Just Another Pretty Face (HT 459) Read Online Free PDF Page A

when she looked at him. "His latest..."
    "Lover," Pierce supplied helpfully.
    Nikki forgot herself long enough to glare at him.
    He smiled back at her, his expression bland and innocent. And full of wicked speculation.
    Nikki hurriedly turned her gaze back to Claire. "Wouldn't it be just as effective," she continued, trying to pretend Pierce Kingston wasn't even on the same planet, let alone in the same room with her, "if I pretended to be his—oh, I don't know—his secretary or something?"
    "I already have a secretary," Pierce said, as if she'd addressed the question to him. "Kathy Frye. Great secretary," he added musingly. "She's been with me for— what?" He glanced at his sister. "A year, now?"
    "Just about," Claire said.
    "She's been with me for a year, and she's probably the best secretary I've ever had," he said to Nikki. "I couldn't fire her just to provide you with a cover. Besides—" he grinned again, triumphantly "—she doesn't live in. Stays over once in a while if she's had to work late," he admitted with a shrug, "but she doesn't live in."
    "I could pose as a new maid," Nikki said to Claire, knowing, even as she said it, that she was clutching at straws. "A maid would live in, wouldn't she?"
    "I don't have a maid," Pierce said. "A service comes in once a week to help Mrs. Gilmore with the heavy cleaning. Sometimes her niece helps out, too, if there's something special going on."
    Exasperated, Nikki finally looked directly at him. "Well, you could hire a maid, couldn't you?"
    Pierce shook his head. "Mrs. Gilmore wouldn't like it."
    No, Nikki thought, as a picture of the formidable little woman formed in her mind, I don't imagine she would. "And is Mrs. Gilmore the one in charge of things around here?"
    "As a matter of fact, she is," Pierce said mildly, refusing to take offense at the implied challenge to his authority. "Nothing would get done around here if it wasn't for her."
    "I can believe that," Nikki began.
    "Having you pose as a maid really wouldn't do us any good, anyway," Claire interrupted smoothly, steering the conversation back in the direction she wanted it to go before things got out of hand. "We need someone who can accompany Pierce everywhere he goes without arousing any speculation or suspicion. A maid couldn't do that."
    "No, of course not," Nikki conceded. "I should have thought of that myself." And she would have, too, if Pierce Kingston's laserlike stare hadn't rattled her to her bones. "But having me pretend to be his new girlfriend—" she refused to say 'lover' "—is going to raise all kinds of speculation."
    "Speculation, yes," Claire agreed. "But not suspicion."
    "But if I pose as his assistant, maybe some kind of glorified gofer or something, that would eliminate the suspicion and the speculation."
    Gage chuckled. "Maybe if you wore a bag over your head," he said, quoting his brother's earlier remark.
    Nikki looked up at him, a request for clarification in her clear green eyes.
    "What my husband is trying to say," Tara explained, "is that you're a very attractive woman and, even if you really were Pierce's assistant, no one would ever believe that's all you were to him."
    Nikki considered that. "Because of his playboy reputation, you mean?" she said, nodding toward Pierce.
    "Well, there is that, of course." Tara flashed a teasing smile at her brother-in-law. "But I was thinking more of the Hollywood gossip mill than anything else," she said seriously, speaking as a woman who'd spent her entire career surrounded by whispers and innuendo. "It's always voracious and can be vicious, as well."
    Nikki nodded her understanding—and her acceptance. "Okay," she said, looking at Claire. "How do you want to set this up?"
    "Shouldn't you be asking me that question?" Pierce asked.
    Nikki continued to look at Claire. "I thought you were the one who was hiring me."
    "Actually, no. Kingston Productions is hiring you. I only made the arrangements. And since it's Pierce's body you'll be guarding,"