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“I’m sorry, Maggie,” he said, pulling her into his arms and hugging her tight. “I was so mad I just had to put some space between me and here, y’know?”
She nodded, unable to speak past the knot in her throat. He was home. That was all that mattered for now. She led him inside, pushed him into one of the kitchen chairs and set about making breakfast. As she broke eggs into the pan he started to talk.
“At least I still have my job.”
“Yes, you do,” Maggie replied. He still didn’t know her news, she realized. He wouldn’t be happy when he knew. She took a steadying breath. “Speaking of work …”
“What?” Jason asked sharply, picking up on her unease instantly.
“I got a promotion yesterday.” May as well transition into this slowly, she thought.
“You did? That’s great.” Although Jason said the words, the lack of enthusiasm in his voice spoke volumes. “Ironic, huh? The day I get a final written warning and supervision, you get bumped up the ladder. So what are you doing?”
“I’ve been offered an executive assistant position. It’s only temporary for now, but I’m hoping it’ll lead to better things in the future.” Much, much better things.
“That’s cool, Maggie. Who to?”
She stiffened her spine. He wasn’t going to like this one bit.
“William Tanner.”
“You’re kidding me. That insufferable jerk? He was the one who headed the panel yesterday. You didn’t take it, did you?” Realization dawned slowly. “You did. That’s how you knew about what happened to me.”
“I had to, Jason. He didn’t leave me any option.”
“What? He forced you to take a promotion? You should have told him to stick it where the sun don’t shine.” He made a sound of disgust and shook his head.
“Jason, he was going to go to the police over you.”
“But I told you I didn’t do it.”
“All the evidence points to you, Jase. Unless you can prove otherwise, he holds all the strings, including mine.” Maggie sighed and reached out to ruffle his hair. “It’s not so bad, really. I get a raise in salary.”
She balked at telling him the rest of Mr. Tanner’s demands. He’d totally flip if he knew.
“I still don’t like it. I don’t trust the guy,” Jason grumbled as he gently swatted her hand away. “You had better not have agreed to work for him to keep my job safe.”
She couldn’t answer him. She heard his sound of exasperation.
“You did, didn’t you? How, in all that’s logical, did you agree to that?”
“There’s more to it,” Margaret started, only to be cut off by her brother.
“Oh, yeah, sure there is. With men like him there always is. So what is it? Is he looking to pick up where you two left off back in February? Is that what it is?”
“Something like that. You can’t tell anyone, Jason. Promise me you won’t say a word of this to anyone.”
“Yeah, like I’m going to shout to the rooftops that my sister is sleeping with her boss to save my job?”
“I’m not sleeping with him! Might I remind you that I have you to thank for putting me in this position in the first place? He’s asked me to stand in as his fiancée, only for a short time while he sorts something out.”
“His what?”
Maggie was saved from further explanation by the interruption of their phone. She lifted the receiver and cradled it between her ear and shoulder as she dished up Jason’s scrambled eggs.
“Margaret, it’s William Tanner.”
She’d have recognized his voice anywhere. The tiny hairs on her arms and up the back of her neck prickled with awareness, her whole body tautening in response.
“Good morning,” she replied as coolly as she could. She reached across the table and put Jason’s plate in front of him before retreating to the living room.
“Look, I know it’s early, but I wanted to catch you before you went into the office and wasted yourself a trip.”
“Wasted a trip?”
Didn’t he want her anymore? While a part of her sagged with relief, another leaped into full alert. Did this mean that they were going to fire Jason anyway?
“I need you to meet me here at the Vista Del Mar Beach and Tennis Club. I’ll let them know at reception that I’m expecting you. How soon can you be here?”
Maggie knew that Rafe Cameron’s team of executives involved in the takeover were being put up in the guest accommodations at the club. Her friend, Sarah Richards, worked there in the main restaurant and had commented on the influx of long-stay guests. Maggie took a quick glance at the mantel clock her father had been given for thirty years’ service at Worth Industries. If she was quick getting ready, she could make it by eight-thirty, traffic permitting.
“By half past eight,” she said into the phone, mentally cataloging her wardrobe to decide on what to wear today.
“See if you can’t make it sooner.”
Before she could respond, she realized she was listening to the disconnect signal on the phone. “Right, sure thing, boss, anything you say,” she said as she hit the “off” button and took the phone back through to the kitchen.
“Problem?” Jason asked through a mouthful of egg.
“No. I just need to meet Mr. Tanner at the club this morning.”
