asking a lot of you, but I’ll change your title and compensate you accordingly.”
“Shouldn’t Hartley be the one to fill this role?” She had never quite understood why he disappeared.
Jonathan’s expression turned glacial. “My brother is gone and he’s not coming back. It’s not something I can discuss with you.”
“But surely your other family members need to know. You can’t keep this a secret, Jonathan.”
“I realize that.” His fists were clenched on the arms of the chair. “But I have to find the right time. I’ll wait as long as I can.”
She wanted to argue with him. For everyone’s sake. But once Jonathan Tarleton made up his mind, you’d have better luck moving a giant boulder than changing his decision.
The enormity of what he had told her began to sink in. Her heart was raw and broken. She loved him. That’s why she had planned to leave. How could she stay with him day after day and witness the unthinkable? It would destroy her. But how could she say no when he needed her?
“I’d like to think about it overnight,” she said. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable trying to insert myself into company politics. There are a lot of people who won’t take kindly to this setup.”
“I’m the boss. What I say goes.”
“But what about the board of directors? And your father, Gerald? And what happens when you become too ill to work?”
Her throat tightened with tears, tears she couldn’t shed. He thought she was an impartial bystander. How much more wrong could he be?
“I need to walk,” she said.
“Okay.” Jonathan stood as well, shrugging out of his sport coat and rolling up the sleeves of his crisp cotton dress shirt.
They took off their shoes and headed down the beach. Jonathan matched his long stride to her shorter one, because he topped her by six inches. His chestnut hair was burnished by the setting sun. The dark brown eyes, which could be fierce or good-humored, were hidden behind sunglasses.
His arms were deeply tanned, his hands masculine.
He was a beautiful human being. It was almost impossible to imagine that vitality and charisma being snuffed out.
At last, after half an hour passed, the tension dissipated and re-formed into something else. Awareness.
At least on her part. Being with him like this was a physical pain. When had she first realized he was the one? Long before she became his assistant. The fact that he was completely out of her orbit had kept her crush in check. But working together day after day had turned her fluttery feelings into something far deeper and more real.
She not only loved him, she admired and respected him. In a world where men in power sometimes abused their positions, Jonathan Tarleton had never treated his employees, female or male, with careless disregard.
If he had any faults at all, and he surely did, the most visible was his careful aloofness. He kept to himself, never blurring the lines between his authority and those who worked for him.
That fact made today’s revelations all the more stunning.
They were walking shoulder to shoulder, so close she could have reached out and touched his hand. The beach was almost deserted now, the daylight fading rapidly as the sun kissed the water at the horizon.
Taking a deep breath, she halted and waited for him to follow suit.
He turned when he realized she had dropped back. “Time to go home?” he asked lightly.
“I’ll do it,” she said recklessly. “I’ll do what you asked.”
“I thought you needed to think it over.”
She shook her head. “You and your family have been very good to me. It’s only right that I should return the favor.”
Jonathan removed his sunglasses and tucked them into his shirt pocket. “We sent flowers and gave you time off when your mother passed.” He frowned. “It’s not the same thing at all. What I’m asking you to do is nebulous and tricky and burdensome.”
Burdensome. The word made her want to laugh, but not in a good way. Walking beside Jonathan for the next weeks and months would tax her emotional strength and her acting ability.
“I’m honored,” she said slowly, trying not to give her secrets away. “I care about you, Jonathan. You’re facing some very dark days. So, yes, I’ll help you any way I can.”
She saw his chest rise and fall. Had he been so uncertain that she would agree to his proposal?
His throat rippled as he swallowed. His gaze held a bleak acknowledgment of what he faced. “Thank you.”
The two words were little more than a croak.
Tears stung her eyes. Without overthinking it, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. Then she wrapped her arms around his stiff body in a brief hug. “I’m so very sorry,” she said.
He might as well have been a statue. “I have rules,” he said gruffly.
“Oh?” She shoved the hair from her face. Standing with the wind at her back made her feel disheveled.
“I won’t be coddled.” He snapped the words. “And I don’t want your pity. Understood?”
She recoiled inwardly, but she kept her expression calm. “I can live with that. But when I see that you need help, I’ll give it. So that’s my rule, I suppose. I won’t stand by and let you suffer if I can do anything about it.”
He blinked. Apparently the kiss and the hug hadn’t shocked him as much as her talking back to him with belligerence in her voice.
A tiny smile tilted the corners of his mouth. “I’ve spent most of the day thinking I’d never have anything to laugh about again. You just proved me wrong. Have I had a lioness in my midst disguised as a kitty cat all this time?”
Her face heated. “Things are about to change between us,” she said quietly. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against her cheek, barely a touch at all. “I am. I do.”
Something made her legs go all wonky. For a moment, she thought she might faint. If that was how a kiss from Jonathan affected her when he was being amused and affectionate, God help her if she ever experienced the real thing. She tried to suck in more air. “Okay then.”
Jonathan looped his arm through hers and turned them around. “It’s late,” he said. “We need to get you home.”
She would have slept in her car on the street if it had meant not ending this extraordinary interlude. His skin was warm against hers. She wanted to lean her head against his shoulder, but of course, she did not.
Something had happened here on this beach. The tides in her relationship with her boss had shifted to something far more real, more intimate. Unfortunately,
