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‘‘That’s why we can’t work in the same office.’’ Hunter leaned back and tucked his hands in his pockets, a wry smile on his handsome features. ‘‘Something happened between us this morning…something I’m not ready or willing to explore. I’ve accomplished too much here to risk it with an office fling.’’
The cynic in her wondered if his reluctance for romance had anything to do with his former fiancée. No one knew why they’d broken up years ago; he was too much of a gentleman to talk about it. But that didn’t stop people from speculating that Yvonne had been at fault. In fact, Hunter’s silence on the matter may have contributed to that assumption. And they all hated her for breaking his heart.
All except Julie. Although she’d hated to see him hurting, she’d been secretly glad that he would not be marrying. Not that she could have taken advantage of his availability; she’d been in college at the time and certain that someone as handsome, successful and mature as Hunter would not be interested in anyone like her.
And now he’d made that perfectly clear. Julie straightened her spine. ‘‘Don’t flatter yourself. I have something to say about the matter, too.’’
‘‘Yes, and you’ve already said plenty.’’ He picked up the ukulele she’d set on the chair earlier and handed it to her. ‘‘I’d be happy to give you a good reference, though.’’
‘‘Your technique in discussing my work with employers leaves a lot to be desired.’’
To his credit, he looked remorseful about his role in her dilemma.
‘‘So are you going to hire me or what? I have bills to pay and…career goals to accomplish.’’
Hunter paused, rubbing his thumb over the little scar beside his mouth.
Definitely a good sign. Julie grinned at his response.
‘‘What? Why are you smiling? I haven’t answered yet.’’
‘‘Yes, you have. You always did that thing with your scar before you caved in and let me tag along on dates with you and my sister.’’
He conceded with a nod of his head. ‘‘I’ll have to work on that.’’ A moment passed before he added, ‘‘By the way, how’s Charlene? I haven’t seen her in ages.’’
Since their mutual breakup thirteen years ago, to be exact. Julie hadn’t understood at the time why her sister had not been torn apart over their peaceable parting. Charlene had explained that their relationship had run its course, and she soon moved on to another boyfriend, but Julie had thought at the time that if she’d been in her sister’s shoes, she would have been devastated.
‘‘Charlene married Nathan Kleinschmidt. They just had their first baby, a girl, last month.’’
Becoming an aunt had been a momentous event for Julie. Not only did her tiny niece give her someone to dote on, but little Evie had also stirred a long-held desire for a child of her own. Seeing the baby watch her mother’s face with an expression of pure love had triggered a need in Julie, a longstanding need that she’d only recently recognized. A need to be cherished.
Each time one of her former classmates had married, Julie had sat at the wedding, watching with envy the expressions of pure adoration the grooms had bestowed on their brides. Julie wanted to be looked at like that. She wanted to be the center of someone’s universe. And the birth of her niece had opened a flood of feelings that had been growing for a long time.
‘‘Please give them both my congratulations,’’ Hunter said.
He studied her for a long moment, and Julie felt like she was nine years old again.
‘‘As it happens, I am temporarily short on staff and could use you to fill in for about a month. I can’t promise anything permanent, but it should keep you going until something else comes along.’’
Then he named a salary that was higher than her pay—even with tips—had been at Merry Messengers.
Working at a private investigation agency wouldn’t give her much opportunity to meet new people, unless, of course, they happened to be lurking in a bush near hers. But it would keep food on the table, and maybe she could introduce herself to some of the people in the nearby offices.
‘‘Deal,’’ she said, holding out her hand to seal their arrangement. Julie did an admirable job of pretending not to notice the strength in his large hand, or the way his long fingers wrapped around her own. ‘‘You won’t regret this.’’
‘‘No offense,’’ he countered, ‘‘but something tells me I will.’’
If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought she was all set to attend a funeral…except no mourner would dare show up at such a solemn event looking as sexy as that.
The snug black turtleneck shirt would have shown off her trim figure, if not for the tailored, black leather jacket, which was zipped at the bottom. Then there was the skirt—also black and made of a touchable fabric—that slit enticingly over her left thigh. Sheer black hose and a pair of backless shoes finished off the ensemble. The only spot of color on her was the bright red lipstick that called attention to her wide smile.
