Page 46 of Her Dark Salvation

Missing months attached.

You’re wearing a turtleneck today.

M

My lips twitched, fighting a smile. He hadn’t even looked up when I’d brought him his breakfast. How had he noticed what I was wearing? One thing was certain, regardless of my newfound knowledge or my near-sleepless night, my attraction to the man hadn’t changed.

Thank you.

Local and state taxes are not included in your expense reports. Do you bookkeep those separately? I’ll need that information as well.

??? It’s cold, and someone makes me walk three blocks every morning to get his breakfast.

Anna

I sat back in my chair, smug, and played with my necklace, watching my inbox for his reply. I didn’t have to wait long.

All foreign taxes are journaled separately. Attached.

How am I supposed to stare at your tits if you’re wearing a turtleneck?

M

“Oh my God!” I mouthed through a shocked smile and pressed the backs of my cold fingers against my unbearably hot cheeks. That man was turning me into a pre-teen at a boy band concert. Ridiculous.

I shook out my hands, shifted in my chair, and brushed the hair out of my face. “Okay,” I mumbled to myself. Resettled, I chewed my lip and considered my reply.

Tsk, tsk. There’s that sexual harassment again. Careful or I’ll file a complaint with the management.

Anna

The little angel on my shoulder told me I shouldn’t be encouraging him, that I should put an end to this dangerous game of cat and mouse. But his sinful attention was too powerful a temptation. It excited me, good sense be damned.

Fifteen minutes with no new emails and I regained enough focus to work on the input files instead of mindlessly clicking through the internet. Ten minutes later, the office door opened, and Mr. DeVita strode into the foyer with his coat and gloves.

“I got your message about the permits and the paperwork required for the financial district purchase,” he said and leaned against the side of my desk. “I emailed you the information about my prime contractor in Italy. They’ll be managing the renovations of the new Tuscany property I finalized last week. The signed contract as well as receipts from the initial deposit are attached.”

“I see them.”

“That should be the last piece of information you need to determine if we can meet the city and seller’s escrow and solvency requirements.”

“Let me look.” I opened the email and pulled up the attachments. “The permit fees themselves won’t be a problem,” I mumbled as I scrolled, looking for the bottom line. When I reached it, I blinked, dizzy from all the zeroes. “How—” I swallowed. “How big is this property in Tuscany?”

“Twenty acres.”

I swiveled my chair to face him. “Twentyacres?”

“Yes. The property has tremendous potential. The villa will need to be expanded, and a spa added to match the other properties, but the acreage provides an opportunity I don’t have with my other locations—land.” The nonchalance with which he described his new, quarter-billion-dollar piece of real estate was enough to make my head spin. “It was too good a deal to pass, even with the poor performance of Rome and Sicily.”

I stared at him, awestruck. No wonder his reserves were low. The down payment on a quarter-billion-dollar property was an outrageous amount of money.

“I’m going to have to look at these numbers. Obviously, this changes your liquidity,” I said dryly, “and your debt-to-income ratio.”

He nodded. “I need an answer by this evening. I’d like the escrow in place as soon as possible; the waiver could come through as early as tomorrow. The zoning commissioner will email you when it’s ready.”

“I can have an answer for you by the end of the day, and setting up the escrow will take no time at all, but…” I pursed my lips and furrowed my brow, not wanting to stick my nose where it didn’t belong, but hehadreferred to me as his financial advisor at city hall. “This is a huge amount of outgoing liquid assets in a short amount of time. I’m not sure I understand the urgency, especially given the performance of your European branch.”

He studied me, perhaps deciding how much information to share. It was hard to tell. The stone wall of his expression gave nothing away.

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