Falling for the Boss (9 page)

“No hot date?” Mike
interrupted. 
Victoria
had thought he and Bob were too intent on recounting the details of their bar hopping to have heard her conversation with Thomas
.  “
What about your D.C. man, Barry
?”

Victoria
smiled slightly before responding but she didn’t really want to talk about her date. 
“
Barry and I had a quiet dinner on Saturday night.  It wasn’t anything special
.”  She couldn’t look at Thomas when she admitted that part. 

“What about you?” Bob asked
, looking at Thomas
. 
“Did you do anything special?”

Thomas shook his head.  “Just a weekend with the family.”

Bob instantly perked up.  “Was Antonia there?”

“Only on Sunday,” Thomas said. “But don’t even think about her.”
There was a very stern look in his eyes when he replied to Bob, as if warning him in non-verbal ways to stay away. 

Bob
didn’t take the rejection to heart.  He
grasped his chest in the general vicinity of his heart and leaned back in his chair.  “Ah, bossman, you can’t deny me the pleasure of my dreams.  If only Antonia would just glance my way, she’d realize what a catch I am.  I know she’s taken, but I’m sure I can convince her that I’m the better man.”

Thomas smiled slightly but shook his head.  “Like I said, stay away from Antonia if you value your life,” he growled.  “She’s in love so don’t bother.  Dream about some other woman.”

Victoria
looked away, overwhelmed by the jealously eating at her.  Obviously Antonia was a very special woman that he cared for very much.  And if Bob was interested, she must be beautiful. 

They started discussing business after that but it took
Victoria
several minutes to get her jea
lousy in control so she could
contribute to the conversation. 
Even
after her emotions were in check, she couldn’t look at Thomas.  The idea of another woman being held in his arms just flamed up the anger. 
She forced her thoughts back to the data she was now responsible for and chided herself for her silly thoughts. 

It didn’t help that he was so protective of this woman. 
Victoria
wondered what kind of woman could generate those kinds of feelings in Thomas.  He was such a strong man.  What was it about Antonia’s personality that could
engender such protectiveness?

She was probably tall and
gregarious, someone with a personality just like Thomas.  The idea started eating at her and she wanted to question Bob or Mike about the mysterious Antonia, but she was afraid of what those questions might reveal, both to them and to herself. 

Victoria
busied herself on the flight by going over the advance reports she’d been given before the flight. 
She ignored the teasing banter going back and forth between Bob and Mike and avoided all contact with Thomas. 
She moved to the front of the plane not wanting to listen to Mike question Thomas about the lovely Antonia anymore. 

The plane
landed in
Atlanta
by midmorning and
Victoria
was grateful for the short flight. 
The plane was wonderful, but her jealousy still hadn’t abated and what seemed like a large and spacious cabin before, had turned into a tight, closed space, filled with her resentment towards an unknown woman. 

The hotel was, thankfully
,
a short distance away from the airport as well
.  Thomas checked them into the gracious hotel and handed everyone their keys. 
S
he was able to reach her hotel room quickly and hide in her room for a few precious moments. 
During that time, she stared at herself in the mirror and gave herself a pep talk. 

“You are not interested in Thomas and if he is committed to this other woman, then that is all for the better.” 
Victoria
didn’t like the image that stared back at her.  It was of a woman who was not being honest with herself or someone she professed to care about.  Barry didn’t deserve this kind of cheating, even if it was only in her mind and at vulnerable moments during the day.  He deserved her honesty and sincere devotion.  Not just lip service on the days she was around him. 

Thomas watched
Victoria
as she
quickly
entered the elevators and disappeared.  He was intrigued by her behavior this morning.  She had definitely avoided eye contact with him but he wasn’t sure why.  Had he done something to make her angry?  It had started right after Bob had asked her about her date with her fiancé.  Apparently, her weekend hadn’t gone well. 
He was glad about that but kept
his opinion
to himself. 

W
hy had she only spent one evening with the man? 
If
Thomas had
been her fiancé, he’d have demanded the whole weekend, keeping her in bed most of the time and making love to her….Thomas stopped those thoughts from continuing before they fully formed. 

Even so, her attitude and lack of time with this other man made him wonder. 
It was very suspicious and gave Thomas ideas he knew should better be left not thought about. 

He made his way to his hotel room
.  It was the one
right next to hers
, a circumstance
he knew was not a mere coincidence
since he orchestrated the room assignments wherever they went
.  No matter what city they were working in, Thomas was the one that checked the team into the hotel. 
H
e always made sure that his room was right next to
Victoria
’s. 

