"Mace!" she chirped. "I have some great news." Mace rushed out to greet her while I stood up more slowly. My panties were soaking wet. I tried to rearrange my skirt as best I could, but I still felt the aftereffects of his hand on me, and I was wobbly in my heels.
"Oh, Josie," Tara said. I could tell from her face she knew immediately what we had been up to. The petty part of me was glad.
"I was just telling Mace that I took the liberty of finding him a new assistant," she said.
"You did?"
"Since Josie is so busy with the marketing project," Tara said, "you still need an assistant. I have the perfect person. She's just outside."
Mace nodded.
Tara poked her head out of the office door and called, "Come on in, Anke."
What? Uh no. Nope. This can NOT be happening.Except it was.
"Meet Anke," Tara said as Anke strutted into the room in a black dress with a hemline that skirted on unprofessional and a pair of mile-high stilettos. "She comes highly recommended."
"Recommended by whom?" I shot out.
Mace and Tara looked at me.
"Don't worry," Anke cooed. She had dyed her blond hair brown and wore a pair of glasses that I remembered she had talked me into putting on my credit card.
"I've worked with several international banks, and I'm very familiar dealing with high-powered men." She smiled coyly at Mace. "I'm interested to see how the Svensson males do business."
44
Mace
Josie looked between Anke and Tara. I couldn't tell what was going on. Josie wasn't jealous, was she? My hand was just up her skirt, surely she could tell where my loyalties lay. But maybe not.
"Are you sure this is necessary?" I asked Tara.
"No," Josie interjected, her face dark.
"But you're busy," Tara said sweetly. "We need Josie to be successful with this marketing campaign. There's a lot of money riding on it. She shouldn't be splitting her time between you and the marketing push."
"It's just a temporary arrangement," I told Josie.
"Or maybe not!" Tara said with a laugh. "I suspect now that you've been bitten by the marketing bug, you won't want to go back to being Mace's little ol' assistant, will you?" Tara asked, turning to Josie.
Josie pursed her lips. "I just don't know if Anke is qualified."
"She has references from the Holbrooks," Tara said to me. "I talked to one of the assistants over there. I can put her on the phone with you…"
"Please don't," I said. "I would never hear the end of it if Hunter and especially Greg found out I was talking to the Holbrooks. He'd go on for weeks about us having to owe them a favor or something. If you've verified her experience, that's good enough for me."
I turned to Josie. "This could be a good thing. Your talents are much better spent elsewhere than organizing the supply closet or fetching coffee."
Josie nodded unhappily. I didn't understand what she was angry about.
"I need to go finish working on the marketing project," she said, not meeting my eye.
"But before you do," Tara said, "could you just give Anke a quick run-through of what you've been working on? Then, yes, please go back downstairs. We don't want to keep you."
Garrett knocked on the open door. Henry was next to him. For once the young boy was silent. He looked scared.
"We need to go down to the courthouse," Garrett said. "There have been developments. Meg finagled us an audience with a judge."
