Chapter3

Eva was sitting at her desk the next day, wearing a form-fitting red sweater dress that reached just below the middle of her thigh and had a V neck which only offered the slightest glimpse of her curves. The dress covered enough, but the way that it clung to her body offered every subtle hint to what was beneath the material.

She slipped her hand mirror from her purse and gave her hair and makeup and quick glance to make sure that she looked good after having come in from the streets of the city on her way to work. She was beautiful. She gave herself an encouraging smile and tucked her mirror away.

She had to admit to herself that she had become much more aware of her looks and how she was dressing for work since she had begun working for Derrick Madison. She knew it was because she liked him and she wanted to impress him, but she didn’t for a moment think that anything that she was doing would go much further than being noticed once in a while. It also wasn’t that she was trying to seduce him or interest him in her romantically; it was solely that she liked him. She admitted to herself that she had a crush on him, and she wanted to look her best, just to look her best.

The phone on her desk rang, and she picked it up. “Good morning,” she said with a genuine smile.

“Good morning to you, too!” Derrick’s smooth, deep voice came through the line. “I wondered if you had the Wainwright file.”

“No, I sent it off to their office already. It’s done,” she answered confidently.

He sounded a little surprised. “That’s great; thank you. Do you have the Dearborne file?”

She smiled to herself. “No, that one is already gone as well. I had it couriered over to the Dearborne’s this morning.”

He laughed lightly. “Well, that’s wonderful! Thank you! You know, it’s nice to have someone at my front desk who is so on top of things. That means a lot to me. Thank you!” he was chuckling as he hung up the phone, and she was beaming with some self-satisfaction as she hung up on her end.

A thin gentleman, wiry with dark hair and horn-rimmed glasses, came into the office with his coat over his arm and a black briefcase in his hand. His black suit was impeccable. He came to Eva’s desk and gave her a light smile. “Is Mr. Madison in, please? I’m Gregory Davenport.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly. “Do you have an appointment?” she asked, knowing full well that he didn’t.

“No ma’am. I’m sorry; I don’t. I was his father’s assistant. It’s necessary that I speak with him, if he isn’t too busy.” The man looked honest, and she gave him a warm and welcoming smile.

“Please have a seat, and I’ll check in with him.” The man sat, placing the briefcase between his feet, his hands clasped around the handle, and he cast his eyes downward.

Picking up the phone, Eva spoke quietly into it, telling Derrick who had come to see him. A moment later, she hung up the phone again and looked at him. “You’re welcome to go in, Mr. Davenport.”

He gave her a nod and thanked her before striding through the door into Derrick’s office, and then closing the door behind him.

Derrick rose to his feet and extended his hand. “Gregory, it’s nice to see you. I guess this is a bit of a surprise. What can I do for you?”

Gregory shook his hand and sat down. “Well, I’ve com

e because while your father took excellent care of me after he passed, and I no longer work for the company as an employee, there is a final matter which he set to Mr. Levinson and myself to handle once he was gone. When that task is completed, I will be in full retirement, but until then, there is one last piece of business that I am looking closely after. It has to do with you and with the Van Buren family.”

Derrick nodded. “Yes, I’ve spoken with Franklin. He told me all about my father’s plans for Felicia and me to marry and for the two businesses to become one.” He sighed and frowned slightly, and Greg saw it, his dark eyes watching him like a hawk.

“I see. What exactly did Franklin tell you?” he asked pointedly.

Derrick shrugged. “Pretty much just what I’ve said. He told me that the two of them had been planning to combine our businesses, our estates, and our families for most if not all of our lives, and that it was what my father wanted more than anything, to have me marry Felicia and join it all together.”

Gregory nodded. “Very well.”

With a slightly lowered brow, Derrick leaned forward and looked closely at Gregory. “Is that what you know?”

Gregory pursed his lips and gave his head a subtle shake. “I am not here to tell you what I know; I’m here to find out what you want to do. Your decision determines my work. What is it that you are going to do about that situation?”

Leaning back in his chair, Derrick folded his hands into his lap and gazed back at Gregory. “Well, after Franklin spoke to me and gave me my mother’s wedding ring to give to Felicia, I went to see Felicia, and I asked her to marry me. She said yes. So, I guess we’re officially engaged, and that’s as far as it’s gotten.”

“Is that what you want to do?” Gregory asked, his eyes locked on Derrick.

“It’s what my father wanted, and I want to do what my father wanted me to do. I don’t feel that I can let him down,” Derrick replied quietly.