It was an odd sort of torture he put himself through on each trip.  He would lie in bed each night wondering what she was doing, what she looked like when she slept
, what she slept in and sometimes imagining the idea of her not sleeping in anything
at all.  He preferred that scenario and those thoughts immediately moved on to what he thought her body looked like underneath those business suits
. 
Those thoughts inevitably
led to wondering what she looked like in the heat of passion. 
He wondered if she would be just as polite and demure
as she was during the day
or if she was a woman who would claw and demand more
, screaming out her climax
. 
At that point, Thomas usually had to get up and take a cold shower in order to calm down his throbbing libido. 

Thomas
thought about
what he’d seen and heard this morning
and the more he considered her behavior, the more intrigued he became
. 
The questions tempted him to discover the answers. 
Was
Victoria
not as committed to her fiancé
as he’d originally thought
?  He knew it wasn’t an official engagement.  She didn’t wear a ring and she didn’t talk about any wedding plans. 
He’d heard her talking on the phone with him on a few occasions
, even
after
she
hung up
with him, she generally talked about her sister or what was happening in other aspects of home life.
She rarely talked about what Barry was doing and never conveyed any
stories
,
funny or otherwise,
about their time together. 

Putting all those fact
s
together, Thomas decided it was time to
do a little investigating.  He was going to
find out a little more about his
Victoria
.  He
stopped in the middle of hanging up his shirts in the closet.  Thomas
liked the way that sounded – “his
Victoria
”.  He wasn’t sure how, but it was time to
shake
things up slightly
and see what fell to the ground
. 

By lunchtime,
the team was
ensconced in the main conference room
of the
Atlanta
office of
ATI
and things were back to normal
for
Victoria
after her pep talk
. 
She sat at the opposite end of the conference table from Thomas. 
There wasn’t as much of a rush this time to finish the audit and generate findings on improvements but they all worked quickly and quietly
during
the afternoon.

By seven o’clock, Thomas turned to everyone and call
ed it quits.  “Ok boys and girl
, it is time to hit Roxanne’s.”

Bob and Mike immediately closed their files and stood up, stretching.  “
This is a treat.  Why the early evening and w
hat’s Roxanne’s?” Mike asked. 

“
The early quitting time is b
ecause we’ve been going pretty hard for the past few months and Roxanne’s is t
he best barbeque ribs this side of the
Mississippi
,” Thomas said and pulled
Victoria
’s chair backwards.  “And y
ou need to slow down this trip,” he said, leaning over her shoulder slightly.  Then he spun her
chair
around and grabbed one of her hands. 

Victoria
smiled as he pulled her to her feet, tamping down the special feeling
she got whenever he focused his attention on her
.  “Well if you insist,” she said and pulled her
buttercup yellow, silk
jacket off the back of her chair and started pulling
it on
over her yellow and soft, green flowered silk shirt
.

“Nope – no jackets tonight. Too messy,” he said and pulled her jacket back down her sleeves, holding it
captive
in his arms as he put a hand to the small of her back and guided her towards the doorway. 

Victoria
liked this more teasing Thomas but wasn’t sure how to deal with him.  She was used to the serious task master. 
“What about the rest of me?” she said, referring to the
yellow silk
skirt and matching shoes.  “Should I head back to the hotel and change?  I can take a cab and meet everyone at the restaurant.”

Thomas looked down her figure
clad in the soft, feminine suit
and almost groaned at the tightness that instantly sprung to life in his
slacks
.  “You look beautiful,” he said softly.  Bob and Mike were ahead of them, already waiting at the elevators so they didn’t hear his comment or see
Victoria
’s flush of pleasure at his compliment. 

Thomas had never touched
Victoria
deliberately before so she
was astonished at the reaction
of her body as it registered his closeness and the strong hand on her back.
H
e di
dn’t let go either as the four of them
stepped into the elevators. 
She felt very special, his nearness and his compliment suffused her with forbidden happiness. 

They drove for only fifteen minutes and pulled into an old barn type of building
with a gravel and dirt parking lot
.  The lot was packed with all types of ca
rs ranging from rusty pickups th
at had definitely seen better days to
a
Mercedes with a new wax job. 

They could hear the music as soon as the doors to their
rented
black Lincoln Town Car opened and
Victoria
was a little wary. 
In general, she avoided loud, busy places preferring a more subdued atmosphere. 
But she followed them into the restaurant
, wondering what kind of experience this would be for the four of them
.

She tried to take the seat next to Mike but
somehow
found herself sitting next to Thomas who seemed a lot closer than normal. 
She wasn’t sure how that happened but tried to hide her confusion and breathlessness since Thomas’s arm rested against the back of her chair as he surveyed the rest of the restaurant.