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promised.” Waiting for Simon’s answer, she realized she would never have made the same request of his cousin, Eric Brant.
    â€œWhat time is the show on?”
    â€œAt one o’clock.”
    Simon twisted his wrist so he could see the face of his ultra-sleek hi-tech watch. “That’s in less than an hour.”
    â€œI suppose you want to conclude the meeting as soon as possible so you can get back to your project.” She’d just have to have Jillian Fed-Ex the tape of the program.
    Simon shook his head. “It’s important to keep promises to friends. I don’t mind taking a little break. I’ve never seen a soap opera, excuse me, daytime drama before.”
    That didn’t surprise her, his intended desire to watch Jillian’s show with her did. “You don’t have to watch it with me,” she assured him.
    â€œI wouldn’t miss it.”
    â€œThank you.” It seemed to be the thing to say. “Would you like me to start going over some of the figures for the merger?”
    â€œI prefer not to discuss business while I’m eating. Tell me more about you. Your best friend is an actress?”
    â€œActor.” She smiled. “Actress is considered a sexist term and she’d tear a strip off you if she heard you using it.”
    â€œIt’s fortunate she isn’t here to have heard my faux pas then, isn’t it?” Silver flecks of humor twinkled in his gunmetal gray eyes.
    â€œShe’s a little militant,” Amanda admitted.
    â€œWhat about your family?”
    â€œWhat about them?”
    â€œI presume they aren’t all actors.”
    Actually they all had a fair amount of acting ability. “My parents own a real estate agency in Carlsbad. My brother is a lawyer.” And the most accomplished actor of them all.
    â€œNo sisters?”
    â€œNo. What about you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œNo sisters?”
    â€œNo brothers either.”
    She knew his father had died in a plane crash with Eric’s father several years ago. “What about your mom?”
    Simon’s face went blank. “She died of ovarian cancer when I was ten.”
    She sensed the loss still affected him deeply and that touched her. If her mother died, would her father and brother even bother telling her about it? Yes, for appearance’s sake, probably. Not because anyone in her family felt that connected to her. She was the cuckoo, unwanted and unloved by her parents, dismissed by her brother.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she said to Simon and meant it.
    â€œThank you.”
    â€œEric told me you got your Ph.D. when you were nineteen. That’s very impressive.”
    He shrugged. “Intelligence is something you are born with. My mother and father encouraged me not to squander mine.”
    â€œBut to have accomplished so much by such a young age.”
    Instead of answering, he reached toward her and she watched in mesmerized fascination as his darkly masculine hand came closer and closer to her chest. She couldn’t seem to open her mouth to protest, nor could she move.
    He stopped, his fingers a centimeter from her body. “You’ve got a noodle here.” Then he pulled the offending piece of pasta off the lapel of her jacket without so much as brushing her chest with the backs of his fingers.

Chapter 3
    I t hadn’t been a fluke. Simon’s reaction to Amanda was as devastating today as it had been in his cousin’s office.
    And Amanda was just as affected.
    She’d thought he was going to touch her. He could see it in the dilation of the black centers in her eyes, in the way her breath had caught and held, pushing her beautiful curves into prominence. Yet she hadn’t protested, hadn’t moved.
    She wanted him.
    Perhaps as much as he wanted her.
    But he couldn’t let it happen. Not yet, probably not ever.
    In the current situation with his family’s company, she was the enemy. He