All He Really Needs(18)

Griffin held it out in front of him. “A sweater?”

“Come on, trust me.”

“A sweater?” he repeated, even as he pulled it over his head.

“I didn’t have a lot to work with here.” She helped him with the hem, tugging it over his hips. “Dalton keeps a couple of jackets here, but your shoulders are broader than his, so you couldn’t wear one of those.” Griffin stilled as she fussed over him, adjusting the sleeves of the V-neck sweater so a half-inch of cuff showed. Then she grabbed the two ties she’d found and held them up. “What do you think? Yellow or green?”

His lips twitched, dazzling her with a hint of white teeth and dimple. “How about no tie?”

“A tie says powerful and important,” she argued.

“A tie with a sweater says Mr. Rogers,” he countered, still smiling.

She rolled her eyes. “Trust me, nothing about you says Mr. Rogers.”

Still, she conceded the point and set the ties aside, but she couldn’t stop herself from reaching up to straighten his collar. Her fingers lingered on the warm skin of his neck and the faint bristle of growth along his jaw. He hadn’t shaved this morning, she knew, but he must have shaved the night before. She thought about what the past twenty-four hours had been like for him. He’d called her as he’d left the airport—that had been around midnight. He must have shaved as soon as he’d gotten home, just before she showed up. She’d never thought about that until now…the way he always shaved just before they saw each other. The way his jaw was always smooth when he kissed her on her neck. And anywhere else.

Suddenly she realized they’d both gone completely still. Her breath caught in her chest as she looked up into his eyes, which were the exact same shade of blue as his shirt. Heat swirled through her body, turning her insides to mush and her knees to jelly.

Was he thinking about it, too? About the way he’d nuzzled her breast just last night? About the way he’d spread her body out before him like a feast and kissed every inch of her? How she’d done the same to him?

Abruptly, she dropped her hands and stepped away from him.

And this was why it wasn’t a good idea to sleep with her boss. Up until now, she’d been so worried about the financial implications, she hadn’t considered the emotional ones. How sex colored every interaction. How it could distract her. How it could mess with her priorities.

She grabbed a folder off the desk and thrust it toward him. “Here’s the agenda.”

He waggled the folder already in his hand. “You already handed me one.”

“Oh.” She glanced down. “This is a spare. In case you need it.”

She looked up to see him watching her, the smile on his face broad, his eyes twinkling with amusement. As if he knew just how much he distracted her. “I think I’m good.”

Oh, yeah. He was good. So damn good it damn nearly killed her.

“Okay then,” she said, her tone overly bright. “Go hit it out of the park. Or whatever sports analogy fits.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

As he headed off to face the board, she had no doubt. He did have it.

He would win them over. He would convince them that he was fully qualified to be the CEO, just like he’d convinced her in the past few hours. He clearly understood how the company operated and what it needed. He even grasped the finer details of the personalities involved. He got people in a way that even Dalton had not. In that regard, he might even be a better CEO than Dalton had been.

But that didn’t change any of her plans. She still needed to find the heiress because she needed to get Dalton back. If the past few minutes had shown her anything, it was that she couldn’t do her job effectively if she was working for Griffin, not just because he distracted her and muddled her senses, but also because he made her doubt her own judgment. And because he was dangerous to her in a way no other man ever had been.





Five


“What do you think?” Griffin asked as he strolled into the conference room.

Three days had passed since the board had named Griffin interim CEO. As she had predicted, he’d won them over with little difficulty. They were not having the same luck with the search for Griffin’s missing sister.

Sydney had laid out all her research on the conference table. In addition to the notes that Dalton had passed on to Griffin, she had stacks of her own notes and forty-two cardboard boxes Griffin’s mother had had sent over. She hadn’t even touched those yet. Frankly, she was hoping something like an actual lead would come along and she’d be saved the trouble.

Now, she glared up at him. “Seriously? Why are you out here again? You’ve checked on me every thirty minutes.”