Out-of-Office Temptation
Cathy Williams
Chapter One
ERIN’S PHONE BUZZED. She didn’t bother to look at it because she knew exactly who was texting her. That made it six texts since she had arrived at her boss’s mansion in Chelsea, where a celebratory cocktail party was currently in full swing.
Raffaele Rossi had just closed a major deal and the champagne was flowing. The company he had acquired was small but in rude health. They needed his financial clout to take the next step and he wanted them because in under three years, he anticipated their stock skyrocketing with his judicious investment, bringing yet more millions into his already healthy coffers.
More than the money, though, Raffaele Rossi would be celebrating the new challenge of taking something small and turning it into something huge. Every new acquisition had him as excited as a kid in a candy shop.
Thirty people were milling around in his living room while waiters and waitresses circulated with trays of exquisite canapés and, naturally, the finest champagne on tap.
Lawyers, most with other halves, accountants, most with other halves, the CEOs of the firm Raffaele had taken over,allwith other halves—and Erin. With no other half and text messages that kept coming through.
She caught Raffaele’s eye across the crowded sitting room and he winked at her. Erin’s mouth tightened in response, and she saw him stifling laughter.
She swiped a passing canapé and turned to one of the young lawyers next to her, a guy she had met several times over several deals. He had been trying to engage her in conversation while she distractedly banked down rising impatience with her boss. This time, she wouldn’t be making her excuses early and leaving, which was her usual approach to these dos. No, she would be sticking it out, because she intended to have a word with her boss and for once, to heck with the consequences.
Enough was enough.
‘Your phone seems to be buzzing again.’
‘I know.’ Erin smiled apologetically at Colin. He was a bit older than her, with a neat, tidy appearance that belied a sharp legal brain. She might only have met him a few times but she’d always liked what she’d seen.
‘Maybe you should just answer whoever keeps trying to get in touch.’
‘No. I won’t be doing that, Colin.’ Erin smiled at him when he reddened. ‘And I don’t mean to be rude. What do you think of the company merger? Are you exhausted after working solidly for the past week?’
‘Comes with the fat salary, doesn’t it?’ He grinned. They looked at one another in a moment of wry agreement.
‘That and loyalty.’ Erin wondered how loyal her boss would think her once she’d given him a piece of her mind.
‘Everybody knows that Rossi Holdings is the golden ticket. Pays the most and in fairness, we only have to work mega long hours now and again. People would kill for my job so even if I was collapsing on my feet, I’d know better than to complain. What do you think the next big deal’s going to be?’
‘You know I can’t breathe a word about what’s in the pipeline.’ Smiling, Erin met his eyes and made a shushing gesture with her finger over her mouth.
‘What’s it like working for Raffaele every day, Erin? I only deal with him when something like this happens and it’s all hands to the pump. Is he as tough as everyone says?’
‘Tough but fair.’
‘Tough, fair and with a different woman on his arm every other week. Sorry.’ Colin looked at his champagne flute ruefully. ‘Too much of the fine stuff. I’m gossiping.’
Erin laughed but didn’t carry the conversation further.
A different woman every other week? Maybe not quite that…but it definitely wasn’t a million miles away from the truth.
She stole a look through her lashes at Raffaele, who was standing across the room. She knew very well that if he caught her eye, he would raise his eyebrows and stifle another amused grin.
He thought Erin was dull.
Dull but incredibly capable, incredibly efficient and probably indispensable. She caught a glimpse of herself in an impressive oval mirror sandwiched between two abstract paintings. Shoulder-length chestnut hair, hazel eyes, short, straight nose and full lips. Not unattractive, she knew, but definitely not in the same ballpark as the string of women who entered and exited Raffaele’s life with monotonous regularity.
She suspected, in addition todull but incredibly capable, incredibly efficient and probably indispensable, she could likely addplain.
The perfect secretary from Raffaele’s point of view.
Certainly, before Erin had arrived four years ago, her boss had managed to burn his way through six PAs, all of whom, he had later confided, had to be dispatched because they’d ended up having a crush on him.
