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dry on her license. I thought—I thought maybe the owner of the company had checked my grades, which were straight A’s, and decided to give me a chance even though I didn’t have any experience.”
    “And?” Harry prodded when she shut up.
    “It wasn’t my grades.” She looked down at her lap then back up again, mouth firm. “My inexperience was a big plus in his eyes. The accounts were a real mess. He hadn’t been paying all his taxes, either. It took me two years to start putting some order into his affairs. I’m surprised the IRS didn’t come down on the company, though it was working mainly for the U.S. government, so he might have had…well, friends in high places.”
    By not a flicker of an eye did Harry let on that he felt a slight prickle of unease. The only kinds of companies that worked for the U.S. government and also worked abroad were defense contractors or security companies. And he knew just about every security company in the United States.
    “In the meantime, although I was really happy to have the job and to run an office of five and manage the accounts of a multimillion-dollar company, something—something else started happening.” She swallowed convulsively. “The owner started sniffing around me. And he wasn’t taking no for an answer, you know?”
    Oh Christ, Harry thought. Here it comes. He consciously schooled his face to blandness. His default expression was a ferocious scowl he’d been told was terrifying, and he didn’t want to frighten her.
    “Yes,” he said quietly. “I know.”
    Her eyes met his. She made no bones about staring at him, assessing him, and he let her.
    It wasn’t a hardship. She had the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen, even more beautiful than those of Sam’s wife, Nicole. But where Nicole was a stunning, in-your-face beauty, a head-turner, this woman had a quieter appeal. You had to look twice to see how pretty she was, but once you did…wow.
    Keep your head in the game, Harry told himself sternly. The woman was in trouble, maybe a day away from getting seriously hurt, or worse, killed. Reflecting on her expressive sea-green eyes and creamy skin and heart-shaped face wasn’t going to help her.
    She nodded, suddenly. He had apparently passed some kind of test. Luckily, the lady didn’t appear to be a mind reader, otherwise his little spurt off the reservation mooning about her eyes would have scared her off. She was definitely not in the market for a man, that was clear. She wasn’t dressed to seduce—in fact, her clothes were cheap and rumpled. None of her movements had those unconscious come-hither overtones so many attractive women developed.
    He wouldn’t blame her if she were to try a little seduction. She was obviously here seeking protection and he was a man willing to offer it. Throw a little sex into the mix, get him on board, bind him. Made sense.
    But the vibes that were coming from her were anxiety and fear and a sort of dogged determination, not Protect me and I’ll make it worth your while.
    She breathed deeply. “He, um, stopped by my office a lot, put his arm around me—” Her face tightened at the memory. “Pretty soon the whole company had the impression I was his—his lover, and nothing I could say could convince anyone otherwise. I’d just get these sly smiles and heavy hints that I had been hired for something other than my grades. And I sort of had to watch my words, because he was, you know, the boss .”
    “I’ll bet it got worse,” Harry said.
    She blinked in surprise. “You’re right.” As if he was this amazing wizard with a crystal ball. He wasn’t. He just knew his assholes. If Asshology were a course, he’d have a PhD in it.
    “It was bad enough having people think we were lovers, but pretty soon word got round that we were engaged .” She shuddered. “I heard he was shopping around for a ring. A big ring, because everything he does, he does big. That more or less did it. Much as I hated to leave