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“Yes, I can resist you. At least I hope I can. You seem pretty dangerous to me.”
“I am not dangerous. I am a pussy cat.”
“I’ve always been a dog-person,” Anne replied. “You can trust your dog. But a cat can be purring in your lap one minute and digging his claws into your leg the next.”
“Do not worry,” he countered. “This cat has no claws. Very safe.”
Anne laughed. “I don’t think I believe you!”
“I can show you how safe I am. You will like this cat. Will you give me a chance?”
“I don’t know.”
“Earlier I was thinking that this week would be boring. A boring week of business, a long boring time. But now I am thinking that a week is too short. I am thinking a week is not enough time to spend with such a beautiful woman.”
“Beautiful woman… Now I know I’m getting a line.”
Henri’s eyes widened. “You do not know? You do not know you are beautiful? Your eyes are so dark that I could get lost in them. I’ve never seen such eyes.”
“Henri, you’re a smooth-talker. But I’ve been warned about French men. You’ll lead me on and break my heart.”
Henri put his hand over his heart. “Never! For you I would give up my wandering ways. For you—”
“Henri!” a stern voice spoke from across the room. Steven Gherring was glaring from his office doorway. “I see you’ve met my PA. Now if you’re ready to get to work…”
Henri turned toward Gherring’s office, then leaned back and whispered urgently. “I do not know your name.”
“It’s Anne,” she whispered back, despite her boss’ glower.
“Perhaps we could have lunch together,” Henri said over his shoulder as he walked away.
Gherring’s voice was scolding. “We’ll be meeting through lunch today, Henri. If you worked as hard on your business negotiations as you do on your flirtations, you’d probably have a much better report for me.” They disappeared behind the heavy wooden doors.
Anne realized her face was warm. She’d enjoyed the playful exchange with the handsome French stranger. He wasn’t really her type. Did she even have a type anymore? Anyway, it was a harmless exchange. Like he’d said, he was only in the country for a week. Nothing serious would ever come of it. But hadn’t she come to New York for a bit of adventure?
The morning flew by as Anne wrestled with all the travel plans. Three more men and two women had arrived to join with Gherring in the conference room adjacent to his office. When Anne entered the conference room to set up the PowerPoint, she noticed Henri trying to catch her eye. But Gherring blocked her view as he asked her to review the location of various presentations on the laptop. She repeated the instructions, thinking they’d just discussed those details on Friday.
“And can I get anything else for you? Would you like for me to bring everyone a bottle of water?” she asked Gherring.
“No, they can get their own waters.”
“What about lunch? Do you want me to order in for the entire group?”
“Yes, yes… That’ll be fine.” He attempted to shoo her from the room.
“I’ll just ask everyone what they want to order,” she started to skirt around Gherring, heading toward the smiling Henri.
Gherring stepped in front of her, effectively blocking her way. “That won’t be necessary, Ms. Best. Just order some of the specials from Papa’s.”
Anne returned to her desk to order lunch from Papa’s. May answered the phone and took the lunch orders, arranging delivery at twelve thirty. “So you aren’t coming down for lunch today?” May asked with a bit of a pout in her voice.
“No, I’ll be working through lunch every day this week, May. Tell Papa I’ll stop by on my way home, if the door’s open.” she knew Papa’s was only open for breakfast and lunch, except on Fridays and Saturdays.
“But you need to eat,” May protested with motherly concern.
“Don’t worry. I won’t miss my daily Papa’s special lunch. My friends are bringing lunch up to me after they eat. You remember my friend, Sam?” She lowered her voice. “Today, she’s eating lunch with a sweet young man from the office, named Tanner. Be sure you seat them at a romantic table.”
“But I thought you told me you were trying to set Sam up with your boss?”
