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Ash snorted. “Easier said than done. Later, brother.” He grabbed Devin’s hand and shook it, then pulled him close. “Get some rest. You look like hell.”
“Thanks, you don’t look so good yourself. Keep an eye on that fiancée of yours. She could be in as much danger as the rest of us. Especially since she found the DNA evidence that freed Rick Campbell.”
“Rachel can hold her own. But I’ll gladly keep a very close eye on her.” Ash waggled his eyebrows.
Devin shook his head. “How she puts up with you, I’ll never know.”
Ash smiled at Jolie. “My big brother hasn’t learned that a good woman makes a man want to be a better person. That woman could be right under his nose and he hasn’t pulled his head out of the sand long enough to notice.” He winked at Devin. “Am I right?”
“Shut up and get out.” Devin shook his head, a hint of a smile pulling at his lips. Ash was a ladies’ man who’d met his match in Rachel. That didn’t mean Devin was headed down the matrimonial path. He had too much on his plate to even think of a relationship.
His gaze landed on Jolie. She was the ideal woman, the one he found himself measuring all others by. If he decided to settle down and think about a wife and two-point-one children, he’d like to find someone as strong and stable as Jolie. But that was a big if, one he didn’t intend to explore anytime in the near future.
And she was his executive assistant. Completely off-limits in the corporate world. He shuddered inwardly at the media nightmare such a relationship would generate.
JOLIE SAT ACROSS THE restaurant table from Natalie, laughing and chatting. Yet her thoughts were of Devin, whom she’d left in his office thirty minutes earlier. She really should have stayed to see if he needed anything.
“He’ll be fine. You know, you aren’t married to him or the job.” Natalie smiled at Jolie’s attempt to eat Chinese the traditional way.
“I understand why the Chinese are so thin,” Jolie grumbled, fumbling with the chopsticks. She almost managed to get four grains of rice to her lips before the chopsticks slipped and the rice fell into her lap. What was the use? “I give up. I’m hopeless at this. I can’t even pretend to be sophisticated and a world traveler.”
“Not to worry. That’s what they make forks for.” Natalie handed her the fork beside her plate.
Jolie held her hand up. “No. I’m going to eat with the chopsticks or go hungry.” She put the sticks together and used them as a shovel, this time getting a line of rice and vegetables into her mouth without too much spillage.
“So what did you think about my brother’s family meeting?”
Jolie shrugged. “I don’t know what to think about the whole situation.”
“Oh, come on. Are you telling me Jolie Carson doesn’t have an opinion? That’s a change.”
Jolie grinned. “Okay, I do, but I didn’t want to speak out against Devin. He’s been taking this all to heart. The man hasn’t slept in days. Probably hasn’t eaten.”
“Oh, so the dinner-to-go you ordered isn’t for your freezer then, is it?” Natalie smiled. “Don’t worry. I won’t hold that little lie against you. You’re going by my brother’s condo to make sure he gets a proper meal.”
Jolie’s cheeks burned.
Natalie leaned across the table and grabbed Jolie’s hand. “Have you told him how you feel about him?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Jolie pulled her hand from her friend’s.
“Sorry, I’m not buying it.” Natalie stared hard into Jolie’s face. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
Jolie considered lying again but thought better of it. Her friend deserved the truth, no matter how pathetic it was. She sighed. “For six years.”
“Good grief. When are you going to tell him?”
“Never.” Jolie sat up straight and pointed a finger at Natalie. “And neither are you.”
“Not tell him? What good will that do?”
“I work for the man. If he thinks I’m in love with him, he’ll fire me on the spot.”
“And you’d rather work as his executive assistant, secretly in love with him, than work somewhere else. Right?”
Jolie’s lips twisted. “Pathetic, huh?”
Natalie leaned her chin on her palm and sighed. “No, I think it’s romantic. I wish I could find someone I’m completely crazy about.”
“You will. He’ll show up when you’re least expecting it.”
Natalie sighed again. “I hope it’s before I’m as old as you are.”
