by Janzen, Tara
Fascinated and strangely wary, she let her gaze travel up the reptilian profile and down the crested rows of gilt scales. The animal was the essence of power, a force to be reckoned with, snaking across the cinnabar carpet and through a bank of white clouds in all its golden glory. And it was chained, collared at the neck by a broad iron band.
Dr. Liu discreetly cleared her throat, and Jessica’s eyes flicked up. She knew she either had to leave or have a reason to stay. With the other woman moving about the large room with more familiarity than Jessica could claim, leaving was the only sensible option. When the shower was turned off in the adjoining room, leaving became the preferable option.
With one last intrigued look at the dragon, she closed the doors and walked back to her desk. She felt like she’d passed a horrendously complicated test of nerves and composure, something along the lines of “Can a person sit in a room by herself for two weeks and not have a heart attack when the intercom suddenly comes to life?”
Her smile returned in triumph. She’d passed with flying colors. Her “Yes, Mr. Daniels. I’ll send her right in,” had been delivered with unruffled efficiency, despite sweating palms and a still-jumping pulse. As soon as Dr. Sharon Liu left, she and Mr. Daniels were going to have to straighten a few things out. Outrageous salary or not, she wasn’t going to spend her whole career waiting to say “Yes, Mr. Daniels” once a month.
An hour later her pulse had slowed to a near-comatose rate, she’d memorized a full quarter page of stock prices, and she’d decided she was leaving Daniels, Ltd. no matter what Cooper Daniels came up with as an explanation for his unorthodox behavior. She’d earned the right to be more than some old man’s glorified secretary.
Besides, there wasn’t any irreplaceable prestige in working for a company and a man no one had ever heard of, especially if the company was on the skids—which, given her work load and despite her salary, she was beginning to suspect. If Daniels was going to go bankrupt, he’d have to do it without her. She needed her outrageous paycheck, every penny of it.
Her MBA from Stanford University had not come cheap, emotionally or financially, but it had been the best chance she’d had of getting off the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. Stanford had been a chance to pull her life together after a dismal divorce, a chance to come home to San Francisco with her children.
Now she owed a bundle to Stanford and the government, and to her family for all their help. She couldn’t afford to take a chance with Daniels, Ltd.
Before she left, though, she was going to ask her employer about the chained dragon. A man didn’t have something like that splashed all over his carpet without its having some significance. What that significance might be, she couldn’t begin to guess. But it meant something, something powerful. She knew it. She’d felt it.
“Ms. Langston? Cooper Daniels. I’d like to see you in my office.” His surprisingly strong voice sounded on the intercom again without warning, startling her into another minor stroke.
Damn the man. She pressed a hand to her chest for a few seconds to calm her heart before pushing the response panel.
“Yes, Mr. Daniels,” she said, silently swearing it would be the last time the words passed her lips. “I’ll be right in.”
She didn’t know what to expect, but she knew what he expected. Mrs. Crabb had been very explicit about the high level of professionalism and creative intelligence required by Cooper Daniels, about the value of thinking on one’s feet and being able to roll with the punches. Jessica had never doubted her supply of any of those attributes—until she stood outside the dragon-carved doors and prepared to meet the man who had kept her cooling her heels for ten-and-three-quarters working days.
The instant she stepped inside his office she realized she hadn’t done nearly enough preparation. On the other hand, she consoled herself, nothing could have prepared her for the sight of a man who was young, healthy . . . and naked.
And that, she realized, was why most of her classmates at Stanford had opted for jobs with Fortune 500 companies or on Wall Street. At certain levels of success, people tended to take a bit more care with their appearance, most of them being dressed to impress—the operative word being “dressed.”
Dr. Liu ignored her presence and continued working her hands down the warmly bronzed expanse of back bared to the California sunshine. The man was lying on a massage table that had been set up beneath the windows. His head was buried in his arms with nothing showing except an unruly mop of sun-streaked light brown hair. A discreetly placed sheet covered him from waist to thigh, but Jessica didn’t have any doubts that he was naked underneath it—and she was mesmerized despite herself.
“There are two leather folders on my desk, Ms. Langston,” the man said without lifting his head, confirming his identity as Cooper Daniels. His voice was unmistakably the one she’d just heard on her intercom. “The green one is mine. The red one is yours. Please familiarize yourself with the information in the red folder.”
Jessica nodded in agreement, but made no move to comply, her gaze fixed on the sleek, powerful lines of his body. He was beautiful, like a sated animal in repose, oblivious to watching eyes and social decorum.
The curves of muscle in his arms flowed down from strong, broad shoulders to square, masculine hands. Dr. Liu moved to massage his legs, and Jessica’s gaze followed as the other woman’s long, slender fingers kneaded and soothed his well-muscled thighs.
Jessica swallowed softly, suddenly feeling overly warm. The Cooper Daniels in the painting was obviously a much older relative of the man in Dr. Sharon Liu’s inestimable care.
“There is a stock offering on a company in Jakarta,” her employer said. “They’re trying to buy themselves into a major building project, a resort. I want you to find out the names of everyone involved in the project and then get me a rundown of their other financial investments.”
