Ms. Taken

Peeling the orange came next, which wasn’t easy because her nails were so short. She tried not to bite them, honestly. But it was hard to catch herself in the act. Mostly, she’d just notice her fingers as she typed, and the nails would be bitten to the quick.

Oh, well. It’s not as if she was a hand model or anything. Besides, short nails made her really fast on the computer. She’d clocked herself at nearly one hundred words-per only last week. Four words more than a month ago.

She ended up biting the orange peel, getting a squirt of that really sour stuff in her mouth. Grimacing, she turned her gaze to her special project, and the bad taste disappeared. Christmas cards were strewn across the right side of her desk. Some were very religious, with angels and wise men and stables. Some were whimsical, with animated reindeer, Santa in all sorts of situations, and several grinning mice. Then there were the more difficult kind. The ones with just words. Oh, sure, the calligraphy was always great, but how many Merry Christmases and Seasons Greetings could she put in her collage?

She popped a cube of cheese into her mouth and chewed it very slowly. She always ate slowly, and it drove her family nuts, but too bad. She wasn’t ashamed of her eccentricities. They made her special.

“Girl, you better not let him see you messing with those cards.”

Jane looked up to see Kadisha King, a friend from the secretarial pool, standing right next to her desk. Kadisha held a manila folder against her chest as if it were top secret. Jane hadn’t even heard her approach. “It’s Christmas.”

“He doesn’t care. Mr. Warren says no personal decorations at the desk, and that’s what he means.”

“Surely Christmas is an exception.”

Kadisha shook her head in that knowing way of hers. “Fine. Do your paper dolls. But do you know how many personal assistants Mr. Warren has had in the last five years?”

Jane shook her head. She’d only been at Warren Industries for a year, and she wasn’t very good at gossip.

“Eleven. You do the math.” Kadisha tapped the manila folder with one perfectly manicured nail. Then she went to Delia’s desk and put the folder in the in box.

Delia Robinson was Mr. Warren’s executive assistant and she was on vacation until January 5, which meant that all the other secretaries had to work overtime. And that Jane got to see Mr. Charles Warren a whole lot more.

At the thought, the myriad cards on her right faded away. She continued to eat her food, but she didn’t taste it. She might as well have had a sign around her neck: Preoccupied. Check Back in Ten Minutes. All she could see was Charles. Her poor, sweet, misunderstood Charles.

He smiled at her in that adorable, gruff way. A stranger would have thought nothing of it, but Jane…she knew the smile was an extraordinary event. It was filled with love, with mischief, with gratitude. Charles said it himself—what would he do without her?

He turned to their Christmas tree, a massive Douglas fir fit for the White House, and put an ornament on a limb. She shook her head, teasing him gently, then moved the ornament up half an inch.

“Of course,” Charles said, his voice filled with adoration and admiration. “That’s the perfect spot. I never would have seen it. Is there nothing you can’t do?”

She blushed demurely, which always drove Charles wild. He pulled her into his arms and—

The buzz, so loud it probably woke up half of New Jersey, slashed through her daydream. She looked down to find nothing but orange peel on her napkin. Hmm. She didn’t remember anything past peeling. But there was no time to wonder about all that.

Grabbing her notebook, she dashed past Delia’s fortress of a desk to Mr. Warren’s office. Before she entered the great man’s domain, she straightened her skirt—tartan, on sale at Barneys for twenty-two dollars, and you couldn’t even see the stain. She adjusted her mohair sweater, five dollars at Goodwill, thank you very much. And of course, she made sure her tartan beret was at the perfect jaunty angle. When she was certain everything was tip-top, she knocked quietly on the thick wooden door, then stepped through the portal.

It wasn’t until she was inside that she remembered to check her teeth for lipstick. She closed the door behind her as quietly as she could, then nonchalantly ran a finger quickly over her teeth. Good. He hadn’t seen. In fact, he hadn’t looked at her at all.

