her in a conference room to ask about her qualifications and experience. Christina, fortunately, interviewed well, and was able to convey her excellent organizational and communicative skills. She assured Ms. Stanton that she possessed the discretion and the problem-solving skills necessary to serve as a personal assistant. "Well," Ms. Stanton mused, "You do come with excellent recommendations from your agency as well as your former employers. You are short on work experience in this area, but I feel you have potential. My role is to screen the qualified applicants and forward my recommendations. Of course, the final decision will rest with Mr. Mulrooney. Please wait here." Ms. Stanton clicked out of the room on her fashionable heels, and Christina waited, wondering what was next. After three minutes or so, the door opened. In walked Ms. Stanton... followed by the man from the train.
"Mr. Mulrooney, this is Christina Jacobs. She is one of the applicants for the position, and I felt that you should meet her. Though her work experience in this area is a bit thin, she has the requisite clerical and administrative skills, and I feel she has potential," Nora Stanton said, glancing in Christina's direction.
Christina stood to greet him, stunned almost into silence. "Mr. Mulrooney," she managed to say, holding out her hand.
The man from the train took his hand in hers, causing an electric jolt to shoot straight through to the core of her. His blue eyes burned into hers. "Ms... Jacobs, is it?"
"Yes," she breathed, willing herself to stay calm.
"Nora, will you please leave us alone for a few minutes? And please make sure we're not disturbed."
"Certainly, Mr. Mulrooney," Ms. Stanton said with a quizzical look toward him. Clearly, this was not the usual protocol. She stepped out and closed the door.
"I..." Christina began, then stopped, not knowing how to continue. Devon Mulrooney did not appear at all surprised by this chance encounter. In fact, he was smiling the same sardonic way he had the morning on the train. Now face to face, she noticed how gorgeous and full his lips were, and found her breath speeding up slightly at the memory of them on her neck. He looked her up and down approvingly, "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Jacobs. May I call you Christina?"
"Of... of course..." she replied, uncertain whether she was supposed to pretend whether they had just met.
"You're even more appetizing now than you were two days ago," he teased her.
"How...?" she began, and then hesitated.
"How is it that we meet again so soon?” he finished her sentence with a slight smile. “I have been looking for a personal assistant for some time. The job requires working with me very closely, and therefore it's important that I screen all the promising applicants thoroughly. Nora brings me the files of all the possible candidates, including their Google history and their pictures. In your case, I was... intrigued."
"You mean, you were on that train on purpose on Tuesday morning?"
"Certainly," he said. "I wanted to catch you at an unguarded moment. Once I saw you, I knew there was something about you I wanted to… explore."
"But how... how did you know I would be on that trai n at that time?" she demanded.
He laughed. "Certainly you will realize that a man of my means has no trouble getting information. Nora was easily able to determine from your home address and your meeting with your staffing agency on Tuesday that you would be coming in on that train. It wasn't very difficult from there."
Christina was stunned. He, this gorgeous man, had actually planned their encounter. "You mean, you planned to..."
He laughed again. "No, not exactly," he said, rising from his chair. "But once I saw you... watched you... I knew I had to have you. I'm rather used to getting what I want, you see." He moved closer until they were close enough to touch. "But it is rare that I see something that