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feeling confused by his consideration.
    “Let’s schedule this for a week from now. Asksomeone you trust to go dress shopping with you, and choose some flowers. You can put it on my card.”
    “No, I—”
    “I insist,” he said, taking her hand.
    Compelled by his tone, she met his gaze again.
    “We’re making a big commitment, Elle. It may not be what we’d planned, but it’s going to work out. There’s no reason for you to be miserable during the process.”
    But what about him? she wondered. He may be pushing forward on marrying her, but what were his real feelings? Especially since he knew she’d betrayed him for her grandfather. He still didn’t know about her mother’s treatments, and she found herself reluctant to tell him. Would he think it was just an excuse? Would he think she had tried to extract information from him in bed when in truth, falling for Brock and going to bed with him had never been part of the plan?
    “How can we possibly make this work? With my family background and yours?” she asked.
    “You and I will make it work,” he said. “We have good motivation.”
    “But what about how I leaked company secrets?” she asked.
    “That’s in the past,” he said firmly, his jaw locked. “We need to take care of the present and look toward the future.”
    Elle heard his words but his hard expression made her wonder if he would ever be able to truly forgive her.
     
    Exiting the elevator in the Powell Street office of Maddox Communications on Monday, Brock felt a sense of responsibility hit him, as it often did. It washard to believe, but even the seven-story Beaux Arts building built in 1910 would have been demolished by the wrecking ball if not for his father’s determination to restore it. These days, the reception area looked totally different than it had during James’s heyday. Continuing his father’s tradition of embracing modern technology, Brock had arranged for two seventy-inch plasma screens to sit on either side of the reception desk, showing videos and commercials produced by Maddox Communications.
    Nodding to the receptionist, Brock walked down the hallway, noting Elle’s empty desk outside his office. He hadn’t needed to fire her or ask her to resign. She’d known she wouldn’t be welcome in the office any longer. He felt a twinge of longing followed quickly by a blast of impatience with himself. From the first day she’d begun working for him, Elle had inspired a strange combination of emotions inside him.
    If he’d been smarter, perhaps he wouldn’t have allowed himself to get involved with her so easily. But she was smart and warm, and her sultry blue eyes had distracted him after his fiancée had left him wondering if he should even try to get involved in a serious relationship with a woman. When they’d given in to their impulses, she hadn’t asked him for more. That had only made him ravenous for her.
    His need could have brought down the agency his father had worked so hard to build. How could Elle have tricked him like that? How could she have lied with her kisses and passion?
    He thought of her grandfather and wondered if he would have done the same for his father if he’d beenasked. Brock already knew the answer. He would have done anything his father asked because he’d provided Brock with unswerving love and loyalty.
    Pushing aside his mixed emotions, he walked into the office that had belonged to James Maddox. Brock had changed it very little since his father’s death. Somehow, keeping the same furniture made him feel as if his father were still nearby. The founder of Maddox Communications, however, would be turning in his grave if he knew Brock had gotten sexually involved with his assistant, let alone the granddaughter of Athos Koteas.
    He called the human resources director to send up a temporary assistant. Someone trustworthy, he emphasized, feeling a surge of bitterness and tamping it down. Stabbing his fingers through his hair, he took some