DNA? Contest the will? Anna frowned, but Parker just nodded to one of the guest chairs in front of his desk, issuing an unspoken invitation for her to sit. As always, he seemed utterly calm, the aura of authority that shimmered around him neatly in place. But there was something different in that clipped voice, and in the tense way he held his broad shoulders. His control was tied on with a tenuous thread today.
“Fine, you do that,” he said, leaning his head to one side to work out a crick. “In the meantime, it’s business as usual. My business.” He glanced at Anna, who made a show of flipping her planner to the next clean page so she didn’t stare. Even though she’d become quite adept at avoiding detection.
“Oh, damn it all, I completely forgot.” His tone changed with the admission, and she instantly sat up, prepared to help him remember what he forgot. That was, after all, her job. Not ogling his perfectly shaped butt, impossibly wide shoulders or Adonis-like chest. Parker-gazing was just a side benefit.
“I can’t go,” he said to Brandon, sliding into the high-backed desk chair and reaching for his little black digital device and pressing a few buttons. “But, with the bomb you just dropped at this morning’s reading, I think I need to be there more than ever.”
He paused and Anna tried to psych out what he was talking about.
“But I’m way too swamped to consider going that far away,” he added, “unless I charter a jet.”
Of course. London.
“I have a ton of work to do this weekend,” he continued, “and it’s impossible to get anything done on a commercial flight.”
Anna slipped a creamy-white card embossed with silver letters from the “pending” section of his calendar. Her fingers glided over the imprint of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association seal, over the gilded script inviting him to the annual ball at Guildhall in London. She’d been meaning to get a response from him so she could RSVP.
He chuckled softly, fiddling with the buttons on the PDA as he tucked the phone into one of those impressive shoulders.
“Yes. A date,” he said casually to Brandon, and shot a lazy wink at Anna, which sent an involuntary stutter to her heart. “I suppose I’d need to get one of those, too.”
Which of the lucky ladies would win that lottery?
Maxine, whose daddy owned half of Palm Beach? Or the nine-foot glamazon who’d been on the cover of Vogue twice? He’d been seeing a lot of her in the past few weeks. Maybe he’d go for that spunky redhead who owned the PR agency that had done some work for Garrison, Inc. last month. Sparks were certainly crackling in the conference room when that one came in for a meeting.
“As a matter of fact, I might have the perfect person.” His gaze landed right on her, intense, relentless and unwavering. Exactly the way it had been when he’d devoured her with it in the bathroom.
A low, slow flame curled up her belly and started a familiar bonfire. One she’d become very good at dousing with four simple words that have saved legions of love-struck secretaries: He’s your boss, dummy.
Suddenly, he stood, turned to the window and copped the voice he used to end a conversation instantly. “Keep me posted, Brandon. And I’ll let you know what I decide.”
For a moment, he didn’t move, but stared at the cloudless blue sky, his back rising and falling with steady, slow breaths.
Then he turned and trained his midnight gaze on her. “As you can tell, Anna, I didn’t get good news this morning.”
She set the call sheet on his desk. “That must explain the seventeen voice-mail messages.”
He scanned the list, and swore so softly she almost didn’t hear it. “Brandon’s right.”
“About?”
“I have to be at the IH & RA ball in London. It’s more important than ever that I maintain…” He paused, assessing her as though he was wondering just how much to tell her. “Leadership.”
“Your leadership is never in doubt.”
He tilted his head, acknowledging the compliment with shuttered lids that said he believed the opposite. At least, at the moment. Then he yanked out his chair and sat, leaning forward the way he always did when he made a decision that he would not second-guess. Not that he’d ever second-guessed anything, ever, in his life.
“Please arrange for the charter jet company to have a Gulfstream V ready to leave tomorrow, very early, from Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport. That will put me in London Friday evening, with plenty of time to make the function on Saturday and return on Sunday morning. I’ll be back in the office on Monday. I’ll need the Berkeley Suite at the Ritz-Carlton London. Don’t let them tell you it’s not available—”
“I’ll use your name.”
“Yes, and I’ll need a limo to and from the event, which is—”
“At Guildhall.”
“Right. And I have a driver in London I prefer—”
“Mr. Sanderson with the London Car Company.”
He laughed softly. “Yes.”
She scribbled the onslaught of instructions. “You’ll want some files for the plane,” she said.
“Of course.”
“The financials on the Grand are up for review next week,” she reminded him, still writing. “And you’ll need the latest investment results, and the agenda for the exec committee meeting next—”
“Get me everything we have on the Garrison Grand-Bahamas.”
She did look up at that, it threw her so completely. “The hotel in Nassau?”
“Everything,” he repeated.
“Of course.” She scratched another note, swallowing the question of why? A good admin didn’t ask. “And you’ll probably need to review your speech for the business council so I’ll include the notes, and you have an appointment with a marketing firm regarding new collateral materials late next week, so no doubt you’ll want a complete…” A strange tingling sensation suddenly froze her pen in hand. Slowly, she looked up from her pad to find him staring at her. “You do still want to meet with that firm on Thursday afternoon, right?”
Staring? No. Bottomless brown bedroom eyes practically swallowed her whole.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, striking a neutral chord in her voice despite the way her limbs turned heavy.
“Make it easy on me, Anna, and come to London.”
Oh. Oh. “Make what easy?”
“The work. You know so much about my work and you’re so incredible…incredibly organized. I can only rationalize this much time away from the office if I’m productive. And with you, I’m productive.”
The work. Of course. Why else would he want her to go to London? And why else would she even consider it?
“You can have comp vacation days to make up for the lost weekend,” he added, as though she were actually worried about that. He had no way of knowing that her hesitation had nothing to do with losing a weekend, and everything to do with losing her mind. Proximity to the object of her steamiest nightly fantasies could drive her crazy.
“That’s no problem,” she said slowly. “I don’t mind working the weekend.”
“Then you’ll go.” He smiled, a genuine grin that he saved for when he won a small victory in business. Something he did about a million times a day. “Perfect. You’ll need something