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Iris couldn’t believe it. The site supervisor for the East Markham Hospital job was Alex Kwong.
This was horrible.
She hated when her personal and professional lives mixed. She took her job seriously, and she would never sleep with a co-worker or a contractor.
But now her latest one-night stand had come back to bite her in the ass.
She was going to have to see Alex Kwong every week for the near future, and she’d slept with him, then hurried out of his apartment before he woke up the next morning.
Well, she would remain professional and hoped he’d do the same.
Though given they’d spent the past ten seconds staring at each other without speaking, perhaps they weren’t off to the greatest start. Unfortunately, he was just as attractive as she remembered, and she also remembered what he looked like underneath that safety vest and T-shirt...
She pushed that out of her mind.
“Hi,” she squeaked. She couldn’t seem to say anything else.
He nodded at her. “Hi.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Ooh, this feels awkward!” said the man standing beside Alex, clasping his hands together. “You guys sleep together or something?”
Jesus Christ.
“Yes,” Alex said in a clipped voice before Iris could respond.
Bastard. Why did he feel the need to say that?
The other man bent over and started laughing.
“Get back to work, Carlos,” Alex said.
Carlos gave him a smile and a mock salute before heading off.
Iris waited until he was far away before hissing, “Did you really have to tell him we’d slept together?”
“Nice to see you, too, Iris.”
“He’s going to tell everyone that you slept with the engineer, isn’t he? Fuck. I have a reputation to protect. Maybe it’s all well and good for you to brag about how we had sex, but think about what it’s like for me, okay? I need to maintain my professional integrity, and I don’t need these rumors floating around.”
Alex looked at her for a moment, and she felt her skin prickle.
Goddammit.
She wasn’t immune to him, not by a long shot.
* * *
Alex hadn’t meant to admit that he’d slept with the engineer from Lowry, but the answer had popped out of his mouth as soon as Carlos had asked the question.
And yet a part of Alex was pissed off that Iris was so angry at him. It rubbed him the wrong way. Consenting adults having sex—it was no big deal.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sorry I said that. The answer just slipped out.”
Iris rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure it did. You don’t sound very sorry. I think you wanted to brag about your sexual conquests.”
“Did it sound like I was bragging? It’s just instinct for me to answer a question honestly. Normally that serves me well, but this time, I admit it was a mistake.”
“This isn’t some little mistake. A man sleeps with a woman, his co-workers slap him on the back. A woman sleeps with a man, her co-workers think she’s a slut.”
“I don’t think it’s quite that simple, but—”
“Shut up, Alex.” Her cheeks were turning red. “You don’t know what it’s like to be a woman, especially in a male-dominated field like this one. I am not ashamed of what I do in my free time, but it has absolutely no place in our work lives. Why couldn’t you have pretended you were meeting me for the first time?”
“But I wasn’t meeting you for the first time. It would have been weird to ask for your name.”
“You could have pretended we’d met before in a professional capacity.”
“You know this whole thing could have been avoided if you’d actually told me what kind of engineer you were when I asked.”
She would have said she was a structural engineer, and, being familiar with many structural engineering companies because of his job, he would have asked where she worked, and he would have been somewhat prepared for this moment.
Or maybe she would have refused to sleep with him because she worried their work lives might cross at some point. He wasn’t sure.
“Well, sorry.” She put her hand on her hip. “Sorry I wasn’t in the mood to talk about my job that night.”
It was weird to speak to a woman at work when he knew what sounds she made when she came, and how it felt to push inside her...
Focus.
Instead, he blurted out, “Why the hell did you leave before I woke up?”
“Poor baby. Did I injure your delicate ego? Do you think you’re just so amazing in bed that no woman would dare leave without a morning quickie?”
He clenched his fists and stepped forward until he was standing a touch closer to her than would normally be appropriate.
“You enjoyed it,” he said, his voice low. “A lot. I promised you’d like the way I fucked, and you did, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Liar. Why didn’t you stay?”
Three weeks later, it still rankled that she’d left without saying goodbye, though he wasn’t sure why he felt that way. It wasn’t like he’d planned to take her out on a date. He wasn’t interested in anything more than a few rounds in the sack with a woman.
She still hadn’t stepped back, even though he was invading her personal space. Her lips were so close. Not bright pink, like they’d been last time, but just as enticing.
Iris on a construction site was as hot as Iris in a fancy dress in a dimly-lit bar.
She finally took a step away from him. “It was six o’clock in the morning, and I was wide awake. I wasn’t going to wait around until you woke up.”
“You could have woken me up.”
“In my experience, most people don’t like being shaken awake at six in the morning.”
“You didn’t need to shake me awake. You could have kissed your way down the muscles you’d admired.” He couldn’t seem to help it. She was a firecracker, and he liked getting under her skin.
She rolled her eyes. “Fuck you.”
“I would quite enjoy that, thank you.”
The corners of her mouth quirked up, and then she clenched her jaw. “Alex, I’m here because I have a job to do, and I’d appreciate it if I could get started. We need to get that concrete poured today, and it can’t be done until I give my approval.”
“Very well.” He set off toward the building in progress. The soil engineer had been here last week and had given the go-ahead. Now they were just waiting on Iris.
They walked around, saying nothing to each other but terse comments related to the job. He could feel the anger vibrating off her.
“The spacing of the rebar is wrong here.” She pointed at the rebar in question and then at the corresponding part of the drawing on her clipboard.
“You’re just saying that because you’re pissed at me.”
“Fuck off.”
“You really seem to like that word. Just an observation.” He stuck his fingers in his belt loops and rocked back on his heels.
