did she have any idea how breathtakingly beautiful she was?
Just then the server arrived, breaking into his thoughts. Almost with relief, Rock turned his attention to the bow-tied young man. Lately, his thoughts had been trespassing on forbidden ground and it was time to close that gate. And right now the best way was to stick to the subject of family. You couldn’t go wrong with that.
As soon as the server retreated, Rock turned his attention back to Dana. “So, what about you? Do you have a family, or are you the alien in our midst?”
“I guess you could say that I’m an alien…of sorts.” Dana gave him an enigmatic smile then picked up her spoon. “Mmm,” she said, inhaling deeply and closing her eyes, “this soup smells delicious.”
Rock leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest as he stared at her.
Dana cocked an eyebrow at him. “Aren’t you going to have your soup? I know you’re hungry.”
Rock made no move to pick up his spoon. Instead, he gave her a mock scowl. “You leave me with a cryptic statement like that and expect me to just keep on eating? Explain yourself, young lady.”
Instead of answering right away, Dana took a sip of her soup. Apparently, she was intent on letting him stew a little longer in his curiosity. Finally, she looked up, her face serious. “I wasn’t joking when I said I was an alien.” Then she gave him an impish grin. “A legal one, that is.”
“So you’re not American?”
She shook her head. “I was born in Bristol, England, but moved to the United States when I was five years old.”
“So you’ve been living here ever since and never became a citizen?”
She gave him a crooked smile. “Weird, huh? But I have a reasonable explanation…” She paused then looked perplexed. “Actually, it might not seem so reasonable, now that I think about it. My family is sort of…different.”
Rock leaned forward, totally ignoring his soup. “Now I’m really curious. How different?”
“My dad’s an army man. Still is. And he loves England. But my mom…” Dana raised her shoulders, almost as if in an effort to find the words. “…she loves America. More modern, she always said. So she left my dad and took me to New York where we spent two years and then she started missing him.”
“So he remained in England?” Rock frowned. “And she only started missing him after two years?” Dana was right when she said her family was different. He could not even begin to imagine his parents being apart that long.
“I know. It sounds crazy but that’s how my parents are.” Dana shook her head then took another sip of her soup. When she looked up and spoke again her voice was earnest. “I have no doubt that they love each other but that’s how they’ve always been, just as happy apart as together. As long as they’re pursuing their interests, I guess.”
Rock followed Dana’s example and took a sip of his soup and as he ate she explained to him how she and her mother returned to England when she was seven but then the next eleven years were spent moving from country to country but every two or three years they would end up back in England.