Chapter 7
"What’s wrong?”
Andi looked up, startled to find Laith staring at her.
“Nothing,” she replied, wishing that was true.
Andi held her breath as Laith walked around the conference room table to her side. Every time she pointed out a problem, he would put one hand on the table beside her and the other on the back of her chair. It felt almost like an embrace, and it was really messing with her head!
Of course, he did the leaning in thing again. He was so close, Andi could feel the heat radiating from him and smell his spicy aftershave. The man was intoxicating! She tried to focus on the numbers in front of her, but his presence was overwhelming.
As he leaned in, his voice dropped low and smooth, and Andi’s heart pounded in her chest. She could barely concentrate, her awareness of him overshadowing everything else.
His fingers shifted the back of her chair slightly, sending a shiver of awareness down her spine.
Still, Andi fought to maintain her composure, hoping he didn’t notice her trembling.
“Andi?” he prompted.
She looked up at him, trying to keep her expression bland.
For a long moment, she forgot to breathe, staring into his dark eyes, thinking of the way he’d touched her in the elevator the night before.
It had been just a casual brush of his hand against her arm, but she hadn’t been able to sleep afterward.
She kept replaying the moment in her head.
She was acting like a silly school girl experiencing her first crush!
“Are you okay?” he asked, his deep voice huskier than before.
Was that just her imagination?
Of course it was! Andi inhaled deeply, then froze, his scent filling her lungs.
“What’s going on?” he asked, touching her shoulder. “You look flustered.”
Oh no! He couldn’t know that it was him that she was thinking about. A naked him!
“It’s this expense here,” she blurted, trying to focus on the numbers, but at the moment, they were only a blur.
“What do you suspect is wrong?” he asked, leaning closer.
Andi’s gaze was drawn to his jawline, fascinated by the hint of a five-o’clock shadow. And his scent! Damn it, he smelled delicious.
He gazed down at her, waiting. It was like his eyes could see into her soul. It took her a long moment to realize that he was silently asking a question about the data.
“Umm…” she blinked, forcing herself to concentrate.
Numbers! Data! She looked down at her notes, saw the calculations scribbled on the margin of the report…
and the issue came flooding back to her.
“The variance on this cost has increased thirty-five percent over the past two months. But when I contacted the vendor that supplies this project, they told me that the cost hasn’t gone up at all. ”
Laith straightened and Andi breathed a sigh of relief.
However, that sensation was short lived because the dratted man pulled out the chair next to her and sat down.
In this position, one of his knees was perilously close to her thigh.
She pulled her eyes away from the fraction of an inch that separated them, trying to recall what they were discussing.
His eyes narrowed, causing a wrinkle between his eyes. “Are you thinking embezzlement?”
Andi breathed in again, and then held her breath because she couldn’t handle his intoxicating scent. Nor could she look at him anymore. She was fascinated by everything this man did. Even the stupid wrinkle between his eyes was mesmerizing!
Was there a drug for this kind of stupidity?
Andi ran her teeth over her bottom lip, trying to concentrate.
“I don’t know. I haven’t figured out if the error is on the side of the vendor or the accountant, or someone in between.
Yesterday, I found an issue where the vendor was charging double the amount for the chemical used to treat and soften the material before the fabric went into the machines.
” She tapped her pen against her notebook, wishing that the man would scoot back just a few inches.
“I handed that issue off to Lawrence and he’s already negotiated a repayment from the vendor for the incorrect costs, along with interest and penalties. ”
Laith grunted, leaning back as she continued, “He also found a new vendor,” she continued. “We won’t do business with a company that charges double because no one was reviewing the invoices. Even if they are willing to pay back the difference.”
“I agree. We shouldn’t do business with them. That’s an unethical business practice. They just didn’t think they’d get caught.”
Laith started to stand up and Andi breathed a sigh of relief.
But that relief was short-lived because he put a hand to her shoulder and said, “Good work. This is exactly the kind of issue that I need you to keep finding. Because, now that the word has gotten out to the other vendors, they’ll start to hide their antics. ”
His praise caused Andi’s heart to soar with happiness and triumph. She’d never felt this kind of confidence in her work before. Laith was a hard task master, but he was wonderful about giving credit where due.
