Protecting His Assets Read Online Free PDF Page B

his eyes.
    She felt the need to say “I’m fine,” but didn’t, and not even because he hadn’t asked. In fact, he’d already turned away to answer a question from another occupant.
    It wasn’t lost on her that hers wasn’t a normal reaction, but with every one of her father’s chemo and radiation treatments, his immune system got weaker, and she’d gotten more paranoid. She couldn’t help but worry about him contracting an infection that he couldn’t fight off, all because she’d ridden in a germ-infested elevator, or shaken someone’s hand.
    You’re losing it. She needed to be able to do this job. Not only for herself, but for her father, too. She’d been told in no uncertain terms just last week that contrary to his expectations, the medical insurance would not cover all of the bills that were piling up.
    She tried to focus on faces. You never knew when or where you would see a face again and what it might mean. But nobody stood out as not belonging. Even the bike courier at the seventh floor smiled and waved at someone before squeezing inside, obviously in the building often enough to develop a rapport with some of the employees.
    Two women dressed almost identically in black blazers and pencil skirts chatted together. One of them was older, maybe sixty, with sleek blonde hair and a few thin lines around her eyes.
    The other woman was in her thirties, with bouncy chestnut hair to her shoulders. Her posture stiffened, and she cast an annoyed look over her shoulder as the guy standing too closely beside her laughed at something his friend said and carelessly nudged her arm.
    The two men talking to Nolan had already loosened their ties for the day. One of them swept a hand through his slightly greasy hair before reaching for the hand rail. April winced. Both of the guys seemed to get more relaxed with every ping of the elevator as the floors counted down, and they decided which bar to hit up for a drink.
    The elevator stopped, squeezing everyone closer as more passengers entered. The woman who’d been annoyed with a brush against her arm was now plastered right up against the same man, and April squeezed herself into the corner. She was very aware of the brush of Nolan’s shoulder against hers, and the rumble of his voice as he made conversation. The cadence of his words imprinted deep in the pit of her stomach and the subtle scent of the soap still fresh on his skin invaded her lungs.
    When they reached the first parking level, Nolan put his hand over the door and waited for her to step out, but she hesitated. “My car is here,” he said.
    “Mine is on P3.” The visitors’ level. She didn’t usually bring her car into the city. It was impractical to drive downtown, but she hadn’t known what to expect and had to be prepared to follow her client anywhere.
    “It looks like you’ve got a dilemma then.” His eyes gleamed with amusement. He was having a lot of fun baiting her, and maybe she should be offended, but it was easy to understand why all the women fell at his feet. She could see why every magazine and newspaper wanted to find an excuse to put his picture on their cover.
    He was hot, but so what? Lots of guys were hot.
    Except there was way more to it than that. He was more than just a pretty face with a bright future, and there was nothing like a devastatingly gorgeous guy with power and money, whose smile lit up…everything.
    Her breath caught. He knew exactly the effect he had on people, and she had no doubt that he used their expectations against them, used his reputation as a smoke screen, used smiles and subtlety to put people off balance.
    She thought she understood a little better what she was dealing with, and she wasn’t going to be that girl again—the girl who gets starry-eyed by the charm and attention and forgets to wonder why a gorgeous guy with power and position would bother with someone like her.
    Because the answer was never the right answer, and the charm and attention