LITMIR.BIZ

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter One

      “Pack your bags, Pendleton. We’ll be dining in Paris tomorrow.”

      Amy Pendleton looked up from her desk with a worried frown, her sleek blond head tilted to the side as she regarded her boss, Carter James, who seemed all too cheerful with his news.

      “Paris, France?” she asked, a slight hint of desperation in her tone.

      “Of course,” he replied, waving papers at her before he dropped them on her desktop. His clear blue eyes shone with anticipation. “Ah, the Seine, the Champs-Élysées, the streetside bistros…”

      Her pretty face twisted as her brows pulled together. “Weren’t we just in Paris last month?” she asked, wondering why he never seemed to notice that her enthusiasm for these constant business trips had waned in recent months. “Or was that Amsterdam?”

      “Both,” he said happily, dropping to sit on the corner of her desk, one leg swinging. “And don’t forget that great steak dinner we had in Madrid on that trip. Too bad the meeting in Copenhagen lasted so late into the night that we had to settle for herring sandwiches.”

      “Herring sandwiches,” she echoed, her voice hollow, her eyes glazed over. Absently, she picked up a pencil and held it in her hands. “Another cross-Atlantic flight. Cardboard airplane food.” She snapped the pencil in two and let the pieces drop onto her desk as she stared into a grim future. “Hour-long waits at ticket counters.” She picked up another pencil and snapped it, too. “Wearing clothes so wrinkled they look as though you’d slept in them.” Snap went a third. “No sleep. Jet lag. No way to keep track of the days.”

      A deep sigh shuddered through her. “I just want to spend three consecutive nights in my own bed,” she said wistfully.

      “Remember that little café where we had that great Turkish coffee the last time we were in Paris?” Carter said, his eyes focused on a distant memory.

      His handsome face was relaxed, content. The picture of the successful businessman, his wide shoulders filled out his impeccable Italian suit as though he’d been born to wear the style. His thick dark hair was combed back in a slight wave off his forehead, but perfectly controlled, as was most of his life. “We’ll go there for breakfast on our first morning…”

      She stared at him. He wasn’t paying any attention. But that was hardly new. He never paid any attention to her! Another pencil bit the dust.

      How had she ever been so crazy as to dream about someday marrying this man when, after two long years of working together, he barely knew she existed outside of her performance as his administrative associate? He went on, rhapsodizing about Paris in the spring, and she marveled at him. How could he be so absolutely adorable and at the same time, so darn self-involved?

      Marry him? Ha. Now that would be the height of insanity. First she would have to get him to think about something other than business or food long enough to notice she was a woman. And that seemed to be asking a little too much.

      Although, she’d tried. Oh, yes, she’d certainly tried. She’d done all the normal things—brought in home-baked brownies, laughed at his jokes, smiled a lot, sat around looking doe-eyed and feminine.

      And when that didn’t seem to jolt a response in him, she’d tried a more direct approach. She’d asked for advice from friends and—much to her later chagrin—had taken it. The short skirts hadn’t done anything noticeable to stir his blood. But she’d pressed on, donning dresses that emphasized her attributes, wearing her hair loose and casually shaking it in his face when she bent close to look over plans he was explaining to her.

      “Pendleton, you’re going to make me sneeze,” he’d said, grimacing. “Can’t you do something with that hair?”

      She remembered well the incident when she’d tried out the new perfume her friend Julie had told her was a surefire attention-getter. She’d stood very close to Carter and wafted the scent around her in his general direction whenever she got the chance. And suddenly, it seemed to work. He was sniffing the air.

      “What’s

Скачать книгу