"What are you doing here?!" Reyona asked in a strangled tone.
"I come bearing gifts," he said automatically as he held the bag in his hand forward like a peace offering.
"I told you…" she looked beside her when she saw him grinning as he looked towards her side too.
Phil gave her an innocent look as he said "I can…go?"
"No, you don't have to. I don't want you to go. I have something we need to do right now. We have…" she trailed off as she tried to remember what she was going to do with Phil before he decided to discomfit her with his presence.
"Meeting. We have a meeting, boss." Phil quickly finished for her. "A very important meeting that can't wait. Yes, that is it."
"Yes, it can't wait," she said as she looked back at Maxwell and inclined her head for him to leave.
Instead, he moved forward with his hands outstretched towards Phil. "Hi, I am Maxwell. I don't believe we have met. You must be the very capable Phil who has been helping my wife out."
"Maxwell" Reyona said under her breath as she saw Nicole coming towards them.
Just as Phil took Maxwell's hand in a handshake and said "Yes, I am he."
"They are ready for you, ma," Nicole said as she got to them.
"Your meeting", Maxwell said as he gave Reyona a penetrating look.
"Uhh? My…hmm,"
"Come with me, Nicole," Phils said instantly and practically dragged the confused Nicole away.
Then she heard Phil say before they rounded the corner. "I think it has just got hotter around here."
Reyona pinked even more in embarrassment. "Look what you made me do."
"I didn't do anything," he said innocently as he moved closer to her.
"No, no, stop. Stop right there." She said desperately. "Come with me."
She turned on her heels and quickly headed to her office, amazed that her jelly legs still managed to carry her so well.
She jerked the door open and inhaled deeply before she turned to face him.
"What are you…"
"Your gift." He said immediately as he stretched the small bag with the logo of a bakery to her.
She looked from his innocent face to the bag, then back to his face. "What gift?"
"I know how much you love Tiramisu, so I just couldn't pass it over when I saw it on the display of this cute bakery."
"You came all this way to bring me a Tiramisu from a cute bakery?" She asked incomprehensibly.
His grin was not helping her at all as he said "Very cute."
"I just had my lunch" she quickly said.
"Great. Then this could be your dessert." He said without missing a beat. "Don't worry, it is alcohol-free and decaffeinated too. Talk of cute, did I ever tell you how beautifully cute you look when you blush?"
"I don't blush." She said emphatically.
"Must be my imagination then. Still, you look very…"
"Oh, shut up," she said as she walked up to him and did what she had been tempted to do since she saw him standing there in the hallway, looking like a billion bucks and yummy in his pinstripe suit and trousers that moulded his physique so perfectly that she wanted to rip them all off while declaring to the world that this man belonged to her.
"Well, hello there," he said as she finally got ahold of herself to pull back from him.
"If I had known that getting a Tiramisu would bring this great reward, I would have gotten the whole bakery's worth."
His husky tone was her undoing.
Reyona strode towards him again, then she stopped herself as she took a step backwards and said "No, I am not doing this. I am a professional and I will stay that way."
His grin widened as he said, "Even professionals have got to eat, you know."
Chest heaving, Reyona keened low in her throat as his suggestive tone almost turned her into a puddle of mess.
His gaze and tone were enough to let even the deaf know that he was not talking about food. Certainly not the ordinary kind.
"You need to go," she said as she bit her lips and stood back from him.
"I would rather stay, you know. I want to take you home when you are done with work."
"I don't need you to… I came with my car." She said with determination.
"I didn't come with mine," he said automatically.
"Then how... I really need to go to this meeting." She said to change the topic.
That should get him going, right?
"I am already done with my meetings for the day. I can stay here to wait for you, then take you out to dinner before we go home, or I can come with you to the meeting. I would like to watch you in action, you know. That is a privilege I have never had before."
"I think…"
"Did I remember to tell you that I also have a surprise for you?" He asked as he moved closer to her.
She wanted to move backwards, but she stood her ground.
She had given him too much power to see how much he affected her.
It was time to put a stop to that.
Still, she couldn't stop her chest from heaving as he slowly reached for her waist while he placed the Tiramisu on the table with his other hand.
"What surprise?" She asked breathily.
He smiled as he bopped her on the nose and said "It is why it is called a surprise, Reyona. Can't tell you yet. Let me sit in for your meeting."
"It is not professional, you are not…"
"I can look in from outside. I don't have to be part of it. I just want to see you in boss mode. I am already getting stiff from imagining you in that element. Wanna check?" He asked mischievously.
When she opened her mouth to talk, he quickly said, "I am kidding. Can I come?"
Come? Damn it, how was she supposed to have a whole meeting in his presence when she couldn't help but have a different meaning for such a simple word?