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“Thank me?” he asked cautiously, and she nodded.
“For this demonstration.” He drew back, frowning Susannah saw her chance and took it, ducking out from under his arm, smiling coolly as she danced away. “In fact, since—as you pointed out—I made a few public comments about you, I’ll be happy to also make a public retraction.”
“A retraction?”
She nodded. She had him now. Oh, the confused look on his handsome—if you liked the type—face! “It will be my pleasure to tell the world that I was wrong. You are most definitely not studly.” She eyed him up and down. “I don’t think you could turn a real woman on if you tried.”
His face went white, and something that sounded suspiciously like a growl broke from his throat. Warning sirens shrieked in Susannah’s head, but she wasn’t about to stop.
“But I’ll stand behind everything else I said about you. You’re an arrogant SOB, and now that we’ve met, I understand your propensity for blondes. Dumb ones, I mean. Let’s face it, Mr. Romano. They’re the only ones who’d put up with your overinflated ego.”
That last sound had definitely been a growl. He was moving, heading toward her, with a glint in his eye that was truly terrifying.
Susannah picked up speed. It wasn’t easy, making for the door while going backward, especially since she’d left one sneaker behind, but she kept going until she figured she hac only to reach back to touch the doorknob.
“As for this job, and your magazine, you know what you can do with them, Mr. Romano. Oh, by the way, my surname isn’t Clinton. It’s Madison, as in James Madison, the fourth president of the United States—if that’s not too much for you to remember. When you write out my severance check please make it out properly, to Madison. Susannah Madison Capital M, a, d, i, s, o, n.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it. Studliness had given way to fury, and the sight warmed her heart.
“Goodbye, Mr. Romano. Have a nice—Whoa!”
Susannah’s bare foot went down on something soft and slippery. In the blink of an eye, she was airborne.
CHAPTER THREE
IT ALL seemed to happen in slow motion.
The woman with one sneaker. The jelly doughnut on the floor—
The pratfall.
Matthew leaped into action, coming up behind her, catching her in midair before she could hit the floor.
There hadn’t seemed to be much to her, as far as he’d been able to see. She was small and skinny, not curvy the way woman ought to be. But she was a full armload. Her weight as she fell against him, had enough force to knock the breath out of them both.
“Ooof,” he gasped, as his arms closed around her.
He lurched, staggered, tripped over his own feet. Susanna gave a thin shriek. She turned, and her arms closed around his neck, and whatever air he might have drawn in to replace what he’d exhaled never made it to his lungs.
What could a man who is being choked to death say to the woman who was choking him?
“Aagh,” Matthew said, backpedaling wildly.
Overbalancing, they skated in reverse, smashed into the table, careened off a cabinet and fell into the unforgiving embrace of the high-backed armchair Matthew had been sitting in before Susannah Madison had come marching through the door.
The chair groaned, flew backward and glanced off the table. A lamp went down with a crash, followed by the telephone which made a sad, tinkling sound as it hit the floor.
And then, mercifully, there was silence.
But just for a second.
Somebody pounded on the closed boardroom door.
“Suze?” Claire’s voice was shrill. “Suze, are you okay?”
Matthew dragged one of Susannah’s arms from around his neck.
“She’s fine,” he called.
Susannah glared at him. “I’m not—”
He clamped a hand over her mouth
“You want them to see this mess?” he hissed, his mouth at her ear. “Do you have an explanation that’s going to keep everybody out there from figuring we just slugged it out?”
Susannah threw a wild look around the room. Papers were strewn across the floor. The heavy conference table stood at an angle to the wall. The lamp had shattered, and the telephone was emitting a pathetic bleep. And on top of all that, here she was, sitting cozily in Matthew Romano’s lap.
She wrapped her hand around his and lifted it from her mouth.
“Everything’s fine, Claire,” she called. “Just fine.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.” Positive? The room looked as if an inmate had rearranged the furniture in the asylum. For a second, Susannah wanted to burst out laughing.