Jolie tossed her napkin at her. “Thanks. I’m feeling older by the second with you around.”
“Speaking of showing up—” Natalie sat up straighter, her brow furrowing “—there he is again.”
“There’s who?” Jolie twisted in her seat.
“That guy at the table by the door.”
“The one with the menu over his face.” Jolie rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, only he hasn’t always had the menu over his face.” She lobbed Jolie’s napkin back at her. “I swear he’s the same guy who’s been following me for the past few days.”
Jolie looked closer, but the menu remained up, the man studying it intently. A flicker of concern threatened her usual calm. “Have you said anything to your brother?” Devin would want to know if there was any threat to his family.
“No. If I tell him I think I’m being followed, he’ll insist on a police escort everywhere I go.” Natalie shrugged. “I’ll handle it myself rather than be put under lock and key by my overbearing brother.”
“He’s worried about you.” Jolie shot another glance behind her at the menu-covered stranger. “He worries about his family.”
“He’s annoying and overprotective. You’d think he was my father, not my brother.”
“As the oldest, he feels responsible for his siblings.”
“Well, he needs to stop it.” Natalie set her fork aside. “I have work to do at home. Are you sure you don’t mind taking the marketing plan to my brother? I promised I’d have it by the end of the day.” She laughed. “Guess late at night is still part of today.”
“I’ll get it to him.” Jolie patted her oversize purse with the file folder inside.
“Yeah, and make sure he eats that food you bring him. He looks like he’s losing weight.”
“Now who’s the worried sibling?” Jolie laughed. “I’ll stand over him until he downs every bite.”
Natalie grinned. “I can see you doing just that. Like a drill sergeant ready to pounce on him if he doesn’t.” Then her smile faded. “I have half a mind to tell him to wake up and smell the rose he has for an E.A.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“It goes both ways. Don’t tell him I have someone following me unless you want me to tell him that you have a thing for him.”
Jolie already regretted telling Natalie about her secret infatuation for her boss. No matter how good it felt to let it out and confess, she saw it for what it was, a wretched situation of unrequited love.
Everyone, especially her, knew that Devin Kendall was married to his job. What time he didn’t give to the business, he dedicated to the protection of his family. He didn’t have time for himself, much less a relationship. Jolie had known this for a long time and had come to accept it. But having turned thirty on her last birthday, she had heard the beginning ticks of her biological clock. Deep in her heart, she’d always wanted a family … children … a husband who loved her.
She wouldn’t get those things from Devin Kendall. He was in a league way above Jolie’s humble beginnings. If she was honest with herself, she’d accept that and move on.
She gathered her purse, the to-go bag of his favorite Kung Pao Chicken, and bade Natalie goodbye at her car.
The man who’d been at the table with the menu over his face had left before they did so she didn’t get a good look at him. But that didn’t make her feel any better about sending Natalie off on her own.
Despite her promise not to tell Devin, she knew she would. Natalie’s safety was more important than Jolie’s love life.
Or lack thereof.
She dropped her purse and the bag of food on the empty passenger seat, revved the engine of her four-door sedan and then drove toward Devin’s condo, trying to squelch the sudden rush of adrenaline and excitement at seeing her boss outside the office environment.
Chapter Two
Devin jumped to his feet when the doorbell rang, grumbling all the way to the entrance, regretting his decision not to buy a condo with a security guard at the front desk. “Who the hell comes by this late at night?”
He yanked the door open, ready to rip into the salesman on the other side and brought himself up short.
Jolie smiled and held up a bag that smelled of soy sauce and spices. “Hungry?”
“What the hell are you doing here so late? I would think that at least one of us would have a life.”
She snorted and followed him into the living room. “Like I could have a life. With you calling or texting me every hour of the day and night. Any man I’ve ever tried to date never understood.”
Devin frowned. “You date?”
She thunked the bag of food on the counter in his kitchen and shot a twisted grin his way. “I would if I had a day off.”
