A Safe Pair of Hands Ch. 13-14

She smiled softly to herself as she walked around his desk, resting a hand on the back of his chair, and imagining Nick sitting there, and turning to smile up at her. His eyes darkened with passion, and she pictured him standing up to take her in his arms, his mouth touching her mouth, and his hands...

"Sadie?" Marcy came striding in, forcing her out of her daydream.

"What?" she blinked her grey eyes, and a little guilty colour came to her cheeks as she moved quickly away from the desk, and the chair.

Marcy - thankfully, was busy struggling into her coat, and so missed what could have been an embarrassing moment for Sadie.

"Mr Hargreaves just phone, he said he was running late and asked about those notes..."

"Oh, does he need me to call him?" Sadie asked hopefully.

"What? Oh no, I told him that you had finished them hours ago, and were at that very moment putting the info on his desk."

"Oh," she bit back the disappointment, and then forced a light smile. "Did he say anything... anything else?" she tried for a careless tone.

"Not really, just that he would see us tomorrow."

"Oh." She thought about staying on for a bit, in the hopes of seeing him. "Is he coming back tonight?"

Marcy shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose," she said indifferently. "I mean he seemed to want those bits quite urgently."

"But he didn't say when?"

"He just said that he would see us in the morning," she looked at her watch a little impatiently, and then at Sadie. "So are you ready to lock up?" she asked pointedly.

"Okay," she sighed. "Let me just get my coat and bag, and you can get ready to set the alarm."

She walked quickly back to their office, which had its own lock and alarm system.

Marcy had her key in the panel as Sadie walked back shrugging on her coat as she went. She was buttoning it up as Marcy followed her out, and locked the door behind them, and they stood together waiting for the elevator.

"Got any plans tonight?" Marcy asked as the doors opened.

"Oh, I thought that I might do a bit of Christmas shopping on my way home," Sadie said absently.

"Well it is late night shopping now, and it is quite busy - at least it was earlier today, but it will only get madder the closer that we get to Christmas."

"Yes, three weeks and counting."

They went their separate ways once they were outside the building, and even though the day was ending, and night was closing in, and it was cold and wet; Sadie had a bright happy smile on her face, and her eyes were practically sparkling with excitement as she walked along.

She looked happy and radiant and absolutely stunning on that grey day, and as she stopped at the pedestrian crossing, the man standing next to her, started a conversation.

"Grim day isn't it?" he said gruffly.

Sadie looked up at him in surprise and then smiled. "Oh it's not so bad really," she exclaimed as the cars came to a halt at the lights.

"No... Maybe you would like to go for a coffee and discuss that a little bit more?"

The little man turned green, and she stepped out onto the road. "Thank you, but no thank you," she started to walk briskly across the road, and once on the pavement again she picked up her speed.

She could hear the man behind her, as he easily kept pace with her; but Sadie was not too worried, it was prime time in the town centre, and there would be people everywhere...

Once she got into the town centre, first though she had to walk through a pedestrian only section, and it would be pot luck whether anyone else would be around at this time in the afternoon.

The man was still close behind her, and Sadie forced herself not to panic. Just because he had propositioned her, did not make him anything sinister.

It was almost dark now, and the street lights had all lit up, but it did not brighten this part up much as Sadie turned off the pavement to get through to the town centre.

It was dark and silent here, with only her, and the sound of the man behind her.

She was about half way through, when she suddenly felt a hand on her arm...