First You Kiss 100 Men.... Carolyn Greene

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СКАЧАТЬ tilted her head, and a lock of soft brown hair fell forward over her shoulder. ‘‘Guess I’ll have to study up on the lingo. Maybe you call it being ‘in the field.’’’ When he failed to respond in the affirmative, she tried again. ‘‘‘Research,’ perhaps? Or ‘on stakeout’?’’

      A groan escaped his throat. He hadn’t spelled out that her duties involved only secretarial work, so she had filled in the blanks with a glamorized image of what she assumed her job would be. ‘‘Sorry, Julie Beth, but there will be no stakeouts for you.’’ Remembering some of her childhood antics, he gave a little laugh. ‘‘Besides, I doubt that someone who used to be known as a Mexican jumping bean would be able to sit still during the long boring hours on stakeout.’’

      ‘‘I’m not a child anymore.’’ She crossed her arms at her waist, inadvertently drawing his attention to her flat stomach and the gentle curve of her hips. ‘‘I’ve grown up, in case you haven’t noticed.’’

      A man would have to be blind, deaf and paralyzed not to notice. Hunter took a moment to indulge in the awareness of those changes. For one thing, her voice had deepened from a childish soprano to a sultry alto. The youthful roundness had vanished from her freckled face, leaving delicately defined features that seemed at once expressive and mysterious. The changes in her body had been the most noticeable, but now that he considered her, he could see that even her attitude was different. She was still exuberant like the little girl who used to shadow his steps, but there seemed to be an underlying focus to her actions, as if she had somehow managed to harness her boundless energy and use it for a predetermined purpose. Such a potent combination could be either dynamic or disastrous.

      She sat on the edge of her desk, the slit in her skirt parting in invitation, and kicked off her shoes in an ages-old habit that she had apparently been unable to conquer. To his annoyance, Hunter’s thoughts led him to imagining her shedding other items of clothing. He flexed his hand again and chastised himself for his wayward thoughts. Julie was, after all, to be his secretary for the next month. It wouldn’t do to start their time together by harboring after-hours thoughts.

      Her gaze left his as she smiled at someone behind him. Hunter turned to see that one of his investigators, Ben Irving, had slowed his steps and seemed to be considering joining them. But a glare from Hunter helped him change his mind, and Ben continued on his way toward the file room, glancing over his shoulder at Julie. If Hunter’s reaction was any indication, this was going to be a long, stress-filled month.

      ‘‘I think I’d make a good P.I.,’’ Julie persisted. ‘‘Just give me a chance, and you’ll see.’’

      A chance to do what? Wreck the cases he’d worked so hard to bring to fruition? Although Mark, one of his investigators, was honeymooning with Trudy, Hunter had no intention of turning Julie loose on Mark’s cases. Those he would handle himself. ‘‘That’s a very tempting suggestion,’’ he lied, ‘‘but your duties will be primarily secretarial. My assistant is out on a month-long honeymoon, and I’ll need you to keep things going smoothly until she returns.’’

      Why did that last statement give him a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach?

      ‘‘But I’m not cut out to be a secretary. I can handle detail work if it’s for something I like doing, but typing and filing for someone else leaves me cold. I’m much more suited to surveillance work, and I’m good at it, too.’’ Julie pointed a manicured finger at him. ‘‘I used to spy on you and Charlene all the time, and you never caught on.’’

      Hunter couldn’t help laughing. ‘‘I knew you were there. Your favorite hiding places were behind the sofa or the drapes. And sometimes you lurked inside the TV cabinet.’’

      ‘‘You knew?’’ She seemed truly amazed, as if he were some kind of genius for having detected her whereabouts.

      ‘‘Of course. You always took off your shoes, and your stinky feet gave you away.’’

      Julie slid off the desk and slipped her shoes back on. ‘‘My feet didn’t stink!’’

      To her chagrin, his only response was an amused chuckle, and then he launched into describing her job duties. Secretarial duties.

      She interrupted his litany about filing procedures and telephone protocol. ‘‘Perhaps, as you said, my spying technique could have used some work, but I was only a kid then. With a little coaching, I’m sure I could do much better now.’’

      ‘‘Forget it. Now, over here is the information on how to do Internet searches and—’’

      ‘‘Maybe I’ll ask Mr. Oltmeier about letting me track down the bad guys.’’ As a teen, Hunter had lorded his seniority over her, telling her what to do as if she had no choice in the matter. But she had quickly learned that going over his head to Gran or his mother had often garnered the results she wanted. Such as permission to accompany him and her sister to the ice-cream parlor for a sundae. ‘‘His name is first in Oltmeier-Matthews, you know.’’

      There, let him deny that.

      Without speaking a word, Hunter merely raised an eyebrow. The gesture told her in no uncertain terms that such one-upmanship tactics wouldn’t work here.

      ‘‘All right, I’ll do the stupid desk work. But I don’t have to like it.’’

      He flashed her a smug smile. ‘‘Good girl.’’

      ‘‘But I have a few terms of my own.’’

      If she didn’t set firm limits right from the start, he might get the idea she was still a little kid that he could order around at will. And she wasn’t about to let that happen. He tried the raised eyebrow thing again, but she didn’t let it get to her this time.

      ‘‘First, I don’t want you talking to me like I’m still a child. I’m an adult now, with a college education, and I expect to be treated accordingly.’’ She neglected to mention that her degree was in theater costuming. No need to undermine herself by offering too much information.

      ‘‘Fair enough,’’ he agreed.

      ‘‘And don’t call me Julie Beth. It’s just Julie now.’’

      ‘‘Done.’’ He extended his hand and gripped her fingers in his warm grasp. Julie felt a tingle surge all the way to her toes. ‘‘Welcome to Oltmeier-Matthews.’’

      He released her hand much too soon. She stood there feeling awkward, wishing she had pockets in which to thrust her hands, the right one of which seemed to still burn from Hunter’s touch.

      ‘‘Now I suggest you take some time to go through the files and familiarize yourself with the cases. The information in them and the way they’re organized will give you a good idea of what we do around here.’’

      ‘‘Files,’’ she grumbled. ‘‘Spying would be more people-oriented.’’

      Hunter picked up a few of the client folders from the open drawer and dropped them on her desk. ‘‘These are people. I suggest you treat them with care.’’

      Julie released a disappointed sigh. How on earth, she wondered, would she ever meet any kissable men while stuck at this desk?

      After transcribing the final sentence of the letter, Julie took off the headphones, typed in the signature lines and СКАЧАТЬ