thought you said that it wasn’t a date, it was business. I am your assistant, aren’t I? If it’s business, we should have something on record.”
“You have a very twisted mind,” Brianna proclaimed.
“Will I get the details or not?”
A faint stirring of excitement fluttered in Brianna’s stomach. It had been a long time since she’d felt anything like it. Because she owed at least some of that to her assistant, she nodded.
“You’ll get details. I’ll make it a point to remember what everyone is wearing and what food was served.”
“Forget all that. I just want to know what kind of a kisser Mr. Delacourt is.”
Brianna gulped. “Forget it. No kissing. No telling.”
Maybe if she repeated that often enough between now and six-thirty, she wouldn’t even be tempted. But something told her it was going to be a wasted effort, especially if Jeb Delacourt had other ideas.
Chapter Three
Brianna soaked in her hyacinth-scented bubble bath for a half hour, which was more feminine self-indulgence than she’d experienced in years. She fiddled with her hair and managed to coax a little curl into the short style, then added one of those fancy rhinestone-studded hair clips shaped like a butterfly. Emma had given it to her last Christmas. She’d had one of the nurses at the rehab center pick it out, then had wrapped it in paper she’d colored herself with swirls of holiday red and green.
At six o’clock Brianna slipped on the black dress and lost a little of the sparkle in her eyes. It was a lovely gown, but compared to the one she hadn’t bought, it was boring. It did nothing for her figure or her coloring. It just covered her body—most of her body, she noted glumly.
Which was exactly what she’d wanted, she reminded herself. She might want to make an impression on Max Coleman, but she needed to keep Jeb Delacourt’s mind strictly on business.
She turned away from the mirror just as the doorbell rang. Since it was barely six-ten, she doubted it was Jeb. She padded to the door in her stockinged feet and found a stranger on the doorstep.
“Yes?”
The man glanced down at a slip. “Brianna O’Ryan? That you?”
“Yes.”
He held out a large box and a form.
Brianna noted despondently that he didn’t even give her a second glance in her boring black gown. “Yes, but I’m not expecting—”
“Your name and address are on here. That’s what I go by,” he countered, and waited for her to sign.
She signed his form, accepted the box and went to get him a tip. When he had left, she stared at the box, then recognized the name of the consignment shop in discreet gold letters in the lower corner.
“What on earth?” she murmured, pulling off the lid, then unfolding layers of tissue paper. Her eyes widened when she saw the bronze dress nestled inside, along with a note.
Clutching the dress, she ripped open the note.
“I figured you’d be suffering pangs of regret about now and, if you aren’t, you should be,” Carly had written. “Enjoy.”
“I’m going to fire her,” Brianna muttered, even as she raced back to her room and changed into the killer dress. She sighed as she twirled in front of her mirror. “Then again, anyone who dares to defy the boss when she’s wrong ought to get a raise.” She took another excited survey of her image. “A really big raise.”
The charity ball turned out to be a masterstroke, Jeb concluded as he held Brianna in his arms and whirled her around the dance floor. She was concentrating so hard on looking for her ex-boss, she was paying little attention to the questions Jeb was asking. Her responses, for once, were uncensored, if not particularly illuminating.
Unfortunately, he was having an equally difficult time concentrating. He had been ever since he’d arrived on her doorstep and caught his first glimpse of her in a dress that even Cinderella would have envied. His mouth had gone dry, and he’d been having difficulty swallowing ever since. Why had he never suspected that the beautiful Brianna was capable of bringing a man’s heart slamming to a halt? Because of his taunt, he’d fully expected her to be covered from head to toe in black, something discreet, something that wouldn’t have every male head in the room swiveling for another, longer look. Unless he was very careful, he was going to forget what this evening was all about.
In fact, he’d been so dumbstruck when she opened her door that he hadn’t even taken note of what little he could see of the interior of her small townhouse. His surprise at the modest community in which she lived had vanished in a sea of purely masculine appreciation.
Now he caught the speculative glances of some of his oldest and dearest bachelor friends and tightened his grip on Brianna possessively. This reaction was a very bad sign, he noted, forcing himself to take a step back and look Brianna directly in the eyes. Another mistake, he realized, when his throat went dry again.
“Having fun?” he managed to ask finally.
“I didn’t come to have fun,” she murmured, avoiding his gaze.
“What the heck,” he countered. “Have some anyway. It’s free.”
Her gaze swept the room again. “Where is Max Coleman? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”
“There are a thousand people crushed into this ballroom. I’m sure he’s here somewhere. If we keep dancing, we’re bound to bump into him.”
Brianna regarded him suspiciously. “He is going to be here, though, right? You’re sure of it.”
“That’s what I was told. Maybe we should take a break, get some champagne and you can tell me why he fired you.”
Even as she studied the crowd, she waved off his inquiry. “I’m sure you’ve seen the personnel records. It’s no big secret,” she said dismissively.
Actually Jeb had read the personnel file. It was almost as vague as Brianna herself was being now. “It wasn’t working out. I believe that’s what the file states. Was that it?”
She shrugged. “That about sums it up.”
“Max Coleman doesn’t strike me as a man prone to whims.”
For a fleeting moment her attention returned to him. “You’d have to ask him about that. One day I was working there, the next day, I wasn’t.”
“If your firing was that capricious, why didn’t you sue him?”
“Not my nature,” she said. “All I cared about was getting another job.” Her attention drifted yet again.
Jeb struggled to accept her response. It was so deliberately disingenuous, he almost wondered if Max hadn’t staged the firing just so she could be hired by his competitor, making her a well-placed spy for her old boss. So far, though, Coleman hadn’t been involved in any of the soured deals.
