“Now, for these messages you took,” I said in a desperate attempt to concentrate, reaching out for the messages.

She handed them over, her fingers grazing my own. Her touch was light, fleeting, but it left a warmth on my palm that I couldn’t explain.

Thumbing through several, I nearly laughed. “You took a message from a cable company?” I asked, glancing up at her for a brief moment.

I saw embarrassment blossom across her features as she smiled sheepishly.

“I didn’t want to miss anything.”

There were several more in the pile similar to the cable company, and I immediately dumped them. I would normally yell at someone for this lack of common sense, but it somehow suited her.

The unaffected nature she seemed to possess.

It made me curious how in the world she’d ended up in a place like this… with a man like me.

“Where did you say you worked before this?” I finally asked after I’d managed to get the pile of pink slips down to a manageable few.

“I didn’t, but this is actually my first job out of college. I just graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, but I worked for the university president for several years,” she added at the last moment.

So many things clicked into place in that moment.

The conversation she’d had with the blonde from accounting, the doe-eyed look she constantly wore, and the skills she obviously needed, both in and out of the office.

And wouldn’t you love to teach her a few of those? the devil on my shoulder asked me as a vision of her in that tight green dress crept back into my mind.

Looking up at that innocent face, I let out a sigh.

This was going to be a long three months.

“So Mondays, you have a standing appointment with the VP of Finance. And on Fridays, your lunch hour is blacked out, why?” She looked up at me for confirmation. The day had progressed into evening and I was starting to feel my usual restlessness, as if my body knew it wasn’t supposed to be here at this hour.

“I usually eat at my desk unless my mother is feeling particularly needy, so I leave it booked,” I explained, paying particularly close attention to my feet as they rested on the edge of my desk. I’d placed them there as an attempt to put space between me and this new assistant. It was the only sanity I could find, having been confined with this woman for so long.

When she’d first arrived, I could have sworn she didn’t have an ounce of perfume on, but now that I’d been sitting in this room with her for what felt like hours, watching the sun set long ago, it was like I was drowning in her honey-sweet aroma.