“Maybe he wants to check out your forehand before you start working for him,” he commented snidely.
Maggie remained silent. She had no idea what he really wanted her for. It could be anything. Yet, strangely, the thought didn’t strike fear into her heart. Instead, there was a fine shimmer of anticipation. She clamped down on the feeling before it could take wings. Whatever she was to meet him for was not optional—she needed to remind herself of that. He had her between a rock and a hard place. What she wanted, what she really wanted, had no significance beyond keeping Jason out of prison.
Will straightened his tie before checking his Rolex. She was late. Not exactly the most auspicious start for their first day of work together. He crossed the sitting room of the self-contained beachfront suite that was his temporary home and waited out on the terrace overlooking the Pacific. Waves rolled in with steady force, pounding the sand of the perfectly groomed beach before sucking back and starting all over again. He smiled. Even here, he was reminded of his family. Relentless. Well, they’d have to take a step back when they found out about Margaret, that was for sure. Although it wouldn’t do for them to discover her too soon. If he was to suddenly produce a fiancée within a month of his last argument with his father it would only look suspicious.
A timid knock at the door barely caught his attention. Ah, she was finally here. He opened the door wide to admit her.
“Traffic bad?” he asked as she entered on his bidding.
“I’m sorry I’m late. Yes, some contractors hit a water main on my street just after you called. It was chaos getting out of there.”
She looked flustered, although for someone who’d probably missed her morning shower because of the issue with the water main she still managed to come across in her usual competent manner. Competent being the kindest way to describe the shapeless beige suit she wore today. He fought back a grimace.
“Is there something wrong?” she asked.
“No, nothing that can’t be rectified today, at least,” he responded.
Why did she dress in such awful clothing? he wondered. He’d caught a glimpse of her hourglass figure in the gown she’d worn at the ball, felt the lush fullness of her curves when he’d kissed her. Even now his hands itched to push away the serviceable fabric of her jacket and shape themselves to her form.
“What would you like me to do today?” she asked.
She stood perfectly straight and tall in her sensible pumps, awaiting his instruction. Will toyed with the idea of what would happen if he asked her to disrobe and burn the clothes she wore right now, but discarded it for the foolishness it was.
“As my executive assistant, and as my fiancée, there will be certain expectations.”
She blanched at his words. “Expectations. Right. Perhaps we’d better discuss those now.”
“Trying to call the shots, Margaret? That’s a little late, don’t you think?” he teased.
“I think you should know, there are some things I absolutely won’t do,” she answered with a defiant tilt of her chin.
“I’m sure there are,” he responded smoothly, deciding to err on the side of caution for now. “But I hope those things don’t include shopping.”
“Shopping? For you?”
“No. For you. I’m sure what you’re wearing was perfectly serviceable for your previous position but I expect a little more from my immediate staff. Besides, as my fiancée, people will certainly have something to say if you continue to dress in—” he gestured at her from shoulder to feet “—that.”
She stiffened at his words. “I have a very careful budget, Mr. Tanner. And I try to buy clothes that won’t date.”
Won’t date, he thought. How about won’t get past first base altogether.
“I don’t expect you to pay for these new items, Margaret. Consider them a fringe benefit. I have an image consultant coming to meet us shortly. Paige Adams—you may have heard of her. I understand she comes highly recommended. She’ll take us out this morning to start getting you prepared for your new role.”
“I’m going to spend the whole day shopping?” she asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
“Probably not the whole day, no. I’m sure Ms. Adams will have some other things up her sleeve to make your transformation complete.”
“And will you be accompanying us on this … this expedition?”
She made it sound like an unwelcome hunting trip.
“Until about two. I have meetings this afternoon that I can’t get out of so I’ll have to leave you in her hands at that stage but I will see you for dinner tonight.”
“Do I get any choice in this?”
There was that delicious hint of steel in her voice, as if beneath the timidity she really did have a will of iron. For some reason, Will found that incredibly appealing. Would she be like that in the bedroom? he wondered. Would she be sweet and compliant, then take control? Take him? An unexpected flood of heat suffused him, sending blood to his groin in a torrent of need.
“Oh, yes. You will have a choice.” He hesitated and saw the way her shoulders relaxed, how her chest filled with air, the way her generous breasts moved beneath the serviceable fabric of her suit jacket, before continuing, “Up to a point.”
“I won’t let you dress me to look like some whore.”
Ah, there it was again. That edge of strength. Will forced himself to rein in the urge to cross the distance between them and show her just how good it would be to let him take charge. Too soon, he reminded himself.