She nodded again, embarrassingly dumbstruck, but able to rouse herself enough to step over to the desk. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she became immediately aware that she was walking on the dragon. She made an unconscious move to keep from putting her foot into its fiery mouth. Another sidestep kept her from pressing into the iron-gray band around its neck. It was then that she noticed the words inscribed on the collar. Still heading toward the desk, she turned in a half circle to get the golden letters upright in her line of vision.
By Love Alone, she read, her eyebrows drawing together in disbelief as she came to a stop beside the desk. She read the words again to make sure she’d gotten them right. Then her gaze moved onward, to the golden chain attached to the collar. The gilt links wound their way through silver-lined clouds, until they broke free and found the dragon’s master.
Her first thought was that not even love would enable such a delicate creature to hold the beast at the other end of the chain.
Behind her, Cooper Daniels groaned, a soft sound rumbling up from deep in his chest, and Jessica felt a disconcerting flush of heat sweep through her body. By Love Alone. She looked away from the white dove holding the chain in its beak and returned her gaze to the man stretched out on the table. He changed positions with languorous grace, drawing one knee up and turning his head to the other side with a deep sigh. Using a subtle move, Dr. Liu unfolded another length of the sheet before any really interesting part of him could be exposed. When he was covered, she continued to work her magic down his thighs to the backs of his knees.
“You have my most humble gratitude, lao pengyou,” he said to the doctor. His voice had grown gravelly with pleasure, sparking another wave of heat through Jessica’s midsection. The impropriety of him having a massage in her presence was nothing compared with the wild imaginings filling her mind.
He was the dragon—she had no doubts—but who was the dove? Not Dr. Liu, she knew. Despite the physical intimacy of the massage, Sharon Liu appeared to be professionally detached. She worked Cooper Daniels’s body with skill and care, but not with love or tenderness. Not with the uncomfortab
le awareness Jessica felt while watching him.
She was out of line, way out of line, and for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why he was having such a sexual effect on her. She had four brothers, an ex-husband, and a son. The male anatomy held no mysteries for her. The possibility of attraction was ludicrous. She’d been harboring a grudge against him for weeks, and she hadn’t even seen his face.
He lifted his head then, and Jessica realized she was in deep trouble.
Cooper Daniels ran a hand back through his silky fine hair and narrowed his drowsy gaze on her. “Who are you?” he asked, the sultry pitch of pleasure in his voice replaced by a hint of confusion.
“Jessica Langston.” She barely got the words out around the lump growing in her throat. She felt foolishly uninformed. Throughout her application and interviewing process, she’d never been led to expect anything like Cooper Daniels in the flesh.
The uncompromising angles and hard sensuality of his face emanated a wildness she’d never seen in any boardroom, a raw combination of threat and promise underscored by the greenest eyes she’d ever seen, eyes the color of emeralds, the color of the dragon’s. His hair was longer than she’d thought, the straight fall of it brushed haphazardly off his face. He was unshaven, with beard stubble darkening his jaw.
“Try again.” The words were delivered as a command, with all the confusion erased from his tone.
“Jessica Langston,” she repeated, holding her ground and wondering if the line of questioning was another sign of his unorthodox behavior, or another test of her nerves. She didn’t appreciate either, but knew now was not the time to call his bluff, not unless she was ready to lose. Her employer looked more than capable of eating her for lunch and needing seconds.
“I was very explicit about what I required in an assistant,” he said coldly. “You are not it. Elise Crabb assured me Jessica Langston was.”
She sensed his arrogance was as much a part of him as his breath, but he was in error. According to what Mrs. Crabb had told her, she met all of his requirements. If anything, she was overqualified for the job.
“If you will check my resume and personnel file, Mr. Daniels, you will find I am more than capable of handling the job.” She was also capable of her own arrogance, though she preferred to think of it as well-placed confidence. He wouldn’t find many Stanford MBAs with four years of experience in the Far Eastern real estate division of a major insurance company. That her experience had been gained as a glorified secretary was irrelevant given her new degree.
“No, Ms. Langston,” he said, acknowledging only her identity. “You are not capable of handling the job. What you are is a fatal error in judgment that Elise Crabb will find quite costly.”
Jessica blanched, but managed to keep her gaze steady. A fatal error in judgment? She’d never been so insulted in her life.
She was the cream of the crop, the best. The only reason she’d accepted the Daniels, Ltd. offer was because of the salary and the location. A compelling combination, she admitted, but he was still lucky to have her, and if this was a test, she’d be damned if she failed, especially in front of an audience. Dr. Liu had stepped away from the table at the first sign of dissension and was looking out the window, but there was no way for her not to hear the argument in progress.
“You are dismissed,” Cooper Daniels said after a tense silence.
“On what grounds, may I ask?” With effort, Jessica held her rising anger in check and maintained at least a veneer of professionalism. If this was a game to him, he’d gone too far. If it wasn’t, she deserved a full explanation before she threw his job back in his face.
