скачать книгу бесплатно
From one unwelcome topic to another. “Hardly.”
“I don’t know.” Devon shot her an odd look, half surprised, half crafty. “Demanding you act as his assistant, even for a couple days, seems a little odd for a businessman with Max’s no-nonsense reputation.”
Rachel exhaled. “Well, there’s not much I can do at the moment. He’s set on having me there.” She grimaced. “Besides, you’ll do great without me. Lansing Employment Agency wouldn’t be anywhere near profitable without all your hard work.”
“Yes, yes, I’m wonderful but the success has been all yours. I’ve just been along for the ride.”
And what a ride it had been. When she’d first started the agency, she’d been waitressing on the weekends to make rent and put food on the table.
Today, providing things went right with Case Consolidated Holdings, they’d be moving into larger downtown Houston offices. That’s why she was willing to do whatever Max wanted of her to stay on his good side.
“I just hope you know what you’re doing,” Devon said, getting to his feet.
“I know exactly what I’m doing.” Her stomach gave a funny little flip as she said the words. Rachel shoved the sensation away. She was a professional. She would not allow her emotions to get all tangled up in Max again. The first time had left her with a battered heart. Letting it happen again might lead to serious breakage.
“You’re a first-rate bastard, you know that?”
Max Case looked away from the photo on his computer screen and smirked at his best friend. “I’ve been called that before.”
It was late Friday morning. He’d spent the last day and a half alternating between admiration for Rachel’s keen business mind and annoyance that he couldn’t stop imagining her writhing beneath him on his couch.
“I’ve been after Sikes to sell me that car for five years,” Jason Sinclair grumbled, his gaze riveted on the image of Max standing beside a yellow convertible. “And you just swoop in and steal it out from under me?”
“I didn’t swoop, and I didn’t steal. I offered the guy a good price. He went for it.”
“How much?”
Max shook his head. He wasn’t about to tell Jason the truth. In fact, he wasn’t exactly sure what had prompted him to offer the sum. He only knew that Bob Sikes had driven the rare muscle car off the lot in 1971 and wasn’t about to let it go without some major convincing. The Cuda 426 Hemi convertible was one of only seven made. At the time, convertibles were too expensive, too heavy and too slow to interest the true racing enthusiasts. Thus, with fewer produced, they’d become extremely rare.
And now, Max owned one of the rarest of the rare.
“Are you ready to get your ass kicked in tomorrow’s race?” He meant for the question to distract his friend.
“You sound awfully confident for a man who lost last weekend.” Jason continued to frown over the loss of the Cuda. “A win that put me ahead of you in points.”
“For now.”
Max and Jason had been racing competitively since they were old enough to drive. They were evenly matched in determination, skill, and financing, so on any given weekend, the win could go either way.
For the last two years, Max had beaten Jason in points over the course of the season. Like the street racers of old, Jason and Max competed for cars. The guy with fewer points at the end of the season forfeited his ride. But Max knew coming in second bothered his best friend more than the forfeit of his racecar two years straight.
Jason adopted a confident pose. “If you think you’re going to have the most points again this year, you’re wrong.”
Before Max could answer, Rachel appeared in his office doorway. Despite her severe navy pantsuit and plain white blouse, his pulse behaved as if she wore a provocative cocktail dress and a come-hither smile.
“Excuse me, Max. I didn’t realize you had company.”
He waved Rachel in. “Did you get those numbers I needed?”
She took one step into the room and stopped. “I updated the report.” She glanced in Jason’s direction. “I also scheduled an interview for you at two this afternoon and emailed you the candidate’s resume. Maureen has a background in finance and business analysis. I think you’ll find she’s a perfect fit.”
“We’ll see.”
Her lips thinned. “Yes, you will.”
Amusement rippled through him as she tossed her head and exited his office. Did she have any idea that annoyance gave her stride a sexy swing?
“Hell.”
Max noticed Jason was also staring after Rachel. “What?”
“That was Rachel Lansing. What is she doing here?”
“Working as my assistant.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
Probably. But Jason didn’t know about his affair with Rachel. No one did. Those four days had been too short and too intense. The end too painful for him to share. And after badmouthing his father’s infidelity for years, how could he admit to family and friends that he’d had an affair with a married woman and not be viewed as a hypocrite?
“What are you talking about?”
“Lansing is a matchmaker.”
“A what?” Max searched his best friend’s serious expression for some sign that Jason was joking around.
“Lansing Employment Agency is a matchmaking service.”
“You’re kidding, right?” He was deeply concerned that his friend might not be.
Jason glared at him. “Don’t look at me like that. You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
Rubbing his eyes, Max sighed. “Right now I’m dealing with a lunatic.” Confusion and amusement jockeyed for dominance. He’d never seen his best friend exhibit such over-the-top behavior.
“It’s not funny.”
A gust of laughter escaped him. “Sit in my chair for a minute, and I think you’ll see it’s really funny.”
“My dad used Lansing last year.” Jason’s eyebrows arched. “He married his executive assistant six months later.”
“Your dad was a widower for fifteen years. I’m a little surprised he didn’t remarry a lot sooner. Besides, Claire is a knockout.”
“You’re missing the point. They’re all knockouts.”
“So,” Max drawled. “It’s a conspiracy?”
“Yes.” The thirty-two-year-old CFO stopped looking wild-eyed and his attention settled laser-sharp on Max. Jason’s chest lifted as he pulled in an enormous breath. “You think I’m crazy?”
“Certifiable.”
“I know of five other guys that have hired their assistants from Lansing and ended up marrying them. I know two more guys that met their future wives at work. Wives that got their jobs thanks to the Lansing Employment Agency. Including your brother.” Jason’s lips thinned. “Still think I’m nuts?”
