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From the corner of his eye he noticed Mike’s head swivel in their direction again. He hadn’t meant it to come out like a declaration, but Gina didn’t seem to notice as her chest heaved with another deep inhale.
“It’s twelve thousand dollars,” she informed him, her voice low and stiff. After a quick sideways glance toward the conference table, she said, “Maybe to you money isn’t a concern, but as you know, I don’t have twelve grand to toss around at will.”
Crap. In keeping up with appearances, he’d come across like an insensitive jerk. “Can they bill me like the gallery did?”
“No, because that was a favor for me, not you. These pieces are one of a kind so the company requires payment upfront.”
Force of habit had him reaching for his back pocket, but of course, he didn’t carry his wallet on him when he was home. “My credit cards are in my wallet on my dresser. I’ll have to—”
“You want me to run and grab it for you?” Liz offered from across the room.
Dean glanced up in surprise. Almost immediately, he had to fight a frown at the thought of her casually offering to go into his room in front of Gina. It shouldn’t matter since she not only assisted him with work matters, but she also cooked and cleaned for him—including his bedroom. Still, after Gina’s girlfriend assumption the night before, he found he didn’t like it sounding like he and Liz were overly familiar.
“Don’t bother,” Gina said before he could answer.
He looked down to see her scribbling on a clean sheet of paper. She ripped off the bottom part of the sheet with the writing and left it on his keyboard as she stood with the legal pad in hand.
“I have to go, but you can either call, text, or email me the number. I’ll make the purchase this afternoon.”
Dean followed her from the office to the front door as contradictory emotions once more warred within him. He knew all the reasons he needed to be extra careful where she was concerned. She was desperate for money. She was connected to Jack Brady. He needed to concentrate on saving his business right now. Last, but certainly not least, he was too damn attracted to her. That had been heavily reinforced with the accidental touch of their hands.
Static energy may have caused that spark, but it didn’t cover the supercharged state of awareness he seemed to ascend to whenever she was near.
His brain recognized the danger his body seemed to crave, and yet anticipation made his pulse skip as he asked, “Will you be back tomorrow?”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” She paused with a hand on the door handle. “Much of my initial work for the next couple days won’t require me to be here.”
“Before you do too much, I’d like an estimated budget so I ca
n either set you up with a separate credit card, or an account to make purchases from.” He watched her closely, but her expression gave no indication how she felt about having access to his money.
“Do you have an amount you’d like me to stick close to?”
“Not really.” That triggered a frown, and he quickly clarified his flippant words. “I mean, I trust you won’t waste my money, but don’t bother with anything that isn’t good quality, either.”
“That’s a given,” she assured him with a smile. “I can probably work something up by tomorrow and email it to you.”
“I’ll have my assistant in the office set up the expense account after I’ve reviewed it.” It wouldn’t be quite that simple, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Thank you. I’ll plan on being back out here on Thursday to do some painting in the guest rooms.”
She opened the door and stepped outside as he gripped the edge of the door in his fingers. The spring sunshine picked up fiery red highlights as her ponytail swayed with each step. Not wanting to be caught watching her, he moved back to close the door.
“Dean.”
She’d stopped and faced him, and his fingers tightened as he halted the door mid-swing.
“Yeah?”
“Why did Mike think my name was Cindy?”
The unexpected question left him with nothing but the truth. He grinned with his light shrug. “Cinderella dashed off and left a slipper behind. You left your sweater.”
Chapter 9
Cinderella.
The name bounced around in her head the next afternoon as she tried to concentrate on the estimated figures in her budget proposal.