The corner of Gregory’s mouth twitched and turned down slightly. “Very well,” he said again. Derrick could see that there was a lot more going on in the man’s head than he was saying.

“What is it that you know? Won’t you please tell me?” Derrick asked, leaning forward again.

Gregory looked away from him for a moment. “All I will tell you is that my work is incomplete, and it will remain so until your decision is final. It is up to you to choose what you want to do.” He hesitated, and then he added, “I’ll say this as well, Derrick. Your father was very good to me, and it is my honor and privilege to take care of this last task for him. I am dedicated to seeing it through the way that he wanted me to handle it. I am as glad to serve you and assist you as I was to work for him. I’m here to help you with anything that you need, if you ever need my help. So is Levinson.”

Derrick thought of their family attorney. “I haven’t really seen much of Levinson since the funeral.”

“And you won’t, at least not until he is needed. We’ll be keeping close tabs on you, so please let me know how things are going, and how the wedding is progressing. It’s important to keep me in the loop on that. Have you set a date for the ceremony?” he asked, looking as if he didn’t like asking it.

“No, there is no date set yet. We only just got engaged. I imagine that Franklin will want it to happen soon. He seems to be looking forward to it quite a bit,” Derrick said, waving his hand dismissively.

“Yes, I’m sure he is,” Gregory said, turning his head away. “Well, please let me know as soon as everything is settled, and it’s important that you let me know when the wedding happens.” With that, he stood up and extended his hand to Derrick again.

“Until then, it has been a pleasure meeting with you. Thank you for your time, Derrick. It’s good to see you again. My best to you.” He looked as if he meant it, and Derrick felt glad that he had come in. It was healing for him to see someone who had worked so closely with his father.

Gregory left, and a little while later, Eva walked into Derrick’s office with a file, which she handed to him. “This is from the Forsythe’s,” she said with a smile. “You’re going to need it for your meeting with them later today.”

He was looking exceptionally sexy that day, she thought to herself, with his jacket hanging up behind him, sitting in his chair with his button-up shirt and a silk tie and silk vest on. It did nothing to hide the muscular physique beneath the material, and she was appreciative of it while trying not to be obvious about looking at him.

He raised his eyes from the screen of his laptop, and she watched with warming cheeks as his gaze stopped at her ankles and slowly rose up her figure to her eyes. She could see that he hadn’t intended to take her all in that way, as his attention had been focused on his work and he had only meant to look over at her, but there was also no hiding the fact that when he did look at her, nothing else was on his mind but her standing before him as she was.

She loved the way that it felt, seeing him staring at her body the way that he did. She had dressed for him, as she did every day, and it was a payoff in satisfaction that she could see him appreciate it. Warmth began to spread through her belly and her heart as he finally took in her eyes and her mouth.

“You’d better be careful walking around Manhattan like that. Every man who sees you is likely to fall in love with you.” He gave her a wink, and she giggled. Her nerve endings tingled and enjoyed it.

“Well, I’ll be on the lookout. I don’t want all of them to fall in love with me,” she teased back, giving him a wink. His cheeks turned slightly pink, and he blinked and looked away from her as she turned and walked from his office, swaying her hips just a little, just enough to make him look. When she glanced over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her, she saw that he was looking, and they grinned at one another before she closed the door.

She knew that in any other office, with any other boss, none of what they had done would be acceptable. It was a problem for a lot of women who had leering male bosses, or co-workers who expected more than they should or who demanded inappropriate things from the women that they worked with. She was definitely on the side of women getting ahead in the world without having men get in the way of it, and without them using sex for office or business politics, but in her case, in that office, working for Derrick Madison, she was enjoying it just as much as he was, and she wasn’t about to push for it to stop.

It had grown gradually between them, and when she had first started, they had both been all business. But there was a deep chemistry that she felt toward him, something wild and hungry that ignited in the depths of her, and it hadn’t taken long at all to see that he felt something similar for her as well. There was no denying a mutual attraction, and that had led to the point they were at, where they both flirted with one another in the office, though it was nothing more than that, and both of them enjoyed it immensely.

She had no idea where it would go, but she was fine with it being where it was, and so was he. She returned to her work and tried to keep her mind and thoughts on what she was doing. The day passed by, and later that afternoon, when he had finished a phone call, he buzzed her into his office.

Eva walked in and closed the door of his office behind her. “What can I do for you?” she asked, going to the edge of his desk.

