took her time to answer. Time that grated along his nerves, fired up his already smouldering discontent.
It didn’t help that he usually welcomed her thoughtful consideration when answering his questions. That she wasn’t the type to blurt out the first thought in her head as some people did.
‘Yes, Joao. If you want to drill it down to one oversimplified statement. I’m leaving for me but I’m not ditching my career. Far from it. You can pour scorn all you want on it but my mind is made up. I have eight weeks of accrued vacation. I can stay and help train your next assistant or—’
He whirled to face her, a savage urgency to do something ripping through him. ‘You’re getting ahead of yourself. I haven’t agreed that you can leave,’ he bit out.
Her chin lifted. ‘Then it’s a good thing there are laws in this country preventing you from holding me in a job I don’t want any more, isn’t it?’
He smiled a smile he didn’t feel. ‘You wish to take me on in court?’
‘If you drive me to it, absolutely.’
Again, the absolute certainty that she meant it ploughed a jagged path through him. Something about the way she was holding herself, boldly meeting his gaze where others would’ve backed down, fired up a much different sensation in him.
It...drew him.
Otherwise why did he find himself standing in front of her, his gaze tracing the delicate lines of her throat, when he was across the room moments ago?
He smashed the sensation down and drilled deeper into the subject at hand.
‘When I said you were getting ahead of yourself, Saffie, I meant that we hadn’t exhaustively discussed the subject you just dropped in my lap. What do you mean, you’re not ditching your career? You’re going to work for someone else?’
She blinked. Attempted to regroup. ‘Well...yes, I am.’
‘Who?’ he fired back.
‘It doesn’t matter—’
‘Of course, it matters. Who is it, Saffie?’ At her hesitation, the churning in his gut intensified. ‘Tell me now,’ he breathed.
Her stubborn chin tilted higher, daring him in ways Joao wasn’t sure he wanted to discover. ‘It’s William Ashby.’
As competitors went, this one wasn’t a worthy one. Which absurdly infuriated him further. That she would leave him for someone significantly inferior businesswise... ‘I didn’t think you foolish, Saffie.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Do you really think I’ll allow you to take a position with my competitor, knowing what you know about my company?’
Twin flickers of anger and hurt darted across her face. ‘You think I’ll break your confidence? After...’ She stopped herself but he already knew.
Wasn’t this a subject he’d dwelt on for far too long in the past few weeks?
‘After what?’ he taunted. ‘After Morocco? Or are we finally getting to the heart of this little scene?’
She blinked, shook her head, drawing his attention to the rich gloss of her hair. What it’d felt like tumbling freely over him—
‘No, we’re not. I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Well, I do. Tell me Morocco is not why you’ve dropped this bombshell on my day and we can move on. And no, we won’t be moving onto this so-called dream of a family or child because we both know you don’t even have a boyfriend.’
Fire sparked in her eyes. ‘What makes you think you know everything about me?’
Her spirited reply drew him even closer. He rounded his desk, closed the gap between them, felt tendrils of her light floral perfume wrapping around him. ‘You’ve been in charge of organising my life for over four years. That means I’m equally aware of yours and it isn’t that much of a secret, Saffie—’
‘I beg to differ or you would’ve seen this coming, wouldn’t you?’
Joao took a breath. This wasn’t working. For whatever reason, his assistant seemed hell-bent on this path. This unsatisfactory desire to leave him high and dry at this most crucial juncture of his life.
‘You wish me to apologise for what happened in Morocco?’
Her eyes widened, the deep pools of blue pulling him in. ‘What? No. I said—’
‘I’m aware of what you said. Just as I’m aware what women tend to say often differs from what they truly mean.’
Her eyes flashed. ‘Sorry to disabuse you of the notion but I’m not like your other women. I’m not hiding behind some nefarious ulterior motive. And while it may bruise your ego to hear the word no for the first time in your life—’
‘Watch it, Saffie.’
She carried on regardless. ‘That’s exactly what I’m saying. I don’t want to be your assistant any more. My life is my own. I can do whatever I want. You have my letter. I’ve been in touch with HR. As soon as you accept, they’ll get my termination papers ready.’
She turned on her heel, presenting him with the rigid curve of her spine that again commanded his attention to the curve of her hips, the tempting swell of her bottom.
He cursed under his breath. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ The arctic snap in his voice froze her in place.
Giving him the time he needed to stride over to join her at the door.
They weren’t done. Far from it. He needed her far too much to let her walk out of his office.
Perhaps it was their close proximity that made her pulse race in her throat as she stared at him. Perhaps it was because she sensed he was about to pull out the big guns, as he was wont to do when the occasion demanded it.
Whatever the reason, he watched her drag her inner lip between her teeth, felt the unwelcome sensation deep in his pelvis.
Meu Deus. He needed to put this thing to bed, pronto.
‘What?’ she blurted.
‘There’s a clause in your contract that states all future employers will be vetted and approved by me. Tell me, do you think I’ll let you run off and work for Ashby?’
* * *
The demand was soft. So soft Saffie didn’t feel the warm knife slide into her ribs until it was too late.
‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Because I wish to keep the best personal assistant I’ve ever had.’
There was a time when the flippant compliment would’ve lit up her day. Not any more. ‘I’m sure the next will do just as well.’
His nostrils flared. ‘You can have an extended vacation after we put the Archer deal to bed.’
‘Joao—’
‘I will get my pilot to fly you to any destination of your choosing. You have my word that I won’t ask you to return until you’re well rested and you’ve worked whatever...lingering discontentment you have out of your system. Whatever it takes to get my level-headed executive assistant back.’
Despite his more than generous offer, the words dropped like icy bullets from his lips, his body language broadcasting his extreme displeasure.
The intimacy of his proximity and the sheer headiness of his masculine scent sent heat blooming through her as he continued to stare her down, reminding her that she hadn’t always been level-headed.
She’d slipped and fallen from grace in Morocco.
His gaze dropped to her mouth, stayed and for a second she knew he