His Girl Friday. Diana Palmer

edge of drug addiction, and they said that your mom is taking up break dancing.”

      Jenny laughed. “So she wrote me. I hope she doesn’t break anything doing it. It’s so nice to be home, Dina,” she sighed. “Even if it’s only for a night.”

      And it was barely a whole night; when Danetta woke, Jenny was already gone. The twin bed where Jenny had slept was neatly made, and there was a note on it, a very brief one, saying that Jenny had to catch an early flight and would write.

      Danetta fed Norman some bananas and avocado and leftover spinach quiche and went to work worrying. Something was going on, and judging by Jenny’s look and distracted presence, it was something big.

      Jenny had worked on that hush-hush project for the past few months. Her mother, who was Danetta’s Aunt Doris, and Danetta’s own parents had been uneasy about her taking the job. But Jenny wasn’t a homebody, and she seemed to thrive on the excitement.

      The thing was, nobody knew or understood what Jenny did. And maybe it was better that way.

      Danetta had an office full of people as the day began, which gave her the advantage of not having to spend any time alone with the disturbing Mr. Ritter. After yesterday, she had every intention of walking wide around him. She could have choked herself senseless for letting him get that close, for letting him see how vulnerable she was.

      But he was, again, all business, even if she did feel the heat of his gaze more often than usual as the day wore on.

      Lunchtime came, and Danetta got her purse to run down to the small Chinese restaurant at the corner and get the takeout she’d ordered. She usually ate at her desk except when one of the women from the other offices in the building invited her to join them, and that wasn’t too often these days. It seemed that everyone was suffering from work pressure.

      “Can I bring you anything from the Chinese place?” Danetta asked Cabe politely, pausing in the open doorway of his office.

      “No, thanks,” he said with forced indifference. He was still having hell trying to keep his distance from her after yesterday. “I’m taking Karol to lunch.” She nodded and started to leave, stopped by his curt, “Dan?”

      She turned, grateful to hear even that hated nickname if it meant he was mellowing a little. “Yes, sir?”

      His blue eyes narrowed and with helpless fascination he studied her slender figure in the gray crepe dress. “You’ve been very quiet today.”

      “I’ve been busy,” she said. “And I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

      He scowled. “Why not?”

      He had no right to ask, but the answer popped out automatically. “I had company. Well, until just before dawn, anyway,” she began, wondering how much she should tell him about Jenny.

      The look on his face was almost comical. It seemed to actually pale. He sat up, his expression going from mild surprise to anger in the space of seconds. “I thought one-night-stands weren’t your style.”

      “One-night… Oh, I see. No, not a man,” she blurted out. “My cousin, Jenny.”

      He made an odd gesture with one hand, looking as surprised as she felt, because the question shouldn’t have been asked or answered. His eyes caught hers and held them, and that long, sweet electricity flowed between them as potently as it had the day before. Her smile faded and she felt her heartbeat racing in her throat as his eyes darkened. She saw the muscles in his firm, stubborn chin clench as he stared back at her with blue lightning flashing in his eyes, as if he were struggling for control.

      In fact he was, but before he could move or speak, Karol walked in, wearing a light colored, gauzy dress with a matching ribbon in her long, silky blond hair. Cabe got to his feet with quiet grace, tearing his eyes away from Danetta and forcing a smile for Karol as she joined them.

      “Well, well, what a pretty decoration for my office,” he murmured, his voice falling an octave as Karol nodded and smiled coolly at Danetta before she walked past her to Cabe.

      “You flatterer,” Karol said.

      “I wouldn’t call it flattery,” Cabe returned. Danetta was beginning to get under his skin in a big way, and he couldn’t have those long, soulful looks coming at him day after day without doing something about her. He had to show Danetta that she meant nothing to him, for her own sake. He could hurt her badly if he let this go any further. He couldn’t afford the luxury of getting involved with a naive little virgin who didn’t know beans about men or life. And there was one sure way to do that, he thought with sudden insight.

      He reached out to Karol, caught her close and bent to kiss her with fierce, rough ardor, right in front of a shocked, embarrassed Danetta.

      “I’d better go,” Danetta stammered, managing somehow to drag her eyes away from them and creep out the door without anyone noticing.

      All the way down the elevator, and to the restaurant, she couldn’t get the sight out of her mind. It hurt, and she didn’t understand why. Cabe, with that beautiful woman in his arms, his mouth so violently hungry on hers, his arms corded around her, pressing her to every lean inch of his powerful body. Danetta almost groaned out loud at the memory, wondering how it would feel to have him treat her that way. She had to stop this, she told herself firmly. She was letting his charm blind her to what was underneath it. Karol was just a conquest, like all his other conquests, and Danetta’s parents hadn’t raised her to be just a name in some man’s black book.

      She deliberately took her time getting back to her office, so that Cabe and Karol were gone when she returned with her lunch. She was sitting behind her desk halfheartedly picking at her Moo Goo Gai Pan when Ben Meadows peered in the door, his blond head gleaming as he grinned at her.

      “All alone?” he murmured. “Unprotected?”

      “Not really,” she replied with a mischievous smile. “I’m armed with deadly kung fu chopsticks. Ha!” She made a mock lunge with one.

      “You wouldn’t really attack a hardworking sales manager, would you?”

      She shook her head. “Want some Moo Goo?” she offered.

      He made a horrible face. “I won’t eat something with a name like that.”

      “It’s just chicken and oriental vegetables in sauce, and it’s delicious.”

      “That’s what they told me about spinach quiche,” he said with a glare. “Anyway, how about a nice leisurely lunch in an expensive restaurant with white wine and fattening desserts? On me,” he added, smiling hopefully.

      She studied him curiously. He wasn’t bad looking, and he was much closer to her age than Cabe. A nice, steady man who never chased women, who was very quiet as a rule and never made trouble. She liked him, although she didn’t know him socially. Not for lack of effort on his part; he was forever asking her out and she was forever refusing. But since Cabe had said that about her refusing Meadows because she had a crush on her boss, she changed her mind.