Covet (21 page)

And everyone seemed as relieved as Kevin was that Tessa was now handling all of the spreadsheets for Mr. Gregson and some of the other managers. In fact, it seemed that
all
she had been doing for the past week and a half revolved around that particular task, and she was starting to see databases, pie charts, and formulas in her head even as she tried to fall asleep each night. Andrew had been piling the work on her, evidently intent on having a particular report for each hotel in the region updated prior to Mr. Gregson’s return. And since Tessa had estimated there were at least sixty-five hotels in the American region, she’d been working almost nonstop to get the task finished in time.

Mrs. C.’s advice hadn’t really been necessary, Tessa acknowledged ruefully, considering the long hours she had put in thus far. After her first day on the job, she’d begun arriving closer to seven-thirty than eight, even beating Andrew in to the office a few times. She’d eaten lunch at her desk most every day, and had stayed well past quitting time. But it had all been worth it, she thought wearily, because by the end of the day all of the reports would be updated. Just in time, it seemed, for Mr. Gregson’s return to the office tomorrow morning.

“Are you referring to Mr. Gregson?” she asked Kevin. “I mean, is he the person you meant when you said someone was returning to the office tomorrow?”

Kevin grinned. “Well, sweetie pie, there’s no one else in this place who would merit a title like His Hotness, so, yes, that’s exactly who I meant.”

Tessa regarded him quizzically. “So what’s the story behind that particular nickname?”

Kevin gave a little eye roll. “Come on, haven’t you at least seen his picture or anything?”

She nodded, struggling mightily to appear nonchalant. “On the corporate website once or twice,” she lied, not about to admit how many times she’d stared at his photo like a starstruck adolescent. “He’s, um, good looking from what I can tell.”

“Good looking?” Kevin hooted. “Honey, that’s like saying Aretha Franklin can carry a tune. His Hotness is
g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s
, flat out gorgeous. He could be a male model or something, you know? Preferably an underwear model, but even in a suit he’s a sight for sore eyes. The word
droolworthy
comes to mind for lack of a better description. But to answer your original question, yours truly dreamed up the nickname His Hotness because he’s – well, hot, of course, but also sort of regal. So it’s a play on words in a way. Instead of His Highness or His Majesty, we call Mr. Gregson His Hotness. Trust me, when you meet him tomorrow it will all make perfect sense.”

Kevin’s telephone rang at that moment, allowing Tessa to return to her work. But she had a great deal of trouble regaining her focus, as the one image she had of Ian Gregson continued to taunt her throughout the afternoon. She’d been so busy these past couple of weeks that there simply hadn’t been time to anticipate the return of her new boss, not to mention the moment when she would finally get to meet the unwitting star of her dirtiest, most forbidden dreams.

Not that she hadn’t overheard any number of snippets of gossip about him, of course. All six of their cubicles were clustered together, three on each side. Tessa was sandwiched in between Kevin and Marisol, while the other three girls sat directly across from them with only a low divider panel to provide any sort of privacy. And as loudly as Gina and Alicia could talk, it was impossible not to hear almost everything they said. The pair of them – best friends and roommates – were nearly inseparable. They commuted to and from work together, ate lunch together just about every day, and spent a good part of their weekends doing things together as well. They both loved fashion, eating at the trendiest restaurants, dancing at the most exclusive clubs, and gossiping fanatically about nearly every person in the office.

Tessa had winced to hear some of the scathing comments they’d made about one employee or another – “she looks ridiculous in that dress,
waaay
too young for someone her age”; “he definitely dyes his hair, I swear it was mostly gray a week ago”; “someone needs to tell Christa that her skirt is about two sizes too small. I think she should spend more time at the gym and less time at the deli.” And those had been some of the more mild things the two of them had said over the past couple of weeks. Occasionally Shelby also chimed in with a comment of her own, and of course the
very
opinionated and very chatty Kevin never needed any encouragement to offer up his take on the matter.

