Free A Man Like Mike by Sami Lee

other so rarely. We barely even speak to each other.”
    Eve sent him a look that said, Laying it on a little thick aren’t you? He responded with a faux-innocent smile that made her want to scream. Then she noticed all the staff looking at her with perplexed gazes, probably wondering why she had a perfectly attractive man—a veritable hero who cooked and delivered lunch—living in her house and was refusing to speak to him.
    She wrestled with her urge to explain and won by a small margin. She suggested to Mike, “Would you like to come into my office?”
    He followed behind her, shouldering the door shut and placing Bailey down on the carpet at his feet. “Are you sure you want me in here, Eve?” he asked from his haunches, glancing around her compact, functional office with the single window framing a view of the building next door. “This space might be a little small for the both of us. Don’t want people to think we might be doing something in here.” He let out a mock gasp. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have shut the door.”
    Eve gave him her best level stare. “Are you finished?”
    Not in the least intimidated by the look, Mike stood and laughed. “I don’t know. Are you going to tell me why you wanted to make sure everyone out there knew we weren’t sleeping together?”
    Eve supplied, as if he were a bit dense, “Because you gave them the impression we were.”
    “Did I?”
    “You said, ‘you left without anything to eat this morning’, as if we’d…” she made a circle with her hand.
    “As if we’d … spent the night together working up an appetite?” Mike filled in, still sporting that amused grin. There was a gleam in his eyes that took his countenance a step beyond amused, into more stimulating territory that made Eve’s heart catapult against her ribs. “Why don’t you want your workmates thinking you have a love life?”
    Because I don’t . She searched for some other, less embarrassing explanation. “They aren’t my workmates. They’re my staff.”
    Mike lifted a brow. “Excuse me .”
    “I mean I directly supervise some of them. Having them out there speculating about my private life undermines my authority.”
    He looked at her as if trying to decide whether she was crazy or not. She thought his conclusion would not be one she’d find flattering when he shook his head and dropped the subject. He turned to pulling the plastic containers of food from the bag he still held, popping one on her side of the desk and one in front of himself. “I’m guessing you want to eat this here—don’t suppose you’d come outside and find a spot in the sun?”
    “I can’t. I should really be working right through lunch.”
    The corner of his sexy, insolent mouth lifted. “If that’s a hint for me to leave—tough. I haven’t eaten yet and I’m starved.”
    Eve watched Bailey while he shuffled around on the floor, touching all the new, strange-looking items in her office like they were great archaeological finds and not just filing cabinets and wastepaper bins. “What about Bailey?” she asked.
    “He’s already eaten.”
    Eve huffed in frustration. “I mean an office is hardly an appropriate place for him to wander about.”
    “If you’d like to take up my idea of going outside…”
    Letting out a growl, Eve sank heavily into her chair, accepting that she wasn’t getting rid of Mike. He seemed perfectly at home here, as though he were settling in for a long, companionable chat. He smiled at her ire and took the seat across from her, handing over one of the forks he pulled from his bag of goodies.
    In silence, she sectioned off a bite-sized piece of the lasagne, keeping an eye on Bailey as he toured the facilities … because that was what good caretakers did with children, not because looking at Mike was too distracting for her own good.
    The moment the tender meat, al-dente pasta and creamy béchamel sauce hit her taste buds, Eve let out a moan of delectation. It was like a