Marie Harte: Bending the Rules

Determined to get a yes out of the woman, he angled the conversation back toward her. Pleased when he learned she had to go to the gala as well, he ended the meeting, then went in search of the urban planner’s office. Time to put the Samson charm to good use.

Nat sighed when she saw the fifty emails she’d gotten while she’d been handling Mike’s slack. She hated inefficiency with a passion. Why couldn’t everyone work as hard as she did? She got things done, on time every time. But at the rate she had to save everyone else’s ass, she worried she’d grow an ulcer.

Plunging back into her day, she made phone calls, worked on Derrick Warren’s laughable changes to the budget on the new convention center, wrote a note to call Harper to deal with it—thank God at least her assistant knew how to make things happen—and darted back and forth between emails and her current project.

She pointed in the direction of the knock on her door. “Yes?”

“Well aren’t you sweet.” That deep, husky Southern drawl had the effect it no doubt intended.

Nat tensed, stopped working and looked up at the model Southern boy she’d done her best to ignore earlier. Talk about the Monday from hell.

No man should have a face that handsome, eyes that rich a brown, or hair so dark it looked blue-black in a cut that probably cost as much as one of her car payments. She’d seen him and Ty Burnell hanging out in the mayor’s office earlier, chatting with each other. Though she didn’t know Ty personally, she liked what she’d heard about him. The man had money coming out the wazzoo but didn’t act like it. Unlike Mayor Tom Jessup—one of the good ol’ boys who looked on most women as ornaments to fuck or impress.

She pitied that man’s wife. And his son, because if Josh Jessup thought he could handle her job, he had another thing coming—namely, her foot up his ass.

She sighed. “What can I do for you, Mr.…?”

The man took her question as an invitation and closed her door behind him, then sat across from her desk. He wore a charcoal suit with a white shirt and snazzy blue tie. The guy looked like a million bucks, and that wasn’t counting the outfit. Where did they make men like this, anyway?

“Rex Samson, at your service.” He nodded, then winked. “And you’re Natalie Wielder.”

“Thanks for filling me in.” Her natural sarcasm never seemed to turn itself off. A testament to her acumen in her job that she’d never been fired for it.

Rex laughed, a deep chuckle that invited her to join in with the merriment. God, this guy was too much for her to handle on a good day. Certainly not at ten o’clock on a Monday morning before she’d had a cup of coffee.

“You’re a real smartass. No wonder I’m in love.” He patted his heart, and her own took a dive.

“Is there something I can help you with, handsome?” There. I admitted it. Now go away. I’m busy. Too busy to wander down the wrong path. Again.

He grinned.

Yes. Very, very busy. Rex seemed way too chummy with the mayor for comfort. A potential adversary, at the least.

“I’ll bet there’s a lot you could help me with, sugar.” No ignoring that innuendo. “But I actually came in here for a reason.” He stared around her office, then brought his deep brown-eyed gaze back to her.

“O-kay. The reason?”

“I need a date.”

“Try a dating service.”

“Next week. The Savannah River Club. Lots of networking to be done, and I need someone savvy about city politics who’ll look good on my arm.” He smiled at her.

“And?”

“And that’s you, sugar.”

“Okay. First of all, my name is Natalie, not ‘sugar’. You can call me Natalie or Ms. Wielder.”

“Not Nat?”

“Nat is a name I reserve for my friends. Since I don’t know you, I can’t exactly call you a friend, can I?”

His slow smile turned her on, and for that reason, she hardened her resolve.

“In addition, I don’t know why you’d want me when there are dozens of well-connected people out there who’d love to be called ‘sugar’ and hang off your arm. Sorry, I’m busy. As in, I work for a living.”

“Ouch. You have teeth.” His smile faded as he looked her over a bit too thoroughly for her system to handle. His sly grin told her he no doubt noticed her nipples rising through her thin blouse. “But I like ’em feisty. So, I’ll pick you up at six next Thursday?”

“I’m pretty sure I just said no.”

“But sugar, I work for a living too. And the mayor said you’d be happy to escort me. I’ve been so busy with business that my social calendar is all but empty. Consider this a favor for your boss. You get to keep an eye on me and get him off your pretty little ass. A win-win.”

She blinked. “He’s not on my ass.”

“But he’d like to be. I think we both know what kind of man Tom Jessup is.”

She hadn’t expected Rex to be so honest about the mayor. “Oh?”

He snorted. “Everyone knows he’s a womanizing dickhead with a history in this town. Got elected because folks loved his daddy, and his momma makes a killer red velvet cake.”

Nat grinned. “Eileen does at that.”

“You have to go to this thing anyway. I know. So you might as well go with me.” He paused. “Unless you’re married or have a boyfriend I don’t know about?”

“You know nothing about me.”

He smiled, like a cat who’d just consumed, feather by feather, a canary. “I know you have to go to next week’s gala. I know you don’t have a significant other, or you’d have said by now.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend. But you didn’t ask if I had a girlfriend.”

“Do you?” He looked intrigued by the idea.

She sighed. “No.”

“Too bad.”

She’d been asked out before, but never by a posh Southern charmer in her office. How surreal. “Is this a joke?”

“Nope.” He stood and stared down at her. “I need a date. I like you. So I’ll pick you up?”

“Hold on.” She stood as well, frowning. “I don’t know the first thing about you. And I—”

He shocked her by leaning over her desk and putting a finger over her lips. “Hush, sugar. You can look me up online. I run S&F. You know, the best microbrewery in the South? Anyhow, I have people who can vouch for me. And I have something you want.”

When he didn’t take his finger away, she pretended to nip it. To her bemusement, his eyes darkened in what looked like lust as he pulled his hand back.

“Oh, a biter. I knew it.”

Her face burned. “Look, Rex. This is just weird. You’re asking me out. On a Monday. In my office.” He stood staring at her, and against her better judgment, she asked, “So just what exactly do you have that you think I’ll want?”

“How about all the juicy gossip I’ve got on some of the heavy hitters in town? Including our esteemed mayor.”

“Really?”

“Yep. I’ve got dirt on a lot of people. Anything you want to know, it’s yours.”

“And for this, all I have to do is show up with you?”

“Well, you’ll have to smile while we dance, too. Think you can do that?”

“Only that,” she warned. “You’re not buying anything else. Got it?”

“Sure thing, sugar. But let me tell you something.” He leaned closer and whispered, “I don’t need to buy it. Ever.”

“I believe you. And you know what? Neither do I.”

Satisfaction curled his lips. “Yeah, I like you just fine, Ms. Wielder. All that mean wrapped up in a sexy-as-hell package. Hmm. We’re gonna have fun next week.”

“One date. I don’t do office relationships, and I’m sorry, but your connection to the mayor puts you in the do-not-date category, regardless of what secrets you might have. So—”