Lone Star Millionaire

It was better that way, she told herself, wondering when she was going to start believing it. After all, if she was as good-looking as her boss, they would cause a stir wherever they went and all the attention would grow annoying. As it was, she was able to slip into the background and live her life in peace and quiet.

She chuckled softly and glanced out the window.

“What’s so funny?” Cal asked.

“I was wondering if we were going to have a storm this afternoon,” she said. It was almost the truth. She’d really been wondering if her outrageous lies, told only to herself, would cause her to be struck by lightning.

She set the carefully wrapped gift between them. “Tiffany’s for Tiffany,” she said, pointing to the name on the bag. “I wonder if your soon-to-be ex-girlfriend will appreciate the irony.”

“Don’t start with that, Sabrina,” Cal warned. “Tiffany was a splendid girl.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

He eyed her, as if he didn’t believe what she was saying. “Okay, so she wasn’t the brightest person on the planet,” he admitted.

“Now, there’s an understatement.”

He narrowed his gaze.

Sabrina feigned fear by sinking back into the corner of the limo. “Oh, Mr. Langtry, please don’t punish me for my impertinence. I’m just the hired help. I desperately need this job to support my orphaned brothers and sisters. I’ll do anything to get into your good graces.”

She fluttered her eyelashes for effect.

Cal faced front. “Dammit, Sabrina, I hate that I can’t stay angry with you. Why is that?”

“Why do you hate it or why can’t you stay angry?”

“Both.”

“You can’t stay angry because I’m nearly always right, and you can’t hate it because deep in your heart you know I’m incredibly bright. Smarter than you, even. So you spend your days intimidated by me but determined not to let me know.”

“In your dreams.” He pointed at the bag. “Why’d you pick that bracelet over the other one or the watch?”

She stared at him. “Do you want the truth?”

“Oh, so I’m not going to like your reasoning. Sure. Tell me the truth.”

She shrugged. “Tiffany is a sweet girl, but young. Her taste is a little, shall we say, undeveloped. While the diamond bracelet was beautiful, I thought it would be too plain. The emeralds give the bangle flash and she’ll like that.”

“Agreed. Why not the watch?”

“We’re talking about Tiffany here, Cal. The watch wasn’t digital, and I’m not completely convinced she can tell time the old-fashioned way.”

“Remind me to fire you when we get back to the office.”

“You asked me for the truth.”

“So you’re telling me it’s my fault?”

“You’re the one who chose Tiffany, and now you’re the one who doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of ending it. What do you want the card to say?”

He shifted on the seat. “Something nice. That we had a great time together, but we don’t want the same things. You know. The usual. And stop looking at me that way.”

“What way?”

“Like you disapprove. Your face gets all scrunchy. It’s not attractive.”

Sabrina resisted the urge to whip out her compact and peer at herself. She doubted that she was the least bit scrunchy, but she hated not knowing.

“I don’t have an opinion on your personal life.”

“Liar,” he countered. “Why are you always telling me what to do and always disapproving of the women I pick?”

“Tiffany was all of twenty. You’re using the term woman very loosely. I’d be willing to accept mature girl, or even postadolescent. If you actually picked a woman, I might not disapprove.”

“Colette was nearly twenty-eight. That counts.”

He had a point. Before Tiffany had been Shanna, and before her, Colette. “Okay, she counts as a woman.”

“Colette was also bright. She’d been to college and everything.” He sounded smug, as if pleased he was going to win the argument.

Sabrina shifted until she was staring at him. “For all we know, Colette was a rocket scientist, but that’s hardly the point. The woman, and I’ll concede that she was a woman, was French. She barely spoke English, and I know for a fact you weren’t the least bit interested in her brain. She was a lingerie model. Did you actually ever hold a conversation with her?”

“Sure.”

Sabrina raised her eyebrows and waited. Cal had many flaws, but dishonesty wasn’t one of them.

He sighed heavily. “Okay, it was a short conversation. What’s your point?”

“I’m not sure I have one, aside from the usual. You’re reasonably intelligent—”

He glared at her and she ignored him.

“Reasonably attractive—”

The glare became a scowl. She was also lying through her teeth. Calling Cal attractive was in the same league as describing New York City as a “large village.”

“Somewhat articulate, very successful man who in the six years I’ve known you has yet to have anything resembling a normal long-term relationship. You’re thirty-four. When are you going to settle down?”

“I’ve had long-term relationships.”

“Taking your suits to the same dry cleaner for six or seven years doesn’t count. Face it, boss, you’re not actually interested in anything but the chase. You want them until you catch them, then you lose interest. Don’t you ever think about something more than that?”

His brown eyes darkened. “My personal life is none of your business.”

She picked up the bag containing Tiffany’s parting gift. “You make it my business,” she said, no longer teasing.

He grunted. She’d heard enough of the sound to recognize it as a dismissal. He didn’t want to talk about this anymore. There were times when she ignored the dismissive grunt, mostly because whatever they were talking about was important, but in this case, she let it go. Except when ending one of his relationships became her duty of the day, she really tried to stay out of his personal life. She admired Cal in many areas, but that wasn’t one of them.