“The young woman who is your actual replacement PA and, as Karen was so insistent upon it, is currently collecting your dry cleaning, putting in your order for lunch now that I’ve texted her and told her what it is you want so that it can be delivered at the appropriate time.”
“I assumed— You aren’t my replacement PA?”
She chuckled. “Sorry, no.”
“Then who the hell— Yes, we’ve already thoroughly covered what your name is,” he conceded as she raised her eyebrows. “But why are you here?”
“To ensure that smooth changeover once you realized Karen wasn’t here and you reacted this strongly toward Sally. Because that would upset Karen. And I’m sure neither of us wishes to upset the new mother,” she added pointedly. “Sally will also be bringing back your favorite coffee from the coffee shop on the corner when she returns to the office in…oh, probably half an hour or so,” Ellie murmured after a glance at her wristwatch. “I suggest that if you need coffee before then, you make use of the machine in your office. I’m told it usually helps with a hangover.” Ellie couldn’t quite keep the aversion from her tone.
“I didn’t say I had a hangover?—”
“I believe you were about to when you finally looked up and realized I wasn’t Karen.”
Knox stared at the disapproving wrinkle at the top of this woman’s cute little nose.
Cute?
For fuck’s sake…!
Ms. Ellie Hall—her hands were bare of any rings, and her prim attitude said she would prefer to be a Ms. even if she were married or engaged—didn’t look as if she would appreciate hearing her nose described in that way either.
Mainly because, in the black power suit, white silk blouse, and with her hair secured in a smooth bun at her nape, she looked every inch the executive herself, PA or otherwise.
In the meantime, Knox had absolutely no idea who she was. Apart from Geoff Taylor’s cousin.
It was probably taking him longer than it should to understand this situation because he did have a hangover. He also looked like shit. Oh, his shirt and suit were clean and uncreased, unlike the one he had taken off earlier this morning before showering in readiness for coming into work. But he knew his eyes were slightly bloodshot from a lack of sleep, the scruff on his jaw was scraggier than usual, and his mood was definitely hair-trigger rather than his usual genial demeanor.
He’d met up for a few drinks with half a dozen members of one of the security teams employed by the company the previous evening. The six of them, four men and two women, had just returned from successfully completing a delicate security issue for one of the company’s clients in England.
They had met at a bar downtown. The whisky was good, the conversation even better, and the next thing Knox knew, it was four o’clock in the morning, and he’d needed to go home and shower and put on fresh clothes before coming into work this morning.
Finding this strange woman sitting behind Karen’s desk—a woman who, it now transpired, was Karen’s cousin-in-law and not his temporary PA—wasn’t something he had been prepared for when he drove himself to work through the heavy early morning traffic in New York.
Magnus, one of the four members of the Wynter family who owned the security company of the same name, and who Knox had taken over from in New York a year ago, had suggested he take on a driver for that very reason.
Until this morning, hungover and feeling less than patient with the world in general, Knox had never even considered it. But now he just might.
He also found something…unsettling about Ms. Ellie Hall. A something that had alerted him to the fact he was probably going to need all his faculties in complete working order when it came to dealing with this woman. Which he didn’t currently have.
She had one of those husky American voices that would sound sexy even if she was only asking to borrow a cup of sugar. The sort of husky voice that flowed so easily across, and had already lit up, Knox’s every nerve ending.
He had no idea how long her golden hair would be when it was released from the tight bun at her nape, and the precise color of her eyes was hidden behind overlarge, tinted glasses that also covered half her face, but he could see they were a light shade, so probably blue or green. Her suit and silk blouse appeared to be expensive, even if they both looked a little loose on her slender frame.
As an indication she had recently lost weight?
If so, Knox wondered if that loss had been deliberate or had come about by other means.
Knox doubted she was any older than her mid-to-late twenties. Her face—what he could see of it beneath those overlarge and tinted glasses—also looked slightly gaunt. Probably another indication that her weight loss was recent and sudden.
Even so, she was beautiful.
Those glasses might cover the top half of her face, but the small nose keeping up those frames was slightly uptilting, with a smattering of freckles across the bridge, and yes, it was cute. Her hollowed cheeks looked creamy smooth, and her mouth…! Damn it, her rose-pink lips were a perfect sexy bow that Knox just knew would look fucking amazing wrapped around his?—
Fuck!
He absolutely was not going to have erotic fantasies about this woman sucking his cock!
Especially when he still didn’t quite know who she was and what she was doing here. Oh, she had told him she was Geoff Taylor’s cousin, that Karen had asked her to come here this morning, but Knox still had no idea why they had chosen Ellie specifically. Or why she had agreed, come to that. And who the hell was Sally?