watched as her eyes widened. He’d thought the mention of a bonus would get her attention.
Attend social functions with him! Jessie tasted the words and found them very seductive. But dangerous. She was already far too aware of him. But that didn’t really matter, she assured herself. What mattered was that her feelings were not reciprocated by Max. She’d seen pictures of the women he’d dated, and the only thing she had in common with them was her sex. And as for his desire to have children…
Regret shivered through her. There was no way she could ever risk having children. Not only was there the huge problem of her family’s propensity for addictive behavior, but she’d probably make a ghastly mother. She might like kids in the abstract, but she had no clue about how one went about parenting them. Her own alcoholic mother certainly hadn’t been a role model she could emulate.
Nevertheless, she was a sharp, competent businesswoman who could see a great opportunity staring her in the face.
Not only that, but accompanying Max to social events would put her in a position to make some valuable business contacts, because Max would do his socializing with other wealthy, influential businessmen. No matter how she looked at it, Max’s proposition was a winner.
“Very well,” she said. “I’ll do it. Do you have a timetable?” Jessie asked.
“A timetable?”
“For implementing your plan? I imagine that you’re pretty busy doing whatever it is you do.”
“It’s called making money,” he said dryly. “I intend to delegate a lot more of my work over the next several months, while I concentrate on finding a wife. By the way, how did you get into the business of giving etiquette seminars?”
“By accident. In college I had a job at a small African embassy. I was the general gofer. During the four years I worked there, I learned a lot about formal etiquette and entertaining. When I graduated with a degree in elementary education, I couldn’t get a job. So I signed up for substitute teaching and started giving seminars on etiquette to pay the bills. Somehow the business just grew, and I found I liked the freedom of running my own company more than I liked being tied to some bureaucrat’s idea of what I should be teaching.”
“Serendipity. Some of my most fortunate acquisitions have come about that way,” he said. “As for a timetable, I’d like to start as soon as possible.”
Why the sudden hurry when, from all accounts, he’d been a perfectly content bachelor for the past thirty-three years? Jessie thought better of asking him. They might be about to embark on a very odd relationship, but when you got right down to it, she worked for him, and his personal motivation was none of her business. As for starting immediately… Mentally, she reviewed her schedule. It wasn’t very full. Summers tended to be slow.
“I’m giving a workshop tonight at a local youth club on how to dress for job interviews. We could catch an early meal in a restaurant, and you could come to the workshop with me.”
“Why?” Max asked.
“Because I need to observe your behavior under a variety of different situations before I can decide where to concentrate our efforts,” Jessie said bluntly.
He grinned at her, and Jessie felt her breath catch at the intriguing sight of the dimple in his left cheek.
“You mean you need to find out which edges to polish?” he said.
“In a manner of speaking.” With an effort, Jessie hung on to her professional detachment.
“Tonight’s fine. Where do you want to eat, and what time’s your workshop?”
“The workshop starts at seven-thirty, so we’ll need to eat first, Mr. Sheridan. If we don’t, I’ll be starved by the time it’s over.”
“Call me Max.”
“Max,” Jessie obediently repeated. “Tell me—just how far are you willing to go in revamping your image?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to find the right wife,” he said flatly.
Jessie shivered slightly as his face hardened in determination. She sure wouldn’t want to get between him and what he wanted, she thought uneasily. It would be like trying to take a meaty bone away from a starving pit bull.
“The country-club set have some pretty rigid dress codes,” she warned him. “Even when they’re playing. What do you normally wear in your spare time?”
“I don’t have any spare time. If I’m awake, I’m working. This will be the first time I’ve ever cut back. But I do have some jeans and T-shirts and sweats for working out. And one golfing outfit,” he added.
“I suggest that you pay a visit to wherever you buy your suits and pick out some casual clothes.”
“I have a better idea. We’ll both pay a visit to my tailor, and you can make suggestions,” he said.
“I’m free tomorrow morning—say, ten? What about where you live? A good address is very important to a lot of people. Your future wife might be among them. Although, with as much money as you have, we could always try passing you off as eccentric.” She frowned slightly as she considered the idea. “It’s too bad you aren’t an actor.”
“An actor! Why would a sane person want to be one of the Hollywood crowd?”
“Because no one seems to hold them to the normal rules of behavior.”
“That is blatantly obvious. But forget passing me off as eccentric.”
“You’re probably right,” she said. “There’s a thin line between eccentric and just plain weird, and it’s too easy to inadvertently cross it. Where do you live?”
“I have an apartment on East Seventy-Fourth, and a town house I picked up last year, which I was told would be suitable for a family. As I recall, it has over fourteen thousand square feet.”
Jessie blinked. Fourteen thousand square feet! Just how big a family was he planning?
“Where is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
Jessie stared at him. “You bought a house, and you don’t remember where it is!”
“I never actually saw it. It was part of a package deal in a company acquisition. My business manger said it had a lot of potential.”
Jessie shuddered.
“What’s the matter?”
“Words like potential and quaint are terms to avoid when buying property.”
“You think?” he asked.
“I know. I have a friend in real estate, and I’ve listened to her write copy on occasion. Real estate ads definitely come under the heading of creative fiction.”
“I’ll get the address and the key from my lawyer, and we can stop and look it over tomorrow after we order my casual wardrobe. If you think it wouldn’t appeal to a woman,
