Compromising Positions (An Erotic Romance Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

glass and brick and echoing over the lobby. He hoped Duncan’s influence would echo through the company with equal force. If not, both Gabe and Fate could find themselves without a job.

Chapter 3
    The unexpected sure makes life interesting.
    Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, Fate doodled on a scrap piece of paper. She hated waiting on hold. Worse, she hated uncertainty, precisely what had inspired her call to the bank in the first place. But Carol, the mortgage representative, didn’t appear to be overly pleased to hear from her.
    Regardless, she needed to know the status of the mortgage. She’d passed Mr. Duncan in the hallway earlier, and he’d looked at her like she had three heads. She suspected he was waiting until after the presentation on Friday before politely offering her the choice of resigning or taking a demotion. Damn merger!
    This phone conversation would determine her response.
    Studying the dumpy desk and chair across the room, and listening to the recorded sales pitch on the telephone as she waited for Carol, she took note of his tacky accessories. A calendar with half-naked women draped over motorcycles, an obnoxious doll that sounded like Rodney Dangerfield, and a plush computer with long needles stabbed into it were scattered over his desktop. She could only imagine what his home must look like. No doubt decorated in typical bachelor pad fashion as his dorm room had been: cast-off furniture, hula dancer lamps, and beer signs plastered all over the walls.
    They had precious little time to construct the new marketing strategy. He needed to get his butt in here, pronto.
    Carol returned to the phone line and, in an unenthusiastic voice, apologized for making Fate wait so long. She then proceeded to explain to Fate that there’d been a delay. They were still waiting for the appraisal. The mortgage would not be going to committee for at least one week.
    Fate’s heart sunk. She hadn’t bought a house before but had heard enough horror stories from friends to know things rarely went smoothly. The hope that her purchase would be an exception to the rule evaporated like spilled water in the desert. But then again, why should it go smoothly? What had she done to deserve that?
    Considering the state of things in her life, why should she expect anything less than bedlam? She thanked Carol, hung up the phone, and rested her forehead in her hands, her elbows on the desktop. Damn, damn, damn!
    “What’s wrong? Looks like someone stole your puppy,” Gabe said as he strolled into the room and shut the door.
    “Nothing.”
    “Nothing, like really nothing? Or nothing like, ‘I’m not going to tell you,’ nothing?” He slumped into his chair with the grace of a dying dog.
    Despite her frustration, she felt a smile tugging at her cheeks. Was he being intentionally silly, or was he simply a goof?
    His eyebrows furrowed, he asked, “Now, what have you accomplished in my absence? After all, we are on a deadline.”
    Normally such a tone would have evoked a tirade, or in the least, a flood of defensiveness. But for some reason, she found Gabe’s teasing manner distracting, even a little amusing. Why? Probably because if she didn’t laugh, she’d cry.
    Holding up her doodle pad to illustrate, she simply shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve managed to produce a remarkable likeness of a Hobbit, or,” as she gazed at her scribbling, she continued, “possibly President Bush?”
    He tsk-tsked as he gathered himself from his chair and strode across the room. Swiping the pad from her hands, he studied it. “Looks like I can’t trust you to work independently. How in God’s name you managed all this time without me—well, it’s a wonder!” A silly grin had replaced his scolding grimace. “Nice study of contrasts, bold strokes…I’d say you’ve produced an amazing representation of the misery of the human condition—or a woman’s more delicate anatomy. Can I have it?” He pulled off the top