It had taken longer than usual for her to work through the statements from the fund. Not just because her mind was wandering all over thoughts of Andrew and how it would feel to wear that gorgeous gown tonight. What she was seeing in the numbers was getting more and more confusing, even without those distractions.
“What is it?” He rose from his chair and came to stand right next to her, leaning down to look at the computer.
Oh, my. The way he was standing, her shoulder was nearly brushing his thigh. If she leaned just slightly to the left, she would feel those hard flanks against her arm …
“Meredith?”
She shook off her thoughts and tore her eyes away from his legs, turning her attention back to the screen, scrolling down in the report. “See here? Until four months ago, there was actually more than the necessary amount in the fund. But between that period and the next, the balance drops by half a million dollars and the line item only says, ‘Fund transfer to account 6623-841.’ But at the same time, the Christmas Bonus Fund line item disappears from the Harbor Technologies monthly portfolio report, which is why it didn’t even occur to me that something was wrong until I received the fund statement yesterday. And I can’t find this account number in any of the financial tracking systems.”
“How is this possible? My approval is required for this kind of thing, but I didn’t sign off on any of these changes.”
She nodded. “Exactly. So if you don’t know about this, and there is no other record of this mystery account, then the next step is to call the bank and see who did open the account.”
She managed to keep her voice calm, but inside her gut was churning. This looked bad. Like embezzlement bad. Sloppy embezzlement, sure, but even if that was the case, it had still worked. The former CFO would be the likely culprit, and he could be anywhere by now.
“I’ll also call Bob,” she said, referring to her predecessor.
Andrew stiffened, but gave a tight nod. Meredith felt awful. When she had first interviewed for the position, Bob had just left the company. Andrew had spoken so highly of the elderly man. Any hint of wrongdoing must be difficult for Andrew to consider.
But they had to at least ask, even if the older man turned out to be completely innocent.
Andrew let out a ragged breath and straightened up next to her. “It’s late afternoon on a Friday. Go ahead and call the bank, but I have a feeling we’re not going to get any solid answers from them until at least Monday.” He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “In the meantime, let’s just do all we can to work with what we’ve got and assume we’ll never recover that half million. And hold off on calling Bob until we have answers from the bank, okay?”
He looked so weary all of a sudden that she didn’t even think. Her heart simply took over, and she reached out a hand to touch him in comfort. Except, because of their positions, instead of her hand landing on his shoulder in a gentle squeeze, her fingers ended up curling around the back of his thigh.
Ohhhh, that was a mistake. A horrible, hard, flexing mistake.
And yet her traitorous hand refused to move. She simply stared at it, pale skin on pin-striped trousers, and thought about how good it would feel if his clothes simply fell away, changing the sensation from slippery wool to coarse hair and firm skin. She would skim her fingers up, up, until she stroked the curve of his ass—
“Oh, my God!” She tore her hand away just as it started snaking its way upward. It felt like she’d had her hand on his body for an eternity, but it couldn’t have been more than a second that now had ended in awful, soul-gutting humiliation.
“I—I am so sorry. I cannot apologize enough. Clearly I wasn’t thinking. I thought it was your shoulder. I mean, obviously that wasn’t your shoulder. But that’s what I meant, to just give you a quick squeeze. On your shoulder, of course! Oh. Maybe I shouldn’t have come into the office today,” she finished, her voice weak with embarrassment.
Sometimes she wished Andrew’s nickname were something more sinister than the Santa CEO. At least then, it would be more reasonable to hope that he had built a trapdoor in the floor in front of his desk that would whisk her into a dungeon and instantly, completely out of his sight. Heck. She’d even settle for covering her face with a folder.
But almost everything at Harbor was digitized. The table was completely empty of folders, or brown paper bags, or—
“Meredith,” he said, his voice soothing. Placating.
He crouched next to her, his hands on the armrest of the chair as he looked up at her from where he was squatting on the floor. It should have been ridiculous, the CEO of a major corporation kneeling before her, but her heart started beating so fast, she thought she’d explode. Something in his eyes made her feel like she was a goddess that he was about to worship. Preferably with his tongue.