“Mr. Romano, ah, Mr. Romano had a little accident, that’s all.”
“Mr. Romano had an accident?” Matthew whispered indignantly.
A tremor raced along her skin as his breath tickled her ear.
“He, um, he backed into the table. And, uh, some stuff fell down.”
There was silence. Susannah could imagine the way Claire and the rest would be looking at each other.
“Okay,” Claire said finally, “but if you want me, I’ll be right in my office.”
Susannah nodded. “Yeah,” she muttered, “great.”
Footsteps tapped down the hall. She waited a moment and then cleared her throat.
“You can let me up now, Mr. Romano.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“What’s with the martyred tone of voice, Madison? This mess wasn’t my idea, you know.”
“Well, it certainly wasn’t mine!”
“No. That’s true enough. Attempting a crash landing on your butt was definitely your idea.”
Susannah glared at Matthew, and he glared back. Oh, hell, she thought. He was right. If he hadn’t managed to grab her, to break her fall…
“I suppose there’s some validity to that,” she said stiffly.
“Is that supposed to be a thank-you?”
Susannah blew out a breath. A dark curl lifted on her forehead.
“Very well. Thank you.”
Matthew grinned. She’d said the words as if he were an executioner who’d just offered to cut off her head with a newly sharpened blade instead of a dull one.
“You see? It didn’t hurt, did it?”
“Don’t push it, Mr. Romano,” she said, fixing him with a cold eye. “You got your thank-you. Leave it at that. I don’t suppose you’d believe I’m not usually so clumsy.”
“Actually, Miss Madison, you stepped on something.”
Susannah shifted her weight and looked at him. Not a good idea, Matthew thought. Shifting like that, while she was sitting in his lap. Whatever had made him think she was skinny? She wasn’t an armful, he had to admit, but skinny? Not with those firm breasts brushing against his chest. Not with that nicely rounded little bottom against his thighs.
“Stepped on what?” she said.
Matthew frowned, cleared his throat and dragged his mind back to the conversation.
“A jelly doughnut.”
Susannah’s brows shot skyward. “A jelly—” Delicate waves of pink surged into her cheeks. “Oh, damn.”
“Yup. You might say that you really put your foot into it this time.”
He knew the image would be forever etched into his memory. Susannah, figuring she’d leveled him with a barrage of words, making for the door with a clever exit in mind until one sneakerless foot came down on the doughnut and she executed a takeoff that could have only been improved by a guy with a big red nose and a clown suit.
Matthew couldn’t help it. He snorted. Big mistake. He knew it instantly, but it was too late.
Susannah’s eyes dashed.
“You find this amusing, Mr. Romano?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head, “no, certainly not. It’s just…”
Oh, hell. He couldn’t help it. He snorted again.
Her face flamed. “I was right,” she said, slamming her hand a
gainst his chest. “You really are a horrible human being! I almost broke my neck, and you sit there laughing?”
“I’m not. Laughing at you, I mean. It’s just that—”
“It was all your fault, anyway. I’d never have slipped if you hadn’t come after me.”
“Now, wait just a minute, Miss Madison. I did not—”
“You did. I should have expected it. I mean, a man like you would never let anybody get away with one-upping him.”
Matthew jerked back “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about,” Susannah said coldly. “I showed you up for the rat you are, and you couldn’t handle it. So you—you came stalking after me.”
“I what?”
“Who knew what you were going to do? No wonder I tried to get away. No wonder I tripped and fell. No wonder—”
“Either you’re a world-class liar, Miss Madison—”
“I never lie, Mr. Romano!”
“Or you’ve got an imagination big enough to fill this room!”
“Are you trying to deny that you came after me a few minutes ago?”
Matthew glared at her. “Are you trying to deny that you insulted me?”
“I just told you the truth.”
“You insulted me, Miss Madison. And you challenged my manhood.”
Susannah blinked. “Excuse me?”
