colour in her cheeks—
Suficiente!
He redirected his attention to Michaels, who was holding out a folder. ‘I brought Elise’s contract down for you to countersign—’
‘Leave it with Margo.’ He glanced pointedly at Elise.
She took a few steps forward, then paused. Looking over her shoulder, she let loose a smaller smile. ‘Thanks, Oliver. See you around.’
Michaels jerked out a nervous nod.
Alejandro waited until she stepped into his office, and slammed the door. ‘See you around?’ he repeated.
She stiffened. ‘What?’
‘I didn’t stammer.’
‘No, you didn’t.’ She sighed. ‘You’re clearly having a bad day. I get that. But do you really need to drag everyone down just because you’re in a mood?’
‘Excuse me?’ Alejandro bristled.
‘On second thought, don’t answer that. I’m here. I’m ready to work.’ She walked away from him, taking the subtle scent of her perfume with her. After retrieving her briefcase, she stopped in the middle of the room. ‘Margo said you haven’t assigned a desk for me to use yet?’
‘No,’ he answered shortly, his mind still fixed on the fact that she hadn’t answered his question to his satisfaction.
‘Is there one I can use?’ she pressed.
He inhaled deeply, dismissing the smile, the exchange. Everything that had happened in the last few hours.
Going to his desk, he grabbed the substantial file that was always within reach. ‘Come with me.’
He led her to a side door across the room from where she’d done her work that morning. Throwing it open, he walked to the desk directly opposite from the door. Unlike his office, it was sparsely furnished, the only thing besides the desk and chair was a floor lamp set against the single glass wall. He set the file down.
‘You’ll work in here. I use this office when I don’t want to be disturbed. Margo is excellent at keeping physical intrusions away when I need it, but even I can’t resist checking my emails when I’m in the middle of a deal.’
Her smile was tight and false. Alejandro willed himself not to wish for the genuine one he’d caught a brief glimpse of. ‘It’ll do great, thanks.’ She pulled the file towards her. ‘Anything in particular you want me to watch out for?’
Alejandro shrugged. ‘Read up on the merger. I have a conference call with the Ishikawa brothers tomorrow. You’ll sit in on it with me. You wanted to be my extra pair of eyes. My Japanese is adequate but not expert. You can be my eyes and ears.’
‘Okay.’
She dropped her case on the desk and removed her jacket. The second button of her blouse had come undone. Alejandro shoved his hands into his pockets, irritatingly caught between the need to point it out or ogle the creamy silkiness of her skin.
Several seconds passed.
Elise sat down, opened the file and glanced up. ‘Was there something else, Mr Aguilar?’
‘Leave the door open. There’s no phone or intercom in here. It’ll save you having to get up and come to me if you have any questions.’
Her gaze flicked past him to his office. Her eyes widened a touch.
‘Yes, I can see you from my desk,’ he confirmed.
A whisper of a smile touched her lips. ‘I’ll resist the urge to chew on my nails or burp loudly, then.’
‘That would be very considerate of you, gracias.’
Her eyes widened further and Alejandro suppressed a rare smile. He’d lived so long in the States that most people forgot he was of Spanish origin. And more than one past conquest had been enthralled by his occasional lapses into his mother tongue.
‘I...I didn’t actually mean that, Mr Aguilar. That was just a—’
‘Joke? It may not seem that way to you, but I do know what those are. I’ve occasionally been known to make one or two of them myself.’
One shapely eyebrow lifted. ‘But not recently?’
The reminder of why this deal was going sour darkened his mood. ‘No, Elise. Not recently.’
‘Okay. How’s the headache?’ she asked, then her forehead twitched, as if she hadn’t meant to blurt out the question. Alejandro felt an odd sense of kinship as his own unnerving need for something that had no place in this office threatened to return.
‘No longer an issue. Perhaps we can work towards keeping it that way by getting this merger back on track?’ he said brusquely.
‘Umm...sure,’ she murmured, still looking mildly puzzled.
Alejandro returned to his desk, satisfied that control had been established. Not that it’d been too far from his grasp. Granted, this morning’s revelations had unsettled him.
But he’d never shied away from a challenge. He wasn’t about to start now.
ELISE RESISTED THE URGE to glance into the outer office. She’d already done that far too many times. Thankfully, not once had Alejandro looked her way. His focus on his work was absolute enough to induce envy. He’d taken a few phone calls, one of which he’d conducted at the far end of his office in front of the bank of floor-to-ceiling windows.
For one absurd second, Elise had wondered whether the low murmured conversation involved a lover. She’d jumped away from the thought as if physically scalded. It was beyond none of her business, and straying into dangerous territory she knew better than to approach.
Refocusing on her work between those times hadn’t been a hardship. The intricacies of the merger were staggering and fascinating. But more importantly, the deal Alejandro was chasing would create thousands of jobs. Granted, the merger would also elevate him to top five on the World’s Richest list, but he would be helping thousands along the way.
The other thing she’d noted was the mind-bending scale of philanthropy attached to each year’s estimated earnings. For each year Alejandro achieved the target he’d set his company, he planned to donate a share of the company’s profit to humanitarian projects.
Elise frowned as she finished the charities section. Nothing she’d read so far should make the Ishikawa Corporation want to do anything other than bite Alejandro’s hand off in their haste to secure the merger. If nothing else, they stood to become instant billionaires.
‘You’re frowning.’
She stumbled to a halt, realising she’d entered his office. He was bathed in the mid-afternoon sun, the contrast of olive skin against the rolled-up sleeves of his black shirt striking
