Chapter 2
“So?”
“So what?” April looked up to see Jane poking her head around the office door.
Mindful of where she was, Jane peeked into Mr. Jeffries’s office, looked around the room, and then crept in to take a seat by April’s desk.
“So, how was it?”
“Oh, with them? Mostly fine.” April, who had just managed to stop thinking about blue eyes and dimpled chins and well-muscled arms, gave a sigh. “It was, uh…”
“What are they like? I’ve met Mr. Bryan, of course—he very nice when he’s not talking about Mr. Hines. And quite attractive, don’t you think?” Jane’s eyes gleamed.
“Quite attractive,” April agreed, shoving down a flare of jealousy—Jane would be just the sort of woman Nathaniel liked, she was sure. “Mr. Hines is…uh, also very attractive.”
“He is? Oh, my.” Jane bit her lip on a grin, but she sobered. “They didn’t walk all over you, did they?”
“No, I…” April fought the urge to sink her head into her hands. “I may or may not have told them to behave themselves.”
“You didn’t!” But Jane clapped her hands delightedly.
“I know, I know…”
“No, I think it’s wonderful.” For the first time that April had known her, Jane looked self-assured. “They think they can just come in here and turn everything upside down because they don’t like each other? It’s rude.”
“Hello? April?” Nathaniel’s voice echoed in the main room, and both women froze.
“In here,” April called.
As Jane edged out with carefully concealed curiosity in her eyes, Nathaniel came around the door with a ready grin. He widened his eyes at April’s outfit.
“What?” April looked down at her dress, a red confection with a peplum waist, set off by gold bangles and an amazing pair of black heels. She was beginning to feel foolish about the full hour she had spent getting ready this morning. “I didn’t spill coffee on myself again, did I?”
“Not at all. You look stunning.” His blue-grey eyes quirked as she bit her lip. “Come get coffee with me?”
“What?” April nearly overset her mug, and swore internally. When she had made sure that all of the documents were safe, she looked up at Nathaniel again. “I’m sorry. What?”
“Come get coffee with me,” Nathaniel repeated.
“I…have coffee.” Stupid, stupid. But really, it was better if she didn’t flirt winningly, wasn’t it? Especially since this must just be a game for him.
“Not good coffee,” he said with surety. He leaned to look into Mr. Jeffries’s office, then jerked his head. “You like coffee? Good. I’ll show you my favorite place.”
“I work around here, you know,” April told him. But her body seemed to be moving on its own, standing and putting on her cardigan and following him into the lobby. “Also, you’re up early.”
“I admit it was by design.” He strolled along beside her, elegantly matching what she suspected was a natural quickness with her high-heeled gait.
“How do you mean?” April pressed the button for the lobby and stood aside as a flood of black-suited employees emerged, all of them engrossed in their morning papers or smartphones. If they replaced the entire office staff with zombies, she wasn’t sure anyone would notice.
“Dave got all the time with you yesterday.” Nathaniel smiled over at her, his blond hair shining in the dim light. “And it’s certainly not fair that he should get all of your time just because his jet landed first.”
“Right. You both have jets.” April looked resolutely at the door. Rich men went for svelte blondes. She needed to remember this.
“What? You don’t like jets?” His grin was infectious, dammit. “They’re very nice, I assure you. The food’s better and the drinks are free.”
“I think that’s included in the price of the jet.”
“Oh, don’t use facts. It’s too early in the morning for that.”
She laughed, and blushed when she caught him watching her. They strolled across the plaza in front of the building, and April tried to think of something to say. She just knew the correct thing wasn’t to ask Nathaniel how he managed to meld the boyish good looks of an Abercrombie model with the gravitas of a board member. That sounded like…what was it…?
Oh, right. A ridiculous teenager. Still, it was a good question. How could a man look like he raced yachts in his spare time and still manage to convey complete competence?
“You look like you have questions,” he murmured, one eyebrow raised.
Damn.
