Page 27 of Reckless Harmony

She blinked at him, and he took more than a bit of pleasure in shocking his normally unflappable assistant.

“Okay,” she said. “Not available day off, or working from home day off.”

“Only available for emergencies day off,” he said.

“All right. Enjoy your weekend, Mr. Stark,” she said.

“You as well, Hollis.” He hesitated. “Do you, uh, have any plans for the weekend?”

She arched one perfect eyebrow at him. “Nothing in particular.”

“Right. Well, have a good one.”

She nodded. “Before you go, James is in a meeting and isn’t available. Can you sign off on paying the Sneaky Leak’s invoice?”

He dropped his computer bag on the chair and scrawled his signature on the paper Hollis held out to him. Trying to sound casual, he said, “She finished it quickly.”

“Yes, she did,” Hollis said. “And she only had to remove two tiles to do it.”

“Seriously?” he asked.

Hollis nodded. “Yes. I’ve arranged to have the backer board and tile replaced next week, and because Rayna fixed the leaking pipe without cutting a huge hole, she’s saved you money on both materials and labour. I sent you an email about this.”

“Right,” he said. “It’s been busy this week, and I haven’t had the chance to read it.”

That was complete bullshit. He had avoided all things Rayna related because anytime he thought of her, it typically led to some very lucid and dirty fantasies of how she might sound when he went down on her.

Christ. He really needed to get laid this weekend.

Hollis was staring at him like she knew he was full of bullshit, and he decided to make his damn escape. “See you Monday, Hollis.”

“Enjoy your weekend, Mr. Stark.”

Stark set his computer bag on the side table in the hallway before walking to the kitchen. He didn’t bother to turn on the light as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and checked the weather app on his phone.

It was supposed to snow off and on all night, but there were no weather advisories regarding travel. He would pack an overnight bag and leave before -

“What the hell?”

He stared out the window over the sink. It faced the backyard, and he could see a light bobbing along the fence line. It stopped in front of the tree before shining up into the branches.

“Shit,” he said. “Not again.”

He whipped open the back door and stepped out into the yard, stalking silently through the snow until he stood behind Rayna.

She was staring up into the tree as she scanned the branches with the flashlight. “Molly,” she said in a soft voice. “Molly, honey, are you up there? Come to Mama.”

“Planning on climbing my tree again, Ms. Abrams?”

She shrieked and whirled around. Stark winced and held his hand up to block the light shining directly into his eyes. “Can you lower that?”

She pointed the flashlight at the ground. “You scared the crap out of me! Why are you sneaking up on me in…”

“In my own backyard?” he asked.

She flushed, and he crossed his arms over his chest, giving her a pointed look. “You’re trespassing again.”

She turned around, ignoring him completely, and scanned the tree again.

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