For one breath-taking moment, she could have sworn she’d seen desire in the depths of his dark eyes. The look had taken her so much by surprise that she had quickly looked at something else, certain she’d been mistaken. Now that she had gained total control of her senses, she knew she’d been mistaken. He was her boss. She needed to remember that.
They left the ballroom and walked sidebyside down the corridor to the exit doors. It had rained earlier, but to her relief, it had stopped long before the event had begun. Now, the air was permeated with the earthy scent of damp grass and wet soil.
Overhead, a full moon flooded the sky above the mountains and lit the foothills with an intense silver glow. A summer breeze ruffled the leaves on the trees they passedand she shivered. He surprised her by wrapping his arms around her shoulder.
“You’re cold,” he said, as if explaining his actions.
Yes, she had been. “I hadn’t expected the air to be this cool.”
She didn’t want to think about how good his arm felt around her. If she didn’t think of something else quickly, she would soon be shivering for another reason. “I have a feeling Granger Aeronautic is going to try to beat our numbers next year,” she said. It had been announced that Granger Aeronautics would be sponsoring next year’s event.
“I don’t know. You’ve set the bar pretty high. Still, it will be good for everyone if they do. Just as long as they don’t try and lure you away from Connelly Enterprises. I think you and your team impressed everyone tonight.”
“I had fun doing it.”
“And you handled the paparazzi like a pro. You all but had them eating out of your hands. How did you do that?”
She chuckled. “It wasn’t all that difficult. Once they saw there wasn’t a story there between us, I thought it best to change the narrative before they began fabricating one.”
“You think they would have?”
“Of course. In college, I worked as a reporter for the university’s paper. I know the way a reporter thinks and what length one will go to in order to get a story.” She smiled. There was no reason for her to add that it had been that job that had subsequently led to her doing voice-overs.
“I was also the PR person for the student union. Reporters don’t intimidate me because I know they are merely doing their jobs. If there isn’t a story there, the best thingyou can do is give them one. The one you want printed, even if it isn’t necessarily the one they had planned to get.”
“Smart thinking.”
She shrugged. “Not necessarily smart, Mr. Connelly. But I’ve found it best to always get ahead of the game, if I can.”
After that, they walked silently towards the car, where Morris waited for them, holding the door open. As she settled into the back seat, she was very much aware of Frazier large body settling in beside her. On the drive over, they’d sat a good distance from each other. Was she imagining things or had that distance decreased? Granted, there was a decent amount of space between them, but still…
“What are your plans for tomorrow?”
She glanced over at him. “My plans?”
“I imagine after a late night like tonight, you’ll likely want to sleep in late.”
She chuckled again. “I doubt that will happen. My daughter will probably call early to see how things went tonight. She knows I was in charge and will be eager to see how I did.”
“Well, you can tell her the guy who owns the company you work for thinks you did an awesome job.”
“Thank you. I will tell her that. You’re a very kind man, Mr. Connelly.”
• • •
Kind? Frazier wanted her to see him as more than kind. Granted, so far tonight, he’d kept things pretty low-key between them, but he’d done that for a reason. The last thinghe wanted was for Rylee to think he was coming on to her…at least, while she was working. But now that the event over, there was nothing holding him back.
His gaze sharpened as he took her in. She was looking out the window as they drove and maybe that was a good thing. With all the bright neon signs they passed, it would have been easy for her to see more than mere interest in his eyes. He had a feeling heated lust had taken up residence there, as well.
He had watched her a lot tonight; especially when she hadn’t known he was doing so. That dress she wore flattered her figure and he’d seen more than one man giving her a second look. And when he’d stood beside her at the podium to give closing remarks, her scent had almost caused him to lose his common sense—the way it was doing now.
He wondered what she was thinking. More than likely, she was glad tonight’s affair was over and happy it had turned out as well as it did. But then, she could be thinking about something else. Or someone else. Just because she didn’t have a date tonight, that didn’t mean there wasn’t an important man in her life. Why did the thought that there might be one bother him so much? There was only one way to find out.
“I’m sorry your significant other couldn’t attend with you tonight.”
That statement made her glance over at him. “My significant other? I’m divorced, remember?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a man in your life.”