Hunter fought to quell his physical response to the sight of her. Trying to focus on more professional matters, he led her to Trudy’s desk. ‘‘This is your station. Active client files are in the bottom-right credenza drawer, the procedure manual is in the top right and stationery and supplies are on the left.’’
She looked perplexed. ‘‘This area is so open. How am I supposed to get any work done without some privacy?’’
Now it was Hunter’s turn to be puzzled. ‘‘This is the most effective arrangement. Since you’re my right-hand staff, I’ll need you to be accessible at all times.’’
Julie shrugged and tossed her black purse into the knee well under the desk. ‘‘I suppose it’ll do. I’ll be on the road most of the time, anyway, so it’s not like I’ll be shackled to it.’’
Hunter flexed his hand. If he were at his own desk, he’d be working the grip exerciser that he kept in the bottom drawer. It was a great stress reliever, and he had a feeling he’d be using it a lot during the next month. ‘‘On the road?’’
She tilted her head, and a lock of soft brown hair fell forward over her shoulder. ‘‘Guess I’ll have to study up on the lingo. Maybe you call it being ‘in the field.’’’ When he failed to respond in the affirmative, she tried again. ‘‘‘Research,’ perhaps? Or ‘on stakeout’?’’
A groan escaped his throat. He hadn’t spelled out that her duties involved only secretarial work, so she had filled in the blanks with a glamorized image of what she assumed her job would be. ‘‘Sorry, Julie Beth, but there will be no stakeouts for you.’’ Remembering some of her childhood antics, he gave a little laugh. ‘‘Besides, I doubt that someone who used to be known as a Mexican jumping bean would be able to sit still during the long boring hours on stakeout.’’
‘‘I’m not a child anymore.’’ She crossed her arms at her waist, inadvertently drawing his attention to her flat stomach and the gentle curve of her hips. ‘‘I’ve grown up, in case you haven’t noticed.’’
A man would have to be blind, deaf and paralyzed not to notice. Hunter took a moment to indulge in the awareness of those changes. For one thing, her voice had deepened from a childish soprano to a sultry alto. The youthful roundness had vanished from her freckled face, leaving delicately defined features that seemed at once expressive and mysterious. The changes in her body had been the most noticeable, but now that he considered her, he could see that even her attitude was different. She was still exuberant like the little girl who used to shadow his steps, but there seemed to be an underlying focus to her actions, as if she had somehow managed to harness her boundless energy and use it for a predetermined purpose. Such a potent combination could be either dynamic or disastrous.
She sat on the edge of her desk, the slit in her skirt parting in invitation, and kicked off her shoes in an ages-old habit that she had apparently been unable to conquer. To his annoyance, Hunter’s thoughts led him to imagining her shedding other items of clothing. He flexed his hand again and chastised himself for his wayward thoughts. Julie was, after all, to be his secretary for the next month. It wouldn’t do to start their time together by harboring after-hours thoughts.
Her gaze left his as she smiled at someone behind him. Hunter turned to see that one of his investigators, Ben Irving, had slowed his steps and seemed to be considering joining them. But a glare from Hunter helped him change his mind, and Ben continued on his way toward the file room, glancing over his shoulder at Julie. If Hunter’s reaction was any indication, this was going to be a long, stress-filled month.
‘‘I think I’d make a good P.I.,’’ Julie persisted. ‘‘Just give me a chance, and you’ll see.’’
A chance to do what? Wreck the cases he’d worked so hard to bring to fruition? Although Mark, one of his investigators, was honeymooning with Trudy, Hunter had no intention of turning Julie loose on Mark’s cases. Those he would handle himself. ‘‘That’s a very tempting suggestion,’’ he lied, ‘‘but your duties will be primarily secretarial. My assistant is out on a month-long honeymoon, and I’ll need you to keep things going smoothly until she returns.’’
Why did that last statement give him a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach?
‘‘But I’m not cut out to be a secretary. I can handle detail work if it’s for something I like doing, but typing and filing for someone else leaves me cold. I’m much more suited to surveillance work, and I’m good at it, too.’’ Julie pointed a manicured finger at him. ‘‘I used to spy on you and Charlene all the time, and you never caught on.’’
Hunter couldn’t help laughing. ‘‘I knew you were there. Your favorite hiding places were behind the sofa or the drapes. And sometimes you lurked inside the TV cabinet.’’
‘‘You knew?’’ She seemed truly amazed, as if he were some kind of genius for having detected her whereabouts.
