This was written really quickly for a friend in a valentine's day fic challange elsewhere. There possibly will be another chapter, a sexy chapter:)
This Their Fever
"Liam I need that file." Carla practically growled with frustration.
She shifted in her black leather chair trying not visibly grimace at the way she stuck to the hot fabric. Her pen tapped against her bottom lip as she stared at the paper in front of her. She had so much work to do but could get nothing done till her business partner returned the paper work on a new order.
It did not seem right that all work should be halted by one half filled folder but until it was found Carla refused to look at Liam as he searched for the missing paper work. She'd be too tempted to throw one of her stilettos at his head and an unconscious Liam was not a productive Liam.
Not that he could get much more unproductive.
"And as I told you last time you said that. I know and I will find the damn thing."
Liam sounded just as aggravated as she felt. She could hear him hitting the metal filing cabinet in frustration. Every time she foolishly thought the day could not get worse she was proved wrong.
"Because that's helpful." She snapped wheeling her chair around to fix him with a withering glare. "I don't know why you took it home in the first place." The fact that the fan in the corner of the room was blowing all the papers across her desk did not help her mood.
He looked back at her, humidity causing his dark hair to flop over his eyes and, oh god, she can't help think about how adorable he looked. Quickly she reminded herself that it was his fault that on the hottest day of the year they were stuck in an over heated office with broken air conditioning and were not going to be able to leave any time soon if he could not find the missing file.
"I took it home because I had to catch up on work that you were too busy shopping to do yourself. It would not kill you to give me a hand." He met her glare with equal intensity. His hand hurt and his new t-shirt was starting to stick to his skin. He really did not want to deal with another one of Carla's high maintenance temper tantrums.
"Just how does your tiny brain turn this into my fault Liam? Really I'm confused. Explain it to me." She crossed her legs as she spoke ignoring the uncomfortable way her tights clung to her. It did not seem fair, how she was stuck in tight form fitting business wear and he just waltzed in wearing jeans and baggy t-shirt with something annoyingly unfunny written across the chest. She suddenly hated how she had to be the sleek professional looking one all the time.
Liam sighed loudly, throwing his hands in the air in a gesture of exasperation. There was no point in continuing to play her game; she always had an answer for everything.
"Its not going to happen any quicker with you sitting there sniping at me woman. Why don't you make yourself useful and get this air conditioning fixed."
Carla slammed her pen down against the flat surface of the desk and narrowed her eyes.
"Woman." Her eyebrow rose towards her hairline and her voice remained him of a nuclear winter.
"And while you're at it you could track down a few more fans or is that too much effort…"
"Woman!" She said again voice growing louder and her hands curled into fists. "I'm not one of your bimbos Liam don't you dare talk to me like that!"
Liam kicked the cabinet behind him talking pleasure in the way the noise reverberated around the room.
"So it's fine for to talk to me as if I'm your personal slave? Nice set of double standards you have there Car." It was times like these he did not think he could find anyone else so frustrating.
"Oh fuck off and find fucking file!" She snapped finally losing control of her temper.
She stood gracefully pulling herself to her full height even if she was still a good few inches shorter than him.
"Well that's real mature!" He mocked closing the short distance between them.
Carla opened her mouth to reply only to be interrupted by a knock at the office door.
"Come in."
They both called at the same time and turned back round to initiate a new staring contest.
The door opened slowly and Haley hesitantly entered the room, a nervous grin on her face. The rest of the staff was huddled behind the door and not very subtle in the way they pushed their supervisor into the room.
Carla could not help but roll her eyes. "What now." She exasperated knowing that by the time this was over she would forget the clever retort she had waiting to cut Liam back down to size.
"Um well you see Mrs Connor without any air conditioning it is very hot on the factory floor." Haley started her hands clasped together in front of her. She looked wearily between her two bosses clearly sensing the tension.
"It's like being in a freaking volcano!" A voice said behind the door followed by a loud shhhing noise.
Haley glanced behind her in dismay before carrying on, "I think you'll find that the heat is passed official working conditions."
"Show them the thermometer!" Fizz shouted from behind the door. This time Liam rolled his eyes.
Haley unclasped her hands to reveal the mentioned thermometer. "I borrowed this from the café and as you can see…"
"It's all right Haley." Liam interrupted putting the woman out of her misery. He waved a dismissive hand at the thermometer, the way he could feel sweat start to gather around his hairline proved enough that it was hotter than hell.
"Why don't you all head home for the day. The repair man should be here tomorrow and we can get back to normal."
Haley smiled at the pair, her cheeks red with a mixture of heat and embarrassment. She nodded her thanks quickly before turning to leave.
"Well they could hardly say no. All that plastic in Morticia's face will start melting." Janice's raspy voice was louder than the general murmur of the rest of the staff.
"We can hear you Jan, and I wouldn't set her off when she's in one of these moods." Liam warned not bothering to totally hide his laughter.
"And I'll still be prettier than you could ever be. Just give me a reason you sack you." Carla called keeping her voice light and sickly sweet. Janice was not worth her time but she really, really wanted to hurt Liam.
Before anything more could be said Liam shut the door as their staff headed away and began collecting their belongings.
"What is it with this country? Too cold and a bit of snow fall and everything stops. Too hot and everything stops. I never thought I'd miss mediocre weather." He moaned.