She headed for his massive teak desk, so highly shined it was almost a mirror. With each silent step across the thick gray carpet her heart pounded harder in her chest. The closer she got, the more difficult it was to breathe. Luckily, even when she was as close as she could get, she was really quite far from the man himself. You could land a plane on this desk. “Yes, sir?”

He didn’t look up for a long moment. Long enough for her to drink in the sight of him. He wasn’t classically handsome; his face was too flawed for that. But it was the flaws that drew her to him. The slightly crooked nose, the small scar on his forehead. His eyes were perfect, however. Dark brown, penetrating. Captivating. And when he smiled it was sheer heaven. He wasn’t terribly tall, maybe six feet, but he had one of those wiry, strong bodies. She’d seen his bare arms once, when he’d rolled up his sleeves. They were corded with muscle and sinew and had been a major part of her dreams ever since.

“I need you to take some dictation.”

She jumped, but just a little. “Yes, sir,” she said as she went to the small chair in front and to the right of the desk. She crossed her legs, making sure her skirt crawled up her thigh so much and no more. Then she put her pad on her knee and smiled brightly. He just kept reading the papers on his desk.

“Take this down exactly—Holly Baskin, late of Vassar, call C.W.”

Jane looked up, pen poised. “Go on.”

“There is no more. I want you to type that up and, first thing tomorrow morning, take it to the offices of Attitudes magazine. I want it in the December 18 issue.”

“In the personals?”

“Yes.”

“Holly Baskin?”

He spelled both names slowly. Then he looked at Jane. Maybe glanced would be a better word. But there was no fooling her. She’d seen the unmistakable passion in his dark, dark eyes. He loved her. He did. He just didn’t know it yet.

So, who was Holly Baskin? Why would Charles, of all people, have to find her in the personal ads? At least Attitudes was an upscale magazine, glossy and terribly hip—must-have reading for those in the know. The ads ran to Beemers and PalmPilots. But the real popularity of the magazine was in “The Personal Touch,” the column where twice every month, Gen Xers paid $4.98 to find love, spurn love, make friends, blast friends. The city had been enamored with “The Personal Touch” for years now, some people making it their goal in life to have the coolest ad. Jane bought the magazine from time to time, when she could afford it, and, after she’d read the ads, she’d cut out pictures of things she wanted for her dream home.

But that wasn’t important now. The ad was. Holly Baskin. Was she an old friend? From his Harvard days, perhaps? Maybe she was a business associate. A lover? Oh, please, not that.

Jane studied Charles, searching for clues. Nothing. His gaze was inscrutable. Beautiful, yes, but still not easy to read.

“Ms. Dobson?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you still here?”

She snapped out of it, trying like hell to look as if she hadn’t been caught with her pants down, so to speak. Giving him one of her best smiles, she got up and backed away until her butt hit the door. His gaze stayed on her as she fumbled with the knob, then dropped her pad, but halfway to picking it up, he went back to his papers. She scurried out, closed the door and sagged against the frame.

Not a particular success, that. He rattled her so. Of course, he hadn’t meant to. It was her own fault, really. But couldn’t he just once smile?

As she headed back to her desk she glanced down at the name on her notepad. Holly Baskin. Holly. It didn’t seem the kind of name Charles would go for. With his firm footing in the world he needed a woman with a stronger name. A traditional name. Jane, for example.

The phone rang and she hurried the last few steps to her desk. “Mr. Warren’s office.”

“Hi, Janey.”

“Oh, hi, Darra.” Jane sat down, propping the notebook open before her. “How are you?”

“Great. Listen, I wanted to let you know that we’re opening another restaurant three weeks from Sunday. It’s not far from your office.”

Jane put her pad facedown on the desk and gave her sister her whole attention. Darra never invited her to any of her celebrity-studded events. She and three other models, whose combined income could wipe out the national debt, had opened five restaurants, subtly named Haute Couture. They’d done so without Jane’s attendance, so what was different this time?

“Jane? Are you there?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Would you like to come?”

“Me?”

“Of course you, silly. It’s about time you saw what I’ve been up to.”