Jessica Hart - Assignment - Baby

What was she doing in bed with Gabriel? What was she doing kissing her boss?

She hadn’t actually kissed him, Tess told herself, grasping desperately at any straw that might somehow make the situation less than excruciatingly, appallingly, embarrassing.

“I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what happened there,” Gabriel said with effort.

“I don’t know either,” she said huskily. “One minute I was dreaming, and the next…” She trailed off as the memory flamed between them.

“I’d forgotten about what happened last night,” Gabriel went on.

Clutching the duvet to her chest, Tess eyed him uneasily. “What did happen?” she asked.

“You invited me to share the bed.”

From boardroom…to bride and groom!

A secret romance, a forbidden affair, a thrilling attraction?

Working side by side, nine to five—and beyond…. No matter how hard these couples try to keep their relationships strictly professional, romance is definitely on the agenda!

But will a date in the office diary lead to an appointment at the altar?

Find out in this exciting new miniseries from Harlequin Romance®.

Readers are invited to visit Jessica Hart’s Web site at www.jessicahart.co.uk

His Secretary’s Secret (#3698)

by Barbara McMahon

Readers are invited to visit Jessica Hart’s

Web site at www.jessicahart.co.uk

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Fresh from her success in last Friday’s award ceremony, Britain’s favourite redhead, TV presenter Fionnula Jenkins, arrives at London’s hottest restaurant, Cupiditas, with Gabriel Stearne, founder of US construction giant Contraxa (above). The couple met in New York, where Fionnula attended a charity ball sponsored by Contraxa. Entrepreneur Gabriel’s activities are more usually reported in the financial pages, but since arriving in London he has been seen out several times with Fionnula, who refused to confirm speculation that he had moved to England to be with her. ‘We just enjoy each other’s company,’ she said.

TESS had barely finished reading the caption when the door to the inner office opened, and she shoved the paper hurriedly out of sight in the wastepaper bin beneath her desk.

By the time Gabriel appeared, shrugging himself into an overcoat, she was innocently absorbed in typing up the letters he had dictated earlier.

‘I’m going to a meeting with our insurers,’ he said, brusquely buttoning his coat. ‘Have those letters ready by the time I get back. I want a copy of the design report and the architects’ files on my desk. All of them. In date order.’

‘Yes, Mr Stearne,’ said Tess.

Her voice was cool, with just a hint of a Scottish accent. Gabriel eyed her sardonically. She was watching him over the spectacles she wore when she was working, pen poised to note his instructions, the very model of a perfect PA.

In the four weeks she had worked for him he had learned only three things about Tess Gordon. She was exceptionally efficient. She was always immaculately groomed.

And she didn’t like him one little bit.

Too bad, thought Gabriel indifferently. He wasn’t here to be liked. He was here to drag this company into the twenty-first century and give himself the toe-hold he needed into Europe, and worrying about what the icy Ms Gordon thought about him was very low down his priority list.

‘When you’ve done that, you can send an e-mail reminding all staff that the phones are not for their personal use,’ he went on in a hard voice. ‘That goes for e-mail as well. A monitoring system is going to be introduced shortly, so they’d better start getting used to it now.’

An order like that would no doubt cause a furore, but Tess didn’t react. She just made a note on her pad and kept her inevitable reflections to herself.

‘Any messages?’ Gabriel asked curtly.

‘Your brother rang. He asked if you could ring him back.’

Gabriel grunted, and privately Tess marvelled that he could be related to the irreverent American with the voice like warm treacle who had rung while his brother was closeted in his office. ‘No calls,’ Gabriel had said, and after a month Tess knew better than to try and interrupt him, no matter how important the caller might be.

Greg, as he had introduced himself, was evidently an incorrigible flirt. Tess, braced to dislike anyone even remotely associated with Gabriel, had found him charming. He had been warm, funny, sympathetic…everything his brother was not!

Unaware—or, more likely, uncaring—of the unflattering comparisons she had drawn, Gabriel was checking that he had all the relevant papers for his meeting in his attaché case. ‘Anything else?’

‘No,’ said Tess, but she hesitated and Gabriel looked up from the case. He had very light, very keen grey eyes that were a startling contrast to his strong, black brows, and she still hadn’t got used to the way they seemed to look right through her.

‘What?’ he demanded.

‘I wondered what time you would be back, that was all.’

‘About six-thirty. Why?’

‘I was hoping to have a word with you.’ Tess’s calm expression gave no hint of her inner trepidation.

Gabriel frowned. ‘What about?’

Nobody could ever accuse him of beating about the bush, thought Tess with an inward sigh. She had to ask him for a rise, but it wasn’t the kind of thing you could blurt out just like that.

‘I’d rather explain when you’re in less of a hurry,’ she said.

‘Can’t it wait until tomorrow?’

‘We’ll be busy putting the Emery bid together tomorrow,’ Tess pointed out. And then it would be the weekend, which would mean two more days to worry about Andrew. She set her teeth. It went against the grain to beg, but she had to try. ‘If you could spare me five minutes when you get back, I would appreciate it.’

Gabriel looked at her. She had one of those faces that made it almost impossible to tell what she was thinking. It wasn’t that she was unattractive. She had a fine-boned face with clear skin and beautiful eyebrows, and her hair, always pulled neatly back, was an unusual golden-brown colour. She might even be pretty, he thought dispassionately—if she ever lightened up and got rid of that snooty expression of hers.

It occurred to him suddenly that she might be going to hand in her notice, and his black brows drew together. He didn’t have the time to find a new PA with this crucial contract coming up. He had inherited Tess when he’d taken over SpaceWorks, and her knowledge of the company was invaluable. He couldn’t afford to lose her just yet. It was worth putting up with the frosty atmosphere until he got things under control.