“Livy!”
Livia gritted her teeth as her boss, Chris Feller, bellowed for her once again. She hated that nickname but he refused to call her anything else. Just one more vowel! Was the man so lazy that he couldn’t even pronounce the last vowel in her name? Livia rubbed her forehead, trying to calm down. She hadn’t slept very well, tossing and turning as her mind replayed the kiss. Over and over, she’d wondered…
Picking up her notepad and pen, she pushed away from her desk, pushing all thoughts of that man and the way he kissed out of her mind. Again!
She rushed out of her cubicle and into his office. “Yes sir?” she asked politely, pen poised over her notebook.
The man was leaning back in his chair, his feet propped up on the desk. “Where are we on that Livingston project?”
Livia didn’t answer for a moment, needing to calm down in order to fight back the angry words that sprouted to her mind at his question. Unfortunately, her pause didn’t help her. She was too tired from a sleepless night and she couldn’t hold back the words. “You mean, where am ‘I’ on that project? Because I don’t remember you contributing anything to that effort!” She glared at him, daring him to contradict her.
The man’s eyes widened and he stopped tossing the baseball up in the air. “Well, well, the little kitten has claws, eh?” he chuckled. “Yes, you’re right. You’ve done the lion’s share of the work and I’ll make sure that you get the credit if we win the account.”
Livia was astounded. He’d never offered her credit for any of the work she’d done in the past. Well, except when he lost an account. Then he blamed her for messing up the presentation. “The boards are finished and down in the art department,” she explained then rattled off a status on the rest of the presentation that was set to be delivered in three days’ time. “Anything else?” she asked, flipping her hair behind her back.
He laughed again. “I don’t think so,” Chris told her, his eyes moving up and down her figure in the black suit. “Good job.”
Livia didn’t respond in any way. She simply turned on her heel and walked out of his office…straight into a massive, hard chest. “Oomph!”
She felt strong hands grab hold of her waist and instantly knew who she’d just run into.
“Stefan, what are you doing here?” she demanded, pulling back and stepping out of his arms. She pulled her notebook over her chest, as if it could be a shield against the way he made her, feel but it didn’t work. She was already trembling. And excited. And terribly nervous after the way he’d kissed her goodnight last night.
“I’m here to take you out to lunch,” he said.
Livia shook her head. “I don’t have time for lunch.” She swept by him and hurried back to her cubicle, wishing she rated an office so she could go inside and slam the door against his intrusion.
She hadn’t slept well last night, her body still on fire for the man. And she couldn’t reconcile Stefan’s reaction to her announcement along with his declaration that they were not finished. That, topped off by that mind-blowing kiss, and she was just a mass of quivering, excited fatigue.
“Go away,” she said when his enormous body stepped into the open space that constituted a doorway to her cubicle. There was no privacy for the peons that worked in this company. Perhaps in a few years, and if she stood up to Chris a bit more, she’d rate an office. But until then, anyone, including confusing, magnificent, irritating men, could simply walk into her work space without permission.
Stefan crossed his muscular arms over his massive chest, glaring down at her. He was having a hard time not punching the man in the office for the way he’d spoken to Livia, but this was her workplace. He was trying hard to respect what she did, but the guy had better behave! “I’m not going away and you’re taking a break and coming out to lunch with me.”
She shook her head. “Not happening, Stefan. I have too much work to do.”
He had the gall to pull her chair out from her desk, effectively stopping her from pressing the keys on her keyboard. “How dare you!” she snapped, only to be pinned against the cabinet by his body once he lifted her out of her office chair.
“I dare!” he growled, his hands on her waist. “And if you want to have this argument here, where all of your co-workers can hear it, that’s fine with me. But I’m guessing that you don’t want anyone else to hear me demand…” He couldn’t finish that statement because she slapped a hand over his mouth.
She glared up at him, furious that he would say something like that but everything inside of her tightened in anticipation of whatever he might have been about to say. “Fine! We’ll go out to lunch. But it has to be fast. I have a lot of work today. And I’m supposed to help Chris with a presentation this afternoon.”
Stefan didn’t respond. He watched as she grabbed her purse out of a drawer before practically stomping out of her cubicle. He only took a moment to poke his head into her boss’s office, said something quickly, and then followed her out through the maze of hallways.
When they were back out on the street, Livia started walking towards the street vendors, heading towards her favorite. “I’m buying lunch,” she told him firmly.
She didn’t even bother to look back at him as she headed towards the Mexican food truck. “Any preferences?” she asked, barely glancing up at him.
Stefan thought she was cute, trying to order him around. He’d let her. For now. “You order whatever you think is good. I’m not an expert and it seems like you have experience with these vendors.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her with amusement.
She stared up at him for a long moment, getting lost in his dark eyes and that amused expression. When someone nudged her, she realized that the line had moved and it was her turn to order.
“Hey beautiful!” the man in the truck gushed as soon as he spotted Livia. “You haven’t been by to see me in a while! Are you trying to avoid me?”
Livia cringed inwardly, able to feel Stefan’s anger as soon as the handsome, younger man started speaking. “Hey Julio. Looks like business is booming.”
“Absolutely!” he replied with a huge grin. “So when are you going to let me take you out to dinner? Or even better, to my place and I’ll cook you the best meal you’ve ever had?”
“The lady has already experienced that,” Stefan said, wrapping his arm around Livia’s waist. The gesture screamed out his possession and Livia’s hands instantly went up to his, trying to pull his hands away. But he wasn’t letting her move his arms and she had to pretend like it didn’t bother her.