He walked away and Andi could barely take her eyes off of him, but before he left the room, Lawrence pushed in through the glass doors carrying…a box.
She recognized the shape of the box in the lawyer’s hands, a wave of icy dread going down her spine. “Damn it!” Andi hissed, sitting up straighter in her chair.
“Hey, Andi,” Lawrence called out, looking down at the box with open curiosity. “This was just delivered for you.”
He set it down on the polished conference room table, then stood back, eyeing the box, then her expectantly.
Andi didn’t want the box. She remembered the box that had been delivered to her office weeks ago. She definitely didn’t want to look inside.
“Thanks, Lawrence,” she said, and even to her own ears, her response sounded strained.
He smiled and slid the box closer to her. “Is it a present from your boyfriend back home?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
Andi’s eyes immediately went to Laith. He froze, one hand on the door handle as he swiveled back to watch. He stood waiting and, for some reason, she sensed an odd tension in his shoulders.
Andi pulled her eyes away from his alert gaze and forced a smile for Lawrence. “I don’t have a boyfriend back home,” she admitted.
Immediately, the tension in the conference room eased and Andi saw a sudden smolder of heat in Laith’s eyes.
Quickly, she looked away, but then her eyes landed on the awful box.
It wasn’t a big box. Only about fourteen inches square.
To someone else, it probably looked innocuous.
But Andi had a feeling she knew what was inside.
She might not completely understand the activities displayed in the scene within the box, but she knew that the scene was some sort of coded threat.
For some reason, Andi was intensely relieved that she was halfway around the world instead of back in Philly where she’d have to think about the disgusting scene in the box while sitting alone in her apartment.
It had been two weeks since the last box had been delivered. With all of the chaos in her life recently, the job transition, the challenges of finding errors in massive amounts of data, and getting to know her colleagues, the previous horrific box had been pushed out of her mind.
However, the fact that someone had delivered the box here to her in Singapore increased her fears about the person who had crafted it. How had they known to send something to her here? She wasn’t just in a different country, she was in a different hemisphere!
“How did the box arrive?” Laith asked, moving forward, his hands fisted on his hips.
“Someone from the main office forwards all of our office mail here,” Lawrence explained.
With trembling fingers, Andi touched the box, but she didn’t want to open it.
Instead, she inhaled deeply, then shoved the box to the side. She wasn’t going to look inside. Not this time. What was the point?
“Andi?” Laith’s deep voice prompted.
He waited until she looked up at him. Andi tried to hide the fear in her eyes, but it must have been there anyway.
Without taking his eyes off of her, Laith said, “Lawrence, would you give us some privacy?”
Andi knew she couldn’t let the other man leave.
Lawrence was her protection against Laith’s overwhelming masculinity.
She’d never been a victim of a man’s potency before now.
And she didn’t want to feel it with this man.
Especially not when she knew he’d have questions about the contents of the box.
But Lawrence was nothing if not efficient. He immediately left the conference room and the noise from the hallway faded away as the glass doors closed behind him.
“What’s in the box, Andi?” Laith demanded, his deep voice soft and soothing.
“Nothing important,” she replied, trying to offer him a smile.
From the expression in Laith’s eyes, she’d failed miserably.
“Is the contents of that box a threat?” he asked, briefly tilting his head towards the package.
Andi glanced at the box, then pushed away from the table, walking over to the window. She crossed her arms over her chest, staring out at the beautiful city.
“Andi?” Laith prompted again.
Andi sighed, rubbing her forehead to alleviate the sudden throbbing there. “I honestly don’t know what is in that box.”
There was a pause, then he said, “But you are afraid of it.”
She turned to face him, her chin out and her eyes defiant. “This isn’t something you need to worry about, Laith,” she said firmly. “Leave it alone.” In case the box did contain another sexual scene, Andi didn’t want Laith to see it.
He glanced down at the label, then back at her. “Except that someone is sending threatening mail through my company’s mail system.” He touched the box with a finger. “So technically , this is company mail.”