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Assignment: Baby
Jessica Hart
Gabriel Stearne might be a brilliant businessman–but there's nothing on his illustrious resume about children! So the unexpected delivery to the office of a baby leaves him only one place to turn–his personal assistant, Tess Gordon….Gabriel and Tess have been hiding their fiery attraction for each other behind strictly professional behavior. Now Tess has to stay in Gabriel's apartment to help him care for little Harry. And between late-night feeds and early wake-up calls, anything could happen!
What was she doing in bed with Gabriel? What was she doing kissing her boss?
She hadn’t actually kissed him, Tess told herself, grasping desperately at any straw that might somehow make the situation less than excruciatingly, appallingly, embarrassing.
“I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what happened there,” Gabriel said with effort.
“I don’t know either,” she said huskily. “One minute I was dreaming, and the next…” She trailed off as the memory flamed between them.
“I’d forgotten about what happened last night,” Gabriel went on.
Clutching the duvet to her chest, Tess eyed him uneasily. “What did happen?” she asked.
“You invited me to share the bed.”
From boardroom…to bride and groom!
A secret romance, a forbidden affair, a thrilling attraction?
Working side by side, nine to five—and beyond…. No matter how hard these couples try to keep their relationships strictly professional, romance is definitely on the agenda!
But will a date in the office diary lead to an appointment at the altar?
Find out in this exciting new miniseries from Harlequin Romance®.
Readers are invited to visit Jessica Hart’s Web site at www.jessicahart.co.uk
His Secretary’s Secret (#3698)
by Barbara McMahon
Readers are invited to visit Jessica Hart’s
Web site at www.jessicahart.co.uk
Assignment: Baby
Jessica Hart
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE (#u2e11f77f-0caa-5367-b9dd-7845d3c7e558)
CHAPTER TWO (#u8c0aae02-f143-55a1-8cbe-f4325f4234d2)
CHAPTER THREE (#u8e623f7f-959e-5dee-b68f-577f98f122a3)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE
Fresh from her success in last Friday’s award ceremony, Britain’s favourite redhead, TV presenter Fionnula Jenkins, arrives at London’s hottest restaurant, Cupiditas, with Gabriel Stearne, founder of US construction giant Contraxa (above). The couple met in New York, where Fionnula attended a charity ball sponsored by Contraxa. Entrepreneur Gabriel’s activities are more usually reported in the financial pages, but since arriving in London he has been seen out several times with Fionnula, who refused to confirm speculation that he had moved to England to be with her. ‘We just enjoy each other’s company,’ she said.
TESS had barely finished reading the caption when the door to the inner office opened, and she shoved the paper hurriedly out of sight in the wastepaper bin beneath her desk.
By the time Gabriel appeared, shrugging himself into an overcoat, she was innocently absorbed in typing up the letters he had dictated earlier.
‘I’m going to a meeting with our insurers,’ he said, brusquely buttoning his coat. ‘Have those letters ready by the time I get back. I want a copy of the design report and the architects’ files on my desk. All of them. In date order.’
‘Yes, Mr Stearne,’ said Tess.
Her voice was cool, with just a hint of a Scottish accent. Gabriel eyed her sardonically. She was watching him over the spectacles she wore when she was working, pen poised to note his instructions, the very model of a perfect PA.
In the four weeks she had worked for him he had learned only three things about Tess Gordon. She was exceptionally efficient. She was always immaculately groomed.
And she didn’t like him one little bit.
Too bad, thought Gabriel indifferently. He wasn’t here to be liked. He was here to drag this company into the twenty-first century and give himself the toe-hold he needed into Europe, and worrying about what the icy Ms Gordon thought about him was very low down his priority list.
‘When you’ve done that, you can send an e-mail reminding all staff that the phones are not for their personal use,’ he went on in a hard voice. ‘That goes for e-mail as well. A monitoring system is going to be introduced shortly, so they’d better start getting used to it now.’
An order like that would no doubt cause a furore, but Tess didn’t react. She just made a note on her pad and kept her inevitable reflections to herself.
‘Any messages?’ Gabriel asked curtly.
‘Your brother rang. He asked if you could ring him back.’
Gabriel grunted, and privately Tess marvelled that he could be related to the irreverent American with the voice like warm treacle who had rung while his brother was closeted in his office. ‘No calls,’ Gabriel had said, and after a month Tess knew better than to try and interrupt him, no matter how important the caller might be.
