Page 12 of Boss With Benefits

So, having somehow managed to subtly wheedle out of Maggie, his secretary, that Adam would be at home tonight, Ella had come up with a plan. Not an entirely ethical one, admittedly, but he’d left her with no choice. Desperate means called for desperate measures. Enough was enough. He would avoid her no more. He would not wrong-foot her again. Or succeed with threats, because she was far too embedded in the process to be ousted from it now. She would get the answers she needed, and she would get them tonight.

Adam had spent all day containing the threat of strike action at his Valencia factory and ensuring there’d be no further trouble. Having accomplished that by late afternoon, and secure in the knowledge that the staff had been appeased—before anyone had gone to the press, thank God—he’d travelled back to New Yorksatisfied that the impact on the company’s reputation and the Helberg acquisition in particular was negligible.

Dropping his keys on the table in the hall and abandoning his suitcase, he strode into the white, minimalist living space, then headed for the bar. As a result of criss-crossing the Atlantic twice in less than twenty-four hours, he didn’t know what time it was. He couldn’t remember when he’d last slept. He was exhausted and stressed beyond belief. He couldn’t shake a strange sense of foreboding, the feeling that everything he was trying to achieve balanced on a knife edge, and all he wanted to do was crack open a bottle of whisky and crash out for the next two days.

However, he’d barely had time to down half a glass of single malt when there was a knock at his door. Too spaced out to wonder who it could be when he’d had no warning of a visitor, he set his glass on the bar and went to investigate. Calling down to the concierge didn’t occur to him. Neither did looking through the spyhole. So when he opened the door and came face to face with Ella, he was totally unprepared.

Reeling with shock, he wondered for a moment whether he could be hallucinating, the whisky stronger than he’d assumed, perhaps. But unfortunately, she was all too real. He could tell by the way the hairs at the back of his neck were standing on end and her scent, which was winding through him and scrambling his head.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he practically growled, thinking,God, thisweek.How much more could he be expected to endure?

‘I could ask you the same thing,’ she said, chin up, jaw set. ‘Why aren’t you at the office? Where have you been?’

‘Spain.’

Her eyebrows shot up. ‘Spain?’

‘A business matter that required my attention. Strike action at one of my factories. How did you find out where I live?’

‘Your address was at the top of an invoice,’ she said without a trace of shame. ‘I told the concierge I was bringing you a birthday surprise and he let me in. I must admit, I was expecting getting access to you to be a lot harder. Your security is terrible.’

Adam fought the urge to grind his teeth. ‘This is a gross invasion of privacy.’

‘You only have yourself to blame. You’ve been avoiding me all week.’

‘A company the size of mine doesn’t run itself.’

‘What happened to being available twenty-four-seven?’

Right, he thought, thrown off balance for a moment. He had promised that. But he couldn’t do this now. He was shattered and feeling more than a little unhinged. Combined with all that, her proximity was wreaking havoc on him. His hands itched to touch her. It was taking every drop of control he possessed not to move towards her. He had the unnerving feeling that he’d missed the edginess she drummed up in him these last twenty-four hours.

‘You need to leave,’ he said, a bead of sweat running down his spine, his pulse thudding heavily as he tightened his grip on the door-frame to his left and the door-knob to his right.

‘Not until you tell me about the trip to London and Helberg Holdings.’

‘I fail to see their relevance.’

‘I’llassess their relevance.’

‘You can wait until Monday.’

‘No. I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because the time frame is slipping, and I won’t allow further delay.’ She planted her hands on her hips, her eyes shimmering with determination and challenge. ‘This audithasto finish onFriday, not least because I go on three weeks’ leave immediately afterwards. You’re holding things up. Deliberately, I suspect. And I don’t get it. One minute you’re striding about the place dictating how things are going to go and insisting that you be involved in every step of the process—although why you’re taking such a close personal interest in things, I still have absolutely no idea—the next you’re nowhere to be seen. What’s going on?’

‘Nothing’s going on.’

‘London, Adam,’ she said, with the strength of will that in any other situation he’d admire, the strength of will that suggested that she wasn’t going away and he couldn’t just close the door on her because she’d simply bang on it until he opened it again.

He had to give her something, if only to get her to shut up and go away. He’d keep it brief. ‘I went to see my sister.’

‘Is she employed by the company?’

‘No.’

‘What does she do?’

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