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For the last few minutes, cracks had been developing in her professionalism. “You’re being unreasonable.”
“Of course I am. I’ll call someone else.” The telltale widening of her eyes was gone so fast he nearly missed it. This is where he challenged her reputation for providing excellent customer service to test how badly she wanted his business. “I’m sure another agency would have what I need.”
“Lansing Employment has what you need,” she countered, the words muddy because she spoke through clenched teeth.
He held silent while she tried to stare him down. Every instinct told him to send her on her way as he would any other supplier who couldn’t provide him with exactly what he wanted.
But they had unfinished business. At some point in the last five minutes he’d decided he needed closure. Four days with her hadn’t been enough time for the passion to burn out. Much to his dismay, he still wanted her. But for how long was anyone’s guess. From past experience he knew his interest rarely lasted more than two months.
And when he grew tired of her, he would end things on his terms. On his schedule.
“Fine.” She glared at him. “I’ll fill in for two days.”
“Wonderful.”
She stood, ready to stalk out of the office, but something held her in place. Her eyes were troubled as they settled on him. “Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Demanding that I act as your assistant until I can find a replacement.”
“You’re here. It’s expedient.”
His current workload was crushing him. His managers had finalized their forecasts and forwarded next year’s budget numbers a week ago. With the economy slow to recover, controlling spending and increasing sales was more important than ever. Case Consolidated Holdings owned over a dozen companies, each one with very different markets and operations. It was an organizational challenge to collect and analyze data from the various sources given that each entity operated in a completely unique environment with it’s own set of parameters and strategic plans.
Andrea knew the businesses as well as he did. Losing her now threw off his entire schedule.
“Are you sure that’s all it is?” Rachel demanded.
Max stopped worrying about deadlines and reminded himself that his desperate staffing situation was only half the reason he’d insisted Rachel fill in for a few days. “What else could it be?”
“Payback for how things ended between us?”
“It’s business.” That she was suspicious of his motives added spice to the game.
“So, you’re not still angry?” she persisted.
Yes. He was still angry.
“After five years?” He shook his head.
“Are you sure?”
“Are you challenging whether or not I know my own mind?”
His irritation had little effect on her. “Five years ago, you made it very clear you never wanted to see me again.”
“That’s because you never told me you were married.” He kept his tone smooth, but it wasn’t enough to mask his dangerous mood. “Despite my telling you how I felt about infidelity. How it nearly destroyed my parents’ marriage. You involved me in an extramarital affair without my knowledge.”
“I’d left my husband.”
He breathed deep to ease the sudden ache in his chest. “Yet when he showed up, you went back to him fast enough.”
“Things were complicated.”
“I didn’t see complications. I saw lies.”
“I was going through some tough times. Meeting you let me forget my troubles for a while.”
“You used me.”
She tipped her head and regarded him through her long lashes. “We used each other.”
Max’s gaze roamed over her. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever met. Her nose was too narrow. Her chin a bit too sharp. She hid her broad forehead with bangs. Boyishly slim, her body lacked the feminine curves he usually appreciated in a woman. But there was something lush about the fullness of her lips. And he’d adored nibbling his way down her long, graceful neck.
He wasn’t surprised to be struck by a blast of lust so intense, it hurt. From the first, the chemistry between them had been hot and all consuming. The instant he recognized her in the lobby, he knew that hadn’t changed.
For a second, doubts crept in. Would spending time with her open old wounds? The last time they’d parted, he’d been out of sorts for months. Of course, he’d been in a different place then. Full of optimism about love and marriage despite the painful lessons about infidelity he’d learned from his father’s actions.
Thanks to Rachel, his heart was no longer open for business.
“What time should I be here tomorrow morning?”
“Eight.”
She headed for the door and he let his gaze slide over her utilitarian gray suit. One word kept rolling over and over in his mind. Divorced.
Fair game.
She hesitated in the doorway, her back to him, face in profile. Her quiet, determined voice floated toward him over her shoulder. “Two days. No more.”
Without a backward glance, she vanished from view. Sexy as hell. She’d always had an aura of the untouchable about her. As if no matter how many times he slid inside her, or how tight he wrapped her in his arms, she would never truly be his.
For a man accustomed to having any woman he wanted, that elusive quality intrigued him the way nothing else would have. He couldn’t get enough of her. They’d been together for four days. He’d been insatiable. But no matter how much pleasure he gave her, no matter how many times she came apart in his arms, not once did he come close to capturing her soul.
It wasn’t until she left him and went back to her husband that he’d understood why.
Her soul wasn’t hers to give. It belonged to the man she’d pledged her life and love to.
Rage catapulted Max from his chair. He crossed to his door and slammed it shut, not caring what the office thought of his fit of temper. His hand shook as he braced it against the wall.
Damn her for showing up like this.
And damn the part of him that was delighted she had.
