Tempted by Her Billionaire Boss(3)

Her boss extended his arms and flexed his wrists to get the circulation  going. "Well, now that we've established we're all new, except me," he  drawled, planting his gaze on Frankie, "and we've also determined this  was not a romantic encounter with a bad ending for the sake of the  gossip mill, perhaps you can tell me who you are, Goldilocks not being a  suitable answer."

She bit down hard on her lip. "Francesca Masseria. Your brother's PA. Actually...yours now."

"Is that so?" Frankie watched her career hang in the balance of that  dark, unfathomable gaze. It occurred to her she'd be lucky to get  shipped back to Coburn.

The CEO turned his attention to the guards. "I suggest you start taking  some regular walks around the building to learn who people are."         

     



 

The guards nodded in unison. "Absolutely, sir."

Harrison waved a hand at them. "Go."

Frankie stood quaking in the center of the suddenly silent foyer as the  silver-uniformed security detail disappeared toward the elevators. Her  boss stood, legs planted wide in front of her, a distinct smoky gray  aura surrounding his muscular frame.

She liked him better in handcuffs.

Harrison's mouth curled in a mocking smile. "Despite what you may have heard otherwise, Ms. Masseria, I am not a monster."

The rebuke stung her into silence. "I'm to assume," he drawled, "that  you are filling in as Tessa's replacement until we can find someone  else?"

"Actually Coburn has asked me to work with you until Tessa comes back."

His gaze narrowed on her speculatively. "Coburn thinks the sun rises and  sets with your appearance in the office every morning, Ms. Masseria.  How could we possibly expect him to get along without you for six  months?"

Warmth stung her cheeks at the unexpected compliment. "I'm sure he'll manage," she demurred. "Nobody's irreplaceable."

"Tessa is."

She flinched. He considered her for a moment, his unnervingly precise  gaze seeming to take a visual X-ray of her for further examination. "I  need some sleep," he concluded. "Take your dinner and the wine, go home,  get some rest and we'll talk about this in the morning."

Frankie took a step toward him. "I have some-"

He lifted a hand. "I have just flown sixteen hours to get home to be  told my brilliant right hand and irreplaceable PA is in the hospital  having a baby while in the midst of helping me with a crucial  acquisition. I've been put in handcuffs by my own security team and had  guns pointed at my face. And if that isn't enough, my body is heavily  protesting the jump in time zones. The only thing," he underscored  harshly, "that is going to make me feel like a human being at this point  in time is a good stiff drink and a horizontal position on a bed that  is my own. And you, Ms. Masseria, are the only thing standing between me  and it. So unless you would like to finish this conversation there, put  your shoes on and let's call it a night."

Her mouth fell open. Had he actually just said that? And why did she  find that idea vastly exciting instead of incredibly inappropriate?

His eyes widened imperceptibly, then narrowed. "Joking, Ms. Masseria. Go home."

She looked down at her bare feet on the marble, her muted pink toenails  the ultimate in complete humiliation. Never in the six months she had  worked for Coburn had she ever acted this unprofessional.

But, she told herself lifting her chin, the first step toward redemption  was moving on. They would come back in the morning as he'd said, she  would show him what she was made of and it would all be fine.

"I will see you in the morning, then. We'll go through the urgent items then."

He inclined his head. She turned and headed toward her desk. Harrison's deep baritone halted her. "Ms. Masseria?"

She turned around.

"Which hospital is Tessa in?"

"Mount Sinai."

The humor that flickered in his eyes then caught her off guard. It made  him look almost human. "Do you think you can send her some flowers from  me in the morning without calling in the cavalry?"

She pressed her lips together. "I'll have it taken care of."

The beast was safely ensconced in his office repacking his briefcase  when she ducked her head in to say she was leaving. He wished her an  absentminded good-night and told her to take a taxi. Exhausted, she did.  When she got home she swallowed down two painkillers for her throbbing  head, reheated and ate half the noodles, then immersed herself in a hot  bath.

She had just laid her head on the pillow when her cell phone rang. She  frowned and pulled it off the bedside table. Unknown caller. She was  about to decline the call when the thought they'd call back and wake her  up made her reach for it.

"Francesca," she murmured sleepily into the phone.

"Just checking that whack on your head didn't do you in."

Harrison Grant's deep voice sent her jackknifing upright. How the heck  did he have her mobile number? The company directory. Right.

"I was concerned about you. I should have sent you to the hospital to have your head looked at."

"I'm fine," she croaked. Without that arctic chill in it, his voice was  the sexiest thing she'd ever heard over a phone line-deep, velvety and  laced with a husky fatigue that reached all the way to her nerve  endings.

Hadn't he been about to go to bed? Was he calling from bed?         

     



 

She shook her head, wincing as the throbbing reminded her she shouldn't  do that. How could she possibly be experiencing erotic images of a man  who would likely send her packing tomorrow?

"Do you live with anyone?"

She blinked. "I-I don't think that's the kind of question I have to answer, is it?"

The warm, very masculine laughter that reached her from the other end of  the line made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "I wasn't  inquiring about your dating life, Francesca. I was going to say if you  do have a roommate or significant other, you should get them to wake you  up every few hours to make sure you don't have a concussion. They can  be very serious."

"Oh." Frankie swallowed back a fresh wave of mortification. "That's very  thoughtful of you. I do-have a roommate-that is. She's out but I'll do  that."

"Good. See you in the morning, then."

She muttered good-night and disconnected the call. Punching down her  pillow, she welcomed the breeze that wafted in through her old Victorian  window, cooling her heated cheeks. Harrison Grant could add  ridiculously naive to his new PA's description after tonight's debacle.  That was, if he chose to keep her... She wasn't laying odds on it.





CHAPTER TWO

HARRISON'S MOUTH WAS DRY-parched with anticipation. His entire body was  rigid with the expectation of physical satisfaction as the beautiful  brunette rose from his office chair and pushed him down into it. Her  soft, lush thighs hitting his as she straddled him made his heart catch  in his throat. The lacy black stockings she wore with garters made an  appearance, sending his blood coursing through his veins. He had to have  her. Now.

Her long, silky dark hair brushed his face as she bent and kissed him.  His hands reached blindly for the lace on her thighs, needing to touch.  She slapped his fingers away. "Wait," she instructed in a husky,  incredibly sexy voice. "Not yet."

He started to protest, but she pressed her fingers to his lips, reached  behind her and pulled out something metal that glinted in the dim light  of the desk lamp. Handcuffs. Mother of God.

He jackknifed to a sitting position. Sweat dripped from his body.  Reality slapped him in the face as he discovered he wasn't being seduced  in his office chair by a stunning brunette; he was in his own bed.  Stunning disappointment followed. His racing heart wanted her. His body  was pulsing, crying out for her to finish what she'd started...

An appalled feeling spread through him. He only knew one set of eyes  that particular shade of gray. His new PA. He had been fantasizing about  his new PA.

A harsh curse left his mouth. He swung his legs over the side of the bed  and brought his breathing under control. His dream had been wholly  inappropriate. Never had he brought sex into the office and never would  he. The guns and the handcuffs had truly pushed him over the edge.

And the stockings. That might actually have been the worst.

The birds were already singing. He poured himself into the shower and  attempted to clear his head. The dull throb in his temple he'd been  harboring for days was still there, reminding him normal human beings  needed at least six hours of sleep on a regular basis to function at  optimal performance.

His mouth twisted. Not that anyone considered him a normal human being. They thought he was a machine.

He toweled himself off, put his aching body in front of a cup of coffee  and the newspaper and tried to focus on the rather mundane headlines.  But his utterly incongruous dream kept working its way into his head.