Be Your Everything [All for Love] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Read Free Page A

office, but one never knew. He decided to test the waters.
    “Heather is your secretary? Has she worked for you for long?”
    Grayson checked his watch and immediately appeared distracted. “It’s nearly lunch time. I have a few things to tend to. Heather? She filled in for my other secretary and when she retired I had Heather come back full-time. She’s competent, if disinterested, and level-headed, which I approve of. And she follows my rules.”
    Disinterested. Really. The last thing Manny would call Heather Graham was disinterested. A little odd perhaps, but not disinterested. That woman paid attention. Despite how subtle her observations were, he had no doubt she’d know him again, just as he’d know her. Her faint lavender fragrance piqued his senses once he’d placed it. Heather wasn’t beautiful at first glance and maybe not at the second, but he’d watched her work and catalogued every visible inch of her. And not just because he was trained to do it. She was intriguing, and that went deeper than beauty.
    Pale, nearly translucent skin, finely grained like porcelain first caught the eye. Those dark-blue eyes tilted upward at the corners and danced with mirth, belying her sedate appearance and something he couldn’t yet label. A mass of dark blonde hair was casually clipped on top of her head toward the back of her crown, and wispy tendrils drifted around her cheeks, drawing attention to the sweet curve of her nape. He experienced an absurd urge to press a kiss right there.
    Heather had a short little nose above a full upper lip, a duck mouth, Manny thought it was called. The faint impression of an overbite poked his libido, and when her little white teeth worried at her slender bottom lip he’d itched to soothe the mark with his tongue and maybe some other body part best unnamed. Shit. Focus. He wasn’t going to think about the apple-size breasts covered by a soft blue sweater, or the rounded ass beneath the modest black skirt. Or the way her calves flexed and flowed into the tidiness of her ankles above slender feet tucked into shiny black pumps with peep toes. Nuts.
    He thanked Grayson and wondered that the man hadn’t seen the spirit simmering in his secretary. If Heather Graham blithely followed the rules, Manny would eat his thoughts. He’d eat them anyhow, because this was a serious investigation and if Heather Graham wasn’t pertinent to the case, he didn’t need to get close to her. He bet she had Grayson’s number and spun circles around him.
    “I won’t ask you to join me for lunch, Bourke. Prior commitments. But Heather can recommend a place, I’m sure. Or perhaps she can take you. I’ll see you this afternoon at some point.”
    Manny followed Grayson into the outer office, quietly elated at the idea of Heather Graham acting as his personal guide. It wouldn’t hurt to have a pseudo spy in Grayson’s camp, although he’d have to be careful. It was a big city, but people knew him here, and not as a tech rep from out of town. He stared at the empty desk. No Heather. Both he and Grayson checked their watches in a parody of synchronism. Manny was certain his face sported the same expression of chagrin, if for a different reason.
    “I suppose it’s close enough to twelve,” Grayson muttered. “Heather usually waits for me and we leave together. She’s probably meeting up with that friend of hers from Accounting Services.”
    The distaste in Grayson’s voice was evident and Manny filed it away. The man wasn’t oblivious to what went on around him after all, so maybe it was Heather Manny read incorrectly. And why was he focusing on her? Grayson was the priority. He held a responsible, important position and despite his calm, professorial manner, the guy also paid attention. He wasn’t just about the dry-as-dust data and statistics. Grayson held the purse strings, too, which made him front and center in the investigation. He had access to everything, and Meredith Fox had been his