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Кролики и удавы. Фазиль Искандер
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An unbidden spark pulsed between them, like the feeling one gets when suddenly remembering a long-forgotten dream, and Autumn knew that she’d have to be careful not to succumb to temptation.
Suddenly Isaac shot up in his chair. “What do you mean we’re going to be spending a lot time together?” It was as if he’d just now grasped the full extent of what his boss had said moments earlier.
Felicia’s eyes narrowed at Autumn and Isaac before turning her attention to Sterling. “Yes, Father. Explain.”
“That’s why I called the meeting,” Sterling bellowed, ignoring Felicia’s glare. “For the next few weeks, Isaac, you’re going to be Autumn’s mentor. Getting her acclimated to the way we do things around here.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Autumn saw Felicia’s hands tense.
“M-mentoring!” Felicia sputtered. “What are you talking about, Daddy? My new employee onboarding process doesn’t begin until next month.”
Sterling pressed his index finger on the table and shook his head. “It starts now, Felicia.”
“But the process hasn’t been fully vetted,” she protested.
Sterling shrugged and leaned back in his chair, as if the matter was settled. “What better use case than a real scenario?”
Felicia smoothed her blond-in-a-bottle hair. She was probably very pretty when she smiled, but that wasn’t the case now.
“Legal won’t like it,” she warned.
He gave a disgusted sigh. “Have you forgotten that our in-house attorneys report to me?”
Felicia threw up her hands in exasperation. “I haven’t even completed all the required documentation.”
Sterling looked up from his cell phone and rolled his eyes. “Great, just what we need. More paperwork.”
Autumn cast a glance at Felicia and stifled a laugh. If she had a pencil, paper and an artistic bone in her body, she would sketch two plumes of steam erupting from each of her ears and fire blazing in her eyes. The woman looked that angry.
Sterling’s phone beeped loudly and he stood. “You’ll have to excuse me. I’m due at another meeting in a few minutes.” He handed Isaac a manila folder. “I’ll leave you two alone to get acquainted.”
Autumn smiled at Felicia and she could almost see the wheels turning in her head. Her gaze lingered on Isaac for a moment, as if that would lure him away. She seemed to sense something that neither Autumn nor Isaac could have imagined.
Sterling opened the door and exhaled impatiently. “Felicia, are you coming?”
Autumn tapped the stack of papers with her pen, breaking the tense moment.
“I’ll have these back to you this afternoon.”
Felicia rewarded her with a nod and a thin-lipped smile.
“Right behind you, Father.”
She waited until Sterling was gone, and then rose from her chair slowly, as if she were still reluctant to leave.
Autumn felt Isaac’s gaze upon her cheek. She dug the toes of her shoes into the carpet in a vain attempt to hold on to the twinge of pleasure that zoomed through her body.
“Isaac,” Felicia said sharply. “Be sure to show her my office, won’t you?” Her voice suddenly dropped to almost a whisper, like dark silk hiding a double-edged sword. “You know the way.”
Without saying another word, Felicia quickly walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, leaving an empty vacuum of silence and longing.
The statement was an invitation for Isaac, backed up by veiled warning meant for any woman who might interfere.
Namely, Autumn.
But what Felicia didn’t know was that Autumn wasn’t a threat to whatever hold—real or imagined—she had on Isaac. Sterling hadn’t hired her to bed the man, although at first glance the thought did cross her mind. No, she was here to conduct an investigation into a possible case of corporate securities fraud.
Autumn didn’t know what, if anything, was going on between the two of them, but if it affected the outcome of this case, she would damn sure find out.
Chapter 2
Isaac leaned back in his chair and almost smiled at the irony. He hadn’t been expecting a beautiful woman on the agenda for Monday morning. Then again, he’d never expected to be cooking breakfast every day for two children, either.
Or trying to cook. His kids were not pleased with having to settle for Pop-Tarts. Again.
He sniffed lightly wondering if the stench of burned bacon was still on him and what Autumn would think if it was.
Isaac mentally slapped himself upside the head. If he cared even a little bit about the opinions of this perfect stranger, this gorgeous stranger, the stress must be really getting to him. He had two children to think about now, not impressing a woman.
He was a father.
“Anything wrong?”
The concern in Autumn’s voice sounded so genuine, he nearly blurted out, Everything.
And it was true. His life was in a state of total upheaval right now. Sure, the chaos was the result of choices he wanted to make, but that didn’t make things any easier.
Instead Isaac opted for the answer likely echoed in countless offices across the country on any given morning. Men and women just like him who wished someone would care, but who also realized that most people were too busy just trying to make it in this crazy world to bother.
He faked a yawn. “I was running late and missed my morning coffee.”
Isaac kept his gaze trained on the boardroom window. The mid-January sky was a bleak and dirty gray, the kind that makes you wonder if the sun will ever shine again. For reasons he didn’t understand, he didn’t want to look too deeply into Autumn’s eyes. It wasn’t that he was afraid of what he would see in them, but of what he wouldn’t.
“I don’t drink coffee.”
Her voice wove through his ears, piercing the fog of his thoughts. It was throaty, insistent and knotted with just enough innate sexiness to make his groin twitch in a way that made him glad he was sitting down.
Just to be on the safe side, he rolled closer to the table and turned his head toward her.
“What mortal doesn’t drink coffee?” he said in an incredulous tone. “What gets you up in the morning? Your extremely good looks?”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth that he realized he’d overstepped the boundaries between simple curiosity and workplace etiquette. Rule number one: never acknowledge the physical attractiveness of your coworkers.
He hated the fact that his stomach clenched as he waited for her reaction, but Autumn just sat there with a blank expression on her face.
If Felicia was still in the room, she’d probably write him up. Ever since she tried to seduce him and he’d turned her down, he’d been paying for it. She watched him like a hawk circling prey.
Did she really think he was stupid enough to bed Sterling’s daughter? His working relationship with his boss was strained enough without any additional help from Felicia’s shenanigans. Although Isaac doubted Sterling knew anything about Felicia’s unwanted advances, he couldn’t be sure without actually asking him.
Still, Isaac had a nagging feeling that the partnership he’d busted his butt working for his entire career was now out of reach, and he didn’t know why.
Autumn’s