The Billionaire's Gentle Rescue (The Sisterhood) (10 page)

She laughed and hugged him, her excitement overwhelming her good sense to keep some space between them. “Even if that’s true, I wouldn’t have even been there if you hadn’t brought me so it’s still your wonderful influence who has provided this breakthrough.”

“I’ll take the credit,” he said softly, a small smile on his face as he looked down into her lovely features. Marco felt like he’d had his own breakthrough. By her being here, telling him the news and wanting to do it in person proved that she at least considered him to be a good partner. If only professionally. And seeing her like this made his investment completely worth every penny. She was practically vibrating with her excitement and she was touching him of her own volition, not even caring that his hands were on her hips and she smelled incredibly good.

Zoe realized how intimate their position was and thought about pulling back. But something in his eyes stopped her. Actually moved her forward. With her heart beating frantically, she lifted her head, moving closer to him. He was too tall for her to kiss without help, but when she moved her hand from his jacket to his cheek, he cooperated by bending his head down. The first, tentative touch was from her as she tasted, tested and experimented. But after several moments of that teasing, Marco took control and pulled her closer, his mouth moving down to more thoroughly kiss her, his tongue plundering her mouth while his hands pulled her closer.

“Zoe,” he groaned and pushed her backwards. She didn’t know what was happening until she felt something solidly pressing against her back. With him in front of her and the wall behind her, she didn’t care any longer what was safe or reasonable. All she wanted was his touch and his taste. She thrilled to feel him pressing her closer and her arms lifted to wrap around his neck.

When she felt his hand against her skin, a part of her mind realized that he’d slipped his hand underneath her turtleneck sweater but didn’t care at all. In fact, she pressed her body more firmly against his hand, thrilling to his touch and wanting more of it, needing him to move his hand higher. She whimpered when he did exactly what she wanted and touched his neck, almost furious that his collar hindered her hands from touching more of his skin.

The phone ringing in the background slowly worked its way through her desire-fogged brain. “Phone is ringing,” she whispered.

“I don’t give a damn,” he said and she felt his other hand slip underneath her sweater. At that point, the whole building could be burning down and she wouldn’t care.

But when the knocking sounded on his office door, that was a bit harder to ignore.

“Someone is trying to interrupt us,” she groaned.

“They’re fired,” he growled back. But he pulled his head back, his hands sliding out from underneath her sweater.

He looked up at the ceiling, his eyes closed as he worked to gain a bit of control. When he looked back down at her, he shook his head. “As soon as I let you go, you’re going to start thinking and we’re not going to finish this.”

She opened her mouth to deny it, but then her mind clicked into action. She realized that she was in his office, in the bright light of day and she was exactly where she shouldn’t be, in his arms and kissing him like there was no tomorrow. “You’re probably right.”

He sighed and put his forehead against hers. “We’re going to have to do this when there’s no worry about interruptions Zoe. I can’t take much more of this. I want you. And if you’d stop fooling yourself, you’d admit that you want me too.”

She took an unsteady breath, but couldn’t reply.

Marco stepped back and sighed. “Okay, for now, we step back and enjoy your good news. But soon Zoe, very soon, we’re going to finish this.”

He pushed away from the wall and walked over to his office door. Several people were standing outside waiting for their time with Marco and Zoe slipped out of the office, her worried expression giving him more information than if she’d actually spoken.

Marco watched her walk away and gritted his teeth in frustration. No woman had ever been able to get to him so quickly and so powerfully as this one. He tried to take it slow, but as soon as she stepped into his arms, they seemed to just light each other on fire. Something was going to have to give he thought as he sat down behind his desk and tried to concentrate on his next meeting. It was tough, but eventually he was able to get her response out of his head. Or at least calm his body down enough to focus on what was being said.

Chapter 6

Zoe looked around at the chaos of her office and felt as if she were coming apart at the seams. “Debbie!” she called out, picking up papers and fabric swatches, desperately looking for the order forms that she’d put somewhere in this mess.

Debbie stuck her head in Zoe’s door, but looked just as frazzled as Zoe was feeling.

Zoe picked up another stack, and then slapped the papers back down on her desk since they hadn’t revealed the documents she was looking for. “Do you know where the orders are for the Cleo stores? I thought I put them over on this stack, but I can’t find them.”

Debbie shook her head. “I thought they were there as well.” She stepped into the office, dropping her own pile of paperwork to help her search for them.

They looked for over thirty minutes before Zoe found them in her design basket – not a good place for orders to be placed.

They both sat down with a sigh of relief and shook their heads. “It’s been two weeks since Marco started helping us and now I don’t know how we’re going to deal with all this craziness. The orders are coming in faster than we can fill them.”

Zoe nodded, so exhausted she couldn’t figure out what day it was. She’d been working seven days a week trying to get through all the work but she was drowning in paperwork. Each night, Marco took her out to some function or dinner party and he worked the room like a pro, introducing her to all the right people, moving around the room and gaining as much attention to whatever outfit she was wearing. They were generally out until eleven o’clock or later, while Zoe woke up early each morning trying to keep up with the additional orders that had come through since the publicity had started. It was absolutely insane how many people saw her photos and wanted more information on the spring or fall line.

“I’d love to sleep for the next three days,” Zoe said, sighing heavily and leaning her head back against the wall. “You’ve had just as much sleep as I’ve had.”

“Yes, but you’ve been out partying it up and having a blast while I’ve been here, slaving away, working on creating more paperwork so when you come in each morning, you know what I’ve been doing while you were hob-knobbing with the elite.”

