Penalty Clause (6 page)

Rev
raised his head and looked at her.

Jill lowered her voice to a whisper to answer his unspoken question. “I think I might really like him. As in ‘like him’ like him, you know?”

Rev laid his head on his paws and stared up at Jill with big brown eyes that held no answers for her. She sighed and stood and shook her head at the dog before she crossed the room to the treat cabinet.

“All right, how about a Laughing
Puppers Biscuit since you don’t seem to have any answers for me, little man?”

Rev jumped up at the name of his favorite treat and offered Jill a prim and proper sit. Rev was wearing his most innocent look.

“You don’t fool me,” Jill said wryly as she handed Rev his treat. “I know you’re a devil dog.” She paused and watched Rev gobble up the treat. “And you like him, too, huh?”

“How does Italian sound?” Andrew asked Jill as they walked to his car.

Jill was appalled to hear her stomach grumble loudly at the mention of Italian food. Andrew turned and threw her a grin.

“Guess that’s a ‘yes’?”

“Sorry. I forgot lunch and breakfast was pretty small.” Jill blushed. “I tend to get sucked into my work.”

Jill buckled her seatbelt. Andrew
steered the car down the drive, pausing at the end before turning onto the road.

“Well, we can fix that. There’s a small family-owned place that Nora used to take me to when I was younger. Best gnocchi you’ve ever tasted. It just melts in your mouth, and the sauce...
You’ll dream about the sauce for weeks.” Andrew sounded positively wistful as he described the restaurant and Jill knew right away he was talking about Nonna Alda’s.

“I haven’t been to
Nonna Alda’s in years!” Jill’s stomach grumbled again. “Oh, the garlic bread. I can’t wait for the garlic bread.”

Andrew laughed. “Your grandparents took you?”

“At least once every visit. I’m surprised I haven’t thought of it since I got back,” Jill said.

Andrew pulled into the parking lot of the small restaurant. Jill felt the
hot wave of attraction she had come to expect when Andrew placed his hand on the small of her back to walk her into the restaurant. It began at her back, but spread through her whole body, curling her toes.

“Andrew!” A small woman with grey-streaked black hair tied in a braid opened her arms to hug and kiss Andrew. “Joseph, come. Andrew is here.”

A very robust man came out of the kitchen and Andrew and Jill were quickly engulfed in hugs and kisses. The quartet spent a few minutes catching up before Alda showed Andrew and Jill to a small booth in a corner. The cozy fireplace near the booth cast a gentle glow on the table.

Jill opened the menu and tried to ignore the lingering feeling she was on a date. She reminded herself repeatedly that Andrew was gregarious and charming with all of his friends.
She just needed to ignore the feeling that his attention was all for her. Only for her.

This is not a date. This is not a date. This is not a date.
Sigh.

Jill’s chant was having little effect on the
date-like atmosphere that hung over their table.

“What are you getting?” Jill asked Andrew.

“Definitely the gnocchi. I should probably try something else but I can never resist the gnocchi. What about you? What are you getting?” Andrew asked.

“I don’t know. I’m torn between the gnocchi and the lasagna. I don’t know which one I want more,” Jill said and then watched as a grin took over Andrew’s handsome face.

“I have a great idea. Get both. I’ll get two things, too. That way, I’ll be trying something new but still have my gnocchi and you get exactly what you want, too,” Andrew announced.

Andrew looked like he was completely serious.

“I can’t do that!” Jill said. She shook her head. “I can’t eat two meals.”

“Why not? Who says you’r
e only allowed to have one entrée? I don’t remember there being any rules. We’ll get appetizers and two entrées each,
and
we’ll get dessert,” Andrew said as he waved down their waiter.

As Jill looked on laughing, Andrew proceeded to order an enormous amount of food and a bottle of Chianti.

“You’re crazy.” Jill laughed at Andrew.

Andrew raised a shoulder in an easy shrug. “So, we’ll have leftovers. I’ll bring a movie over tomorrow night and we’ll gorge on Italian again.”

Jill’s mind immediately flashed to images of the two of them in her house drinking wine. A great deal of wine. At night. Alone. Her mouth was suddenly dry and her palms began to sweat. How on earth would she resist the pull of Andrew Weston if they were alone? Resisting him was harder and harder, even tonight, with people around them.

At home,
with no one to buffer?

Impossible.

***

Andrew watched Jill as the waiter delivered their appetizers. He
loved that she didn’t object too much to his unorthodox dinner order. Most women would balk at eating such a large meal but Jill was being a really good sport about it. She didn’t obsess about her waistline or count calories. She laughed and played along and that appealed to Andrew. Everything about Jill appealed to Andrew.

Andrew did notice the small flash of panic in Jill’s eyes when he mentioned coming to her house for dinner the following night. It made Andrew feel triumphant somehow.
He’d bet she was as worried as he was about being alone with her. And that thought made him want to be alone with her all the more.

They laughed and talked over a bottle of wine and the endless buffet of food he had ordered. As he enjoyed her company, Andrew
realized resisting Jill might be futile. Her allure might just be more than he could handle. The thought shocked the hell out of him. He never struggled to compartmentalize the women in his life. When he met a woman, he put her in whatever category she belonged and then he left her there. If she was a friend, she stayed a friend. If she was a fuck-buddy, she stayed that way.

Jill didn’t
fit in a tidy way into any category. She was wiggling from friend into dangerous, unchartered territory and that was throwing Andrew off. Way off.

