“Fine. Thank you. Moving on, then. Why would you like the position here at NY Computing?”

Okay, then. Mr. Happy didn’t like to chitchat. Duly noted. Mandy crossed her leg and settled her bag on the floor and launched into the perfectly poised bullshit response that Damien was expecting.

Twenty minutes later, her answers were getting shorter, her bullshit less poised, and her stomach was doing an imitation of Chinese acrobats. He was relentless. He didn’t even give her five seconds after a response before he fired the next question at her.

And every single question seemed designed to force a confession out of her.

Why do you want to relinquish your own business and work for me?

Are you available for business travel?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

The baby she could not feel suddenly seemed like a gigantic white elephant under her skirt. She didn’t want to lie—she didn’t want to deny her child before it was even the size of a grape.

She knew it was practical to keep her pregnancy to herself, yet she still felt like standing on her chair and screaming, “I’m having a baby! I’m going to be responsible for another human being!”

But first she needed to throw up.

“Excuse me, Mr. Sharpton, where is your wastebasket?”

“What?” His head snapped up, but Mandy didn’t wait.

She dropped to her knees and stuck her face under his desktop. As she tossed her tea and toast onto his discarded coffee, it occurred to her that she had followed Caroline’s instructions. Her friend had told her to make a knockout impression, and this was certainly that.

Weak and horrified, Mandy lifted her head and found herself face-to-face with Damien Sharpton’s crotch.

“Oh, dear, God,” she whispered.

Chapter 3

He wasn’t sure why he had hired her.

Maybe it had been desperation. There had been no other candidates even remotely qualified.

Or maybe it had been admiration. She had hung in there until the bitter end, finally halting the interview by yaking into his trash can, right smack between his legs. He respected that kind of grit.

Plus, prior to that, she had handled the interview well.

And she was very nice to look at when she wasn’t throwing up, not that appearance had any bearing on his decision.

Of course, he never saw her, so that was irrelevant.

Besides, regardless of the reasons why he had hired her, she was working out quite well. She was a stellar assistant, even if she was as elusive as a taxi in the rain.

In the two months since she had started, he’d seen her approximately four times.