Page 5 of Covert

Sam bit back a host of retorts. Thankfully, her mouth and brain had finally decided to work in sync.

“None. Now we’ve got you sorted out, perhaps I should make a start on the rest of that servitude stuff and organise breakfast in the den for our meeting?”

She had to escape. Having her sexy, bare-chested boss standing too close for comfort did strange things to her insides. Not to mention addling her brain.

“Fine. See you there.”

He opened the door and she brushed past him on her way out, wishing he didn’t look and smell so darn good. Just her luck her new boss would be thirty-something and gorgeous rather than ancient and decrepit like most of the rich landowners in Australia.

“One more thing, Samantha.” His serious tone stopped her.

“Yes?” She turned to see him framed in the doorway, looking every bit the consummate millionaire, even without clothes.

“Welcome to the Harmon conglomerate.”

Before she could respond he slammed the door, leaving her with a distinct feeling that while he’d welcomed her to his world, he’d just turned hers upside down.

3

Dylan stalked into his mother’s sitting room after a brief knock on the door.

Liz Harmon looked up from the newspaper she had spread across the table. “Good morning, darling. Sleep well?”

With a perfunctory nod, he sat opposite her. “I met the butler.”

His mother’s face lit up. “Isn’t Sam wonderful? She came highly recommended.”

“From where? Butlers-R-Us?”

“Don’t take that tone with me, young man. What seems to be the problem?”

Dylan fiddled with the knife-edge crease of his pants. “She’s totally unsuitable. Too young, too feisty, too—“

“Beautiful?” Liz interrupted. “You did notice, didn’t you, or has all work and no play made you a dull boy?”

A vision of Sam and those startling green eyes daring him to flirt flashed into his head. He’d tried to be the consummate professional, a boss in charge. Though thankfully, she’d been looking at his face and not lower, where the evidence of how she affected him would have been plain to see beneath the cotton towel.

“I noticed,” he muttered, understatement of the year. “Though what her looks have to do with it, I’ll never know. It’s her qualifications I’m interested in.”

Liz flashed one of her knowing smiles, the kind she’d been bestowing since he ate his first bug against her instructions and had thrown up, at four years of age. “She came highly recommended. I spoke with Ebony Larkin, her main referee.”

His eyebrows shot up. “She’s worked for the Larkin’s?”

Liz nodded. “Trust me, darling. I wouldn’t have hired just anybody to be your butler. I know how much you need the help.”

“I’m doing fine on my own, Mother.”

“No, you’re not. Between running the business, inspecting the lands around Budgeree, and looking after the family, you are worn out.”

She paused, and he waited for the inevitable reference to his single status. Predictably, his mother didn’t disappoint.

“Besides, you never have time for fun anymore. When are you going to meet a nice, young woman to make your life complete?”

“My lifeiscomplete and I like it just the way it is, thanks very much.”

He ignored the bitterness that arose whenever the subject of women entered their conversations. He’d tried the relationship merry-go-round and had hopped off as soon as humanly possible, managing to get his heart trampled in the process.

As far as he was concerned, women and serious commitment didn’t belong in the same sentence, especially with females who looked good, had the right family credentials, yet lied through their expensively capped teeth to get what they wanted. Which is his case, happened to be the Harmon name and fortune.

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