“Just me.” Reilly dropped it onto the accounts receivable report she’d been lost in. “You’re getting better. You didn’t jump all the way out of your skin that time.”

She had no idea why she liked that he noticed she still felt a little jumpy. She had no idea why watching him watch her made her feel a little…soft. Feminine. “I didn’t even hear you leave.”

“I know. You get pretty into your work.”

“I’m single-minded,” she agreed. “My family doesn’t think that’s a virtue.”

“There’s nothing wrong with single-mindedness when you’re in accounting. Now, maybe if you were an air traffic controller or something…”

She laughed, though emotion backed up in her throat a little when he smiled. Good Lord, he should do that more often.

“Anyway…” he said, plowing his free hand through his hair, as if it wasn’t standing straight up already. “My stomach’s growling. It’s lunchtime.”

She glanced at the wall clock. One o’clock. No wonder she felt light-headed. “So, did you take the money from petty cash? Because the boss doesn’t like it when you spend money on another employee here.”

“Consider it payback for the doughnuts.”

“I didn’t buy you the doughnuts so you’d buy me lunch,” she said, opening the bag and the heavenly scent of a steak quesadilla wafted up. “But I’m so glad you did.” She took a large bite. “Where’s yours?”

Looking amused, he watched her stuff her face, then lifted another bag and a drink-holder with two large sodas in it. “I thought we’d actually eat at a table. Like in the staff room-”

“Oh.” Embarrassed, she licked the cheese off her lips and laughed. “Right.” She stood up and grabbed the quesadilla. She followed him down the hall and into the small room designated as the staff room. There was a refrigerator, a well-stocked little pantry she suspected Cheri took care of and a small wooden table with four chairs around it.

He pulled out a chair for her, waiting for her to sit and she suddenly felt a little off-kilter. A little nervous.

They were on a lunch date. Sort of.

“What’s the matter?” he said, handing her a drink.

“It’s our first date. It feels a little weird,” she admitted. “Given that we’ve already slept together.”

“Eating at work does not constitute a date. And we didn’t exactly sleep together.” That said, he took a large bite out of his chicken soft taco.

She tried not to name the emotion that went through her at his words, but it felt an awful lot like disappointment. “So what would constitute a date?”

In the act of adding hot sauce to his taco, he paused, then said, “I don’t even know. I haven’t actually dated in a long time. Not since…”

Not since he’d been betrayed while at the CIA. He didn’t say it; he didn’t have to. She hated that he’d been hurt and was shocked at the thoughts of violence that flowed through her for the woman who’d done it. “What was her name?”

“Her real one? Or her alias? I knew her as Loralee. And we didn’t date in the traditional sense. We were always out of the country, on various missions. Dating was impossible.”

“What about before her?”

He took a bite and chewed while he thought about that. “I hate to admit this, but I can’t remember.”

“That’s just sad, Reilly.”

“Really?” he said, smiling as he took another bite. Chewed some more. Eyed her just a little knowingly. “So, what have you done in the dating department lately?”

The big zip, not that she wanted to admit it, so she busied herself pulling apart her quesadilla.

“Well?”

She met his gaze and then laughed sheepishly. “Okay, so we’re tied. We both are equally pathetic when it comes to the opposite sex.”

“Oh, no,” he said silkily and brushed off his hands. His gaze ran over her features. “I never said I was pathetic with the opposite sex.”

Her tummy quivered just a little. “I think I hear your phone ringing.”

He cocked his head. “Chicken, Tess? Now, after all we’ve done?”

“All we’ve done is kiss,” she whispered.

“More than kissed.”

“We’ve…touched.”

“Yeah. Did it feel pathetic to you?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” His voice was low, hypnotic and so sexy her entire body hummed. “Because maybe you need me to prove to you that I’m not a bungling idiot when it comes to physical matters with the opposite sex.” His eyes flamed. “That I do know what I’m doing.”

Oh boy. “I-” She broke off when his cell phone rang, grateful because she had no idea what she would have said anyway.

Reilly pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and frowned at the ID. “Eddie.”

“Maybe he’s going to give you back Marge.”

He looked at her, startled, as if the thought had left his mind and was back only because she’d reminded him. She found a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten you didn’t want me to work here.”

“You know, you’re just about the most upfront woman I’ve ever met.”

“It’s a curse. Are you going to answer the phone?”

He sighed and did just that. The irritation left his face after he said hello and listened. His mouth pulling into a frown, he stood up. “An hour ago? And you’re just now telling me?”

Tessa tried to look busy gathering their trash as she shamelessly eavesdropped.

“How did they get in?” He shut his eyes and shook his head as he listened. “I’ll be right there- No, I do think it’s necessary.”

“Is he okay?” Tessa asked as soon as he clicked off.

“Yeah. Apparently the man has nine lives.”

“What happened?”

He stopped at the door. “Someone went after him in the garage but they got away when Eddie managed to set off the alarm. I’m going over there now to check on him for myself.”

He was going to check on the man he didn’t want to be like. The man who he felt hadn’t been a good father. The man who annoyed him at every turn.

A little burst of warmth spread through her, because she just realized…Reilly Ledger could play bad-ass, tough guy all he wanted, but inside there was a soft spot for the people in his life, whether he liked it or not.

Now all she had to do was deal with that, deal with how she felt about him.

She had a feeling she already knew how she felt about him and it was fairly terrifying.


EDDIE HUNG UP the phone and glanced over at the woman sitting at his kitchen table.

“Well?” she asked.

“Well, he didn’t ask for Marge back.” He thought over the implications of the telling omission. “I consider that a good sign, don’t you?”