“How did you find all this out?”
Jason shrugged. “Do you really need to ask? After Dad started looking all gooey-eyed at Claire, I did a little research on the agency.”
“What did you find?”
“A spotless reputation. And one hell of a track record.”
“For what?”
“For turning executive assistants into wives.”
“Don’t you think that eight marriages out of hundreds of placements is a little insignificant?”
“It’s more worrisome when you take into consideration the ratio of single executives with single assistants to married executives with married assistants.”
“You lost me.”
“The bulk of the executives are already married, so when you look at the numbers in that way …”
“The ratio looks worse.”
Jason flung his hands forward in a that’s-what-I’m-talking-about gesture, before sinking back with a relieved smile. “Exactly.”
Max was still having a hard time swallowing the notion of Rachel as a matchmaker. “Well, you don’t need to worry about me. Where Cupid’s arrows are concerned, I’m wearing Kevlar.”
Jason pointed a finger at him. “You can’t be sure of that.”
“On the contrary, I’m very sure.”
“I’m not really feeling convinced,” the CFO said. “Maybe you’d care to make things more interesting.”
Max buzzed with the same adrenaline that filled him at the start of every race. “What’d you have in mind?”
“Your ‘71 Cuda.”
“Double my punishment, double your fun?” Max snorted. “I lose my freedom and the rarest car in my collection?” Suddenly, he wasn’t feeling much like laughing. “What sort of best friend are you?”
“The kind that has your best interests at heart. I figure you might not fight to stay single for the sake of your sanity, but you’ll do whatever it takes to keep that car.”
Interesting logic. Max couldn’t fault Jason’s reasoning. “And what are you putting on the table in case you lose?”
Now it was Jason’s turn to frown. “You want my ‘69 Corvette?” He shook his head. “I just got it.”
And Max was looking forward to taking it away. “What are you worried about?”
“Fine. You’ve got a deal.” Jason got to his feet and extended his hand across Max’s wide cherry desk. When you’ve met the girl of your dreams and gotten married, I’m going to miss you, buddy. But at least I’ll have the ‘71 Cuda to remember you by.”
Rachel sat at her desk outside Max’s office and tried to concentrate as her nerves sang a chorus of warnings. For the last two days, he’d been professional, making no further references to their past. But his gaze on her at odd moments held a particular intensity that promised he wasn’t done with her. Not by a long shot.
Despite his assurances otherwise, she suspected that his motives for strong-arming her into becoming his temporary assistant were personal. She wouldn’t put it past him to lure her into bed, enjoy his fill, and then walk away in the same fashion he believed she’d walked away from him. And that wasn’t her paranoia talking. Max wasn’t someone who forgave easily or at all in the case of his youngest brother, Nathan, and their father.
From what she’d gathered from her sources inside Case Consolidated Holdings, ever since Nathan had blown into town almost a year earlier, tension amongst the Case brothers had risen. She’d learned from Max five years ago that there was bad blood between the older Case brothers and their illegitimate brother that went way back. According to Andrea, however, things had recently gotten better between Sebastian and Nathan.
If Max couldn’t let go of the past where his family was concerned, he would certainly never forgive a woman he barely knew.
Shoving personal concerns aside, Rachel concentrated on something she could control. Max had a trip scheduled next week. The hotel arrangements and flight had been made some time ago, but she needed to arrange for a rental car, to work on a PowerPoint presentation and fix a hundred problems that hadn’t even come up yet.
The phone rang. Anxiety gripped her at the familiar number lighting up the screen. “Tell me everything’s running smoothly,” she said into the receiver.
“You sound edgy.” Devon’s amusement came through loud and clear. “Is Max on your case?”
While Devon laughed at his joke, Rachel signed on to the computer using Andrea’s ID and password. At the moment, Max was interviewing a candidate for his temporary executive assistant. If all went well, Rachel wouldn’t need to contact the IT department for her own computer access. She scanned the assistant’s contacts, searching for the phone number of the restaurant downstairs. Apparently, Max had his lunches catered in most days. Andrea’s contacts gave Rachel a pretty good sense of Max’s activities.
Restaurants. Florists. Even a couple jewelry stores. He enjoyed entertaining women. Clicking one particular restaurant Rachel had been dying to try except that it was way beyond her means, she saw the manager’s name, the particular table Max preferred, even the wine he enjoyed.
The man was a player. She hadn’t seen that about him during those days on the beach, although she’d figured it out since coming to Houston. Max didn’t know it, but she’d seen him in action during her early days in the big city.
Rachel stretched a barricade of caution tape around her heart. If Max wanted to start something with her with the express purpose of payback, she’d better be wary.
“… doing?”
Devon had been talking the whole time her mind had been wandering. Whoops.
“I’m sorry, Devon. I wasn’t listening. What did you ask?”
“How is it going with Maureen?”
“She just went in ten minutes ago. Max kept her waiting for half an hour.”
“I know that tone. Stop worrying. She’s perfect. Max won’t find anything wrong with her skills or her references.”
“I hope not.”
And she didn’t have long to wait to find out. Five minutes after she’d hung up with Devon, Maureen exited Max’s office. Unsure whether to be delighted or concerned at the shortness of the interview, Rachel stood as the assistant candidate headed her way.
“How’d it go?”
The beautiful redhead’s mouth drooped. “He didn’t seem to like me.”
“Max is very hard to read. I’m sure he found your qualifications and your experience exactly what he requested.” Rachel kept her expression cheery. “I’ll go have a chat with him now and give you a call later.”
“Thanks.”
As soon as Maureen disappeared around the corner, Rachel headed into Max’s office. “Isn’t Maureen great? She has a BA in business and five years of experience in a brokerage house. She’s great with numbers—”
“Not a self-starter.”