“I am a professional engineer, and I would not make unnecessary work for you if I didn’t need to. How long will it take to fix?”
“Maybe half an hour?” It was just a small area; it wasn’t a big enough problem that the concrete pouring would need to be delayed another day, thank God.
“Good. I might as well wait around then, rather than having you send me photos.”
They finished walking around the site in tense silence. Luckily, Iris didn’t find any other issues.
“I’ll be in my car,” she said. “Eating lunch and writing a report. Let me know when it’s done.”
She hurried off, not waiting for a response.
* * *
Fucking Alex who made her swear like a sailor.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She took a deep breath. It would be okay. It wasn’t like she had to see him at the office every day. Just a couple hours a week until this project was finished, and then hopefully she’d never have to work with him again. Although her company worked with LBZ on many projects, LBZ was a large general contractor and they had lots of site supervisors. There was a good chance she’d be able to avoid him for a while after this project was done, and if she had to work with him again in a few years, surely he wouldn’t have much effect on her.
And surely he wouldn’t tell whoever happened to be with him at the time that they’d slept together, unlike this morning.
She still couldn’t believe he’d done that.
It just slipped out.
Yeah, sure it did.
Infuriating, attractive man. Who was very good in bed. And on the couch. She bet he was good on any flat surface. Even vertical surfaces, like the door.
Somehow, they’d have to learn to work together. Fortunately, she didn’t have to be super friendly with him. All she had to do was walk around the construction site, making sure the work was getting done and telling him what they were doing wrong.
She would rather enjoy doing that.
Although when they were in bed or on his couch, he sure hadn’t done anything wrong...
Enough, Iris.
Unfortunately, she was stuck here for the next thirty minutes or so. She turned on the car so she could roll down the windows, then got out her laptop while she waited. She also pulled out the sandwich she’d brought for lunch. Ngin Ngin teased her about her terrible cooking skills, but Iris was at least able to make a damn cheese and ham sandwich and cut up a few carrot sticks, although her grandmother had watched over her while she made her lunch this morning, as if she were a small child who needed supervision while using a knife. Ngin Ngin had seemed surprised when she didn’t draw blood.
Iris ate her lunch and worked on her report. Typing on her laptop in the car wasn’t terribly comfortable, and a little while later, she turned to open the door, wanting a quick stretch.
“Oh my God!” She jumped in her seat.
Alex’s face was right in front of the car window.
“Oh my God,” she repeated, pissed off that he’d scared her.
“My apologies,” he said through the open window.
“You’re probably very pleased with yourself for giving me such a fright.”
“No,” he murmured, reaching into the car to put his hand on her shoulder, “but I was very pleased with myself three weeks ago when I—”
“Enough. Is there some way I could knock you over the head with a piece of rebar so you’d lose your memory of that night?”
“Threatening violence. How professional of you.”
She gave him a dark look.
“It seems awfully cruel to want to give me amnesia,” he said. “Amnesia is a very scary thing. On the news the other day, I saw—”
“You idiot. I only want to remove twenty-four hours of your memory. In fact, twelve hours would be more than sufficient.”
“It should have been more than twelve hours from the time we met until the time you disappeared, but somebody felt the need to sneak off the next morning, and I assure you, it wasn’t me.”
“Enough with that fragile male ego of yours. I didn’t stick around the next morning, so what? I assume you’ve done that before, too.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. “No, I haven’t.”
“Probably because you have a lot of trouble getting women to sleep with you since...”
Since you look fucking perfect.
He smirked again, like he could read her mind.
“Since your personality leaves a lot to be desired,” she said at last.
“But my body is perfect?”
“You have an enormous ego.”
“I thought you said it was fragile.”
She sighed. “What did you come here to tell me?”
“We’re finished, if you’d like to take a look.”
“That was fast. You better not have half-assed it.”
“Don’t worry. We didn’t.”
She got out of the car, but Alex didn’t step back as much as he should have, and she nearly knocked into him. But she refused to give him the satisfaction of a curse or a dirty look. She walked away without a backward glance.
Iris inspected the rebar and formwork, and she was happy to see that everything looked good. When she turned to look for Alex, he was right behind her. She hadn’t heard him approach, but at least she managed not to scream this time.
Instead, she made an inarticulate sound.
“You’re wound up pretty tight,” he observed mildly. “Perhaps you haven’t had enough sex lately.”
“Were you going to offer to help me with that problem?” He started to speak, but she held up a hand to stop him. “Please. Don’t bother. I can take care of my own sexual needs, thank you very much.”
“Mm. I hope they’ve vibrated the concrete enough. You know if they haven’t—”
“Thank you. I am well aware of the problems with concrete that hasn’t been properly vibrated.”
“Does the rebar meet your approval?”
“Yes. Go ahead and pour the concrete.”
“When will you be back on site?”
The concrete would have to set for a week after it was poured, and then they would do tests to make sure it was okay before they started on the steel structure.
“Probably not for another two weeks,” she said, “but we’ll be in touch before then. You’ll be corresponding with me instead of Emma from now on.”
“I can’t wait,” he deadpanned.
“I’m sure you’re very excited about my return.”
“Very excited for you to see how the steel erection is going.”
“I wish the entire building was made of concrete,” she muttered before stomping back to her car. She whipped off her hardhat and safety vest and tossed them in the trunk, then unlaced her steel-toed boots.
God, every time she saw the word “steel” in the next month—which would be quite often, given her profession—she’d think of Alex and his steel muscles.
With any luck, she wouldn’t think of his erection, but that was probably too much to ask.