The sound of her laughter, the way her hair fell down in waves over her shoulders and onto her breasts, the way she licked her lips when she took a sip of wine. All of the ordinary everyday things that Jill did were somehow sensual and
erotic and sexy as hell.

By the time Andrew walked Jill to her front door that night,
he was hard as a rock and aching to reach for her. He once again had to fist his hands in his pockets just to keep from touching her. He wanted to bury his fingers in the long, soft tendrils of her hair, and lift her face. Capture her lips. Steal just one kiss. Then bury himself deep within her…

Jill’s voice pulled Andrew out of his fantasy.

“Thank you for dinner,” she said, lifting up the large bag of leftovers they hadn’t finished.

“You’re welcome. I had fun,” Andrew said, unsure if he should
raise the topic of dinner at her house again or just conveniently ‘forget.’ He knew how it would end if they were alone in a private place.

“Come help me finish them tomorrow night?” Jill asked and Andrew was torn between relief and regret.
Relief that he would be able to spend more time with Jill tomorrow. Regret because he knew he couldn’t hold out any longer. If they had dinner alone at her house tomorrow, Andrew would crack. He didn’t have any more control where Jill was concerned.

Say no, asshole.

“Sure.”
Oh, fuck. What the hell was that?
“How about seven?”

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“Great, see you then,” Jill said with a smile and turned and opened her door. Andrew stayed frozen to the spot until she disappeared into the house and shut the door.

The next morning in his office, Andrew was still trying to
keep his fantasies about Jill in check. Things were quieter now. The visiting investors were gone and there was a lull in Andrew’s projects for the moment. He wished for more work. Something to keep his mind from drifting back to Jill at every moment because functioning with half a hard on every day, all damn day, was getting old.

Debbie knocked and poked her head into the room.

“Andrew? Got a minute?” Debbie asked Andrew.

“What’s up?”

Debbie came into the room and sat in front of Andrew’s desk with her notepad, indicating she had a list of things to go over. He came around his desk and sat next to her. Debbie was truly his right hand at Sutton, working seamlessly alongside him.

Debbie began going through the items on her list, confirming dates for events, reports that needed to be finalized.

“Oh, and the new assistant from legal transferred in today. I’ve got her started with Katelyn. Patty is going to show her some of the software she needs to learn, so I think she’s all set for now.”

“Great, thank you. I’ll introduce myself in a bit.”

***

Theresa pasted a smile on her face as she listened to her new boss, Katelyn.

I can’t believe I have to put up with this idiot. They should have assigned me to work directly with Andrew, but at least I’m one step closer to him.

Theresa had spent the morning figuring out who she needed to compete with to line herself up as Andrew’s assistant. From what she
’d heard, everyone seemed pretty enamored with Andrew’s assistant, Debbie. Theresa couldn’t see what the big deal was. The woman wasn’t
that
great.

I just need to get close to Andrew, show him that I’m better than Debbie. Just one shot and he’ll want me instead of her. And then, well, we all know what happens with men and their secretaries. Once we’re working
closely together every day, pulling late nighters and working over lunch, we’ll fall in love. That’s how these things work.

Theresa m
ight not have been in love before but she was no idiot. She knew how these things worked. She had to align herself with Andrew and things would fall into place. She hoped things would move faster now that she was in his division. She had worked for six months in legal, hoping Andrew would notice her. The few times they’d interacted, he smiled at her and she just knew he felt that connection between them, too. But then he would go back to his division and she would be out of sight again. Out of sight, out of mind.

Well Theresa was damn tired of being out of his sight. She was going to make sure he couldn’t forget about her now. Their connection was too strong.

“This afternoon, Patty is going to show you how to use the data entry systems we use. Just let her know when you’re back from lunch and she’ll get you started on the training,” Katelyn said.

God
… Babble much, lady?

“Sounds great, Katelyn,” Theresa said through her fake smile.

“Hey, Katelyn. Hi, Theresa.” Andrew offered Theresa his hand. “I think we’ve met before. Welcome to the team.”

There’s that zing. He feels the connection, too. I can see it in his eyes. It’s cute the way he’s so professional in front of everyone. He’s trying to pay as much attention to Katelyn as he does to me, but I can see the difference.

“You getting Theresa all settled in?” Andrew asked Katelyn.

“You bet. I’m about to send her to lunch and then she’ll be working with Patty for a few days. We probably won’t be able to show her everything before the quarterly finance meeting but we’ll get her started,” Katelyn said.

Theresa turned and beamed at Andrew. “Quarterly meeting? I can help with that,” she said to Andrew.
Perfect opening for me.

“Oh, don’t worry. We’re all set for that. Debbie always has everything all set a week in advance and then we just plug in any changes at the last minute.” Andrew turned his smile to Katelyn. “These guys run like a well-oiled machine. You can watch things this time. By the time the next quarterly comes around, you’ll be able to pitch in.”

I’m not waiting that long!
There was no way she’d wait three months to show Andrew what she could do for him.

“Sure, sounds good. I’ll just watch this time.” Theresa repeated back his instructions to keep up appearances while she began to run through scenarios. He probably didn’t know how to get her closer to him without it looking odd to everyone else. If he just pulled her right onto his team, issues of seniority would
arise. They needed to be more subtle than that. She’d take care of it for him, though. She’d come up with some way to get herself in that meeting, to get them working more closely together.

“Great. I’m meeting Chad for lunch. Katelyn, do you have everything you need for the conference call with Parker Industries?” Andrew asked as he stepped toward the door.

When Katelyn nodded, he gave a final wave and left the office.

Soon, Andrew.
I’ll figure out a way for us to be together soon.