Tessa wondered at times how any of them got any significant amount of work done, given all of the talking and gossiping that went on. Marisol was the only other one of the group besides herself who was quiet and seemed to actually focus on her job. Kevin had mentioned, however, that there was almost always a period of downtime when Mr. Gregson was out of the office, and that they had all learned to make the most of these times – because when he
was
in the office the workload was often staggering at times, the pace frantic, as everyone rushed to complete whatever tasks were assigned to them, no one anxious to get a “talking to” from Andrew about not keeping up.

She’d learned from her first day on the job that Andrew was technically in charge of the team, that he was the one who doled out assignments and kept track of their work. According to Kevin, the team actually had very little interaction with Mr. Gregson, barely saw him from day to day unless it was their turn to do the meeting set-up or some other task that brought them into direct contact with him. Tessa had felt both relief and disappointment at this knowledge, the former because it meant there would be very few instances where she could risk making a fool of herself, and the latter because – well, if Kevin could be believed, then Mr. Gregson was even more compelling and attractive than his photo gave evidence to, and who wouldn’t want to spend time in the presence of such a man?

Apparently, however, she wasn’t the only one with a fascination for her handsome boss. Ian Gregson was a favorite topic of conversation between Alicia and Gina, whether it was speculation on who designed his suits, or how serious he might be about the woman he’d been seen out with recently, or if Alicia might stand a chance with him if she were to ever quit her job.

It had been readily obvious even to someone as naïve as Tessa that Alicia had quite the obsession with Mr. Gregson, and kept careful track of his social life. Her parents attended a number of the same events that he did, and Alicia was frequently pestering her mother to get her invited along. But evidently there was a very strict company policy forbidding managers from dating employees under their direct supervision, and Tessa had heard numerous times over the past two weeks about how strictly Mr. Gregson enforced that particular rule – especially when it came to himself. If the rumors were true, then he had never been known to date an employee, whether here in the U.S., or during the years he’d worked for the company in England and throughout Europe.

“Kevin, do you want to catch lunch with us today?” asked Gina, as she and Alicia got up from their desks simultaneously.

Both women were smartly dressed, as usual, their clothes, shoes, and bags all of a much better quality than anything Tessa owned. Both in their late twenties, Gina was the more exotic and flamboyant of the two with her olive skin, big dark eyes, and masses of dark brown hair, her Latina heritage apparent. Alicia was classier, more refined, with a chin-length bob of wheat blonde hair, ivory skin and a designer wardrobe she was able to afford via her monthly trust fund stipends. Tessa had gleaned that particular snippet of information from Kevin, who seemed to know a great deal about each of his co-workers.

“Sure,” agreed Kevin amiably, shrugging into his jacket. “Where do you ladies want to dine today? I’m in the mood for something spicy myself – Thai or Mexican. Just like the guys I went home from the club with last night.”

He gave a naughty little giggle at his last comment, winking at Tessa when her cheeks flushed yet again in embarrassment. He placed his hands on her shoulders, bending over to kiss her cheek as he whispered, “Are you sure you’re a married woman, sweetie pie? Couldn’t tell from the way you blush like a twelve year old girl at times. See you after lunch.”

Tessa gave him a faint smile, struggling not to recoil at the overpowering scent of his cologne. Kevin was just over medium height with a slight build, and he seemed to favor bright, trendy clothing that was not always flattering to either his thin frame or carroty red-blond hair.

It was decidedly quieter after the trio left. Gina, Alicia, and Kevin almost always took their lunch hour from noon to one, while Tessa, Marisol, and Shelby had their break between one and two. Which was a bit ironic, thought Tessa as she returned her attention to her computer screen, considering that the threesome who had just left always seemed to be the last ones to arrive at the office each morning.

Marisol yawned loudly, then gave Tessa an apologetic smile. “Sorry. The baby is teething and I think I got an hour’s sleep last night. I’ve had about a gallon of coffee but nothing seems to be helping.”

“That must be hard on you,” sympathized Tessa. “Do you think Andrew would let you leave a little early today?”

