Page 54 of Hot in the City
Cruz stopped what he was doing, scribbling in his expensive looking notebook. “Really? What would that entail?” His gaze roved over her short white dress, until he blinked slowly and met her eyes again.
She shrugged, acting cool. “My pinstripe dress with matching jacket and horn-rimmed librarian glasses.”
He tipped his head to one side. “You wear glasses?”
“No.”
Cruz’s lips tipped up at the corners, like he was trying not to smile but he didn’t quite manage it. “Practical, then. Tell me, Megan, how many staff do you have at your disposal?”
“Full time? One. Just Jean.”
Cruz placed his pen down on the dark wood boardroom table with a soft clunk. “One staff member? A website team of two? For a retail pyjama company with an annual turnover of fifty million dollars?”
Megan blew out her breath on a long whistle. “Is it really? Fifty million? That’s a lot of PJs.”
His eyebrow inched upwards. “You don’t seem particularly perturbed if I develop an unfavourable view of the current management of Nora Heart Pyjamas.”
She shrugged, unable to maintain even the pretence of caring. “Mr Ono, Cruz, I’ll tell it to you straight. My job has been put on the line, no one from management informed me what was going on here today, I’m underpaid and extremely stressed. Now, I have a Boxing Day sale website to create, so if you’ll excuse me.”
She shut her laptop and rose from the table.
Cruz put a hand on her arm, and she froze. “Wait. Megan, what would you say if I told you I could help? That I’m actually here to help you?”
She bit her lip. His hand was still on her bare arm, a gentle touch but warm as summer sunshine on a sandy beach. “Help me? How?”
“Sit down, Megan.” He pulled back his hand, glancing at it before he placed it in his lap. “Please.”
She tried not to stare at his lap as she sat down beside him. Their chairs were a regulation distance apart, but somehow he seemed closer now.
“Okay.” Her voice cracked on the word.
She sat. Crossed her legs. She thought unsexy thoughts. The smell of the staff fridge after a long weekend power outage... That did it. Her belly turned over. Now she totally wasn’t thinking about touching Cruz or staring at his mouth. His full lower lip looked slightly damp, as if he’d licked it.
Oh, hell. She was totally staring.
Cruz nodded at her, making his silky-looking black hair flop over his forehead. “I didn’t want to alarm you by disclosing why I was here, in advance of this meeting. But, to cut a long story short, I don’t just work for Data Core. Our parent company at Global Retail Solutions wants to acquire and run Nora Heart’s entire operation. A fifty million dollar clothing business would offer a significant entry to the Australian market.”
She sat back in her chair and absorbed that information. GRS was a huge company in the US. They had whole chains of casual wear stores. “Woah. That’s big news.”
He nodded, his hair flopping again until he pushed it back. “Yes, it is. To be frank, I’m not the corporate boogey man. I wanted to review the IT infrastructure, to report back to my management. We’re looking to keep on all valuable staff and grow the business. Now, I think I understand you’re running on a shoestring budget, you’re under-resourced and underappreciated. Is that correct?”
Megan slicked a rogue strand of her hair back behind her ear. “In a nutshell, yes. So, what happens now? What do you want from me?”
Cruz smiled, the kind of slow, lazy and flirty grin that slid across his face as if it happened automatically, beyond his awareness. “Cutting to the chase. I like that. I like you, Megan. What I want... What I’m asking for, is a complete set of records from your little department for the past year. Expenditure, resources, schedules, known issues, website analytics, anything else of relevance. Can you do that for me?”
She swallowed on a dry throat. She’d do that for him, and more. He probably knew it, too. She nodded. “I can do that.”
“Excellent. I’ll meet you back here at six o’clock. Don’t be late.”
Wait, what?
She blinked a couple of times. “Six o’clock? Today?”
“That’s correct. I have a few more meetings scheduled first, but I’d like to see you later.”
The way he said that... Yes, he was definitely flirting. “Right. Um, Six o’clock. I’m looking forward to it. For work-related reasons, obviously.”
Cruz laughed, a low, resonant sound that tugged at muscles deep inside she could barely remember possessing.
