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and saw her
dream man looking down at her with unfathomable dark eyes that seemed to peer
straight into her very soul. He had asked if she was alright and had helped her
up, his deep voice sending shivers of desire down her spine. She had managed
some sort of stuttering reply then had fled as fast as her feet would take her,
not hearing what he said as she bolted for safety.
    There had been a few other brief
encounters, but the latest debacle had occurred only last week. There had been
a downpour of epic proportions outside when her boss had demanded she run to
the post office down the street right before closing in order to get some essential
client documents sent out. Usually this wouldn’t have been something she had to
do, but most of the office had been out at other clients meetings so it had
been left to her. Resigned to her fate, she had carefully wrapped the envelope
in two plastic bags before making her way outside.
     Praying she wouldn’t get hit by
a car, she had run across the street, trying to make it before she was washed
away in the rushing currents of water flooding down the drains. She had just
made it onto the sidewalk when a brutal gust of wind had literally ripped the
umbrella right out of her hand, turning it inside out. Caitlyn had turned just
in time to watch in horror as her umbrella sped like a heat seeking torpedo
right at her dream man as he got out of a car in front of the Steel Technologies
building.
    As if in slow motion, Caitlyn had
watched the dark god open his own umbrella, unaware of the chaos she had
unleashed. She tried to call out, but before she could shout out a warning, her
umbrella hit his, jerking it from his startled grasp. Mockingly, both umbrellas
waltzed in the air for a moment before being swept away in the swirling wind.
    Caitlyn had stood there, frozen
in mortification as she watched her dream man’s head whip around to zero in on
her through the torrential downpour. She had call out a pathetic apology, glad
that he couldn’t see her tears of embarrassment mingling with the rain streaming
down her face.
    Both of them soaked, he had
started toward her.
    “I’m sorry,” she had whispered
again, watching as his dark brows creased in what could only be anger. She had
let a choking sob escape before she turned and ran, leaving her dream man and
her umbrella behind.
    Caitlyn had been having
nightmares about that last incident all week. She couldn’t even imagine how
much he must hate her after destroying his beautiful suit. She knew she should
seek him out to give him a real apology, but she just couldn’t bring herself to
do it. She was terrified that she would end up injuring him somehow and she’d end
up getting sued, or worse, killing him by accident.
    Obviously, god seemed to have a
twisted sense of humor where she was concerned because as soon as Caitlyn
entered the elegant lobby of the Steele Tech building, she saw him. There he
was, the bane of her existence, in all his dark gorgeous glory, standing at the
front desk speaking to one of the security guards. Panicking, she hurried
across the marble expanse toward the elevators. She didn’t want to give him a
chance to have her thrown out of the building and if she missed the meeting she
had a good chance of being fired.
    Punching the up button to the
elevators, she kept her head down, praying with all her might that he hadn’t
seen her. She waited impatiently for the elevator and stepped in as soon as the
steel doors opened, pressing the button for the top floor. 
    To her extreme horror, Caitlyn looked
up just in time to see her dream man step into the small space of the elevator with
her and her breath caught. He pushed a button on the inside panel and the doors
silently slid closed, locking them in together. She blinked her eyes a few
times, praying that her eyes were playing tricks on her, but no such luck.
    Their eyes met and she forgot how
to breathe. Jesus, he truly was the most breathtakingly handsome man in