“Don’t worry, that’s the furthest thing from my mind,” he said.
A knock at the door interrupted the weighted silence that spread between them.
“That’ll be Ms. Adams.”
He crossed the carpeted sitting room of his suite and swung open the heavy wooden door.
Margaret stood exactly where he’d left her. Focusing on each inward and outward breath. This was going to be so much more difficult than she’d anticipated. Yesterday it had sounded so simple. Work as his executive assistant. Pretend to be his fiancée. Keep Jason out of jail.
But the thought of William Tanner selecting her clothing, of him grooming her so specifically for the role she’d agreed to take on, sent a shiver of caution rippling through her. How would she stand it? She, who so carefully chose her work attire from Time Again, a thrift store supplied by the more affluent areas in town. Everything she bought was good quality, if a little dated. Did it really matter that much?
Imagining him waiting outside the dressing room as she tried on items of clothing for his approval made her uncomfortable just thinking about it. Uncomfortable, and something else. Something that went deeper than the idea that a man would have the final say on what she wore and how she looked on a daily basis. Something that sent a throb of longing from a place deep inside of her—a place she’d ruthlessly controlled and held in submission from the day she’d assumed guardianship of Jason.
She had responsibilities. Sure she’d had the occasional boyfriend, some had even become lovers—she was, after all, only human. But she’d never allowed herself to take a step beyond that—to allow herself to fully engage her feelings. Right now, she had the distinct impression it was going to be a whole lot more difficult to keep that distance from William Tanner.
“Meet Paige Adams.”
William’s voice interrupted her thoughts and Margaret forced her concentration back to the moment. She’d been fully prepared to dislike the woman on sight, in a petty attempt to assert herself over Will’s directives, but it was difficult to summon a shred of antipathy toward the vibrant young woman now standing before her. Her skin was fresh and smooth and a friendly smile wreathed her face, while her unusual violet-colored eyes shone with delight.
Dressed in a sharply tailored suit that shrieked the kind of designer chic Maggie had always wished she could pull off, and a pair of high-heeled pumps that wouldn’t go astray on a show like Sex and the City, the woman exuded both confidence and an air of affluence with effortless ease. Her well-styled hair, tamed into a neat chignon, was a shimmering pale blond that complemented the milky tone of her smooth skin. From the look of her she probably never had to worry about how she’d looked a single day in her life.
“Ms. Adams, I’m Margaret Cole,” Maggie said, deciding to take the upper hand and not allow herself to be presented as a victim to the slaughter.
“Margaret, please, call me Paige. I’m delighted to meet you. Would you excuse me?” she asked and reached for the buttons on Maggie’s jacket. “I like to see what I’m working with right from the start.”
Maggie stiffened as Paige’s fingers nimbly flew over the solid metal buttons fastening the front of her jacket. She wore only a thin blouse beneath the confining garment. A blouse she’d only chosen because she never—absolutely never—took her jacket off in the office. An early developer, she’d learned at a very young age how best to hide what made her a magnet for undesirable attention from males of all ages. Starting with her sixth-grade classmates when she’d changed from a gangly stick insect to a curvaceous boy-magnet in the space of a few months.
Maggie’s eyes flew to Will’s face as Paige handed him the jacket with a distracted, “Hold this.” Would he be the same as so many others? Would he forget she was actually a person and not simply a body?
His sherry brown eyes met hers as Paige appraised her project with a critical eye. Maggie waited for the moment when his eyes would drop, as every man’s did, to her breasts. But he never wavered, not even for a moment, and when Paige took Maggie’s jacket from him and helped her back into it, Maggie felt a bone-deep relief. Maybe being around him wasn’t going to be so difficult after all.
“This is going to be wonderful,” Paige said enthusiastically. “How long did you say we have?”
“We have a dinner reservation for seven-thirty this evening,” Will said in response.
“Oh, that’s less time than I thought. Never mind, I can do this.” She reached out and gave Margaret’s hand an encouraging squeeze. “We can do this. You’re great material to work with. You won’t know yourself when I’m done. Trust me.”
Strangely enough, Maggie did. Despite Paige’s air of command and immaculate appearance, there was a warmth about her that drew Maggie in immediately.
Paige turned to William and said, “Shall we go then?”
“Certainly.” Will bowed his head slightly, a bemused smile curving his lips and revealing the slightest dimple in his right cheek. “I’m at your disposal for the next few hours, then I have to head back for some meetings and leave you two to it.”