His temp for the day smiled at him and he felt his heart tip onto its side. Her smile had always done that to him.

“Maybe he’s beginning to like his current temp,” Cheri said softly and rose. She came to him and held an ice pack to his split lip. “You’re still bleeding.”

“It’s nothing.” He pulled it away so he could talk better because this subject was extremely important. “How can that be, him liking Tessa? She’s young and pretty and smart and outgoing,” he huffed and then winced because it hurt his mouth. “She’s everything he doesn’t want.”

“Only because you think she’s young and pretty and smart and outgoing,” Cheri pointed out reasonably and put the ice pack on his lip again.

“I don’t think that about her for me. I think that about her for him,” Eddie said around the ice and blinked when Cheri laughed at him.

“I know that, silly man.” She cupped his cheek and his heart tipped again.

“It’s just that I feel a spark between them.” Eddie put his hand on her hip to keep her next to him. “And it excites me because it’s the first spark I’ve seen in Reilly in a good, long time.” He knew damn well his cool, distant son went to extremes in order to not be like him.

Well, the hell with that. If he had to help things along by teaching Reilly there was fun out there to be had, then that’s what he’d do. He’d already started. He’d sent Marge out on a weeklong job in downtown Pasadena, where she was happy as could be. There were two bonuses in that. One, Eddie could stay involved in what was going on at Reilly’s, which he enjoyed. And two, with Tessa working for Reilly, it meant he just might be able to finagle getting Cheri to keep working for him.

Two birds with one stone, and everyone was happy.

Well, at least he was.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cheri asked, holding the ice pack to him with one hand and using the other to touch the bruise on his cheek. “Are you sure that you don’t want to go to the doctor-”

“It was just a scuffle. The lights were off in the garage or I’d have been able to get a better hold of him.” He grunted. “The asshole didn’t even stick around and fight like a man. Once I popped him in the eye, he was gone.”

“You were too much for him.” She kissed his bruised cheek and he resisted, barely, the urge to turn his head and line up their mouths. “We have work,” she reminded him gently.

“Work can wait.”

“You’re fretting over this.”

“I’m not fretting.”

“Yes, you are.” She ran her hand down his arm in what was supposed to be a soothing gesture, but he didn’t want her to soothe him, he wanted…so damn much more.

“You fret,” she repeated. “Because you want him to like you. Then you try too hard and you end up pushing him away. Leave it, Eddie.” Her hands were gentle on him, so gentle. “It’ll work out.”

Eddie sighed, in bliss, in frustration. “He’s on his way over here. He won’t come see me just to see me, but because some jerk is trying to get revenge, he’ll come.”

“It’s not some jerk. You know who it is.”

Eddie sighed again and said, “Yeah.”

“Oh, Eddie.” Cheri gave him a hug. “You try too hard.”

“The boy is hardheaded.”

“Really? And where do you think he got it?” She kissed him on the cheek when he just stared at her. “It’ll be all right, Eddie. It will.” Another stroke of her hand. “Look at how he’s running over here to save the day. He loves you. He’s always loved you.”

Eddie couldn’t resist another second. He pulled her in for a hug. “How the hell did I ever let you get away?” he whispered into her hair, her long, glorious, dark hair. “I was such an idiot.”

“Yes,” Cheri agreed, and stepped back. “We were both idiots. Now, let’s work. After all, that’s why you brought me here, right?”

Here’s your chance, Ace. Be smooth, be debonair, do your thing. Instead, his mouth went dry and he stood there like a fool. A tongueless fool. Eddie Ledger, legendary lady-killer, known for his charm and wit and ability to get any woman he ever wanted into his bed, and he couldn’t come up with a single intelligent thing to say.

She stroked his jaw and moved away, moved toward his home office.

And all he could do was watch her go.

Oh, yeah, he really was just one big, fancy idiot.


TESSA GOT UP EARLY the next morning, got ready in record time and, for the first time in the history of her existence, left for work with time to spare.

When she opened her front door, Carolyn popped her head out of her apartment next door. “Hey, there. Wow, you’re…” She glanced at her watch. “Twenty minutes early?” Her welcoming smile vanished. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Tessa locked her front door and crossed her fingers that her car would start today.

“Uh-huh. Nothing.” Carolyn eyed her carefully from head to toe. “You look good. New clothes?”

So she’d splurged on the way home last night, buying a new dress for work, and only partly because it was red and made her feel sexy. “This old thing?”

Carolyn didn’t buy it. She put her hand on her hip. “There’s a guy at work, right?”

Oh, yeah, there was a guy. But if her sister got wind of it, there’d be no peace. “There’s work at work.”

“So everything’s okay?”

She put her Sunday best smile on. “Of course.”

“You’re just…early. For no special reason.”

“Yep.”

Carolyn crossed her arms. “Honey, I know you, and I know something’s up. So you might as well spare us both the time and tell me what’s going on.”

“What’s going on is me loving my job.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely sure.”

Carolyn eyed her for another long moment before she was satisfied. “So, are we on for dessert and a movie tomorrow night?”

“Of course.”

“Great.” Carolyn kissed her on the cheek. “Have a good day, hon.”

And Tessa might have, if her car had started.

She sat there in her uncooperative VW and sighed. It was temping to run back to her sister for help, but this was her life, her problem, and she wanted to handle it on her own. Always being rescued by a sibling didn’t count as handling it on her own.

She took the bus again. Once inside Reilly’s building, she got off on the fourth floor where she knew he sometimes worked out. Oops, funny how that had happened, her getting off on the wrong floor…