LITMIR.BIZ

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resembling a faint chuckle, then, seeming to gather her composure, she turned to Lilly. “It must be your day, sweetie. You beat me at limbo, and your daddy’s here!” She cut off Lilly’s tape player and put her arm around his daughter. “He has been cooped up in an airplane for a long time, and I bet he rushed back just so he could see you. I bet he also needs a hug.”

      Hesitating, Lilly eyed him with a mixture of wariness and childlike sympathy. With slow steps she moved toward him, and when he bent down, she wrapped her arms around his neck.

      Jack’s heart dipped. He picked her up and squeezed her small frame to him. “Hi, princess. Have you had a good time with Amanda?”

      Lilly nodded.

      “Have you been a good girl?”

      Lilly nodded.

      “Very good,” Amanda added. “Plus she was smearing me during the limbo dance. Since it was going to be just us girls tonight, Lilly asked if we could have spaghetti instead of the chicken cordon bleu the housekeeper left. I can heat up the chicken for you if you like?”

      Jack shook his head. “Spaghetti’s fine.” He set Lilly down when she began to squirm. “I’ll clean up and be back down.”

      After dinner and kissing Lilly good-night, Jack poured a drink in the den. Hearing the soft click of a door closing, he glanced out the window and saw Amanda on the back porch. He picked up a newspaper and skimmed it for a few minutes, then checked the window again. She still sat on the porch. He strolled outside.

      “Nice night,” he said.

      “Almost every night,” she said, rolling her shoulders. “I found out there’s less glare from the city lights here, so the evening sky looks beautiful.”

      “I hadn’t really noticed,” he murmured.

      “You’ve been busy making conquests,” she said, looking at him.

      “Conquests?”

      “Corporate conquests. How many international companies did Fortune’s Marco Polo conquer this time?”

      He quirked his mouth at her reference to his reputation. “Lots of interest. One commitment.”

      “Good for you,” she said with a smile, then rubbed her left shoulder.

      “Got a problem, there?” he asked.

      “Just a little tight. I think I did one too many rounds of the limbo,” she admitted.

      “Where is it?”

      “Right here,” she pointed. “but—”

      Jack put his hands on her shoulder and felt the small knot. He rubbed and massaged her shoulders while Amanda fell silent She let out a quiet moan that pulled at his gut Her cropped shirt was thin, and he remembered she wasn’t wearing a bra.

      Brushing aside the thought, he continued the massage. “You’re very quiet.”

      “You haven’t ever rubbed my shoulders before,” she said.

      “Is it helping?”

      “You—” she took a careful breath “—you’re very good.”

      Her words were both an unwitting sensual compliment and invitation, and he wondered what Amanda was like in bed. Was she conservative and repressed, the way she was in the office? Or uninhibited, like she was with his daughter? How responsive would she be? What would make her sigh and gasp? How would her nipples respond to his fingers and mouth?

      He felt the dull ache of arousal between his legs. Over Amanda? Jack shook his head.

      “You’re different here from the way you are at the office.”

      “Different jobs,” she said slowly as if she were forcing herself to concentrate. “With Lilly, she needs me to act a little crazy to get her to come out of herself. She needs lots of hugs.” She made a soft moan.

      “And at the office?” he prompted, his curiosity about his assistant growing. There was more about Amanda than met the eye.

      “At the office you need me to be efficient and to anticipate your needs so your time won’t be wasted.” She sighed and leaned away from him. “Thank you,” she said. turning slightly to face him. “You need me to be invisible.” A lock of hair slid over one of her eyes like a filmy shield of her secrets. Meeting his gaze, she gave a soft, wry smile. “I’m very good at being invisible.”

      Amanda said good-night, and Jack stayed awake. Although he was tired, he couldn’t sleep because of the time zone change. In the middle of the night while he surfed through late-night television, he thought about Amanda. He decided that perhaps she had a few surprises behind those big brown eyes. Maybe she wasn’t just background music after all.

      Two days later Amanda brought a picnic lunch for Lilly and Jack to share at the office while she answered questions from her replacement, took care of transition confusion and grabbed a lightning-quick lunch with Carol in a snack bar. “I want an update,” Carol demanded.

      “Lilly’s such a sweetie. She—”

      “Jack. I want an update on your progress with Jack, since you have now penetrated the Fortune outer wall.”

      Amanda laughed and shook her head. “I’m not that much of a schemer. I’ve been much busier with Lilly than Jack.”

      Carol frowned. “But part of your purpose in taking on this job was making Jack Fortune see you as a woman.”

      “Well, I think maybe he does,” she said, thinking of the questions he’d asked her and the way he’d looked at her. “There’ve been a few nights that we talked.”

      “Talk?” Carol asked. “Talk is all?”

      “Mostly,” Amanda said. “He rubbed my shoulder one night, but—”

      “A massage. That’s better.” Carol studied her. “Your eyes are sparkling.”

      Amanda felt her cheeks heat, remembering the way his hands had felt on her. She’d barely been able to breathe, let alone think or talk. It had been torture to pull away, but if she’d allowed him to continue, she’d feared she would do something crazy like turn around in his arms and kiss him. Although Amanda was finding it more and more difficult to keep her feelings invisible to Jack, she was determined to keep her hopes under control.

      “No. My eyes are not sparkling.” She shook her head at both Carol and her crazy hopes. “Nothing has happened. He hasn’t professed undying love, nor does he seem to have gotten a big eureka that I’m the woman of his dreams. Nothing has happened,” she said again to keep herself on the ground.

      “Uh-huh,” Carol said in disbelief. “Your eyes are sparkling, and it’s not due to new contact lens.”

      Amanda changed the subject, then scooted back to work a few minutes later. On her way to her office she saw Mollie Shaw hanging outside Stuart Fortune’s office.

      Amanda knew Mollie was Chloe Fortune’s young wedding consultant, but she’d only spoken to her a couple of times. “Can I help you find something?”

      Mollie blushed. “Oh, no. I—uh—” She bit her lip. “I—uh—I was looking for Emmet, Chloe’s father. I needed to discuss some of the wedding arrangements with him.”

      “With Emmet,” Amanda repeated doubtfully. “Emmet’s office is on the next floor.”

      “Oh,” Mollie said, her cheeks deepening with color. “My sense of direction needs a little work. Thanks,” she said, then quickly breezed away.

      Puzzled, Amanda looked after her for a long moment. She returned to Jack’s office, gave a quick hug to Lilly and an update to Jack.

      “Thanks,” he said. “Your replacement is having a difficult time.”

      “Why?”

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