Dark Ties (Made Men 9)

Breathlessly, Nadia came back on the line. “I’m going to have to take a raincheck on the movie when you get back. We’ll do lunch …” Nadia’s voice broke off.

“Dante … give me back my fucking phone!”

Haley laughed as she pressed the end button on the call. Her laughter then cut off and her eyes widened when she saw Desmond casually leaning against the doorjamb. She hadn’t heard him opening the door, much less noticed that her boss had been standing there, listening.

“Trouble in paradise?”

The amused way he was staring at her left no doubt he had been listening to her and Nadia’s lighthearted conversation.

Haley nervously picked up one of her pencils lying scattered around her desk. Him mentioning paradise told her he was well aware of where Nadia and Dante were currently staying.

To remain on the safe side concerning her friend’s safety, she sidestepped his remark, giving a slight shrug. “More like trouble picking out which movie to watch. I think Dante is jealous of Nadia’s movie choices.”

“He wouldn’t. Dante doesn’t believe in healthy competition when he can crush it under the heel of his Testoni shoe.” Mr. Beck moved farther into her office, resting a hip on the corner of her desk. A tan, long finger rolled one of the pencils across the back of her desk in a straight line.

“Every time I spend vacations with them, it’s refreshing to see how happy they are. After he lost Melissa, I didn’t think I would see another smile on Dante. You missed a great time last week. Watching Dante preventing Nadia from going swimming is just as amusing as listening them fight over her movie choices. Nadia mentioned she had invited you to come along.”

Straightening in her seat, Haley found it perturbing that she was seeing her boss two days in a row. Usually, she would only see him in the beginning of her assignment, then later when she handed in her report. Many times, Lucas was the one whom she reported to when Mr. Beck was unavailable. The novelty had her concerned.

Haley had found that people didn’t change their normal habits unless they had a reason. Nine times out of ten, the reason wasn’t to her benefit. On the other hand, Haley assured herself, Mr. Beck might just be stopping by her office to be nice after one of his employees had been rude to her last night.

“Water and I don’t mix. I thought I would save Dante from having to rescue me. I’m not a great swimmer either, and the last time I let Nadia talk me into sunbathing, I ended up in bed with sun poisoning.”

The pencil continued to roll along her desk.

Mr. Beck gave her a commiserating look, as if knowing how bad she had felt when it had happened, which had Haley schooling her own features. If he expected her to believe he had been sunburned badly enough to experience sun poisoning, he was wasting his acting skills on her. His bronze skin glowed with health and only highlighted his athletic build.

Haley knew he knew how to swim from the descriptions Nadia would give her when Mr. Beck would invite Dante and her to join him on his boat, or when Dante would invite Mr. Beck to the beach house they regularly visited.

From what Nadia had told her, there wasn’t any sport he didn’t do well. She didn’t need Nadia to tell her some of the gossip magazines would photograph him playing tennis, golfing, swimming, to diving in many of the countries he visited.

Desmond Beck was fodder for the gossip magazines who always wanted to get the scoop on which high-profile woman he was currently dating or who had their heart broken by him. From what Nadia had told her, he had broken up with a famous singer from Europe right before he had visited Dante and her a couple of weeks ago.

He lifted his eyes from the pencil. “You would certainly need a good sunscreen with your porcelain skin.”

Biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from blushing, Haley began transferring numbers from the computer screen to a sheet of paper.

“Did you have a question?” Haley timorously approached why he was in her office, changing the conversation from the personal route it had taken to a business one, which she was more comfortable having with him.

She immediately felt his annoyance with her and couldn’t understand why. She lifted her eyes from the numbers and got caught up in his. It took several moments for her to realize he hadn’t answered her question.

Pushing her glasses higher up her nose, she gave him the best schoolmarm impression she could manage. “Mr. Beck? Did you have a question?” she repeated.

He stood up from leaning against her desk. “No question. I just wanted to inform you that Zach picked up his things and has left. He won’t be back.”