“What are you doing here?” And why did she look so damned good? Something was different about Jolie, but Devin was too wound up to put his finger on it.
“I brought Natalie’s marketing plan by. You wanted it by end of day. It’s end of day, in case you hadn’t noticed, and here it is.” She pulled the document from her voluminous purse and laid it next to the bag of Chinese food containers.
Devin’s frown deepened. “Why didn’t she bring it herself?”
“She had other plans and your condo is on my way home.”
“That’s right, you had dinner together.”
“We did.”
Devin crossed his arms over his chest. The thought of his sister going home alone bothered him. “I don’t like it that she’s out and about after dark.”
“She’s twenty-six. Old enough to know how to take care of herself.”
“She’s my kid sister.”
“The key word is sister.” Jolie scooped food from the containers onto a clean plate. “You aren’t her parent and she’s a big girl, not a kid. Give her a break.”
“I can’t. This whole murder investigation is eating me alive.”
“Then get a bodyguard for her and quit worrying.” Jolie stared across at him. “She’s had a man following her the past few days. It wouldn’t hurt to have someone to watch her back. Now, here.” She handed him a plate of Kung Pao Chicken and steered him toward the couch. “Sit. Eat. If you still feel like it when your stomach is full, then you can resume your worrying.”
He let her push him toward the living room, her fingers warm on his back. He liked the touch a little too much and growled menacingly, feeling as though his attraction to her was a sign of his exhaustion. He’d be better off escorting her to the door as soon as possible before things got complicated. “I don’t need you telling me what to do. Just so you know, I’d already decided on a bodyguard.”
Jolie grounded her hands on her hips, her stance wide, fearlessly ready to take him on. “When was the last time you ate?” she demanded.
“Lunch.”
She snorted. “You skipped lunch to meet with the board of directors.”
He didn’t like it when she was right, but the color in her cheeks had heightened, a sure sign she was riled. He did like it when Jolie got riled. The unflappable executive assistant was entirely too tightly bound.
What were they arguing about? Oh, yeah. “We had lunch at the meeting.”
“You spoke all the way through the meeting. Bottled water doesn’t count.” With her shoulders flung back, her head held high and the cut of her blouse dipping low over her breasts, she looked more lively than he could remember. And there was something vastly different about her tonight.
Suddenly feeling the need to rub his executive assistant the wrong way, Devin set the plate in front of him. “I’ll eat when I’m hungry.”
“When will that be?” She perched on the edge of the coffee table, lifted a forkful of food and held it out. “I’m under orders to stay until you’ve eaten. So do me a favor and eat this so I can go home.”
He opened his mouth to argue and she shoved the fork in.
His eyes widened and then narrowed. He chewed thoughtfully, emitting a soft moan. “Mmm. This is good.”
That she was perched on his coffee table, leaning forward in a soft ribbed-knit shirt that showed the rounded curve of her breasts didn’t make it easy to swallow. Somehow he managed.
He frowned. “You look different.”
“I’m the same old Jolie who’s been working with you for the past six years. How different could I look?” She leveled another forkful of food and raised her eyebrows. “Are you going to feed yourself or am I going to have to?”
He opened his mouth and let her place the fork between his teeth. She always got his blood flowing and made him feel alive, even when he was half-dead with worry and lack of sleep. “How do you do that?”
“Feed you?” She scooped up another forkful of food. “It’s easy, just like feeding a baby.”
He grabbed her hand, spilling rice onto his lap.
Her eyes widened, her green irises flashing a startling contrast to her pale skin.
“No. I can feed myself.” He pulled her closer until her bottom came up off the table and she teetered forward. “How do you go from being my plain executive assistant to this?” He touched her hair, the soft waves curling around his finger. “Ah. It’s the hair.”
She stared into his eyes, her bottom lip caught between her teeth, her breasts inching dangerously closer to his hand with each breath she took.
If Devin was a gambling man, he’d bet she was as attracted to him as he was to her at that moment.
Holy crap, why hadn’t he seen this before? Why had it taken him so long to really look at her?