Zoe laughed because Debbie wouldn’t go to those functions if her life depended on it. She hated social functions and parties, was always the one who got into fights with her husband about his work obligations. Besides, Debbie abhorred shoes with any heel higher than one inch while Zoe wouldn’t be caught dead in a cocktail dress with less than a three inch heel.

“So why haven’t you gotten this all organized while I’m boozing it up?’ she teased.

“Because I sit back here hiding and eating bon bons, don’t you know?”

Zoe giggled and shook her head. “I think we need help.”

“What was your first clue? The fact that you haven’t started designing the next line and you’re normally up to at least a hundred options by this point? Or the fact that you can’t even find your work bench anymore because it’s covered with papers? Or maybe it’s the stack of resumes piling up that will be staffing the second shift. Or it would be if we could find the stack of resumes.”

“Resumes. Ugh!”

“I know.” Debbie sighed and pulled herself up. “I need a secretary. And a customer service representative. And a data entry clerk. That’s just for starters.”

“With that kind of staff, we need a whole new office space.” Zoe leaned forward and put her head in her hands. “I don’t know what to do!”

Debbie put a hand to Zoe’s back. “You know exactly what you need to do. But maybe you should do it after a nice, long nap.”

Zoe looked up, seeing the concern in Debbie’s face and sighed, admitting defeat now that the evidence was overwhelming. Quality was going to suffer if they didn’t get some help but Zoe didn’t know how to keep up with everything. “I know. I’ll ask Marco for advice.”

“It’s not a sign of weakness,” Debbie said softly.

“I’m sure it’s not.”

The phone started ringing and their five minute break was finished. Debbie stood up and put a hand to Zoe’s shoulder. “Just go upstairs and sleep for two hours. I’ll come get you if you go longer, don’t worry. Once you’ve had a bit of a break, you’ll feel much better and will be able to think this through with better perspective.”

Zoe nodded and walked out of the office, taking the back stairs. Her legs were so tired, they were barely able to carry her up to her loft. She was so tired, and not just from the work and social calendar she’d been dealing with. It was so much more. And it all centered around Marco. When he picked her up in the evening, she was nervous and excited to see him again. And when he walked into the room, she felt as if electricity had suddenly bolted through her. He revived her and excited her and kept her going throughout the evening with his small touches and teasing remarks whispered in her ear that had her laughing throughout the whole event. She loved being with him but each moment she spent in his company was making the job harder. When he drove her home each night, she wanted so desperately to ask him to come up to her loft, to have his arms wrap around her and feel his strength as he wrapped her up in his heat.

But he hadn’t kissed her since that time in his office. He’d been very careful to drop her off in front of her building but never walk her up, or asking to come up and have a drink. She thought he might be waiting for her to make the first move, but she couldn’t, too afraid of what might happen if they were alone together. They’d been alone in the hallway that first night and had almost made love against the wall. Then they’d been alone in his office and she’d been unable to sleep that night, thinking about what might have happened if someone hadn’t knocked on his door. What would happen if they were alone together now? If she indicated even the slightest interest in being alone with Marco?

Sighing, she pulled her long, black boots off and tossed them to the end of her bed, then slid her stockings down. She didn’t have the energy to take off her soft, green cashmere sweater dress so she simply laid down on her bed and pulled the fluffy comforter over her legs. Within moments, she was asleep.

The phone ringing woke her up and she glanced at the clock, wondering what time it was. It was already dark outside but since it was early fall, that might mean anything from five o’clock in the evening to the wee hours of the morning.

She was still too tired to see the clock, so she just answered the phone, trying to hide the sleep in her voice. “Hello?”

“Zoe, are you okay?” Marco’s concerned voice came through to her sleepy brain.

“I am now.”

“Then come answer your door.”

“Who’s at my door?” she asked, sitting up and looking around.

“I am.”

Zoe almost dropped her cell phone. “Why?”

“Because I have your dinner with me. And it’s hot. So if you don’t let me in, I’m going to start eating it myself.”

Zoe couldn’t help but laugh at the image of the extremely large, scarily sophisticated Marco sitting in her hallway chowing down on some takeout food. “I’d like to see that.”

“No you wouldn’t. Let me in. I have wine too.”

She couldn’t resist him when he was being charming and witty. Or maybe he wasn’t all that funny to others and she just had an odd sense of humor. “I’m on my way down.”

She slipped her feet into fluffy pink slippers and then descended the stairs. Opening the door, she braced herself for that electric feeling and, sure enough, he didn’t disappoint. At the first sight of Marco, all the fuzziness in her brain dissipated.

He was standing in the hallway with two large paper bags, obviously from some upscale grocery store. He stepped into her doorway and kissed her lightly, looking down at her with a dark look in his eyes. “You look delicious,” he said, then stepped past her. “I love the shoes,” he quipped as he placed the bags on the counter in her kitchen.

Zoe was still tingling from the kiss but she watched him carefully, leaning against the door. “What brings you here in the afternoon? Don’t you have some company to take over or buy up? You only own half of New York City. I wouldn’t want to be the one to slow you down on your acquisition of the other half.”

His look was admonishing and she laughed. “I have many assets outside of New York, my lovely. And the reason I’m here is because I called your office about tonight and your assistant told me you had left work early. When you didn’t answer your cell phone, I came over to find out where you were.”

“And the food?” she asked, peering into the bag to see what kinds of surprises he’d brought but he pushed the bags out of her reach. “Two simple reasons; I’m hungry and you’ve lost weight. I’m here to fatten you up.”