He once again took his time in answering. But this wait was accompanied by a slow, scorching perusal of her body, from the toes of her black pumps, up the length of her black suit, to the V-neck of her cream-colored silk blouse. His gaze deliberately lingered there until she blushed. She felt touched, indecently so, which she knew beyond doubt had been his intention.
“Innocence,” he finally said, his impossibly green eyes meeting hers with all the force of a head-on collision.
The last of Jessica’s composure crumbled under the impact.
“I beg your pardon?” she finally managed to say.
“Innocence,” he repeated. “You’ve got it, and I don’t want it.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said, surprised into candor.
“It’s also the truth,” he said without apology. “You are dismissed.” He settled himself back down on the table, turning his head away from her and cradling it in his arms. Dr. Liu returned to his side and began massaging the soles of his feet.
The hell she was dismissed, Jessica thought. She’d never heard such drivel. Innocent? Her? She was the single mother of two children, who had been dumped by her husband when he had needed to “find himself,” apparently in the arms of another woman.
“As your assistant, Mr. Daniels,” she said firmly, refusing to concede anything at this point, “I have to counsel against such an unfounded, judgmental, highly subjective statement. It could cost you millions in court.”
“Not if you want a reference,” he said, then muttered a curse when Dr. Liu moved away again.
“I think you’ve underestimated my integrity.”
“And I think you’ve underestimated my authority.”
Since there was no reasonable way to counter his statement, she let it slide and chose an alternate approach.
“We have a legally binding contract, which promises a twenty-day grace period from any decision of termination unless agreed to by both parties.” She’d been tossed out on her backside once, and the experience had taught her the necessity of working with a net. The special clause was her version of a parachute. It was far from golden, but it was there.
“You’ve had your twenty days,” was his reply.
“The contract states twenty working days,” she said without hesitation, sensing victory. So help her, she would have the satisfaction of quitting. “You owe me nine days, ten if you include the rest of today.”
“I’ll give you a hundred dollars for each of them.”
She stiffened her shoulders and glared at the unseeing man who was treating her future and her integrity with such nonchalance. She couldn’t be bought off, and certainly not for a measly thousand dollars.
“Five hundred,” he said when she didn’t answer. After another long silence, he swore softly and raised himself to his elbows. He cast a long-suffering look in her direction. “Ten thousand dollars, flat severance with excellent reference.” An arrogant smile graced his mouth. “Take it, Ms. Langston. It is my final offer.”
She had not graduated at the top of her class by being either passive or pliable—or innocent, for that matter.
“I want my ten days,” she said, fully aware that she’d just had a cataclysmic change of mind. She would walk out in ten days, gladly, but she’d be damned if she let him throw her out.
Cooper respected tenacity and stubbornness. One or the other, and sometimes both, had been the only things between him and death at times. There was something to be said for being too damn stubborn to let go of a job . . . or to let go of life. He respected integrity, too, though by necessity it was usually one of the first things to go in his business, right after innocence.
He let his gaze travel the length of Jessica Langston again. She was attractive, decidedly so, but not beautiful in a classically California way. Her curves were too rounded, her mouth too determined, her posture too severe, yet there was a dangerous softness about her. She was not what he’d been led to expect. She was not what he wanted.
He was going up against the she-devil of the South China Sea, a woman without shame or fear. He needed somebody by his side who could hold her own in bad company, somebody who didn’t hesitate to win at any cost.
He’d asked for a female shark with a finely honed instinct for the jugular, and the most renowned headhunter on the West Coast had sent him an angelfish in silk. The pricey mate
rial draped Jessica Langston’s breasts, caressing their fullness. Her thick auburn hair was cut short in front, but hugged the back of her neck almost to her shoulders. The softness he refused to be responsible for appeared not in the set of her mouth, but in its generous shape.
She looked kissable, a thought so untenable that it made him smile. Cooper needed an assistant. For reasons that had everything to do with mental acuity and nothing to do with physical attributes, he wanted a woman. He did not have to hire one with great legs, pale, pretty skin, and auburn hair. He would not hire one who even remotely made him think of sex, and when he looked at Jessica Langston, the thought was far from remote.
“Ten days,” he agreed, meeting her cinnamon-colored eyes, his decision made. “You’ll spend five of them in London. Take the green folder, leave the red. It’s a long flight, Ms. Langston, and it leaves at six o’clock tomorrow morning. I suggest you go home and pack.”
Jessica nodded slightly, hoping to hide her shock. Her mind raced ahead to the hundred and one details she would have needed to take care of before she could go out to dinner and a movie, let alone cross a continent and an ocean. She was a mother, for crying out loud. A fact he would know, if he’d taken the time to check her file.
Damn the man.
She turned on her heel and picked up the green folder. She had no idea what awaited her in London, and she wasn’t about to ask Cooper Daniels. He’d never seen “think on your feet” the way she was going to deliver it. So help her, when she got back, he’d be begging her to stay—which would give her the ultimate satisfaction of saying no. She’d bet everything she owned that he didn’t hear that word nearly often enough from the female of the species.