Greg, as he had introduced himself, was evidently an incorrigible flirt. Tess, braced to dislike anyone even remotely associated with Gabriel, had found him charming. He had been warm, funny, sympathetic…everything his brother was not!
Unaware—or, more likely, uncaring—of the unflattering comparisons she had drawn, Gabriel was checking that he had all the relevant papers for his meeting in his attaché case. ‘Anything else?’
‘No,’ said Tess, but she hesitated and Gabriel looked up from the case. He had very light, very keen grey eyes that were a startling contrast to his strong, black brows, and she still hadn’t got used to the way they seemed to look right through her.
‘What?’ he demanded.
‘I wondered what time you would be back, that was all.’
‘About six-thirty. Why?’
‘I was hoping to have a word with you.’ Tess’s calm expression gave no hint of her inner trepidation.
Gabriel frowned. ‘What about?’
Nobody could ever accuse him of beating about the bush, thought Tess with an inward sigh. She had to ask him for a rise, but it wasn’t the kind of thing you could blurt out just like that.
‘I’d rather explain when you’re in less of a hurry,’ she said.
‘Can’t it wait until tomorrow?’
‘We’ll be busy putting the Emery bid together tomorrow,’ Tess pointed out. And then it would be the weekend, which would mean two more days to worry about Andrew. She set her teeth. It went against the grain to beg, but she had to try. ‘If you could spare me five minutes when you get back, I would appreciate it.’
Gabriel looked at her. She had one of those faces that made it almost impossible to tell what she was thinking. It wasn’t that she was unattractive. She had a fine-boned face with clear skin and beautiful eyebrows, and her hair, always pulled neatly back, was an unusual golden-brown colour. She might even be pretty, he thought dispassionately—if she ever lightened up and got rid of that snooty expression of hers.
It occurred to him suddenly that she might be going to hand in her notice, and his black brows drew together. He didn’t have the time to find a new PA with this crucial contract coming up. He had inherited Tess when he’d taken over SpaceWorks, and her knowledge of the company was invaluable. He couldn’t afford to lose her just yet. It was worth putting up with the frosty atmosphere until he got things under control.
‘Very well,’ he said, irritable at the thought of wasting precious time trying to cajole her into staying. ‘If you wait until I get back, I’ll see you then.’
‘Thank you.’
That was typical Tess. No gush or fuss, just a cool thank you. Gabriel had never seen her anything but crisp, composed, competent. In many ways she was the ultimate personal assistant. She never flapped. When he shouted, she didn’t get upset or muddled. She was intelligent and discreet. Gabriel knew that she was ideal.
It was just that he would like her more if she made the occasional mistake.
Or smiled.
Annoyed to realise that he’d allowed himself to be diverted, Gabriel shut his attaché case with snap and headed for the door. ‘Oh, and book a table at Cupiditas,’ he remembered at the last moment. ‘Tonight, nine o’clock.’
Why could he never use the word ‘please’? Tess wondered. It wasn’t that hard to say. ‘For two?’
‘Yes, for two,’ he barked, irritated anew by her composure. Most people either fawned or trembled in his presence, but not Tess. No, she just sat there in her sensible grey suit and looked down her nose at him.
‘Certainly, Mr Stearne,’ she said.
Gabriel scowled. ‘I’ll be back later,’ he said, and strode out.
The moment he had gone, Tess retrieved the paper from the bin and smoothed out the crumpled page as she read the caption again, shaking her head in disbelief. Gabriel Stearne and Fionnula Jenkins! Who would have thought it?
All day, e-mails had been flying around the office about their unpopular new boss’s appearance in the gossip columns. Tess had seen them, and had assumed that it was all some kind of joke until one of the other secretaries had brought along a copy of yesterday’s paper to show her.
Now she studied the photograph, half expecting to spot that it was all a mistake, but no, it was definitely Gabriel. No one else had brows like that! Some of the girls in the office claimed to find him attractive, and were always dropping by in the hope of catching a glimpse of him, but Tess couldn’t see what the fuss was about. To her, Gabriel wasn’t broodingly handsome. He was just surly.
And there he was in the paper, looking as grimly formidable as ever, with Fionnula Jenkins clinging girlishly to his arm and smiling that famous Fionnula smile. Tess had never seen a more mismatched pair. Fionnula had all the gloss and glitz of a star. Gabriel was a workaholic, abrupt, impatient and, in Tess’s opinion at least, downright rude.
