happened at the Christmas party. But HR frowned upon personal relationships in the workplace, and her heart was hammering against her ribs as she perched on the edge of the chair facing his desk.
The CFO looked uncharacteristically burdened and weary. She could practically feel the knots forming in her belly—twisting and tightening—as it occurred to her that she might very well be on the verge of losing her job because she’d had too much to drink and had foolishly and impulsively let herself get caught under the mistletoe by her boss’s heir apparent.
“You’re no doubt aware that Nathan has been chosen to take over as CFO when I retire,” John continued.
She exhaled slowly, reassured by his opening that whatever this was about, it wasn’t about the kiss. (The brief exchange with Melanie in the staff room had succeeded in relegating the event to lowercase status.) Her relief was so profound, it took several seconds longer than it should have for the rest of his statement to sink in.
Retirement? Why was he mentioning it now?
“But that’s not until June,” she noted. And only then if he didn’t decide to postpone it again, as he’d done twice already.
“Actually, I’m going to be finished here as of the end of January.”
“What? Why?”
“I had a little bit of a health scare over the holidays,” he admitted.
She was instantly and sincerely concerned. John Garrett might be her boss, but over the six years that they’d worked together, he’d also become a friend and something of a father figure to her. “What happened? Why didn’t anyone call me?”
“It was just a minor blip with my heart—nothing too serious.”
The fact that he was sitting behind his desk and not in a hospital bed confirmed that it wasn’t too serious, but she knew him well enough to suspect that he was downplaying the “minor” part.
But what did this mean for her? Would she be let go? Was John telling her now as a way of giving her notice that she would be out of a job at the end of the month?
“Nathan’s worked hard for the company for a lot of years,” he continued. “He’s not getting this promotion just because his name is Garrett but because he’s earned it.”
She nodded, her heart sinking as she considered the repercussions of his announcement. She was confident that she could find another job; she knew John would give her a glowing recommendation. But she wasn’t nearly as confident that she would find another job with the comprehensive health-care benefits she needed for the ongoing treatment of her son’s asthma.
“That being said, I wanted to be certain that you don’t have any concerns about working with him.”
“Working with him?” she echoed.
“Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, of course not,” she hastily assured him, because she wouldn’t let it be a problem. Because he was offering her the chance to keep her job—and her benefits—and she would make it work.
As for the mind-numbing, bone-melting kiss she’d shared with her soon-to-be boss...what kiss?
“I just assumed he’d want to choose his own executive assistant,” she said, still not entirely sure Nathan wouldn’t do exactly that.
“We’ve already discussed it,” John said. “He wants you.”
She knew he only meant that his nephew wanted her to work for him, but that knowledge didn’t prevent her cheeks from flushing in response to his words.
“Now that that’s settled, I need you to book a flight to St. Louis for next Thursday,” he told her. “There are some minor discrepancies in their numbers that need to be looked at.”
Which could probably be done via email, but John had always preferred a hands-on approach.
“Considering the ‘minor blip’ with your heart, I’m surprised your doctors have given you the okay to fly.”
“They haven’t,” he admitted. “So you’ll be going with Nathan.”
Allison had to bite her tongue to hold back her instinctive protest as she rose from her chair. It wasn’t unusual for John to request that she accompany him on his business trips, but going anywhere with the man who’d kissed her more thoroughly than anyone else in recent memory—maybe ever—filled her with apprehension.
Thankfully, St. Louis was only a two-hour flight from Raleigh, which meant that the trip would be completed in one day. It would be a long day—with a departure at 8:35 a.m. and a return fourteen hours later—but only one day. The trips that the CFO made to review the books of the Gallery stores—more upscale showrooms that carried exclusive, higher-end inventory—located in Austin, Denver, San Francisco, Saint Paul, New York, Philadelphia and Miami, required more time and attention, sometimes necessitating a two or three-night stay.
As Allison returned to her desk, she could only hope that Nathan would decide he didn’t need his executive assistant to accompany him on those, because she didn’t trust herself to spend that much time in close proximity to the man. Sex had never been casual to her. Even when she was in college, she’d never hooked up with a guy just for a good time. And she’d tried to steer clear of the guys who were reputed to sleep with different girls every weekend. No doubt, Nathan Garrett had been one of those guys.
She’d heard rumors of his extracurricular activities, and while the whispered details might vary, the overall consensus was that the current VP of Finance definitely knew how to pleasure a woman.
Which was definitely not something she should be thinking about right now—especially when the man himself was standing in front of her desk.
He was the only man she’d ever met who managed to make her feel all weak-kneed and tongue-tied in his presence. She hadn’t worked at Garrett Furniture long before she’d recognized that the family had won some kind of genetic sweepstakes. The three brothers who ran the company were of her parents’ generation but still undeniably handsome, and all of their children—most of whom were employed at the company in one capacity or another—were unbelievably attractive.
It had been an impartial observation—nothing more. She’d been too busy trying to settle into her new job, put her life back together and be a good mother to her toddler son to be attracted to anyone. And then, in her second year of employment in John Garrett’s office, his nephew Nathan moved back to Charisma.
By then, Allison’s wounded heart had healed and her long-dormant hormones were ready to be awakened again. And they had jolted to full awareness when Nathan walked into the office and found her struggling to fix a paper jam in the photocopier.
He’d come over to help, and just his proximity was enough to make her skin prickle. When he’d reached around her, his chest had bumped her shoulder, and the incidental contact had made her nipples tingle and tighten. He’d dislodged the paper, she’d stammered out a breathless “thank you” and then he’d gone in to see his uncle.
Four years later, she still wasn’t immune to him. She’d learned to hold her own in conversations with him, but she hadn’t learned to control her body’s involuntary response to his nearness. Even now,
