Bachelor Boss - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,2

me Goose anymore," she'd said firmly - when, after ushering his chestnut-haired guest from the office, his first request as her brand-new boss was to ask her to send two dozen roses to the lady who'd just departed. Recipient: a Ms. Tamara Maxwell. Message line: It wasn't you, it was me.

He didn't quite meet her eyes when he imparted that interesting nugget, but muttered as he turned back to his office, "Look, we only went out a few times and she didn't get it. I don't do the couple thing."

Lucy got it. She'd always gotten it, though the knowledge had never seemed to cool the particular thing she had for Carlo. Besides the paycheck, putting out that fire for good had been the most pressing reason to accept the job at his company.

When she'd moved back to San Diego, her dad, who was old friends with Carlo's dad, suggested she fill the temporary position at McMillan & Milano before she started a serious search for an accounting position in town. It was supposed to be a favor to Carlo, but it worked for Lucy, too. Moving back to California from Arizona had left her strapped for cash, and acting as his secretary would solve another lingering problem.

The way she figured it, three weeks at McMillan & Milano would finally, for-once-and-for-all, extinguish what she'd always felt for him.

Heck, she decided, watching him walk away from her without a second glance and remembering how easily her humiliatingly juvenile nickname had tripped off his tongue, by quitting time today her libido should finally have heard the message. There was no hope. Carlo would never look at her with the kind of heat a man should hold for a woman.

The idea didn't depress her in the least.

Really.

So she went about her duties, finding this office not so different from any other - including walking into the break room in the late afternoon to find the water cooler drained desert-dry. Stacked on the floor beside it were several full, capped bottles.

"'Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink,'" Lucy murmured, paraphrasing Coleridge to the empty room. She hadn't just crunched numbers at school. Shaking her head, she pushed up the cuffs of her sleeves. Even though she wasn't the one who'd tapped the last of the liquid, everyone knew first-day employees couldn't leave the rest of the staff waterless.

No matter that at five foot two and a mere few orders of French fries over her ideal weight, it would be a struggle to replace the bottle. The task was still up to Lucy.

The empty one was a snap to lift away from the top of the water cooler. The blue cap on the closest full bottle took only seconds to peel off. Then, staring down the plastic barrel at her feet as if it were a wrestling opponent, she bent her knees to grasp it around its cool, rotund belly. As she straightened, she staggered on her feet, her heels clattering against the smooth hardwood floor.

Oh, Lord, don't let me drop this.

"Goose, what are you doing?"

Instinct had her swinging toward the voice - Carlo's voice - but that only made her more unsteady on her business-beige heels. Before she could do more than wheeze, there were a man's arms around her - Carlo's arms. Her back was up against his chest, her butt pressed to his -

"Stop," he ordered into her ear.

"I wasn't thinking anything!"

"Obviously not. You're too small to take care of this. I meant 'stop trying to help.' Let go and let me have the bottle."

"Oh." She dropped her hands from the heavy plastic, but that still left her in the circle of Carlo's arms. His warmth was at her spine, his delicious aftershave in her nose, his breath stirring the hair at her temple.

As a wild rash of prickly awareness broke out like more hives over her skin, she dipped under his arm and freed herself from his faux embrace. Without a glance at her, he stepped forward to flip the bottle on top of the cooler.

He turned to find her fanning her face.

"Goo - Lucy..." His voice trailed off as his gaze dropped lower. His eyes widened, then he looked back up. "You, uh, have a couple of buttons that came loose."

She glanced down, gasped. In her struggles with the water bottle, apparently some of the buttons on her all-business blouse had popped free, revealing most of her white lace demibra. Her face burning, she clutched the shirt's edges together