Two
Rachel hurried through the plate glass doors of Lansing Employment Agency and nodded to her receptionist as she passed. She didn’t stop to chat as was her habit, but went straight to her office and collapsed into her chair. It wasn’t until she’d deleted half her inbox that she realized she hadn’t read any of the emails. Sagging forward, she rested her arms on the desk and her forehead on her arms. Reaction was setting in. She was frustratingly close to tears.
“That bad, huh?” a male voice asked from the hallway.
Rachel nodded without looking up. “It’s worse than bad.”
“Oh, you poor thing. Tell Devon all about it.”
With a great effort, Rachel straightened and looked at the man who sat down across from her. In a stylish gray suit with lavender shirt and expensive purple tie, he dressed to be noticed. Only the dark circles beneath his eyes gave any hint of his sleepless night.
“How’s your mother?”
“She’s doing fine. My sister just arrived from Austin and is staying at the hospital with her.” Devon leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. “How’d it go at Case Consolidated Holdings?”
“Worse than I’d hoped.”
“Damn. They didn’t hire us?”
“They hired us.” Rachel’s eyes burned dry and hot. As she blinked to restore moisture, it occurred to her that she’d cried a river of tears over Max five years ago. Maybe she’d used up her quota.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Max Case needs an assistant immediately.”
“But we don’t have anyone available.”
Rachel grimaced. “That’s why I’m filling in until we do.”
“You?” The gap between Devon’s front teeth flashed as a startled laugh escaped him.
No one knew what had happened between her and Max in Gulf Shores. She figured if she kept it to herself, no one could criticize her for running away from her farce of a marriage and jumping into bed with a virtual stranger, and those amazing four days could remain untarnished in her memory. But she’d been wrong to start something with Max before she’d legally ended her marriage. And she’d paid the price.
“I was the expedient choice.” The word tasted bitter on her tongue. Why had it bothered her that she was merely a convenient business solution to Max? Had she really hoped he might still want her after she’d kept quiet about her marital status, and let him betray his vow never to get caught up in an affair?
Those days in Max’s arms had been magical. She hadn’t felt that safe since her father died. It was as if she and Max existed in a bubble of perfect happiness. Insulated from the world’s harsh reality.
Heaven.
Until Brody showed up with his threats and dragged her back to Mississippi.
“I hope you told him no.”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what exactly?” Her second in command frowned as if just now grasping the situation.
“It’s not like he left me any choice. I signed the lease for the new offices. We need this placement fee to move into them.”
“You agreed?”
“He backed me against a wall.” She leaned back in her chair, remembering too late that the ancient mechanism was broken. She threw her weight forward before the cursed thing tipped her ass over teakettle.
Devon oversaw her antics with troubled eyes. “I still don’t understand why he wants you personally. There are a dozen agencies that he could call.”
She hesitated. As much as she liked Devon, she wasn’t comfortable talking about her past. Five years ago, she’d been a very different person. Explaining how she knew Max meant she had to own up to the mistakes she’d made. Mistakes that haunted her.
“Once upon a time we knew each other,” she said.
“Knew …” Devon’s focus sharpened. “As in business associates? Friends?” His eyes narrowed. “You dated?”
As much as she hated talking about her past screwups, she decided to put her cards on the table. She owed Devon the truth. He’d been with her since the beginning and had labored as hard as she had to grow the agency. In fact, she was planning on making him a partner when they moved into the new offices.
If they moved.
“Not dated, exactly.” She played with her pen, spinning it in circles on her desk.
“You slept with him.”
“Yes.”
Rachel shifted her attention from the silver blur and caught Devon’s stunned expression. He looked so thunderstruck she was torn between laughter and outrage.
“Don’t look so surprised. I wasn’t always the uptight businesswoman I am now. There was a time when I was young and romantic.” And foolish.
“When?”
“A long weekend five years ago.”
Devon’s lips twitched.
“What?” she demanded.
“It’s just that Max is well-known for the volume of women he dates. I’m a little surprised he remembered you.”
“He probably wouldn’t have,” she muttered. The truth hit closer to her insecurities than she wanted to admit. The thought had often crossed her mind that she’d had a pretty brief interlude with Max. Since moving to Houston, she’d learned a lot about the man who’d swept her off her feet in a big way. She’d often wondered how she’d feel if she ran into him and he looked right through her without recognition. “Except he was pretty angry with me at the time.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t tell him I was married.”
Now Devon really goggled at her. “We’ve worked together four years and this is the first I’ve heard about that.”
Rachel rubbed her right thumb across the ring finger of her left hand. Even after four years, she recalled the touch of the gold band against her skin and remembered how wrong she’d been to ignore her instincts. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“It’s part of my past that I’d prefer not to talk about.” And in five more years, she’d be completely free. At least financially. She’d live with the emotional scars for the rest of her life.
“Not even if I tell you I’ll expire from curiosity if you don’t dish?”
“Not even,” Rachel said with a chuckle. She loved Devon’s flare for the dramatic. Having him around was good for her. Kept her from taking herself, or her problems, too seriously. She’d done that all too often in the past and turned molehills into mountains.
“Do you think Max is trying to start up with you again?”
