Finding Katie

Chapter 5

Katie

Having a tall, broad and gorgeous man with the ability to send sparks down your spine with just a smile sitting directly in your line of sight and glancing at you at every opportunity did not make it easy to concentrate on work.

It did, however, make it easier to flirt with him.

I placed my lip between my teeth before I glanced to my side with my lashes lowered.

All of the members of the board of directors of the Blackwell Rehabilitation Project were sitting around the long table in the common room with Liz Parker, the chairwoman, at the end, and as London had been hit by an early summer heatwave, both the door to the courtyard and the door to the reception had been left open in the hope of bringing in a bit of air.

Which meant I had but to look up from the computer screen behind the tall reception desk and turn my head the slightest bit to look at Ben.

And to find him looking at me. Which made my task so much simpler.

I met his gaze and smiled at him, letting my lip pop free from my teeth.

The lip-biting was not a habit I'd ever had before, but when I had tried it out earlier in the day, Ben's gaze had flared, and I needed every weapon in my arsenal.

He'd arrived at the centre two hours ago, but Vincent had been with me in the reception so it hadn't been possible then to flirt with Ben as overtly as I wanted to. As I needed to. It had been easier back in that small cafe I'd been told Ben frequented for lunch, to smile and bite my lip and play with my hair and oh so casually touch his hand while I asked him questions about himself.

Not that it was any hardship flirting with Ben. The tall, broad and gorgeous became more and more my thing every time I saw him. I didn't have to feign my attraction to him. That part of my task was simple.

Since it had been made clear to me that I would have to see Ben again, I had spent quite a lot of time wondering if I would still find him as handsome as I had on Saturday. Maybe the memory of his smile and his dimples that kept plaguing me was simply my body blaming me for leaving the party before we'd been able to take things to the very pleasant ending that had been about to unfold.

But of course he was even more handsome on second sight. He'd finally shaved, but that only made his dimples stand out more, and his golden hair had been in complete disarray, as if he'd spent the entire morning running his hand through it.

He was still in the same dark same suit now, and somehow both it and his shirt still looked as fresh as if he'd only just walked out of his flat. Tough his hair looked as if he'd also spent the entire afternoon clutching at it.

It certainly begged for me to run my fingers through it.

Blinking, I straightened and concentrated on the screen in front of me and pushed that thought down. I wasn't there to explore my attraction to Ben, I was there to exploit it.

Speaking of which.

I twirled a lock of hair around my finger as I glanced into the common room again. Then let a smile grow on my lips when my eyes met Ben's and counted in my head before I let my gaze slide away again.

Ben might not hide his interest in me, but I had to be cautious. I couldn't risk making him suspicious by being overly keen. I had done nothing to hide my interest in him on Saturday, but that had been when I'd thought I would spend a few hours with him and then be on my way.

Now that I had to prolong our time together, a bit of playing hard to get would hopefully only stoke his interest.

At least, Ben's eagerness meant this was going to be easier than I had feared. At this rate I could have the necessary information in a matter of days and be gone from Britain as soon as I had handed it over.

"Why does that hunky beefcake keep staring at you?"

I kept my gaze on the computer screen instead of looking at Mary-Ann beside me, but the whispered question made heat rise in my cheeks. "I don't know."

My colleague only smirked. Instead of going home after her shift, Mary-Ann had spent the afternoon in Vincent's office with her feet up so the two of them could walk home together after the board meeting. "Sure, you don't," she said, drawing out the first word to at least five vowels. "And you haven't been staring at him for the last hour with that come hither look either."

I almost choked on a laugh, but quickly smothered it and turned to stare at the woman beside me. "Come hither?" I whispered.

Mary-Ann tilted her head and batted her eyelashes while her lips puckered, which only made me laugh even more and I had to cover my mouth to not disturb the meeting in the next room.

"I do not look like that," I protested in a hushed voice, but to be honest, that was what I'd been doing. I'd just hoped that I wasn't too obvious about it. It didn't matter that my colleagues noticed me flirting with Ben, it would only be a problem if one of them was sharp-sighted enough to notice that it wasn't Ben as such I was most interested in, but that his work was the main focus of my attention.

"You should definitely go for him." Mary-Ann scooted her chair closer to me, nodding vigorously.

I glanced at her, my lips twitching. "The hunky beefcake, you mean?"

"He's obviously into you and he's wicked handsome. I bet he's stowing a huge beanpole between his legs. I wouldn't mind a ride."

"Mary-Ann!"

She only shrugged and massaged her rounded belly. "It's the hormones. I'm allowed to be outrageous. And I'm sooo horny all the time. Poor Vincent's struggling to keep up." She grinned. "Up in more ways than one."

Struggling not to laugh too loud, I held up a hand. "Too much info, Mary-Ann. Way too much."

She waggled her eyebrows. "Could be you and the beefcake going at it like rabbits. Just saying."

"Hi, Katie. Are they ready for me?"

Grateful for the timely interruption, I looked up to the other side of the tall reception desk and smiled at Philip. He was to participate in the last item on the agenda to tell the board about the centre from a resident's perspective.

"I think so," I replied. "Let me just check." I went to the door and caught Vincent's gaze across the room and mouthed, "Philip?"

He nodded and I turned back, letting my eyes meet Ben's for just a second. The glance was deliberate, the parting of my lips on a quick inhale of breath was not.

But I firmly stomped down the reaction and smiled at Philip, motioned him into the common room. Then went back behind the reception desk and ignored Mary-Ann's knowing smirk. And did not look into the common room again.

Instead, I focused on breathing in deeply a few times. On what would happen if I failed my task. It wasn't only my own butt on the line, my mission was in jeopardy too.

But at least I didn't have to fake my reactions to Ben. Luckily, since I'd never been much of an actress and he was no fool. Obviously, he was quite the contrary – and a solicitor – and he would see right through any blatant attempts at deceiving him.

Hence why I was needed for this task at all.

The meeting adjourned twenty minutes later, and the board members all filed out with Vincent and Philip still talking about the centre.

As soon as it was empty, I slipped into the common room and quickly began clearing the table while I listened to Vincent talking. I needed to find a way of making my departure coincide with Ben's, but I couldn't just leave the clearing up for Bridget in the morning. But if I could get the dirty cups cleared away then I could return to the reception and pretend to be working until I happened to be done at the same time as Ben would be leaving.

"What time are you done here?"