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said.
    “She’s my assistant. You will be calling her every morning by ten with any new groups you’ve identified.”
    “Got it. There’s not much going on here tonight. But the deejay has a tip for us on a hot new group. Once he takes a break, he’s going to come and meet us.”
    “Sounds good,” Henry said.
    “I’m going to make the rounds, see if there are any artists here tonight that you should meet,” Roger said.
    He excused himself and left the table. Astrid realized that Henry wasn’t going to ease into his new job but had already hit the ground running. Unlike Daniel, he knew how to delegate. Henry wasn’t all about himself.
    “Why are you watching me like that?” he asked.
    “You aren’t going to follow Roger or send me after him?”
    “Why should I? He knows what’s expected of him and he’s never let me down.”
    She shook her head. “That kind of attitude is different.”
    Henry nodded. “Everything I need to know about life I learned on a rugby pitch.”
    “Truly?”
    “Indeed. The first thing I learned is that if you don’t trust your teammates then you don’t trust yourself. You can’t be everywhere. So you must surround yourself with like-minded people.”
    “So many people in this business are…elbows out. You know, always trying to shove themselves to the front of the line. When I worked for Daniel and Mo Rollins there was always a list of calls to be made just to make sure that people were doing what they were supposed to do.”
    Henry leaned in closer. “Is that one of the reasons why you left?”
    “No. It isn’t,” Astrid said.
    Henry put his arm around her shoulder and drew her back against the banquette. “I can’t be successful until I know every member of my team—their strengths and their weaknesses.”
    “I don’t have any weaknesses from my past that you need to worry about, Henry. I’m telling you everything you need to know about me.”
    Henry stroked one finger down the side of her face and she shivered. She wanted to rebuild her life and she couldn’t do that if she was lusting after him.
    “Let me be the judge of that,” he said.
    It took just those few words to convince her that he wasn’t the easygoing guy he wanted the world to think he was. Henry Devonshire was a man used to getting his way. And right now that meant he was going to try to uncover her secrets.
    Her secrets .
    She had so many. And she knew there was no way in hell that she was going to trust Henry Devonshire with them. Men had let her down. Not her dad. No, her pop was a stand-up sort of guy. But the men—man—she’d met since she’d left home…Daniel Martin had broken her ability to trust. He had shown her that not all men rewarded her trust in them.
    “Not just yet,” she said.
    He nodded and sank back into his own chair. “You don’t trust me.”
    “I don’t know you,” she said. That was one lesson she had learned. Not everyone she met had the same feelings of loyalty toward their friends that she did. And until she really had Henry’s measure as a man, she wasn’t about to trust him.
    When she’d first started her affair with Daniel, she’d known it was risky to be involved with her boss, but the thrill of falling in love with someone as dynamic as Daniel had offset that. More than that, she’d also had her belief that Daniel was falling for her. And that made the risk more manageable—only after she found herself dumped by Daniel and pregnant with his child did she realize that her sense of loyalty was different than his.
    “Point conceded,” Henry said. “What do you think of this deejay?”
    “He’s okay,” she said. “His sound is very funky and modern, but there’s nothing to make him stand out from any of the other clubs.”
    “I agree. He’s just one of the crowd, but he does have a good ear. We’re looking for artists who can stand out in the crowd whether they are loved or hated, as long as they are noticed. I’m going to chat with him