“That’s okay,” she nodded, meaning it this time, then turned saying, “I’ll just get your coffee.”
Emma left and Abby threw her coat and bag on Cash’s couch, went to the windows and looked at Bath.
Cash had asked her to arrive half an hour earlier than the others, he hadn’t explained why and she hadn’t asked. Now, clothing crisis averted, the Emma apology over, she had time to wonder why.
As she contemplated this, Abby had no idea what was going on outside Cash’s door.
She had no idea that Cash Fraser had many women come to his office. However, they were there briefly, so briefly they waited in the reception area and they were rarely offered coffee.
She also had no idea that Cash had not taken a single one of them on a business trip.
She also had no idea that his expense report for Germany had been gossiped about at length by a motor mouth in the finance department. Fuelled as well by the pictures in the papers, interest about Cash and Abby was running rampant.
Therefore, she had no idea that the traffic in the hall outside Cash’s open office door while she stood pondering his desire to have her there early was far heavier than normal.
Emma brought her coffee, chit chatted with Abby for a few minutes and then explained she had to get to her desk.
She had to do this because Emma knew that Cash would not be pleased if she chit chatted with his glamorous new girlfriend in his office instead of doing the work he paid her to do. She also did this because she could not wait to call motor mouth Jade in the finance department and tell her that this one was actually nice.
Abby had taken a few sips of coffee and had come to no conclusions why Cash would want her there early when Cash walked in.
His eyes never leaving her, he went straight to his desk, tossed a file and his pen on it and both skidded several inches across the mess before coming to a stop.
Abby watched this and her gaze went back to Cash. “You’re fond of throwing things, aren’t you?”
He didn’t answer but she watched him grin as he came to the side of the desk and rested a thigh against it, crossing his arms on his chest.
She walked to him, putting her coffee cup on a coaster she could just see from under some papers.
She motioned to his desk and remarked, “I’m surprised. You aren’t very organised.”
“Moira has a dislocated shoulder and a broken wrist,” he replied and, as she was now within reaching distance, his hands came to her waist and he pulled her closer, his arms circling her. “I made her stay home until Monday.”
Abby’s head tilted to the side. “Made her?”
“She wanted to come back to work yesterday.”
Abby was surprised at this news. Moira had only just had her accident.
She lifted her hands and rested them on his chest, leaning into his strong body and tilting her head back further to look up at him.
“She’s a workaholic, like you,” Abby guessed.
“She gets off on the hunt, like me,” Cash returned.
A weird thrill shot through her at his words.
“The hunt?” Abby asked, not quite able to hide her curiosity and his head dipped down so he could touch his mouth to hers.
Then he offered, “I’ll tell you about my work sometime.”
She was surprised at this offer. She had asked him once about his work and he’d told her it was confidential.
She wasn’t certain but she had the feeling that his offer signified something huge.
Instead of making a big deal of it, Abby teased, “If you tell me, will you have to kill me?”
“God, I hope not,” he replied on a grin, then his arms tightened, bringing her even closer and he kissed her, hard, wet and open-mouthed.
When he was done, Abby’s fingers had curled into his lapels to hold herself upright and Cash did something new. He slid his nose along the side of hers and the tenderness she felt from this was playing havoc with her heart.
She swallowed and asked, “Why did you want me to come early?”
His head moved away and she saw he was still grinning but this one was wicked.
He answered without delay, “I wanted to make out with you before they arrived.”
His intent, and the honesty with which he shared it, made her laugh. Throwing her head back, her hands slid up his chest to rest around his neck, the tips of the fingers of one hand going into his thick hair.
When she stopped laughing, her eyes caught movement, she looked around his arm and saw the door was open and someone was walking passed.
She looked back at Cash, pulled slightly away and suggested, “If you want to make out with me, maybe we should close the door.”
“No.”
At his answer, Abby’s lips parted in surprise.
“No?” she repeated.
His arms got even tighter and his face dipped close to hers again.
“No,” he said again. “I employ thirty-five staff and they’re all curious about you. Too curious. I make this statement, they’ll have something to talk about for a couple of days and they’ll get back to work.”
“Oh,” Abby said, somehow both weirded out and disappointed by his answer.
He gave her a little squeeze and went on and even though she knew it was stupid, stupid, stupid what he said next made that budding hope she experienced in her heart the night before start to take root and bloom.
“Twenty-five years ago, if you told me I’d be standing in an office like this and it would be mine, I wouldn’t have believed you.” She held her breath at his sharing of this secret and his face got closer, his voice got deeper, rougher and far, far sexier when he continued. “And if you told me I’d be holding a woman like you in my arms, I’d have told you you were mad. So, darling, I’m going to show you off any chance I get. If you don’t like that, tough. You’re going to have to get over it.”
Yes, even though it was stupid, that hope was definitely beginning to bloom.
“Cash –” she whispered, then didn’t know what to say.
So she decided to show him how his words made her feel. She got up on tiptoe, pressing his head down with her fingers in his hair and she kissed him, hard, wet and open-mouthed.
His hand slid up her back, his fingers sifted into her hair at her nape and his head slanted, deepening an already deep kiss. This made Abby’s knees give out and his arm crushed her to him as she felt her body electrify from his kiss.
Some time later from far away (but she wished it was farther, much farther) she heard a tap at the door then, when Cash didn’t stop kissing Abby, a polite cough.