Jessica turns her smile toward me. “Tomorrow, instead of going through emails and organizing fund-raisers, we’ll take a girls’ day out. We’ll start at De la Renta and work our way down to Lanvin. Or maybe we’ll just head straight for Bergdorf’s. You’ve been such a help to me in the few days you’ve been in my employ. You’ve certainly earned a little fun.”

“She works for me!” The blood has rushed to Travis’s face, giving his normally cool complexion the heat of aggression. His eyes lock on mine. “You work for me. If you want to go shopping during the workday, you ask me!”

“I suppose it doesn’t need to be during the workday,” Jessica says, her voice now slipping back into uncertainty. “We could go after you’re done or during the weekend—”

“She needs to ask me!”

“I don’t think the labor laws would support you on that,” Lander says, his arm casually draped across the back of the couch. “She gets to decide what she wants to do in her free time.”

“Really,” Travis says flatly, turning his glare on Lander. “And what do you think she likes to do in her free time?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Lander replies easily. “We just met. All I know is that it’s her decision.” He cocks his head to the side. “Are you all right, Trav? It’s unlike you to get worked up over something so trivial as a shopping trip.”

“I’m hardly worked up,” Travis says, his voice immediately dropping back to the casually rapacious tone I’ve become accustomed to. “But I do find this whole thing a bit impulsive, even for you. Bell had a point when she asked why you would want to spend so much on a stranger.”

“Really?” Lander asks, his brow crinkling in puzzlement. “It’s certainly no more impulsive than when I took that waitress from the Millennium Club to Belize for the weekend.”

A nervous smile pulls on Jessica’s lips. She clearly finds that amusing.

I don’t. I didn’t know about the weekend in Belize.

But the reference does seem to have the desired effect on Travis. He hesitates before giving a curt nod of acknowledgment. “You’re right, your behavior isn’t surprising, just typically irresponsible. That incident with the waitress ended up costing you your membership.”

Lander shrugs nonchalantly. “If I had liked the Millennium Club, I wouldn’t have allowed them to take my membership. But as you know, it wasn’t my scene. So my behavior wasn’t irresponsible; I simply decided to take what I wanted and discard what I didn’t. And now I want to buy your assistant a dress and take her to a fund-raiser. Is that really an issue?”