She rolled the soggy dress she’d worn to work that day in the towel, fluffed her shoulder-length blond hair under the wall hair dryer for a few minutes and peeked out into the office to see who was there.
No one. Super. In just moments she was back on her own floor, her own desk in her sights, when someone called from behind.
“Hey, Darcy!”
It was Kevin, he of the errant café latte. She kept walking, but he caught up with her.
“Hey, I really, really am sorry.”
He looked sorry. He was young and bright and he seemed to have something of a crush on her, but he certainly did look sorry.
“Forget it,” she said shortly, reaching out to pick up the papers filling her in-box.
“Really Darcy, it was an accident. I just leaned over the rail to look at you and the cup slipped and …”
“Sure, Kevin. I understand. Don’t think another thing about it.” She began riffling through the papers, though she didn’t see a thing. She was wondering where Mitch was—mainly so that she could avoid him. She needed time to think.
“I’d love to make it up to you, Darcy,” Kevin was saying, looking puppy-dog hopeful. “I thought maybe I could take you out to …”
Kevin’s suggested destination was to remain forever unknown. Before he got the name out, the elevator doors across from her office opened and Bill Monroe, her amiable boss, stepped into their conversation.
“My office, Darcy,” he said, cocking a stern forefinger her way. “Right now.”
“But …” She glanced at the clock on the wall over the elevator. “I really don’t have time this morning. I’m running a little late and I’ve got people waiting for some research I’ve been doing and—”
“Forget that,” Bill said flatly. “I need to talk to you right away.”
There was a grim look on his normally jovial face as he headed for his office. Kevin shrugged dejectedly and disappeared down the stairs. Darcy sighed, stowed her things away and looked up to find Mitch coming toward her.
“Oh, hi,” she said awkwardly. It gave her quite a start to have him casually turning up where she wasn’t used to seeing him. It also gave her an opportunity to really look at him, and for a moment, that was what she did.
He looked so different, it was a wonder she’d recognized him right away. She flashed back to that weekend in Paris and what he’d looked like then. She’d been sharing a small place with Jimmy ever since she’d arrived in Paris. Apartments were impossible to find in the area near where they both worked at the same company. Their mothers had been best friends, so they’d known each other forever, and it had seemed only natural to share a place.
When she’d heard that Mitch was dropping by, she’d had a few seconds of excitement before she’d reminded herself that he wasn’t coming to see her. He probably didn’t even remember who she was. So when the doorbell had rung, she’d gone to let him in, not expecting much but pleased to be seeing someone from home. Opening the door, she’d found him standing there and her world had fallen out of the sky.
He’d been completely wild, totally exotic, like a fictional hero. His hair was a long, thick tangle framing his outrageously handsome face. His body had been spectacularly displayed in a tight, clinging shirt and torn jeans that molded to his muscular legs like something that had grown to cover him. He was reeking with attitude and looked like a young freedom fighter, a rebel, a revolutionary, ducking in out of the street to evade a pursuer. Even now, the memory of how provocatively fine he’d looked took her breath away.
She’d fallen for him like a ton of bricks, right there in the doorway to Jimmy’s tiny flat. Not that it should have been surprising. After all, even though she hadn’t seen him for years, she’d had a crush on him since she’d been a child. Of course, he’d never noticed her in those days.
Only, this time he did.
“Hey,” he’d said, looking deep into her eyes. “Hey yourself,” she’d said back, looking dreamily into his.
“What’s your name?” he’d asked, proving her theory.
“Darcy,” she’d responded, just as glad he didn’t remember the awkward girl who’d mooned after him in the old days.
“I’m Mitch.”
“I know.”
He’d smiled and she’d swooned toward him.
“Want to run away with me?” he asked her softly, leaning even closer.
She’d nodded without hesitation, knowing it was just banter, but answering in all sincerity. “Yes,” she whispered.
His gaze had seemed to devour her hungrily and for one long moment, she’d lost herself in his blue eyes.
“Hey, Mitch,” Jimmy had called out from the kitchen. “You finally got here.”
And she’d pulled back, thinking the moment was over, that the relationship between the two men would be the focus of the rest of the day. But she’d been wrong. The magic that had sparked between them didn’t fade. As soon as they got the chance, they’d gone out into the city together, and things had gone from pure delight to rapture.
At first she’d looked on that exciting weekend as a mistake, but one that was just too delicious to really regret—a romantic episode she would treasure forever. It seemed the kind of thing you read about in books or saw in movies. He’d come into her life at just the moment she had felt most lost and lonely and reminded her of what joy in living could be like—and then he’d gone.
And then she’d realized she was pregnant.
She watched as he approached her now, looking so clean-cut and handsome—not a rebel at all. But she knew that exciting body still lay under the suit coat and hints of that crazy untamed spirit still lurked in his eyes if you looked hard enough. The packaging had changed, but he was still the same guy.
Was she still the same girl? Not on your life.
CHAPTER TWO
“WHAT are you doing on this floor?” Darcy asked for lack of anything better to say.
Mitch shrugged. “I got a message from Bill Monroe.” He noted the startled look on her face in reaction to that news. “You, too?”
She nodded. A feeling of dread was beginning to build inside her. If this was what she thought it might be …
He inclined his head. “Lead on, McDuff,” he muttered.
She bit her lip and led the way into her boss’s office. Bill rose and shook hands with Mitch, murmuring a greeting. Still standing, he got to the point.
“Darcy, I hate to lose you. But you’ve been assigned to the new department Mitch will be heading.”
She blanched, though by now she’d been expecting this very thing. “What?” She shook her head.
Surely this wasn’t written in stone yet. “No.” She turned to Mitch appealingly. “No!” Surely he would do something to stop this.
And he looked as though he wanted to. “Interesting,” he said. “But there’s been some mistake. You see, I won’t need an assistant. I’ve already got a secretary picked out and—”
“Darcy isn’t a secretary. She’s a property analyst. And her area of expertise resides smack dab in the center of your new project.” Bill dropped an armful of folders on the desk as though that settled the matter. “You can take these with you.”
Darcy’s heart sank. That meant Mitch was taking over the Bermuda