What did a celebrity like Fionnula see in him? Tess wondered as she tossed the paper back in the bin and dialled the restaurant’s number. Fionnula was beautiful and successful. She could have anybody she wanted, so why pick on Gabriel? It couldn’t be money, as Fionnula had plenty of her own, and it certainly wasn’t charm.
Perhaps, mused Tess, Fionnula was the kind of girl who liked a challenge. Gabriel’s reputation had preceded him from the States. He was known to be utterly ruthless and unsentimental. If Fionnula thought she could find a heart beating somewhere beneath that steely exterior, good luck to her, thought Tess wryly. She was welcome to him.
By six, she had everything ready for Gabriel’s return. His table was booked, and the letters, files and reports lay neatly arranged on his desk. Tess checked them automatically. She knew Gabriel was waiting to catch her out, but so far she hadn’t made so much as a typing error for him to complain about. It had become an unacknowledged battle of wills between them and, in a perverse kind of way, Tess almost enjoyed the challenge of keeping up with the punishing pace he set.
Now, she squared up the last paper and mentally congratulated herself. Gabriel would have to try a bit harder if he wanted her to be unable to cope.
Back at her desk, she sent Andrew a quick e-mail to tell him a cheque was on its way, and that she hoped to be able to send him more next week, and was just rehearsing the arguments she would make to Gabriel for a rise when the phone rang.
‘I’ve got a visitor here for Mr Stearne,’ said the receptionist. ‘She won’t give her name, but she says it’s personal.’
Tess looked at her watch. Gabriel hadn’t said anything about a visitor. She hoped this didn’t mean he wouldn’t have time to listen to her request for a rise after all. ‘You’d better send her up,’ she said, suppressing a sigh.
She wasn’t quite sure what she had expected Gabriel’s visitor to be like, but it certainly wasn’t the woman of about sixty who pushed a pram into the office a few minutes later.
Trying not to show her surprise, Tess took off her glasses and stood up with a polite smile. ‘Can I help you?’
The woman looked around her as if she couldn’t decide whether to be daunted or impressed. ‘I’m looking for Gabriel Stearne,’ she told Tess with a belligerent air.
‘I’m afraid he’s not here at the moment. I’m his assistant,’ Tess explained. ‘Perhaps I can help you?’
‘I don’t know if you can.’ Digging around under the pram, the visitor pulled out a copy of yesterday evening’s paper. It was folded open at the picture of Gabriel and Fionnula, and she tapped the photo. ‘This is your Gabriel Stearne?’ she asked doubtfully.
Tess looked down at the stern mouth, the dark, striking brows and the unsmiling face next to the sparkling Fionnula. ‘Yes, that’s Mr Stearne,’ she said.
‘He’s not what I expected,’ the woman confessed, frowning down at the picture with Tess. ‘Leanne said he was gorgeous. The most handsome man she’d ever met, she said.’ Her mouth turned down disparagingly. ‘I wouldn’t call him handsome, myself, would you?’
‘Not personally, no,’ said Tess. It wasn’t a very loyal answer, but it was hard enough putting up with his bad temper without having to rave about his looks as well.
‘Ah, well, that’s love for you.’
There was a tiny pause. ‘Love?’ she echoed cautiously.
‘That’s what Leanne called it. Leanne’s my daughter,’ the woman explained, seeing that Tess was still looking mystified. ‘She met Gabriel on a cruise last year. She’s a croupier,’ she added proudly, ‘and he was one of the first-class passengers. She said he was a lot of fun.’
A puzzled look came over her face as she looked around the plush office. ‘Somehow I didn’t imagine him somewhere like this. Leanne always said he was a free spirit.’
She wasn’t the only one who was puzzled. Tess was still trying to come to terms with the idea of Gabriel hanging around in a casino and being a lot of fun, let alone a free spirit! She would love to know what the unknown Leanne was like.
‘Well, I’m sorry he’s not here,’ she said after a moment. ‘He won’t be back until later. Can I give him a message?’
‘You can do better than that,’ said the woman, appearing to make up her mind abruptly. ‘You can give him his son.’
For once Tess was shaken out of her composure. ‘His son?’ she repeated stupidly.
‘That’s right.’ She nodded towards the pram. ‘Harry, his name is.’
