8

The corner of Gregory’s mouth twitched and turned down slightly. "Very well," he said again. Derrick could see that there was a lot more going on in the man’s head than he was saying.

"What is it that you know? Won’t you please tell me?" Derrick asked, leaning forward again.

Gregory looked away from him for a moment. "All I will tell you is that my work is incomplete, and it will remain so until your decision is final. It is up to you to choose what you want to do." He hesitated, and then he added, "I’ll say this as well, Derrick. Your father was very good to me, and it is my honor and privilege to take care of this last task for him. I am dedicated to seeing it through the way that he wanted me to handle it. I am as glad to serve you and assist you as I was to work for him. I’m here to help you with anything that you need, if you ever need my help. So is Levinson."

Derrick thought of their family attorney. "I haven’t really seen much of Levinson since the funeral."

"And you won’t, at least not until he is needed. We’ll be keeping close tabs on you, so please let me know how things are going, and how the wedding is progressing. It’s important to keep me in the loop on that. Have you set a date for the ceremony?" he asked, looking as if he didn’t like asking it.

"No, there is no date set yet. We only just got engaged. I imagine that Franklin will want it to happen soon. He seems to be looking forward to it quite a bit," Derrick said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Yes, I’m sure he is," Gregory said, turning his head away. "Well, please let me know as soon as everything is settled, and it’s important that you let me know when the wedding happens." With that, he stood up and extended his hand to Derrick again.

"Until then, it has been a pleasure meeting with you. Thank you for your time, Derrick. It’s good to see you again. My best to you." He looked as if he meant it, and Derrick felt glad that he had come in. It was healing for him to see someone who had worked so closely with his father.

Gregory left, and a little while later, Eva walked into Derrick’s office with a file, which she handed to him. "This is from the Forsythe’s," she said with a smile. "You’re going to need it for your meeting with them later today."

He was looking exceptionally sexy that day, she thought to herself, with his jacket hanging up behind him, sitting in his chair with his button-up shirt and a silk tie and silk vest on. It did nothing to hide the muscular physique beneath the material, and she was appreciative of it while trying not to be obvious about looking at him.

He raised his eyes from the screen of his laptop, and she watched with warming cheeks as his gaze stopped at her ankles and slowly rose up her figure to her eyes. She could see that he hadn’t intended to take her all in that way, as his attention had been focused on his work and he had only meant to look over at her, but there was also no hiding the fact that when he did look at her, nothing else was on his mind but her standing before him as she was.

She loved the way that it felt, seeing him staring at her body the way that he did. She had dressed for him, as she did every day, and it was a payoff in satisfaction that she could see him appreciate it. Warmth began to spread through her belly and her heart as he finally took in her eyes and her mouth.

"You’d better be careful walking around Manhattan like that. Every man who sees you is likely to fall in love with you." He gave her a wink, and she giggled. Her nerve endings tingled and enjoyed it.

"Well, I’ll be on the lookout. I don’t want all of them to fall in love with me," she teased back, giving him a wink. His cheeks turned slightly pink, and he blinked and looked away from her as she turned and walked from his office, swaying her hips just a little, just enough to make him look. When she glanced over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her, she saw that he was looking, and they grinned at one another before she closed the door.

She knew that in any other office, with any other boss, none of what they had done would be acceptable. It was a problem for a lot of women who had leering male bosses, or co-workers who expected more than they should or who demanded inappropriate things from the women that they worked with. She was definitely on the side of women getting ahead in the world without having men get in the way of it, and without them using sex for office or business politics, but in her case, in that office, working for Derrick Madison, she was enjoying it just as much as he was, and she wasn’t about to push for it to stop.

It had grown gradually between them, and when she had first started, they had both been all business. But there was a deep chemistry that she felt toward him, something wild and hungry that ignited in the depths of her, and it hadn’t taken long at all to see that he felt something similar for her as well. There was no denying a mutual attraction, and that had led to the point they were at, where they both flirted with one another in the office, though it was nothing more than that, and both of them enjoyed it immensely.

She had no idea where it would go, but she was fine with it being where it was, and so was he. She returned to her work and tried to keep her mind and thoughts on what she was doing. The day passed by, and later that afternoon, when he had finished a phone call, he buzzed her into his office.

Eva walked in and closed the door of his office behind her. "What can I do for you?" she asked, going to the edge of his desk.

He smiled up at her. "Well, I just had an unexpected phone call. The meeting I had with Parker Bennett has moved from Boston to the Bahamas, if you can believe that. He’s a little spontaneous like that, sometimes. I guess he decided to take off to the islands for a month. The deal we’re working on with him has to be signed before the end of the week. If we want to get it done, and we do, we’re going to have to go down to the Bahamas and chase Parker down and get him to sign it there. We have to complete this deal. There are about five thousand jobs on the line for it."

Derrick leaned back in his chair a little bit, looking her in the eyes. "I don’t mind going down there myself, at least it’s someplace beautiful. I will need your help down there, though, and I have to ask if you’d mind going with me."

Excitement flooded through every one of her veins as she realized what he was asking. She could not stop the grin that took over her face. "Well, yes, of course I’ll go! Who wouldn’t want to go to the Bahamas? I’ve never been anywhere before, and it would be amazing to be there! Thank you! I’d love to!"