He smiled up at her. “Well, I just had an unexpected phone call. The meeting I had with Parker Bennett has moved from Boston to the Bahamas, if you can believe that. He’s a little spontaneous like that, sometimes. I guess he decided to take off to the islands for a month. The deal we’re working on with him has to be signed before the end of the week. If we want to get it done, and we do, we’re going to have to go down to the Bahamas and chase Parker down and get him to sign it there. We have to complete this deal. There are about five thousand jobs on the line for it.”

Derrick leaned back in his chair a little bit, looking her in the eyes. “I don’t mind going down there myself, at least it’s someplace beautiful. I will need your help down there, though, and I have to ask if you’d mind going with me.”

Excitement flooded through every one of her veins as she realized what he was asking. She could not stop the grin that took over her face. “Well, yes, of course I’ll go! Who wouldn’t want to go to the Bahamas? I’ve never been anywhere before, and it would be amazing to be there! Thank you! I’d love to!”

He nodded, and his smile grew a little more. “Well, thanks for the save. And… Eva…” he gave her a wink, “maybe you could pack a two piece swimsuit, that is if you’re planning on swimming.”

She laughed and nodded. “I’ll see what I can find. What are you going to be wearing?” she asked in return, raising one eyebrow and letting herself picture him on the beach. Her body warmed to the thought.

He shook his head and smiled. “Not much…” he answered with a chuckle.

Eva left him and went back to her desk, her mind filled with thoughts of the two of them in the Bahamas. Nothing had made her so excited and so happy in a

ges. When he called out to her desk a while later, she had good news for him.

“Would you please reschedule that meeting with Hendricks?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ll do that right now. By the way, the Bahamas trip is booked.” She grinned in utter delight.

He was quiet a moment. “The whole trip? Everything is booked?” he asked in absolute wonder.

“Yes. I found out where Parker is staying, and I rented a beach house very near his. I have your private jet ready to go, and there will be a car there for us. It’s all done. I emailed you the details.” She tried not to sound as giddy as she felt.

He laughed softly into the phone. “My god, you’re a wonder. What on earth did I ever do before you got here? Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Truly, I do.”

“You’re welcome,” she said with a velvet soft voice, and they hung up their phones.

Eva had never packed as thoughtfully as she did when she packed her bags to go to the Bahamas with her incredibly sexy boss. Every slinky dress she had had been laid out on her bed, every piece of clothing was carefully considered, and most of them were tossed back into her closet and drawers.

His limo picked her up from her home, and together they rode to the airport, where his private jet was waiting to fly them away. She had to wear a coat in the car because a spring rain shower was washing the city that morning, but when they got into the airplane, she didn’t waste much time in pulling her coat off and handing it to the flight attendant.

She didn’t miss it when Derrick’s eyes swept slowly over her light blue dress. The thin material moved around her like angel’s wings on a thin pillow of air, molding itself to her in many places, while seeming to float above her skin in other places. It was cut in a V shape at the neckline, and an inverted V at the center of the hem, which fell across her legs mid-thigh. She knew that she looked good in it, but it was pleasing to her to see that he could barely take his eyes off of her as she moved to the chair to sit across from him, facing him.

Eva had decided to leave whatever might happen on the island to the fates. She wasn’t going to try too hard to make anything happen between them, he was her boss after all, but the sparks that had been getting stronger in her had diminished her inhibitions, and she had opted to let whatever might happen between them, happen. It was a faraway trip, it was a tropical island, and she wasn’t going to say no if he wanted to explore anything beyond their business relationship, though he had given her no clear indication that that would ever happen.

He cleared his throat and made himself look from her body to her eyes. He told himself over and over that she was his secretary and it didn’t matter what she looked like, she was his employee and he had to remember that if he expected to keep her as his employee. She had more than proven her worth to him, and the last thing he wanted to do was replace her, but he had been doing his level best to push back all of the growing desire that he felt rising up in him for her. The light blue silky looking dress she was wearing only made him want to look without limits and touch what he was looking at, but when she had sat down before him, he lifted his eyes to meet hers and promised himself that he would keep them there.

The flight attendant came to them and asked them what she could bring them, and he answered breakfast and she answered champagne, and then looked at him with that sweet smile of hers that made his stomach do a flip, and asked if champagne was alright.

He waved his hand and nodded, asking the attendant to bring it. She said she would. He thought to himself that maybe the champagne would calm his nerves. It was one thing to appreciate a beautiful woman, but it was another thing altogether to feel such an attraction to one day in and day out and have it go unfulfilled. He had thought that she was beautiful at first, and he liked that, but then he had gotten to know her and he had discovered that she was as smart and as sweet as she was beautiful, and seeds of desire had begun to grow in him.