“Uh…tell me about your career.”
“Easily the least interesting part of my life, but if you insist.” He considered. “To make a very long story short, I was studying a hospital bill and noticed that those little dropper thingies they use—you know, the mini turkey baster things—were ridiculously expensive. I’d seen them. They were just two pieces of plastic melted together at the edges. So I started a company to make them for a fraction of the price and now I have millions of dollars.”
“Droppers,” April said, nodded. He hadn’t been lying about how uninteresting it was, apparently. “So do I get to ask why you were in the hospital?” When he looked away, she crowed with laughter. “I knew I saw something in your face! Oh, come on.”
“I got cut by some barbed wire,” he said, with great dignity.
“Oh, I see. And how, exactly, did that happen?”
“I was running very fast. In the dark.”
“Mm-hmm.” April looked over at him. “And?”
“And I ran into the barbed wire,” he said innocently.
“And why were you running in the dark?” April asked him, grinning.
“Because there was a cow chasing us.”
April had to stop to giggle. When she looked up at him, his expression of wounded pride only made it worse.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Now, why…”
“Because we had tipped over its friend.”
“We?”
“Surely you know the calculations. It takes more than one person to tip a cow.”
“I didn’t actually know those calculations, no. And aren’t cows fairly…oh, placid? I think that’s the word I’m looking for.”
“Fairly. Except when you’ve tipped one of them over. Then it’s nighttime and they’re staring at you in the dark with their eyes gleaming, dozens of them like something out of a horror movie, and then they all start to make these angry noises and…turns out, they can run pretty fast.”
“And lucky for you that they can,” April said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be a billionaire right now.”
“You make a very good point. Maybe I should put that in the brochures.” He stopped by an unassuming little door in the neighboring tower. “Here we are.”
“This is a coffee shop?”
“And a good one.”
“Do they make good mochas?”
“Coffee. Only coffee. But Ms. Thornton, I tell you—it is divine.”
“I look forward to it,” April said, unexpectedly charmed. He actually seemed serious.
“So tell me about your career,” he said after they had ordered. He had insisted on paying—“I’m a billionaire, my dear”—and was now leaning against the back wall of the tiny shop.
“My career? You’re sweet to call it that.”
“I’ve known Jeffries since I was twelve. I say this with all respect due to a business genius, but he must be practically impossible to get from place to place.”
April stifled a laugh.
“You’re not wrong.”
“Ms. Thornton, a secretary is to a CEO what a butler was to a regency household—absolutely indispensable. How the company runs depends in large part on how well a secretary can manage the CEO’s image. Therefore, whether or not the world sees it, a secretary can make or break a company—and you seem to be making it.” He raised his eyebrows. “Ah, good, our coffee. Cream? Sugar?”
“Brown sugar?” April peered at the pot.
“It’s delicious.” He paused with the spoon over her cup. “Try some?”
“Okay.” He passed it to her and April took a sip of the concoction, reveling as much in the gesture as she did the taste. How long had it been since someone had gotten her a cup of coffee? She rather liked it. “That is wonderful.”
“And now you know where to get the best coffee…and disappear for a while.” He led her back out onto the plaza and strolled at her side. “Ms. Thornton, I must thank you.”
“For what?”
“I was dreading this trip. To be honest, I was sure that Hines was only here to mess with my trip. I anticipated three days of fighting. But you have gotten us both—yes, I admit it, both of us—to lay down our weapons. That’s no mean feat.”
“Well, now that you know how much more pleasant it is,” April suggested tartly, “you can doubtless continue without my help.”
“Oh, but I don’t want to.” His smile was suddenly, shockingly intimate. And just as April felt herself begin to blush, the moment was interrupted, the sound of a quiet greeting making them both whirl.
“Good morning,” Dave Hines said. His eyes flicked between them with the mildest expression April had ever seen. He didn’t seem angry in the least.
But she noticed he managed to stand between them on the elevator ride up.