Hot Boss, Wicked Nights

‘Leased it. Looks like I’ll be staying a while. I have to wind up Bry’s estate and then there’s the business.’

‘Yes. The business.’ Her job depended on Damon and what he decided to do. The promotion she’d worked for was slipping frustratingly beyond her reach.

A hand touched hers briefly, but his eyes remained on the road. ‘You’re very quiet. Is everything okay?’

The warmth of those callused fingers, the memory of that hand on other body parts, had her edging away with a tight-lipped, ‘This is supposed to be a work-related exercise.’

The tension inside the car ratcheted up. From the corner of her eye she saw him shake his head. No doubt after this assignment he’d think her the humourless strait-laced virgin type. Which was a good thing, she told herself. She looked straight ahead, trying not to notice the scent of his body-warmed leather jacket, the sound it made as he shifted in his seat.

It began to rain, one of those quick downpours that sent pedestrians scurrying for shelter and umbrellas and was over in moments. Damon parked beside a playground a short distance from a travel agency two blocks over from Aussie Essential.

‘Let’s start here,’ he said, handing her a pad and pen. ‘I want you to take note of their special offers, prices, et cetera. We need to know what others in the area are doing in order to remain competitive.’

‘For heaven’s sakes, Bryce was always very competitive. And all we have to do is look on their websites.’

‘You get a better idea looking at the sorts of customers they attract, the general layout of the shop, the surrounding businesses.’

‘You don’t need me for that.’ She frowned at him. ‘You could’ve done this on your own.’

He grinned. ‘But it wouldn’t have been half as much fun.’

Turning to the window, she ignored the way his eyes twinkled at her, the way her body responded to his proximity, and watched the light rain trickle down the window, turning the streetscape into ragged water-colour impressions. ‘We’ll be arrested for loitering.’

Hopefully that was all they’d be arrested for because it was taking more and more will power not to slide closer and feel how soft and pliable that leather jacket was. How hard and warm the flesh beneath it felt…

‘What are you thinking, Kate?’

Oh, no. She was not going there. ‘I’m thinking I can’t even read the signage from here.’

‘That’s what binoculars are for.’ He reached into the glovebox.

‘The windscreen’s fogging up and we’ll be arrested for stalking as well. Enough.’ She turned to him, furious with herself for agreeing to accompany him on this farcical exercise. Furious with Damon for thinking she was gullible enough to. ‘What the hell’s this all about?’

The humour faded from his eyes, turning them to the colour of dark honey. ‘Okay. I wanted to talk to you. Just you. On our own.’

She went very still while every internal organ swapped places. ‘You got me here under false pretences,’ she said, tight-lipped. ‘You don’t want to check out the competition. You want…’

She looked away, unable to look at him, to let him see what he surely must read on her face, and rubbed at the misty windscreen with a ferocious hand. Lemon sunlight was breaking through the light drizzle, filling the air outside with a misty quality.

‘I want your honest opinion about where Aussie Travel’s going. I didn’t want the rest of the staff listening in on the conversation.’

Oh. He wasn’t here to seduce her. His mind was on work. Good. She told herself that was good. She let her pent-up breath out in tiny increments, directing her focus to the matter at hand. ‘Everything seems okay,’ she said slowly. ‘Except the books. Bryce always did the accounting side of things himself. But since he passed away I’ve been looking them over and I can’t make any sense of them. I’m no accountant, but we need to get someone in who knows what they’re doing.’

Damon frowned. ‘Yeah. Asap.’ He’d only had time to glance at last month’s sales figures yesterday—what he could find of them at short notice—and they didn’t match with the banking statements. He met her eyes directly. ‘I’ll be straight with you, Kate. Aussie Essential needs a hell of a lot of work.’

‘You’ve looked at the finances?’ Kate’s eyebrows rose.

‘Does that surprise you?’

She wrinkled her forehead. ‘Frankly… Yes.’

‘Your opinion of me isn’t very high.’

Her complexion turned pink as she stared straight ahead. ‘I don’t know you well enough to form an opinion.’