the greying coil of hair at her nape. ‘You good boy. Nice boy. You need good woman.’
He shrugged. It was a familiar conversation he had with her, and a sure-fire way of having all the single young females of her family tree described to him. ‘I have you.’
She laughed. ‘I help you find,’ she sang, opening the front door, pausing, taking out a cloth from her bag and wiping down the ochre wall beside her. ‘If you not finding.’
‘I don’t need help, but thank you anyway, Luciana,’ he said, lurching forward and ushering the most valuable employee he had to the lift. He punched the button. ‘See you tomorrow?’
The doors opened. She stepped in and turned. ‘Yes. What you want for dinner? I could cook special lasagne, secret recipe?’ she said, eyeing him carefully.
Case could read the gleam in her eyes. Probably lining up a whole meal that she planned him to share with someone she knew.
‘No dinner. I have a date,’ he rushed on. Better to eat out alone than endure Luciana’s umpteen single relatives’ profiles again and be asked to pick one. Maybe Simon would be free.
She nodded, her smile wide. ‘Good. You need a good woman.’
The doors closed and he wandered back to his penthouse suite, closing the double doors behind him and looking out of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that stretched the entire wall at the view of the northern shore of the bay.
He didn’t need any help in finding a woman. He found plenty. Finding one who liked him for who he was…was the hard part. Who wanted to know him, be with him, for him.
How to find said woman was the biggest dilemma in his life. He couldn’t help but question a woman’s motives if she knew all he had. He wondered how he’d broach protecting his assets from another bad choice, how he could downplay his portfolio and try to assess whether it was him she liked or his money.
The phone rang and Case answered.
‘So what was with today?’ Simon asked in his best lawyer-cum-best-mate tone of inquisition. ‘A desire to play undercover agent?’
‘A desire to make everything I own into a resounding success, actually,’ Case stated drily. And he sure needed the challenge of taking his newest acquisition back into the black.
He had needed to distract him from himself. ‘I was out with my Director of Sales.’ And her very fine green eyes.
‘Why didn’t you just go there no—lies? You are the new owner of WWW Designs.’
Case sank into a recliner chair. ‘Because of all the airs and graces that are always put on to muddy the truth.’
He’d already seen the myriad attempts of the General Manager at WWW Designs to flatter him into keeping her on; the woman was practically dripping with greasy compliments—on his clothes, his business acumen and his plan to be put on the staff incognito.
Case knew the best way to maximize the company’s efficiency was to get in there and see how it was being run firsthand and nothing was going to stop him, especially a small thing like a few white lies. The fact that he needed to escape the monotony of his routine didn’t come into it. Much.
‘So you’re after the truth by telling lies.’ Simon made a guttural noise deep in his throat. ‘You know you don’t have to keep on with it—you could get someone else to do it.’
Case loosened his tie. ‘No. I like it there.’ And liked being surprised by a certain member of his staff and her lack of hesitation in speaking her mind.
Simon groaned. ‘Come on, get serious. Your time is far too valuable to put into this. Just employ an efficiency expert, or I could go.’
Case rubbed his smooth jaw, loath to put words to the hollow feeling in his chest at the thought of backing down from this challenge. ‘I don’t see it that way.’ This was an opportunity just begging for him to conquer it…and maybe, hopefully, fill that void for just a little while.
And what a challenge. WWW Designs was the biggest firm of its type in the state and he was itching to turn the company around and shove its success in all the biggest rags and in a few faces who had failed to see how much more he was than just a suit and a bank balance.
‘What about the ethics of it?’
Case smiled. ‘What ethics would they be? As the new owner I could have sacked them all but I’d rather find out how they’re doing things and where the problems lie. I’d hate to get rid of valuable staff.’
‘Right, sure, that’s what it is. And the fact that you were getting bored doesn’t come into it?’
Case stared at the modern painting on the wall. Simon was too smart. ‘Okay, I admit it. I wanted to do something new. There’s no crime in that. I’m sure you’re holding the fort.’
He was so sick of presiding over a clockwork company, being obliged to attend one function after another and kissing arse to every prestigious alliance in the business.
‘Sure, I can take care of the company, if I can call you to make the decisions without using some damned code.’ Simon cleared his throat. ‘But come on, be serious, what are you expecting to find there?’
‘I’m looking…’ Case rubbed Edi’s chin with his foot ‘…for something…’ To wipe out the empty feeling that had been eating him up inside. Ignoring it hadn’t helped. Dating hadn’t helped. Work hadn’t even helped, until now.
‘Well, I can tell you you’re not going to find it at WWW Designs. But are you sure about what you’re getting yourself into?’
‘Not a problem; nothing there that I can’t handle.’ Case rang off, Tahlia Moran’s sweet face coming to his mind.
Tahlia Moran didn’t know what he had, the companies he owned, the properties that were his, the people that he rubbed shoulders with or the five cars parked downstairs in the garage.
She hadn’t questioned him on choosing companies to buy out today at lunch—had probably accepted that he was playing the stock market, not playing Monopoly.
Was this his chance?
She was all he could think about since lunch, and he’d acted impulsively. He’d made that reckless phone call before leaving work. The one that had tortured him all the way home.
It was way too early for gestures like that.
Hell, was he being silly entertaining the thought that he could have a relationship with the woman? Could he be incensed by lust into making another mistake that could not only cost him dearly, but break what was left of his heart?
The trouble was that she was incredible. A man didn’t meet incredible often in his life… How could he ignore incredible?
Edi sat by his feet, his tail pounding the floor.
Case glanced down at the big dark eyes of his best friend and companion. ‘I’m being an idiot, aren’t I? Getting carried away, just because I feel something more than what I normally feel. It’s nothing, right?’
Edi’s