Marisol rolled her eyes. She was a petite, slightly chubby Filipina, with black hair and dark eyes, and at the age of twenty-six already had two young children – including a six month old daughter. “I doubt it. Especially since I need to leave early on Monday to take my son to a doctor’s appointment. Normally my mom would take him, but she and my dad are going to Las Vegas for a long weekend.”

Marisol and her husband and kids lived with her parents, albeit in an in-law unit, and she was lucky enough to have both her mother and grandmother to look after the children while she was at work. She still seemed exhausted most of the time, however, forever yawning and always with that cup of coffee in hand.

“Take my advice, Tessa,” cautioned Marisol. “You and your husband should wait awhile before you get pregnant. I wish I’d been able to convince Raul to postpone having kids until we were better off financially so that I’d only have to work part-time now.”

Tessa merely smiled in response, not about to confide in her co-worker that the chance of her getting pregnant with Peter’s baby was highly unlikely. It had been long weeks since the last time they’d tried – tried being the operative word – to be intimate. Their most recent attempt had ended before it had begun – with Peter once again unable to sustain an erection long enough to satisfy her. He had become withdrawn and uncommunicative afterwards, and had slept in the living room, but at least he hadn’t suggested that Tessa look around for another lover. He actually hadn’t brought that subject up for a few months now, she recalled, probably because he knew how much the idea upset her.

“I’m not planning to have a baby for a long time,” she assured Marisol. “Especially with my husband starting this new job where he’s going to be away for weeks at a time. And especially not in our tiny little apartment. We can barely move around in there as it is.”

“Too bad you weren’t single,” chimed in Shelby. “My sister and I are looking for a new roommate since our current one is getting married in a month. And – uh, oh. Ice Man alert.”

Tessa could have sworn she actually saw Shelby quake in fear as Andrew – who’d been given the irreverent nickname of the Ice Man by Kevin - approached their cubicles. Shelby, an almost painfully thin strawberry-blonde who was high-strung, anxious, and had a rather irritating giggle that reminded Tessa of a bird chirping, was terrified of Andrew and went out of her way to avoid him. In the scant two weeks that she’d worked here, it had seemed to Tessa that Andrew
did
pick on Shelby quite a lot, and wondered how much of this was really necessary. Kevin had whispered to Tessa that the real reason Andrew didn’t care much for Shelby - and went over all of her work with a fine-tooth comb - was because she had already been working on the team prior to Andrew’s date of hire and hadn’t been hand-selected by him like the others had.

Andrew set a report down on Shelby’s desk and gave both it and her a look of disdain. “Once again, Shelby,” he began in that no-nonsense tone that Tessa had already come to recognize, “you didn’t bother to check your work before updating the report. I’ve found five different errors, two of them major. Can you even begin to imagine how embarrassing this would have been if I’d presented it to Mr. Gregson? Needless to say, you’ll need to correct your errors and then upload it to the system. This afternoon, please. Mr. Gregson was especially anxious to have this on his desk tomorrow morning. And check your work next time. You simply can’t keep making these types of mistakes.”

Tessa had wisely kept her gaze downcast during Andrew’s chastisement, but she could practically feel Shelby quaking in fear with each scathing word. She only hoped
she
never found herself the object of one of Andrew’s tongue lashings, and silently vowed to keep checking and re-checking her own work multiple times.

“Tessa.”

She started a bit, not having noticed Andrew standing directly behind her until now, pressing a hand to her heart to still its beating.

“I apologize for sneaking up on you,” he offered. “I just wanted to check on the progress of the updates.”

“Of course.” She gave a quick glance at the number of files remaining that still needed updates. “If I work through lunch, I’m pretty sure I can have all of them done by the end of the day.”

“Really?” The normally unflappable Andrew looked genuinely surprised. “Well, that
is
good news. God knows that I can use some, given the way this day’s been going. But it’s not necessary for you to skip lunch, Tessa, since you’re so far ahead of schedule with these updates.”

She shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. I brought my lunch with me so I can just eat here at my desk. Maybe I’ll take a quick break, get some fresh air for a few minutes, but otherwise I don’t mind. I’d really like to have them all ready for when Mr. Gregson returns.”