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.
“Jenna...” He was breathless and stunned. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Without saying a word, I started up the bath. A second later, there was a quick pounding on the door.
“I’m serious, Jenna—get out of there!”
“Oh, you’re serious ?” I called sarcastically. “You’re serious now?!”
There was a noisy splash and the pounding instantly stopped.
“...what are you doing?”
Another splash.
“Jenna—what are you doing?”
I smirked. “Just dropping your shoes in the tub. I hope it doesn’t ruin them,” I held one up for examination, “they look pretty expensive...”
Dead silence.
“Are you fucking with me?”
Another splash.
“Jenna—stop. Let me in!”
“The thing is, Mikey, you don’t seem to have any problem invading other people’s personal space, messing with their lives... So why not return the favor?”
Another splash and the pounding resumed.
“I can’t believe this! You are being so childish right now—let me in!”
“How do you pronounce this? Armany? Armanii? Oh well, doesn’t matter.”
Splash .
There was a combination of laughter and swearing, followed by a muted thud as he leaned his head against the door. “I’m sorry—okay? Is that what you want? I’m sorry.”
“You’re not going to send down any more Russian strippers to freak me out?”
“Tatiana is not a stripper. She happens to be a very talented—”
Splash.
“Okay,
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