Maggie felt a frisson of disquiet that he’d be accompanying them. It wasn’t something he hadn’t already told her, and since he was paying for everything it made sense he’d want a say in what his money went toward, but the prospect of parading before him made her incredibly nervous. She, who never tried to draw attention to herself, would now be the very center of attention. Attention from a man who she found almost irresistibly attractive.
Her pulse picked up a notch as he placed a warm hand at the small of her back and shepherded her before him as they left his suite. The action strangely intimate, and totally unsettling at the same time.
If she felt this disconcerted by something as simple as a touch, the next few hours were going to be excruciating.
Four
Excruciating didn’t even begin to cover it, Maggie realized as she ducked back into the dressing room for the umpteenth time. It was as if she didn’t even exist in a personal sense. She tugged off the midnight blue cocktail dress Mr. Tanner and Paige had both agreed wasn’t her most flattering choice of the day and reached for a black sleeveless gown, pulling it over her head with a huff of frustration. Between the two of them she felt as if she were little more than a mannequin, right up until she shoved her feet in the matching high-heeled, black pumps that Paige had insisted she try on with the dress, and stepped outside the dressing room.
Her two torturers were sitting on the velvet-covered loveseat in the foyer of the dressing rooms, their heads together—each a perfect foil for the other—until they became aware she was standing waiting for their comment.
“Oh,” said Paige, for once seemingly at a complete loss for words.
Maggie looked at William’s face and her breath held fast in her lungs at the expression she saw there. The skin across his cheekbones tautened and his eyes widened and glowed in obvious appreciation.
“That’s a definite,” he said in a voice that sounded as if he struggled to force the words from his throat.
“Yes, it certainly is,” Paige agreed.
Will rose from the seat and walked across the thick carpet to where Maggie stood nervously.
“Here, why don’t we try this, just to soften things a little?”
He reached up to remove her dark-framed glasses from the bridge of her nose then folded them and tucked them in his breast pocket. He reached for Maggie’s hair and pulled the pins from her habitual tight knot. Maggie felt her scalp rejoice as he tousled her hair loose from its constriction.
“Oh, yes, that’s much better.”
There was a note to his words that forced her to look at him, to allow her eyes to connect with his and see, without a doubt, what he was thinking. Desire flamed like a living, breathing thing and her skin tightened in response. Her breasts felt full and heavy and ached for his touch. Maggie swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat. She was imagining things, surely. He’d said “fake” fiancée, hadn’t he? But right now the expression on his face was anything but fake. His need for her was there in all honesty. A jolt of sheer lust shot through to her core, taking her breath completely away.
“Will you wear this for me tonight?” he asked.
“If you want me to,” she replied, the words stilted, near impossible to force through her lips as she acknowledged the depth of feeling he aroused in her.
“You look beautiful. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to escort you looking like this. I’ll be the envy of every man in the restaurant.”
He smiled then, and Maggie felt her lips curve in response.
It was not so much a smile of pleasure as it was of satisfaction. For once she really felt beautiful. The admiration so clear on Will’s face was a salve to her feminine soul. While she wasn’t quite ready to examine how that admiration affected her on a basic level, she had to answer to the sensualist who dwelled deep within her. To deny that was nigh on impossible.
The sound of someone clearing their throat dragged Maggie’s attention back to her surroundings.
“Okay, well we have a few more places to go before we’re done. We’ve barely scratched the surface, really.”
“I’ll get changed,” Maggie said and turned back into the dressing room.
“Here, you’d better take these,” Will said, removing her spectacles from his pocket and handing them back to her.
Maggie shoved them back on her face and closed the door behind her. Faced with her own reflection in the private cubicle, she caught her breath. With her hair a loose tumble around her ivory shoulders and with the low scoop of the gown exposing the swell of her breasts she could see why Will had reacted the way he had. She scoured her memory. He hadn’t dwelled on any one part of her, though. She hadn’t, not even for a split second, felt uncomfortable under his perusal. She turned slowly and eyed her reflection in the mirror.
The dress was cut to perfection. If it had been made for her it couldn’t have fit any better. The way it curved into her narrow waist and flared at her hips before finishing just above her knees made the most of her every attribute in a way she’d never dreamed. She skimmed her hand over the fabric before reaching for the invisible zipper sewn into the side seam. Her fingertips tingled as they slid over the fine weave. She’d never dreamed of having anything that made her feel as beautiful as this dress did. And there was still more to come.
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