Caroselli's Baby Chase Read Free Page B

settled in her seat when behind her she heard the door open, and a deep voice say, “Sorry I’m late. My secretary isn’t back today, so I had to pick these reports up on my way in.”
    Something about that voice made the hair on the back of her neck shiver to attention. She’d definitely heard it before. But where…
    The breath she had just inhaled backed up in her lungs. Oh no, it couldn’t be.
    She glanced up at him out of the corner of her eye as he approached the table, his attention on the pile of folders he carried, and when she focused on his face…
    She swiftly looked away, heart pounding. He had the same smoldering black eyes, the solid, square jaw, the full lips that had kissed her senseless. At first glance the resemblance was uncanny. But it couldn’t be him. Could it?
    He mumbled an “excuse me” as he laid a folder in front of her. On his right hand was a college ring identical to the one she had seen the other night, and as the scent of his aftershave drifted her way, the wave of familiarity was so strong that her heart skipped a beat.
    She stared at the folder cover, unable to focus. Hell, she could barely breathe .
    It’s not him, she assured herself. It just looks like him, and smells like him, and sounds like him…and wears the same ring as him. But it had to be a coincidence, her mind playing tricks on her.
    She had a strict rule of never sleeping with a coworker. Especially one she would be working with directly. And definitely not one whose work she would be putting under the microscope. She’d made that mistake once before, on her first high-profile job with a previous client. Previous because the affair had ended in disaster, the aftermath ugly.
    It wasn’t necessary for the entire team to like her, but maintaining their respect was crucial. When she recalled the things she and Ron had said to one another, the things she let him do…the sheer mortification made her want to curl inside her own skin and hide, or slide down out of her chair under the table.
    As he rounded the table she kept her eyes on the folder, pretending to read, afraid to lift her head. Maybe if it was Ron, he wouldn’t recognize her. They had both been pretty drunk.
    “Rob,” Demitrio said, “this is Caroline Taylor. Caroline, this is my son Rob, our director of marketing.”
    She had no choice but to look up, to meet his eyes, and when she did, her head spun and her heart sank.
    Unless “Rob” had an identical twin, he was in fact Ron, her New Year’s bang.
    * * *
    Rob blinked, then blinked again. In the conservative suit that hid her pinup model figure, with her granny hairstyle, he almost didn’t recognize Carrie. But the slightly too-large clear gray eyes were a dead giveaway.
    She sat frozen, watching him expectantly, and his first thought was that this had to be some sort of prank. Were Nick and Tony screwing with him? He’d bragged to them about the blonde beauty he’d spent the night with. Which his cousins knew was completely out of character for him. He didn’t do drunken one-night stands. Typically, he didn’t do drunken anything .
    Was this some twisted practical joke? Had they gone to the hotel to look for her, maybe paid her to pose as Caroline Taylor to mess with Rob’s head?
    He looked from Nick to Tony, waiting for someone to say something, for everyone at the table to burst out laughing. And when they didn’t, when they all watched him, looking increasingly puzzled by his lack of a response, he began to get a very bad feeling.
    “Rob?” his dad said, brow creased with concern. “Is everything all right?”
    “Fine,” he said, a bit too enthusiastically, and forcing a smile that felt molded from plastic, he told Ms. Taylor, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
    Not.
    When he’d slipped out of her bed, he’d had no intention of ever seeing her again. Talk about dumb freaking luck.
    Caroline nodded in his general direction, her head held a little too high, her shoulders too square