LITMIR.BIZ

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be a very private conversation with one of the newer and younger administrative assistants. From the looks of it, it appeared that groundwork for far more than further conversation was being laid.

      Suppressing a sigh, Paul inserted himself between the exceedingly perky young redhead in the platform heels and his brother. “Excuse us, please, um—” He had no idea what the young woman’s name was.

      “Danielle.” Both the young woman and Derek said the name at the same time, which caused them to exchange more covert looks. Paul heard the assistant smother a giggle.

      “Danielle,” Paul repeated with a slight nod of his head, “I need to speak with my brother.”

      “Of course.” Inclining her head, the administrative assistant drew away. But not before she exchanged one more overtly steamy, sexy glance with the institute’s CFO.

      Paul walked into his brother’s recently remodeled office and waited for Derek to follow. Which Derek did. Languidly.

      The moment the door was closed, Paul immediately started talking. “What the hell were you thinking, hiring that young girl?” he demanded.

      Derek looked at him, apparently confused. “Who?”

      “The one sitting in Connie Winston’s old office. Your so-called PR manager.”

      If he was aware of the sarcasm in his brother’s voice, Derek didn’t show it. “Oh, you mean Ramona Tate.” Derek grinned broadly, obviously pleased with himself. “That was a real lucky break.”

      Derek was usually more intuitive than this. Ordinarily, he picked up on tension. Maybe his brother thought it would all just go away if he didn’t acknowledge it. Think again, Derek. If nothing else, Paul wanted some of the ground rules reaffirmed.

      “Some of us,” he told Derek, “don’t think so.”

      Derek laughed shortly. “By ‘some’ I take it you mean Lisa and you.” Even as he said the words amicably, he knew the answer. Just as he knew that their baby sister was behind this confrontation. Even as a kid, Lisa was into power plays. As the youngest of the Armstrong children, she always wanted to come out on top, to be the one the others listened to.

      Putting his hand on Paul’s shoulder, Derek said patiently, “Paul, you’re an excellent physician and a wonderful chief of staff here at the institute. If you ask me, you deserve a lot more credit than you’re getting. But let’s be honest, there’s no denying that the institute needs help.”

      “I got us help,” Paul pointed out tersely. “I got Demetrios and Bonner to leave their hospital and join the institute. In case you missed it, they’re the cutting-edge research team who—”

      “I didn’t miss it,” Derek answered crisply, cutting in. “But I just might have been the only one around who didn’t.”

      Paul had absolutely no idea what that even meant. “What?”

      “Exactly,” Derek declared as if Paul had made his point for him. “What newspaper was that where the press release announcing their joining the institute was run? Oh, wait, it wasn’t,” he said with exaggerated enlightenment. “Because we had no one manning our PR desk to make that press release. But we do now,” he concluded with a smug, triumphant smile.

      Paul was easygoing up to a point, but he dug in now. If he didn’t take a stand here, he might as well just lie down and have Derek walk all over him. “Not until Lisa and I agree to hire her.”

      “Then agree,” Derek told him, trying to control his irritation. “Because she’s already hired.”

      “Not exactly.”

      “What do you mean ‘not exactly’?” Derek wanted to know. “I hired her yesterday.”

      “And I put her on temporary notice.”

      The smile evaporated instantly. Derek exploded. “For God’s sake, why?”

      Paul dug deep for patience. Derek, he knew, was accustomed to doing whatever he wanted to unopposed. But when it came to the institute, important decisions had to involve all three of them. They’d agreed on that when they took over the famous facility from their ailing father.

      As if it was the first time, Paul doled his words out evenly. “Because you can’t just go off and do this kind of thing whenever you feel like it without at least consulting Lisa and me.”

      “So you’re going to let Ramona go because you’re mad at me?” he asked in abject disbelief. Derek shook his head in amazement. “Boy, leave it to you to be such a cliché.”

      Paul’s gaze became flinty. “Excuse me?”

      Derek frowned, exasperated. “That old chestnut about cutting off your nose to spite your face. That’s what you’re doing.”

      Any moment now, his brother was going to throw a tantrum, Paul thought. “You’re carrying on as if I just fired Woodward and Bernstein. That girl looks like she’s barely out of high school, let alone college. We implant embryos here, Derek, we don’t hire them.”

      Derek raised his voice to be heard over him. “Ramona Tate is twenty-five years old and she has impressive credentials—”

      “Which I’m sure you checked thoroughly.” Paul couldn’t help the note of sarcasm that came into his voice. He sincerely doubted that Derek had done anything but glance at her résumé.

      Derek squared his shoulders indignantly. “I was getting to that.”

      Sure you were, Paul thought. “Want another old chestnut?”

      Derek slanted a glance toward him, a suspicious look entering his eyes. “Like what?”

      “Like you’re putting the cart before the horse.” In this case, he’d hired the woman and planned to rubber-stamp her references—if she even had any.

      A deep chuckle escaped Derek’s lips. “Maybe you didn’t notice—and if you didn’t, you’d be the only one who wouldn’t—but this ‘horse’ has lines that could stop a charging rhino in his tracks.”

      Paul sighed, shaking his head. “So this is about your libido.”

      Derek rolled his eyes. “Unlike you, I have one, but in this case I was thinking of the institute.”

      Paul leaned a hip against his brother’s desk. “This I have to hear.”

      “There’s nothing wrong in having an extremely attractive—and able—woman to represent us. To be the ‘face’ of the Armstrong Fertility Institute.” Seeing that he was losing Paul, Derek hurried to add, “Which would you rather look at when it comes to getting your information, a gnarled, short, bald, fat man or an attractive young woman who makes your blood surge and makes you think of fertility just by looking at her?”

      “I’d just as soon get it in a report on my desk.”

      Derek threw up his hands. “You’re hopeless, you know that?”

      Paul made no comment on that. He didn’t feel he needed to defend himself. This wasn’t about him, or Derek. This was about their father’s legacy. “How much is she costing the institute?”

      Derek rallied for a second defense. “Not as much as you would think—and Ramona is worth every penny of it.”

      Paul gave his twin a knowing look. “I’ll bet.”

      “Get your mind out of the gutter, Paul. I was referring to the press release I asked her to prepare.”

      Was that why the woman had asked him if she could draft a statement? “About?” he asked cautiously, wanting to see if the stories agreed.

      “Your dynamic duo, of course. Bonner and Demetrios bring their own sterling reputations to the table—just as you planned.” Derek wasn’t above trying to butter his brother up if he had to. “We get the

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