Julio’s eyes widened as he watched the couple but he got the message loud and clear. “Got it. What can I get for ya?” he asked, more businesslike now.
“Pork carnitas with that delicious corn salsa of yours. Two servings,” she told him. Livia glanced up at Stefan, shaking her head. “Better make that three.”
Julio yelled the order to the person at the other end of the truck then turned back to her and named the price. He added a wink to the end of that, then glanced up at the scowling man.
Before Livia could even pull her wallet out of her purse, Stefan had slapped the money down on the small, metal counter. “Keep the change,” he told the man and nudged Livia down to the next window to pick up their order.
She glared up at him, furious that he’d latched onto her waist and also furious for some other reason besides the whole money issue. She didn’t really understand why, but she was just foot-stomping mad right at the moment. “I told you that I was buying you lunch. You paid for dinner last night. I pay for lunch.”
He shook his head. “That’s not the way this is going to work, my beauty,” he told her and nudged her towards their food that had just appeared in the second window. “Come with me,” he told her and grabbed the large bag.
Livia watched him angrily as he walked across the street with their bag of food. He didn’t even bother to turn to make sure she was following him. But her stomach growled at that moment and she didn’t really have a choice. She was too hungry and the line was now about ten people deep so getting another bag of food wasn’t an option. Especially if she was going to be back in time to work with Chris in preparation for his meeting.
Sighing, she followed him, but she wasn’t happy about it.
“You’re being obnoxious,” she told him as she sat down next to him on the bench. Purposely, she left extra space between their bodies. She’d been touching him last night at the dinner table and look where that had gotten her! Kissed and sleepless, thinking about that kiss. Wanting another kiss. But too afraid of where that kiss might lead. Sighing, she wasn’t sure what she was thinking any longer.
He handed her one of the tacos and several napkins. “Get used to it.”
His terse command irritated her more. “No. I won’t do that.”
He chuckled. “I’ll just have to figure out how to keep you happy in other ways,” he said and bit into the food. “This is good,” he told her, nodding his head as he enjoyed the burst of flavor.
She huffed at his comments for a long moment, but in the end, the allure of the food was too much for her. She was hungry and…frustrated? Oh no, she was not going to be frustrated because that would mean…No! Absolutely not. Livia glared up at Stefan, worried that he might have read her thoughts.
Focusing only on the food and not the frustration (that wasn’t really frustration because she refused to be frustrated), she said “Julio is a good chef. Not as great as Mustafa, but…” She shrugged and took a bite herself. The hot, spicy food hit her taste buds and she sighed with enjoyment. She hadn’t eaten breakfast this morning, too wound up from the previous night’s kiss and sleeplessness, so she was ravenously hungry.
They ate in silence for several moments before Stefan broke it with his question. “Okay, so explain.”
Livia knew exactly what he was talking about but she pretended to be confused. “Well, I think he marinates the pork for about twenty-four hours…”
“Livia,” he growled, interrupting her.
She turned her head and stared up into his dark, angry eyes. “What? You want me to explain my sex life to you?”
“No. I want you to explain your lack of a sex life to me.”
She’d finished half of the taco but, with his question, she lost her appetite. Folding the paper carefully over the meal, she leaned back on the bench. “There isn’t a lot to tell. I don’t sleep around.”
“You’re twenty-five years old, Livia. Surely you’ve had some experience.”
“Yes. I’m twenty-five. But I just haven’t found a man that I’ve been interested in enough to change my status.”
“Until now.”
She didn’t reply because to deny it would be a lie. She’d thought about it. A lot! All last night when she was supposed to be sleeping, she’d been wondering what it would be like to make love with Stefan. “That’s not going to happen, Stefan.”
He tossed his empty wrapper into the trash bin and pulled out another taco. “Yes it is. We’ll just go at your pace.”
She smiled at that, thinking it was sweet. “My pace?”
“Exactly.”
She laughed. “Stefan, you’re not the kind of man who can take things slowly. Especially not my pace.”
He shrugged one of his massive shoulders. “Okay, so we won’t touch each other until you’re ready.”
When he’d demolished the next taco and started in on the corn salsa, she wasn’t going to allow him to get away with that. “Hey!” and she stole the bag of chips, dunking one into the cheesy corn dip. “This is my favorite,” she said and savored the loaded chip.
They argued back and forth about the best way to make salsa for a good part of the next hour. Livia actually found herself laughing, enjoying Stefan’s company now that the threat of sexual advances was gone.
When he walked her back to her office building, she smiled up at him. “Thank you. Lunch was really nice.”
He pulled her closer. “I have to go out of town for a few days. Will you have dinner with me Saturday night?”
She thought about that for a long moment before she nodded her head. “Yes. But…”
“Stop right there,” he told her. “I’ll cook,” he asserted. “Lunch was your turn, dinner will be mine.” With that, he pulled her closer and kissed her gently, not deepening the kiss in any way. She was still clinging to him but he lifted his head slowly before walking away.
Livia watched him, wondering if she was making a mistake by continuing to see him. He definitely wasn’t the normal type of guy she went out with. But then again, she hadn’t really dated anyone in…she thought back to the previous few months and she couldn’t remember a man in her life. Not in over a year. And that had been, well, it had just been a casual few dates with a guy before he stopped calling. She couldn’t even remember his name.
She realized that she hadn’t missed dating in any way. But she was going to miss Stefan over the next few days. Goodness, she’d just met the man and already she was going to miss him?
She was being silly!