‘‘Of course. You always took off your shoes, and your stinky feet gave you away.’’
Julie slid off the desk and slipped her shoes back on. ‘‘My feet didn’t stink!’’
To her chagrin, his only response was an amused chuckle, and then he launched into describing her job duties. Secretarial duties.
She interrupted his litany about filing procedures and telephone protocol. ‘‘Perhaps, as you said, my spying technique could have used some work, but I was only a kid then. With a little coaching, I’m sure I could do much better now.’’
‘‘Forget it. Now, over here is the information on how to do Internet searches and—’’
‘‘Maybe I’ll ask Mr. Oltmeier about letting me track down the bad guys.’’ As a teen, Hunter had lorded his seniority over her, telling her what to do as if she had no choice in the matter. But she had quickly learned that going over his head to Gran or his mother had often garnered the results she wanted. Such as permission to accompany him and her sister to the ice-cream parlor for a sundae. ‘‘His name is first in Oltmeier-Matthews, you know.’’
There, let him deny that.
Without speaking a word, Hunter merely raised an eyebrow. The gesture told her in no uncertain terms that such one-upmanship tactics wouldn’t work here.
‘‘All right, I’ll do the stupid desk work. But I don’t have to like it.’’
He flashed her a smug smile. ‘‘Good girl.’’
‘‘But I have a few terms of my own.’’
If she didn’t set firm limits right from the start, he might get the idea she was still a little kid that he could order around at will. And she wasn’t about to let that happen. He tried the raised eyebrow thing again, but she didn’t let it get to her this time.
‘‘First, I don’t want you talking to me like I’m still a child. I’m an adult now, with a college education, and I expect to be treated accordingly.’’ She neglected to mention that her degree was in theater costuming. No need to undermine herself by offering too much information.
‘‘Fair enough,’’ he agreed.
‘‘And don’t call me Julie Beth. It’s just Julie now.’’
‘‘Done.’’ He extended his hand and gripped her fingers in his warm grasp. Julie felt a tingle surge all the way to her toes. ‘‘Welcome to Oltmeier-Matthews.’’
He released her hand much too soon. She stood there feeling awkward, wishing she had pockets in which to thrust her hands, the right one of which seemed to still burn from Hunter’s touch.
‘‘Now I suggest you take some time to go through the files and familiarize yourself with the cases. The information in them and the way they’re organized will give you a good idea of what we do around here.’’
‘‘Files,’’ she grumbled. ‘‘Spying would be more people-oriented.’’
Hunter picked up a few of the client folders from the open drawer and dropped them on her desk. ‘‘These are people. I suggest you treat them with care.’’
Julie released a disappointed sigh. How on earth, she wondered, would she ever meet any kissable men while stuck at this desk?
After transcribing the final sentence of the letter, Julie took off the headphones, typed in the signature lines and turned up the volume on the radio that crowded her desk. If she couldn’t enjoy the work, she’d at least entertain herself by listening to the prank call of the day. She blew a bored sigh when Hunter brought her another cassette tape jammed with dictated letters, memos and instructions.
‘‘Everything going okay?’’ he asked.
‘‘Hunky-dory,’’ Julie replied with more than a hint of sarcasm, and stuck a report on the stack of papers to go to Spencer in accounting. Truthfully, mundane was a more fitting description of how things were going. ‘‘You know, I really would do fine on stakeout. All this nitpicky paperwork is a waste of my talents.’’
Hunter reached over and transferred the report from Spencer’s pile to Priscilla’s. ‘‘If you can’t keep a proper handle on this ‘nitpicky paperwork,’ how can you expect to handle a delicate matter like surveillance, which requires so much attention to detail?’’
It would be different if the paperwork was relevant to something Julie liked doing. Like reporting. But spending all day shuffling papers for someone else’s projects seemed pointless.
Hunter gave her a smug wink and returned to his office.
Julie bit her tongue to keep from hurling a scathing comment at his retreating form. Instead, she turned her fury on the keyboard, jabbing the keys as she punched in the command to print the letter she’d just typed.
‘‘I’ll show him,’’ she vowed. If he wanted attention to details, then that was what she’d give him. Julie Beth Fasano would be so meticulous, so methodical and so, well, mundane that he would have no excuse for refusing to allow her on his surveillance outings. She would be so perfect, so particular and so persnickety that—
The printer jammed.
