Blind Date with the Boss

Sally wanted to feel anger, was dismayed by the mad thumping of her heart, so different from the reaction of the boys, who rushed up beside her and immediately doubled over with helpless laughter. She had to admit it was an amazing sight—her boss standing knee-deep in water and drenched from head to toe.

But soon she was painfully aware of Logan’s wet business shirt, rendered transparent by the water and now plastered against his skin. He might have been naked! She could see every detail of his tanned chest and the impressive bulk of his shoulders. She couldn’t drag her eyes from the sight of his deeply sculpted muscles, the pleasing taper to his narrow hips.

Embarrassing heat flooded her.

‘Hey, Uncle Logan, great save,’ called one of the giggling boys.

Logan grinned back at them good-naturedly, threw the ball to the taller boy, then switched his gaze swiftly to Sally. He didn’t speak as he stepped out of the pond, water streaming from his clothing.

Sally felt compelled to say something. ‘I’m so glad you’re all right, Mr Black. For a minute there, I thought I was going to have to dive in and rescue you.’

He grunted something incomprehensible and then his gaze travelled very deliberately downwards from Sally’s hair to her shoes, which were dangling from her hand, and then to her bare feet. A corner of his mouth tilted, just a little, and his eyes seemed to blaze with black flames. Sally felt dizzy, as if she’d done too many cartwheels.

But then the unsettling light in his eyes suddenly died and his mouth flattened. Clearly he was extremely embarrassed to be caught dripping-wet and as good as naked in a public place. And in front of an employee.

Sally, equally embarrassed, dropped her gaze to her feet, which seemed to have become the focus of his attention. Thank heavens she’d given herself a pedicure at the weekend and painted her toenails a frosted berry colour.

He looked displeased, however, and she nervously fumbled with her shoes and struggled to slip them on. It was silly to be so self-conscious. Her bare feet weren’t nearly as revealing as Logan’s transparent shirt. Then again, she was still recovering from a nightmare incident, was still edgy with men.

To make matters worse, the schoolboys were watching her with marked curiosity.

‘These are my nephews,’ Logan explained, speaking with cold dignity befitting The Boss inAn Awkward Situation. He didn’t offer the boys’ names.

Sally tried to sound cool. ‘Hi guys.’ To her dismay she sounded far too breathless.

‘This is Miss…Miss…’ Logan Black frowned and a muscle in his jaw twitched, but he covered his ignorance quickly. ‘This young lady works at Blackcorp.’

Not for much longer, Sally thought miserably. She seemed to be doomed where this boss was concerned. First, her carelessness had preempted Rose’s invasion of his office and now her appearance in the park had distracted him and caused this accident.

‘Shall I pop back to the office and hunt down a towel, Mr Black?’

His frown deepened and he shook his head. ‘No, no. That’s kind of you, but there’s no need.’

It was patently clear that he wanted her to disappear.

Sally took the cue. ‘Well…I must get going or I’ll miss my train.’

With a deliberately cheery wave for the boys, she hurried off, chin high and without a single glance back.

Logan watched her moving swiftly away from him, watched the bounce of her curls lit to a high sheen by the afternoon sun. Just as he’d anticipated, her hair was exceptionally pretty in the sunlight. Her feet were pretty too, so neatly shaped and smooth-skinned. As for the sway of her hips and the sexy curve of her—

‘Do we have to go home already?’

His nephew’s question pulled Logan back from the brink of an untimely fantasy. He glanced at his watch again, became acutely aware of his dripping clothes. A brisk breeze swept across the park and he felt suddenly cold. Time to snap to his senses.

He wondered suddenly what had come over him. How on earth had he allowed himself to be so distracted by his newest employee that he’d fallen in the pond? To make matters worse, he realised with some alarm that his decision to bring his sister’s boys to the park had been inspired by the same girl.

When he’d seen her last week, on the day she’d applied for the front desk job, he’d sensed a special warmth and closeness between the young woman and the tiny girl and he’d been hit by a strangely inexplicable sense of loneliness—the loneliness of self-imposed isolation. Very soon after that he’d rung his sister, Carissa, knowing that it had been far too long since he’d seen her.

Now, as he drove the boys to their home, he tried to forget about the front desk girl. He suffered his sister’s chuckling bewilderment when she saw his drenched clothes, but she was kind enough to offer him a hot shower and a pair of her husband Geoff’s jeans and a T-shirt.