And apparently their day would only continue to get worse because at that very moment the large fan placed in the corner of the office made a loud noise and stopped working.
"Shit." Liam moaned. He was not facing her but Carla could tell he would be pouting like an irritating yet adorable puppy.
"Well there is no point in moaning Liam, lets just find the file, get the work done and then I can head home for a long cool shower." She retook her seat kicking off her shoes, while they made her legs look great her feet were starting to swell and she was too hot and irritated to deal with any unnecessary discomfort.
Liam's mouth went dry and he could not stop the images of her naked with water cascading down her shapely body… he shook his head trying to banish the thoughts before she could notice his distraction and pray upon it.
"You've suddenly changed your tune." He quipped. He knew her well enough to not be surprised by her sudden change in opinion but it did not mean he would let it pass unsaid.
"Yeah well I'm a humanitarian Leebugs. Someone has got to help solve your messes for all our sakes."
"My mess?" She had done it again; managed to surprise and infuriate him in one go. Suddenly it did not matter that she was agreeing to help like he had wanted her to do in the first place.
He turned to face her when he heard the leather of her chair creek.
"Car, what the hell are you doing now?" He asked in disbelief.
She had her legs up on the corner of the desk, toes pointed delicately in a way that had to be deliberate. He could not help but follow the clean line of her slim calves up past her knees to the smooth looking half naked skin of her thighs. Her skirt was hitched up a few inches higher than what could be considered decent making her legs look so temptingly long.
"What does it look like; I'm getting these stupid tights off before they suffocate me. Shut the blinds will you Liam, some of those lot might still be here." She continued to roll the flimsy material further down her legs, her hair kept falling over her face and she really wished she had something to tie it up with. Instead she settled with flicking her head so that the dark waves fell over one shoulder.
Liam brainlessly did as instructed unable to take his eyes away from her. Did she not realise it was like watching his own private burlesque act? Knowing Carla she understood perfectly, nothing was ever straight forward when it came to the inner workings of her mind.
She finally smiled dangerously at him, tights in hand like a prized trophy, he almost protested when she lowered her legs to the floor. At least there was still the bare pale skin of her neck to stare at and the delicate line of her collar bone visible with the first few buttons of her fitted shirt undone.
"If you are done staring we really should get a move on before we get heat stroke."
He did not think heat stroke worked that way but he was not going to correct her.
"Fine, you're the one in danger of melting anyway." He mumbled just loud enough so she could hear him as he returned to searching. It should not be that hard to find something. The office was not that big.
"Liam!" She shouted in a voice that went right through him and he was right back to finding her exasperating and yet very sexy which only made him angrier at her.
"Don't be an idiot and act all insulted Carla. I'm too hot and irritated to be your plaything in yet another childish game." Sometimes he really wished he could hate her.
"My games? You only pretend to be a plaything. Poor innocent easygoing Liam hay? Well you may fool the rest of the world but you don't fool me. You can barely keep you hands off me. Hell I bet you hid the damn file on purpose so we would be stuck here all alone and sweaty…" She trailed off undoing another button on her shirt and standing over her he could see the top of her ivory lacy bra.
He was speechless.
"Fine, there is no point in arguing with a delusional cow like you. I'm going to find the file and then I'm getting as far away from you as I possibly can be." He pushed his hair away from his face and turned away because there was only so long he could look at that angry smirk on her full lips before he did something he couldn't take back.
"Whatever you say Lee." Carla tired to keep her voice smug so that her disappointment at his dismissive behaviour did not show through.
She leaned over her desk hating the way her shirt pulled against her curves, it really was too uncomfortable to work in these conditions, and she meant more than the damn heat. As she tidied the mass of paper into reasonably organized piles she found a familiar purple folder previously hidden under fabric order forms.
Fuck, she had the mysterious missing folder all along. Quickly she tried to hide the bloody thing before Liam could see.
"I don't believe you Carla!"
Too late.
She bit her bottom lip because suddenly she wanted to laugh at Liam, standing with his hands on his hips telling her off. It hardly mattered that he could use this against her in future arguments it was all too ridiculous to be taken seriously.
"I can't believe that I actually considered apologising for losing the file. I actually thought that it was all my fault! But no you had it all along and this is just another one of your games."
She wanted to tell him that she was not playing any games and she had no idea where the file had been there all along. There was a seriousness to his voice that had not been there before, she had somehow really upset him.
"I'm sorry Liam." She purred instead enjoying the way his adams apple jumped at the sound of her voice.
"No your not! You are sitting there finding the whole thing fucking hilarious. You have no idea do you?" Half way through shouting he had come to lean over her, hands gripping the armrests of the chair leaving her with no means of escape.
"I have no idea about what?" She asked looking up at him coyly thought her long dark eyelashes. He was close enough to smell the light sent of her perfume mixed in with the unmistakeable and indescribable smell of her.
"You don't know what you do to me." His voice was low and vibrated all the way through her. She wondered if it was anything like what he did to her.
For a second they both just breathed the stuffy air and stared at each other. Then, with deliberate slowness Carla placed her hands against the damp material of his t-shirt, his chest hard and hot beneath the thin material.
She pulled her gaze away from his perfectly blue eyes to watch his lips, the way they parted slightly as he panted only inches away from her own. "Then why don't you show me Liam."