Unwilling to risk gobbing up the machine with paper, she went to the computer and hit a key to cancel the print job. The letter disappeared from the screen.
Julie stifled a scream of frustration.
‘‘Is that letter to Mrs. Huffnagle ready yet?’’ Hunter called from his office.
‘‘It’s coming along.’’ There was no telling when, but she’d get it to him eventually.
‘‘Great. How about turning that radio down a bit.’’
The last wasn’t a request, but an order. She lowered the volume and slid her shoes on in preparation to go look for Mr. Oltmeier’s secretary, who might be able to help her unjam the printer and retrieve her lost document. Spencer chose that moment to pick up the papers she’d been intending to deliver to him. He gave her an assessing smile.
In return, Julie pushed a jar of toffees toward him. ‘‘How much candy would it take to persuade you to help me with this stupid computer?’’
Spencer shook his head. ‘‘I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. But there is something much more appetizing that you could bribe me with.’’
One corner of his mouth lifted in anticipation.
Julie automatically assessed the accountant’s kissing potential. In the looks department, he was okay, despite the fact that he used a tad too much gel on his artfully styled, dark-blond hair. His face was handsome in a slightly better than average way, and his slate-blue suit gave an impression of good taste while carefully concealing the beginnings of a paunch. From what little she knew about him, Spencer seemed nice enough, but she wasn’t interested in him as dating material. Even so, he’d probably stolen his share of kisses and might be willing to enlighten her with the benefit of his experience. And give her something to write about in her column.
She smiled and self-consciously straightened the turtleneck collar at her throat. ‘‘I suppose that’s something we’ll have to negotiate.’’
He graciously let the subject drop as he moved behind her desk and hunched beside her to maneuver the computer mouse. While he worked to retrieve the document, the radio deejay chattered on about how many calls he’d received that morning.
‘‘I just don’t understand all the commotion over a silly newspaper column,’’ the deejay continued. ‘‘It seems like everyone in Richmond is asking who this mystery kisser is. And they’re all calling us, as if we should know.’’
Julie felt her eyes nearly pop, then struggled to maintain an attitude of nonchalance as the radio aired a conversation with one of the curious callers. Slipping her shoes off once again, she leaned back in her chair and worried how this might affect her chances for employment with the newspaper.
‘‘What’s the matter?’’ Spencer asked as he moused his way around the computer screen.
‘‘Nothing,’’ she said a bit too hastily. Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, Julie saw that he didn’t seem to notice her unease. Emboldened, she decided to probe for his reaction to her column. ‘‘I was just thinking about that mystery kisser they were talking about just now. I haven’t read the paper yet—did you see the column?’’
Spencer hit the enter key. ‘‘Oops.’’
Hunter chose that moment to emerge from his office and ask for the Lifeway Insurance file.
Spencer straightened and handed her the mouse. ‘‘Sorry I couldn’t help you.’’
After he left, Julie stood up to block Hunter’s view of the cryptic error message on her computer monitor. It was still her first day. The last thing she wanted was to let him know she’d managed to mess things up already.
He took the file she handed him and paused to stare down at her. ‘‘You weren’t that short this morning.’’
Without moving from her position, Julie stretched a toe toward the black mules hiding under her desk. ‘‘I, uh…’’ She gave a little laugh. ‘‘My shoes temporarily went AWOL.’’
He glanced down at her nylon-clad feet, then ever so slowly pulled his gaze up her body until his eyes met hers. He grinned knowingly, and the suggestiveness in his smile made her wish it was August already so she could give him another birthday kiss. ‘‘Perhaps you should ask Mr. Oltmeier’s secretary to help you retrieve Mrs. Huffnagle’s letter.’’
Julie hurriedly slid her feet into the recaptured shoes and made a move to leave, but Hunter stopped her with a hand on her arm.
‘‘Before you go, I’d better warn you that Priscilla is a notorious matchmaker. She has tried to fix up her bachelor brother with every single female in the office.’’
Julie smiled broadly. Another potential kisser.
Hunter appeared irked by her reaction. ‘‘Why are you looking so happy? I’m trying to warn you not to let her sic her brother on you.’’ He shifted the folder to his other arm. ‘‘And while we’re on the subject, you should probably stay away from Spencer, too. He’s totally trustworthy where numbers are concerned, but that kind of integrity doesn’t always follow him into his social life.’’