She offered him dinner too. Geoff had been delayed at work, so it was a noisy meal of chicken and pasta in Carissa’s bright kitchen. Logan usually ate alone, defrosting his housekeeper’s frozen meals in the microwave, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed a relaxed, laughter-filled meal like this.

Several times, a picture of the girl in the park flashed into his thoughts. He wondered where she was dining tonight, then quickly scotched that thought. When Logan wanted a woman, he chose wisely from the ambitious and sophisticated businesswomen who were as keen to avoid emotional entanglements as he was.

He couldn’t afford to be sidetracked. He had a five-year business plan which didn’t allow for a dangerous flirtation with a girl fresh from the country with stars in her eyes.

Sally told herself that there was no sense in letting her mind go over and over this afternoon’s encounter. But all evening her mind kept tossing up memories of her boss in the park. She kept seeing the look of unguarded happiness on Logan Black’s face as he’d played with his nephews. She kept remembering the raw masculine appeal of his body beneath the wet shirt and the shocking heat of her response.

She shouldn’t be feeling that way about her boss, didn’t want to feel that way about any man. She was still getting over the painful lesson she’d learned on a summer’s night at a ball in the Tarra-Binya Country Club’s hall.

Her mistake, on that night, had been that she was too trusting, too friendly. Perhaps she’d also been a little too complacent.

She’d been to so many country dances that she’d felt completely at ease and in her element and, of course, she’d welcomed the added excitement of the newcomer, Kyle Francis.

Kyle was handsome, suntanned and tall, with a very trendy hairstyle that screamed City Man. He also had dreamy blue eyes, a very sexy smile and a glamorous movie star aura and he’d sent all the girls at the dance atwitter. But, almost as soon as he’d arrived, he’d made a beeline for Sally and she’d found it enormously flattering that he was only interested in her.

The dance music that evening had been fabulous—supplied by a band that had come all the way from Tamworth. Kyle had danced superbly and Sally had floated on happiness.

She’d wondered later if his expensive aftershave had cast some kind of spell over her, because she’d been totally ensnared by his magnetic allure.

The evening had been so hot that all the doors and windows in the hall had been flung wide open to catch the slightest breeze, so it was incredibly easy to slip outside. Sally had been more than happy to let Kyle kiss her, and when he’d suggested that they take a stroll along the shadowy creek bank where she-oaks shielded them from view, she’d been too excited to pay attention to the niggling warnings of her common sense.

She’d never once encountered a problem with any of the local fellows. One or two had tried moves on her, of course, but things had never gone any further than she’d wanted them to. Besides, the local guys knew the Finch brothers would come down like a ton of bricks if anyone ever upset their baby sister.

Sally hadn’t dreamed that Kyle planned to seduce her right then and there in the pine needle strewn earth of the river bank. She hadn’t guessed that his charm would switch in a flash if he didn’t get what he wanted.

But that had happened.

So quickly, the night had changed from a carefree evening of fun to one of stark terror and violence. Sally shuddered and cringed as the gruesome memories assaulted her now like physical blows.

She had to take deep steadying breaths as she pushed the nightmare images aside and told herself that all that was in the past. She was fine now. Steve had rescued her before any real harm was done and he’d sent Kyle Francis fleeing, never to return.

The family had closed ranks around Sally to protect her, of course, but finally she’d felt compelled to break free from her parents’ and brothers’ smothering concern. She’d come to Sydney to claim her independence, but she would achieve this much more readily if she remembered that Logan Black was her boss. No more, no less.

At work the next morning, one of the special couriers was leaning casually against Sally’s desk, one elbow on the counter top while he quizzed her about her plans for the coming weekend, when clipped footsteps marched across the marble foyer, then stopped.

She looked up to find Logan Black standing stock still. To her dismay, she felt her cheeks grow hot.

‘M-Mr Black.’ She managed to smile. ‘Good morning.’

He didn’t respond, just stood there, looking grim.

‘Was there something you wanted?’ she asked. ‘Can I help?’

Again, he didn’t answer, simply let his relentless gaze sweep over Brett, the courier, before shooting a pointed glance at the clock on the wall.

Brett got the message and beat a hasty retreat. Finally, the boss spoke. ‘I have an important visitor arriving at ten o’clock. Charles Holmes, the CEO of Minmount Mining.’