I fought the sudden urge to fidget. My shoulder length hair probably looked wild after my rush to get to work on time and my near fall in the hallway. I laced my fingers together in my lap so I wouldn’t tug nervously on my skirt.

“Tell me about yourself, Cora. May I call you Cora?”

Even though it was asked as a question, it didn’t sound like one. Something told me this man rarely asked permission for anything.

I nodded, although I wanted to do the opposite. It felt too intimate, especially the way his lips seemed to caress the two syllables of my name.

“Mr. West–”

Again he raised his hand to halt my words and I found myself profoundly resenting the gesture.

“Call me Jake. I insist. Mr. Weston makes me feel ancient.”

He smiled and I wanted to drop my head into my hands in despair. If he was handsome in his solemnity, he was devastating with his lips curled, flashing a dimple at the left corner of his mouth.

It was patently unfair for a man to be this beautiful, I decided petulantly.

Five minutes in his presence already told me I would struggle to work closely with him. It wasn’t merely that I didn’t like him as a person, but my normally too logical brain felt fuzzy around him, like I had a little too much to drink.

It’s called sexual attraction, a little voice taunted and I strangled it without a twinge of remorse.

No. No. Absolutely not!

That was impossible. It was just the stress of this new job making my emotions go haywire.

Another light bulb went off. “Well… Mr. Wes… um… I mean Jake.” His name stuck in my throat for a second. “I’ve been with the company for six months, working in the General Administration department. To be honest, I didn’t have much work experience before this job. Definitely not the experience needed to be an executive assistant. But I could recommend some very qualified co-workers who could really hit the ground running!” I held my breath, hoping my sales pitch would sway him.

He leaned back in his chair. “Cora, I’m beginning to think you don’t want this job. Now why is that?”

“Oh no sir! It’s just that you’re such a busy man. And there’s so much for me to learn. I’d hate to waste any more of your time.” It took everything in me to conceal the sarcasm from my voice when I quoted his earlier obnoxious remark.

His lips twitched, but the rest of his face was entirely sober. “While that’s very… thoughtful of you to take my time into consideration, I don’t want to hear another word about you not being qualified. I’ve seen your personnel file and I’m sure you’ll do fine. When I asked you to tell me about yourself, I didn’t mean your work history.”

Shit! In that moment, I knew I wasn’t going to get out of working for him. My shoulders drooped in disappointment. It was time to polish up my resume. Hopefully I’d line up another job within the month– that was assuming I even made it through four weeks. “I’m not sure what you want to know, sir… Jake.”

“Since we will be working closely together, I’d like to know more than what’s on your resume. Where do you see yourself in five years? What motivates you? Do you have family in Chicago? Boyfriend or spouse?” He waved his hand casually.

My brows puckered in confusion. All those questions seemed too personal. “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t see how those things are relevant to my job duties.”

“I need to know your obligations in case we need to travel for work. Despite the rumors you may have heard, I’m not a complete ogre. Should you need accommodations, I need to know now.”

My forehead cleared and I relaxed. “Oh! Of course. Umm…I am the guardian of my teenage brother, Marcus, so overnight business trips may be tricky. As for other family, I don’t have any. Same for significant other.”

His eyes seemed to sharpen with interest.

Warmth crept into my cheeks under his regard and I hurried to answer the rest of his questions. “As for what motivates me– right now, it’s taking care of my brother. And in five years…” I hesitated, not sure if I should give the standard line of wanting to grow with the company– blah blah blah.

I’d probably not be here by next month.

I raised my chin and spoke clearly. “In five years, I hope to be in a place where I could go back to school to finish my college degree.”

“What did you want to study?”

“Math.”

“Ah…I thought I saw something on your resume about a year of college. MIT, wasn’t it?”

I was surprised he would remember something so obscure. “Yes."

“That’s impressive. Why did you not continue?”

Again, I paused, reluctant to share more about my personal life. “Family emergency.”

He seemed to accept my vague answer and there was even a flash of sympathy on his face. “Life has a funny way of interfering sometimes. There will be some out of town business trips, but I can have someone else accompany me.”

I was bewildered by why he would make special accommodations for me. It would be so much easier if he picked another person to be his assistant. Maybe I had to re-evaluate my initial impression of him as cold and uncaring?

“Is there anything you wanted to ask me?”

Surprised by the offer, I took a moment to formulate my question. “Why didn’t you pick someone with more experience for the position?” It had been nagging at me ever since Stewart called me into his office.

He sat forward. “Do you remember typing up the Singapore Shipping Company contract a few weeks ago?”

“Was that the company dealing with the Los Angeles office?” I squirmed. Normally, I did not remember the paperwork coming across my desk. My job was pretty unexciting; I was supposed to type what was in front of me. Generally I allowed my mind to wander, but I distinctly recalled the SSC contract because I had noticed a mistake on it. Stewart had left early that afternoon and since I was under a deadline, I made the changes without running it by him.

“Yes. Did you know what you did?”

I gulped nervously and tried to reassure myself if I had screwed up, they would have fired me weeks ago. “Um…”

He grinned at me and I almost reeled back in shock at his unexpected reaction.

“You caught a mistake and took initiative to correct it. It saved the company millions of dollars, Cora. When the attorney at the LA office pointed out the discrepancy in the revision, I was livid, but then I instantly saw the error in the figures. How did you figure it out?” He cocked his head in interest.

Relieved I wasn’t in trouble, I blew out a breath. “It wasn’t hard. The figures didn’t add up. There was no way the order could have been for six million units if the contract was for twelve million dollars. It just took some simple math to figure out that it was supposed to be sixteen million units.”

There was a look of admiration on his face and I flushed.

“I traced the work back to you. At first I was going to have Personnel give you a bonus, but I realized I needed someone with your quick thinking by my side. That was good work, Cora.”

I’d have preferred the bonus, I wanted to say, but I merely responded with a quiet thank you.

“Do you have any other questions?”

Might as well ask, Cora. I swallowed against the dryness in my throat, aware I was stepping into dangerous territory. “Could you tell me why your previous assistants didn’t work out?”

His quirked one dark brow. “I take it the gossip mills have been hard at work?”

I wisely held my tongue.

“Let’s say they did not exhibit professional behavior. When I hire an assistant, an assistant is all I am looking for. I don’t want to mix business with pleasure.” His blue-green eyes lanced into me. “I take it you wouldn’t have a problem with that, Cora?”

Any positive feelings I had about Jake Weston drowned in a wave of disgust.

“I assure you, sir. I have no aspirations on that front,” I said firmly. I tried to keep the dislike and anger from bleeding into my voice. Obviously, he was afraid I would come on to him. As if! He may be nice– okay, more than nice– to look at, but his personality left a lot to be desired.