Once Forbidden, Twice Tempted (The Sterling Wives Book 1), стр. 28
She knocked on the door frame. “Do you have a minute? We need to talk.”
“Sure.” His body immediately responded to her presence. It felt like every hair on his head was standing straight up. Everything below his waist went tight.
Tara took a step inside and went to close the door.
“Leave it open,” he blurted, bolting out of his seat.
Tara cast him a questioning look. “What’s up?”
“Everyone knows,” he whispered.
“I realize that. Precisely why I’d like to close the door. So we can have some privacy.”
A deep grumble left his throat. He hated playing these games, especially at work. It was not the way he liked to do things. He was supposed to be the guy with nothing to hide. “No. Leave it open. If there’s anything we can’t discuss with the door open, we shouldn’t be talking about it at all. At least not here.”
“Fine.” Tara marched to one of the armchairs opposite his desk and sat. “There are three things we need to talk about. Astrid, the Seaport Promenade and my office move.”
She wasn’t making this any easier on him. “I think we make Astrid the project coordinator for the Seaport. You can oversee her work,” Grant said.
“Do you really think she’ll go for that? She owns just as much of the company as I do.”
“And you have experience in this realm. She does not. She’ll learn a lot by doing this, and quite frankly, I think it’ll help her decide if this is something she really wants to do long term. I’m not convinced she’s cut out for this.”
Tara pursed her lips, but nodded in agreement. “Okay. You’ll call her and let her know?”
“Yes.” He only hoped Astrid wouldn’t give him crap about what happened last night. “As for the project itself, it should be obvious that I’m committed to us submitting a proposal and bid to the city. I’d like to assign Clay Morgan as lead architect. He has background in designing public spaces, he’s incredibly smart and well suited to working within the constraints the city sets. I think he’d be perfect.”
“Interesting.”
“What?” Grant disliked Tara’s leading tone. He was doing his best to make this work, when really all he wanted to do was shut the door and get her to take off that red dress.
“It feels a little bit like you’re setting up Astrid for failure. She and Miranda are still working on their differences, but you saw the way they talked to each other in the lawyer’s meeting. I could see them returning to that dynamic at any time. Miranda and her brother are extremely close. Do you not see a potential problem there?”
“And do you want to give Astrid a job or not?”
Tara leaned back in her chair and surveyed the view through his doorway, presumably looking to see if anyone might overhear what she was about to say. “We have to. Not only because of her shares of the company, but because it might be the only way we can keep her from talking.”
“I think we need to be able to keep tabs on her, too. We can’t simply hand her something and let her run with it. She’s an unknown quantity right now.”
“That’s fair.”
“I realize this isn’t ideal, but I’m doing my best, okay?” Grant felt a headache starting to brew, right in the center of his forehead. His shoulders were tightening. Not a great way to start a Friday, especially when he knew that he had a long, frustratingly lonely weekend ahead of him.
“I know you are. I’m sorry. I’m sorry everything got so messy.”
“Yeah, well, so am I. You were right about what you said earlier this morning. It was a mistake.” Those last four words had barely left his mouth, and he couldn’t help but want to take them back. They were the right thing to say, but damn it all if they didn’t feel wrong. He’d dreamed for so many years of being with Tara. He hated that the memory of their one night together was now tainted by everything that had happened since then.
“Right. Of course. Not to be repeated.”
“Exactly.” That was that then—the beginning and end of Grant and Tara had transpired in fewer than twenty-four hours.
“If we’re back to focusing on work, I have to ask about next steps with Seaport.”
Grant shuffled some papers on his desk, desperate to hide his wounded pride. “Run with it and keep me apprised. You have your team—Astrid, Clay and Sandy. It’s your project to bring together.”
Tara shifted in her seat and recrossed her legs. His stupid eyes were drawn to them the way a horse is drawn to cool water. Those beautiful stretches of her skin had been wrapped around him last night. And he couldn’t have that happen again. “That’s it then?” she asked.
He was trying so hard to keep it together right now. He did want to close the door to his office. He wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her exactly like he’d been brave enough to do last night. “That’s it. Green light from me. Go ahead and prove me wrong.”
“Okay. I will.” She got up from her seat and stepped closer to his desk. “One more thing before I go. What about my office? We can’t work together closely when I’m so far away.”
Distance would help him keep his head straight. It would help him focus on big-picture projects at Sterling and let Tara do her thing. He hoped they could peacefully coexist. They had to. Or he had to find a way to