The Daddy Wish

“Now that that’s settled, I need you to book a flight to St. Louis for next Thursday,” he told her. “There are some minor discrepancies in their numbers that need to be looked at.”

Which could probably be done via email, but John had always preferred a hands-on approach.

“Considering the ‘minor blip’ with your heart, I’m surprised your doctors have given you the okay to fly.”

“They haven’t,” he admitted. “So you’ll be going with Nathan.”

Allison had to bite her tongue to hold back her instinctive protest as she rose from her chair. It wasn’t unusual for John to request that she accompany him on his business trips, but going anywhere with the man who’d kissed her more thoroughly than anyone else in recent memory—maybe ever—filled her with apprehension.

Thankfully, St. Louis was only a two-hour flight from Raleigh, which meant that the trip would be completed in one day. It would be a long day—with a departure at 8:35 a.m. and a return fourteen hours later—but only one day. The trips that the CFO made to review the books of the Gallery stores—more upscale showrooms that carried exclusive, higher-end inventory—located in Austin, Denver, San Francisco, Saint Paul, New York, Philadelphia and Miami, required more time and attention, sometimes necessitating a two or three-night stay.

As Allison returned to her desk, she could only hope that Nathan would decide he didn’t need his executive assistant to accompany him on those, because she didn’t trust herself to spend that much time in close proximity to the man. Sex had never been casual to her. Even when she was in college, she’d never hooked up with a guy just for a good time. And she’d tried to steer clear of the guys who were reputed to sleep with different girls every weekend. No doubt, Nathan Garrett had been one of those guys.

She’d heard rumors of his extracurricular activities, and while the whispered details might vary, the overall consensus was that the current VP of Finance definitely knew how to pleasure a woman.

Which was definitely not something she should be thinking about right now—especially when the man himself was standing in front of her desk.

He was the only man she’d ever met who managed to make her feel all weak-kneed and tongue-tied in his presence. She hadn’t worked at Garrett Furniture long before she’d recognized that the family had won some kind of genetic sweepstakes. The three brothers who ran the company were of her parents’ generation but still undeniably handsome, and all of their children—most of whom were employed at the company in one capacity or another—were unbelievably attractive.

It had been an impartial observation—nothing more. She’d been too busy trying to settle into her new job, put her life back together and be a good mother to her toddler son to be attracted to anyone. And then, in her second year of employment in John Garrett’s office, his nephew Nathan moved back to Charisma.

By then, Allison’s wounded heart had healed and her long-dormant hormones were ready to be awakened again. And they had jolted to full awareness when Nathan walked into the office and found her struggling to fix a paper jam in the photocopier.

He’d come over to help, and just his proximity was enough to make her skin prickle. When he’d reached around her, his chest had bumped her shoulder, and the incidental contact had made her nipples tingle and tighten. He’d dislodged the paper, she’d stammered out a breathless “thank you” and then he’d gone in to see his uncle.

Four years later, she still wasn’t immune to him. She’d learned to hold her own in conversations with him, but she hadn’t learned to control her body’s involuntary response to his nearness. Even now, even with him standing on the other side of her desk, her blood was pulsing in her veins.

She forced a smile and desperately hoped that her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. “Good morning, Mr. Garrett.”

His answering smile didn’t seem forced. It was effortless and easy and so potent; she was grateful that she was sitting down because it practically melted her bones. “Good morning, Allison.”

She forced herself to glance away, down at the calendar on her desk. “Your uncle is free, if you want to go in.”

“I will,” he said, but eased a hip onto the edge of her desk. “But first I wanted to apologize for not calling you when I got back from my ski trip.”

“Oh, well.” She kept her gaze focused on the papers on her desk, because his proximity was wreaking enough havoc on her hormones without looking at him and remembering how his mouth—somehow both soft and strong, and utterly delicious—had mastered hers, or how those wickedly talented hands had moved so smoothly and confidently over her body. “I know the holidays are a busy time for everyone.”

“And then Uncle John had his heart attack the day after Christmas.” She glanced up and could tell, by the seriousness of his tone and the bleakness in his eyes, that he was still worried about his uncle.

“So it was more than a minor blip,” she remarked.

“Is that what he told you?”

She nodded.

“The doctors did say it was minor, but it was definitely a heart attack.”

“That must have come as a shock to all of you,” she said.

He nodded. “Aside from smoking the occasional cigar, he didn’t have any of the usual risk factors, but the doctors strongly urged him to make some lifestyle changes.”

“He’s already asked me to look into that cruise he’s been promising your aunt for the past few years.”

“Retirement is going to be a big adjustment for him, so it will be good for him to have something to look forward to.”

“It’s going to be a big adjustment for the whole office,” Allison agreed.

“And not exactly the adjustment I was hoping to make in our relationship,” Nate said.

Our relationship.

She wasn’t exactly sure what that was supposed to mean, but her heart gave a funny little jump anyway—before she ruthlessly strapped it down. “Mr. Garrett—”

“Really?” His brows rose and his lips curved in a slow, sexy smile that made her want to melt into a puddle at his feet. “Are you really going to ‘Mr. Garrett’ me after the—”

“There you are, Nate.”

She exhaled gratefully when John poked his head out of his office and interrupted his nephew. Because whatever he’d been about to say, she didn’t want to hear it.

Nathan held her gaze for another moment before he turned his attention to his uncle. “I didn’t mean to keep you waiting.”

“Normally I wouldn’t mind,” John told him. “But we’ve got a lot of ground to cover in the next twenty-five days.”

Nate nodded. “I’ll look forward to catching up with you later,” he said to Allison, already moving toward the CFO’s office.

She didn’t bother to respond, because as far as she was concerned, there wasn’t anything to catch up on.

Whatever might have started between her and her soon-to-be boss under the mistletoe was over when he flew off to Vail with Melanie Hedley the next day. And that was for the best. Not only because she didn’t want to make a fool of herself—again—where Nathan Garrett was concerned, but because any fantasy she might have had about getting naked with the VP of Finance was inappropriate enough, but the same fantasy with the company CFO could be fatal to her employment.

And that was a risk she wasn’t willing to take.

* * *

“How was your first day back?” Allison asked when she picked her son up from his after-school program.

Dylan made a face as he buckled up in the backseat.

“Do you have any homework?”

“Yeah. I’ve gotta write a stupid journal entry about my holiday.”

“Why do you think it’s stupid?”

“Because it’s the same thing Miss Cabrera made us do last year. And because I didn’t do anything really exciting. Not like Marcus, who went to Disney World. Or Cassie, who got a puppy.”

His tone was matter-of-fact, but she was as disappointed for him as he obviously was. Unfortunately, peak-season trips weren’t anywhere in her budget, and pets—especially dogs—weren’t allowed by the condominium corporation. “But we had a nice holiday, anyway, didn’t we?” she prompted.

“I guess.”