cheeks lost a little colour, but her face closed mutinously. ‘Nothing I want to reprise. What’s on the agenda today?’ she hurriedly asked.
It took a huge dose of the willpower he was renowned for to step back from demanding answers from her. Even then, he needed a minute before he tracked properly.
‘Since we’re biding our time till our next call with the Ishikawa brothers, I’d like your help on another matter. Are you free this evening to accompany me to a client dinner?’
She blinked. ‘Uh...yes.’
‘Good. Reservations are for seven. Feel free to leave early today if you need to. I’ll pick you up from your apartment just before seven.’
‘Okay. Will the purpose of the dinner be damage limitation or image enhancement?’
‘A little bit of both. I’m meeting a client and his wife for dinner. She’s taken to overt displays of affection whenever I’m in her company. He’s chosen to encourage it in the hope that I’ll do business with him. My patience is wearing thin but I’d like to put a stop to both without jeopardising our business relationship. You think you can handle that?’
Her relief at the changed subject turned to shock, but she rallied after a few seconds. ‘Sure. Of course.’
Alejandro nodded briskly, despite his continued mental state of flux. He needed to emulate her, and regroup quickly. Gael’s imminent arrival should be what commanded his entire focus, not the banked anguish still shadowing Elise’s eyes.
Heading for his desk, he provided her with the client names and watched her walk away. The suit she wore today was feminine and stylish. Beneath the edge of her jacket, the trousers cradled her pert backside and emphasised her curvy hips. When she shed the jacket upon reaching her desk, he caught a glimpse of her trim waist and the full swell of her breasts.
A sound, rough and unwelcome, punched up from his throat.
She started to look his way.
He dragged his gaze away and focused on the pile of work on his desk. She was off limits. And even outside the scope of their professional relationship were he to consider her for an affair, he would still reject the idea.
Because Elise Jameson exhibited signs he’d hitherto not encountered in a woman before—she had the potential to get under his skin.
He reminded himself of that fact as his chauffeured limo pulled up to her apartment building that evening, an irritably large proportion of him anticipating her presence.
Her smile...
He shook himself free of the low sizzle in his stomach and stepped out. Seeing the unlatched main doors, a different type of irritation surged. He pressed her buzzer none too gently.
‘I’ll be right down.’
Since he wasn’t sure whether the lift functioned with any efficiency tonight, he kept his attention between it and the stairs, flatly refusing to acknowledge the rising thrum in his blood.
Heels on the stairs alerted him to her mode of descent. She arrived at the top of the last flight of stairs and his heart rate increased.
She wasn’t smiling.
In fact she appeared distinctly nervous.
Yet, she was captivatingly breathtaking.
Her chocolate-brown hair was swept to one side of her face and pinned at the back in a loose style that left several tresses falling free to caress her neck. Her knee-length dress, made of dark green material, skimmed her hips but hugged her breasts and left her shoulders bare. A simple necklace drew attention to her slim neck. In one hand she held a wrap and purse, her other hand clinging to the rail as she came down. He wasn’t aware he’d moved until she paused on the stairs. Her gaze met his as she slid her hand into the one he held out.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured.
‘De nada. Breaking your neck before the first course is served would be extremely bad form.’
A hint of a smile appeared. ‘Wow. Two jokes in one day. Do we need to notify record keepers in some obscure office?’
He found his mouth curving. ‘Best not. We wouldn’t want to incite any unnatural disasters.’
A full-blown smile appeared. Something vibrated in the region of his chest. Keeping her hand in his, he led her to his car, choosing not to mention the state of her lobby security. Or lack thereof.
And if a part of him suddenly wished their dinner involved two less people, he brushed it away under the guise of it being a temporary aberration.
* * *
They arrived at Millennia, one of Chicago’s most lauded restaurants, ahead of Jeff and Mindy Stoneley, for which Elise was just a tiny bit grateful. It gave her a chance to gather herself. To deliver a much-needed pep talk that involved not getting carried away with what was happening tonight.
This wasn’t a date.
It was business.
She was doing work for which she was being paid.
PR work held many facets. Fact. When she was a newly employed member of Jameson, her parents had inundated her at all hours with absurd requests before she’d finally put her foot down.
‘You’re frowning. Is the venue not to your liking?’
‘What? Oh, no. It’s not that. This is great!’ She noted the gushiness in her voice and dialled it down. ‘I’m sure your clients will appreciate it.’
Alejandro’s narrow-eyed speculation didn’t abate. ‘But something disturbed you just then.’
She tried to wave it away. ‘I was just remembering some of the things I had to do when I started working at Jameson.’
‘Are you referring to the incident you didn’t wish to speak of before?’ he asked, still narrow-eyed.
Her heart missed a beat, the thought that she’d nearly spilled her guts to Alejandro earlier today stabbing discomfort through her. Determinedly, she pushed it away. ‘No. I meant something else,’ she murmured, fervently hoping he’d let the matter drop.
‘Something that doesn’t compare favourably to this?’
‘Are you kidding? Dining in a Michelin-starred restaurant beats getting up at two a.m. to go rescue a client’s dog from the airport because our paparazzi-fleeing client had left it behind.’
He frowned. ‘You’re serious.’
‘As frostbite.’
‘Isn’t that more of a minder’s job?’
She shrugged. ‘It is. I found out later.’
‘How?’ he asked.
Her mood dimmed further at the recollection. ‘My parents were trying to teach me a lesson.’
‘A
