Free A Man Like Mike by Sami Lee Page A

little piece of Italy had exploded in her mouth. She closed her eyes, savoured the flavours, then took another bite before taking her next breath.
    She was halfway through the lasagne before she noticed the silence. Her attention turned away from the food for a moment as she looked across her desk and saw Mike watching her intently, his face set in grim lines. “What?”
    “Huh?”
    “Why are you staring at me?”
    He frowned and returned his attention to his food, stabbing at the lasagne with unnecessary vigour. “Sorry,” he muttered.
    Eve didn’t think he sounded all that sorry, but she didn’t feel like pursuing it. Her food was getting cold.
    She finished off the lasagne in record time. “My goodness. That was fantastic. You’re a very talented chef, Mike.”
    He cleared his throat. “Thanks.”
    Turning her attention to watching him eat, Eve noticed that he was barely halfway through his lunch. Chagrined, she said, “I guess I was hungrier than I realised.”
    “Yeah, well. For a thin woman you sure do eat fast.”
    So he thought she was a glutton, did he? And she had thought he was trying to be nice, bringing in lunch and making her take a break. “I would have thought you’d be flattered I like your cooking.”
    “I am.” The two words sounded more like a complaint. “I just don’t know where you put it all.”
    Eve glanced down at her nondescript dark suit. She’d put on weight the last month, from eating too much drive-through takeaway. She was lucky she didn’t go in for the more tailored, figure-hugging suits some women preferred, or she would have had to buy several new ones already. As it was, this one was growing a little tight around the waist. “Give it time. Much more of your cooking and you won’t be asking that question.” She really would have to get back to the gym sometime soon.
    His eyes connected with hers, pinning her to her leather chair with a blast of unexpected heat. His gaze trailed downward, taking in what little of her he could see above the desk. Eve couldn’t move, and by the time his scrutiny returned to her face she could barely breathe.
    His voice was husky. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
    Eve swallowed. “All women worry about that sort of thing.”
    “You shouldn’t,” he insisted. “You look fantastic.”
    Really? Eve wanted to ask. She was glad her jumping nerves had made speech next to impossible. She didn’t want him to confirm it. Mike’s compliments were far too addictive.
    Besides, the way he was looking at her left her in no doubt that he meant what he said. He was as attracted to her as she was to him, and was having as much trouble fighting it. The knowledge was terrifying, yet it filled her with a tingling warmth that pushed terror to the furthest reaches of her mind. She was more to him than an idle curiosity, a challenge to pass the time. Who’d have guessed, the worldly and desirable Mike Wilcox, who charmed women as effortlessly as he smiled, was attracted to her?
    Eve’s office door swung open abruptly then, making her sit up with a start and break eye contact with Mike. “Where the bloody hell is everybody, Eve? We need to call an emergency meeting.”
    She remained calm in the face of the General Manager’s agitation. Nathan Shore had a tendency to get agitated at the slightest provocation. Besides, she could handle her boss in a snit more easily than she could handle her confused feelings about Mike. “Everybody is probably at lunch, Nathan. What’s the problem?”
    Nathan let out a choice word or two and pulled on his dark blue tie. “I’ve just got off the phone with head office. Sheila Smith herself is flying up here tomorrow and she wants to see a presentation on the budget—projected expenditure, cash flow, the lot.”
    “I have a lot of that data on my computer, Nathan,” Eve told him calmly. “It shouldn’t take me long to compile something with the help of a couple of the other staff.”
    “I shouldn’t