He’d found himself flirting with her here and there at the beginning, afterwards chastising himself a little about flirting with an employee, but she flirted back, and then it became a game. Then the game began to heat up, and the fun had begun to slowly turn to need. There was something changing between them, and he couldn’t pinpoint it, but he knew that they would need to be a lot more careful about their flirting. Part of him wanted to hold back and ease up on it, and the other part of him wanted to rush headlong into it and lose himself in the sweet warmth of her beauty and her body. He had a feeling that he could get lost in her, and the idea of getting lost in anything so delicious and so beautiful was enormously enticing to him. It would take him away from the world where he was alone, where his father had died, where he was having to take on all of the responsibilities of the business, and he would have nothing but pleasure and peace, and he was certain, incredible satisfaction.

The champagne arrived, and they both finished off their glasses in no more than a few minutes. He poured more for them, and his nerves began to settle as she talked softly and laughed. She made him feel at ease just as much as she created heated tension in him.

Derrick couldn’t take his eyes from her, and he didn’t want to. He finally took the plunge and asked her something that had been on his mind since he had interviewed her for her job.

“So, I hope you don’t mind if I get a little personal. You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but I am curious. What does your love life look like?” he took a big swallow of the champagne and held his champagne flute in his fingertips firmly.

She bit at her lower lip and lowered her thick eyelashes bashfully for a moment before looking back up at him with her dark brown eyes. Seeing her teeth pressed against her soft full lower lip made him wish that it was his teeth biting at her lower lip, and he had to take a deep breath and make himself think of anything else.

“Oh, no, that’s okay. I don’t mind.” She grinned at him and reached her fingers up to tuck her shoulder-length hair behind her ear. “I am newly single. I was in a relationship with a really nice guy, but he got a job on the west coast in San Francisco, and I didn’t want to move. I had just started with you, and I love this job. I wanted to stay here and he had to leave, so we broke up, but we’re still friends. He’s a really good guy. If he was here, we’d still be together, but we knew it wouldn’t work out to try for a long distance thing, so he left and we broke up and that’s it. So, I guess I’m single.” She uncrossed her legs slowly and crossed them in the other direction, making the material of her dress shift and revealing a little more of the skin on her thigh.

He felt his groin tighten and his heart begin to beat faster. She was one of the sexiest women he had ever known, and having her so close to him so often, trying not to stare at her when she dressed so beautifully, trying not to pay too much attention to the way she moved and spoke and laughed, had been difficult. It seemed that trying to ignore it all only made it stand out more.

“Well, that’s refreshing to hear,” he answered, keeping his voice level. “It’s nice to hear someone talk about their ex in a positive way. It’s not often I hear anyone talk about their ex without hating them. That says a lot about not only your choice in a partner, but about you as a person. It’s refreshing.” He gave her a nod and then chuckled and leaned forward. He couldn’t help one flirtatious little comment. She was too damn delicious.

“I’m glad to hear that you’re single,” he added with a wink and a smile.

She looked closer at him then and leaned forward, running her fingers slowly over her thighs toward her knees as she neared him, and he felt himself begin to grow hard with need.

“Why is that?” she asked, her coy expression barely covering something much hungrier beneath her smile.

He stopped himself from saying anything too overt, and rubbed his hands over his own thighs, hoping to draw tension away from the bulge he felt forming between his legs. “Oh, well, you know, if we wind up working late on some nights, then there won’t be anyone at home worried about where you are or what

you’re doing.”

She gave her head a shake and ran her fingers through her hair, giving him a wide smile as she slowly crossed her legs back the other way. “I’m a big girl. I don’t answer to anyone, except you, I guess.” She wanted to flirt more with him. She wanted to leave her chair and go to him and see what it was like to kiss him, but she didn’t know if he was teasing and playing or if he would really take her up on it, and she wasn’t about to jeopardize her job if he wasn’t serious about their flirting. “I do whatever I want to,” she added, her eyes locked on his.

“I’m so glad to hear that. I certainly hope that you do,” he answered with another wink as he asked for a second bottle of champagne for them.

They talked back and forth after that for the duration of the flight, sharing stories about their families, their years growing up, and they left the business talk out of it. Eva felt as if she was making a good friend rather than shooting the breeze with her boss. Derrick felt the same way. He told her that he hadn’t felt that open and close with anyone in a long time, and it was good to have someone to talk to about simple things. He discovered that he enjoyed it.