“That’s Tatiana.” He smiled suggestively. “I hope you two got acquainted.”
“Are you serious right now?!”
“How dare you!” He looked affronted. “She’s my yoga instructor. My lovely, eastern European yoga instructor.”
I shook my head sarcastically, fixing my eyes on the table. “My mistake.”
“How dare you make assumptions about us?”
“It won’t happen again.”
“You know what happens when you make assumptions? You’re a bitch.”
“That’s not how the saying goes.”
He cocked his head. “There’s a saying?”
A tiny grin broke through my mask, and I lifted my eyes to the wall. “Why do you live in a hotel?”
“Easy.” He flopped onto the couch next to me. “I don’t know how to cook.”
“You don’t know how to cook,” I repeated, as I absorbed this. “So you stay here to get room service every day?”
“Yes, Jenna. It’s actually quite practical when you think about it like that.”
“Yeah, that’s how I’d describe this place.” I laughed as I glanced around. “Practical.”
His eyes sparkled as they fixed onto mine. I could feel the heat still rising off his body, and I edged an inch or two away, holding up a spreadsheet in between us.
“So, let’s start at the beginning...” he said intently. “You needed my help.”
“I don’t need your help—the company needs your help.”
He nodded matter-a-factly. “Like I said, you need me.”
I dropped the spreadsheet on the table in frustration. If we were in crunch time, why the hell had Patti sent me to Michael of all people? Yeah, the guy had a brain, but he refused to use it. He preferred to use...other parts. And now here I was, sitting on the sofa, an entire merger to write, trying to keep my eyes off his ripped abs. It wasn’t fair!
“Michael, seriously. I have no idea how we’re going to get this done today—”
“Careful,” he grinned, “I’m prone to panic.”
“I’m being serious! Can you please just—”
“What? What do you want me to do? You called, so I cleared my whole schedule and rushed through my morning routine just to work with you. What more do you want?”
Tatiana was part of his morning routine?
I pursed my lips. “I’d like you to put some pants on.”
He scoffed but got obligingly to his feet, heading to a room across the hall. “You didn’t take the champagne, did you?”
I made a weird sound that was half sigh, half hiss.
He nodded. “That’s what I thought. And here I thought you were fully committed to this merger.”
“Michael, I swear to the heavens, if you don’t—”
“I think we should bypass Shanghai all together and begin with a rundown of the eastern Hong Kong division.”
I paused with my hand half raised in the air. Had he just...? I stared hastily down at my document summary and instantly saw the flash of genius in the plan. It would appease the more conservative board members on both sides while kicking off negotiations with a strong showing of profits for all quarters. It would also cut our work time down by about a third.
“So?”
I raised my eyes and stared at him in amazement. Then he dropped his towel.
“What do you think?”
“Michael!”
“Of the IDEA, you little pervert! God—avert your eyes, please!”
Before I knew what I was doing, I was storming upstairs, leaving him hastily pulling on his pants.
“Where—where are you going?” he called up.
In truth, I didn’t know. He had invaded so much of my personal space, pushed past the boundaries to make me blush so many times; I felt the need to reciprocate.
I bounded up the last step and raced through the first open door I could find. It happened to be his bedroom. I heard him coming up the stairs which meant I didn’t have much time. After slamming the door, I became a breathless flurry of emotion—opening drawers, grabbing armfuls of things, moving faster than I think I had in my entire life.
The door flew open again just as I was disappearing into the adjoining bathroom. I only saw a split second glance of his shocked face before I locked the door between us.