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Matthews to have her rattled and furious within five minutes.
    “Just get through this and you can be on vacation,” she said out loud as she grabbed her briefcase and went inside.
    “Hi, Jill,” Ashton’s assistant, Debi, said. “He’s waiting for you in his office.”
    “Thank you,” Jill said with a smile for Debi. She went up the stairs and took a right, heading for the huge office at the end of the hallway. Jill had been here a hundred times and had the same reaction every time. By the time she reached the closed door to Ashton’s office, her heart beat hard, her palms were sweaty and her stomach fluttered with nerves. Why did the thought of seeing him always undo her? It was positively maddening!
    Jill took one last moment to prepare for battle and raised her hand to knock.
    “Come on in.”
    Oh, that voice. That accent. It was positively lethal. Jill opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. When she ventured a glance at the desk, she found him sitting back in his chair, eyeing her with what seemed to be a mixture of amusement and annoyance. Good, at least they were both annoyed.
    He got up slowly and came around the desk. “Jill. Nice to see you as always.”
    She surreptitiously rubbed her sweaty palm on her skirt before she returned his handshake. It was appalling, really, the way she wanted to lean in for a better sniff of his cologne. He wore his blond hair short, and his dark suit had been cut to fit his broad shoulders.  
    “Something wrong?”
    Jill snapped out of her visual perusal to realize she was still holding his hand. She released it quickly and searched for her missing composure. “Of course not.”
    “Have a seat. Can I get you anything to drink?”
    “I’m fine.”
    Rather than sit behind his desk, he took the chair next to hers and crossed his long legs.
    Jill’s mouth went dry as she watched him move like a big cat on the prowl.  
    “Your sister has put us in one hell of a fix,” he said in that Tennessean drawl that made her go stupid in the head, but only when it came from him. She heard that accent a hundred times a day from others, but no other voice was quite like his.
    “She feels bad about it.”
    “Is she really sick or in need of a vacation?”
    The implication that Kate was lying made Jill see red. But then she remembered the enmity between Kate and Ashton and quelled the urge to jump to her sister’s defense. “She’s yet to fully bounce back from the pneumonia. She went back to work too soon.”
    “The company’s PR people are working around the clock to deal with the fallout.”
    “It’s not Kate’s fault that the press is convinced she’s strung out on drugs, and besides, that’s not what this meeting is about. The fact is, she wants a few months off, and it’s our job to make that happen.”
    “It’s your job to make that happen. My job is to keep Buddy’s company from getting sued because your client is a flake.”
    “That’s completely unfair and unwarranted, Ashton, and you know it. She’s one of the hardest-working performers in the business, and she is ill . I’d like to see you try to put on a two-hour concert when you can barely breathe.”
    “Fine,” he said begrudgingly. “If you say she’s sick, she’s sick. I’ll do what I can to keep her from getting sued, but no promises.”
    “I hope you’ll do as much for her as you’d do for any of Buddy’s artists.”
    At that, his expression hardened. “What’s that supposed to mean? I treat all our artists the same, but my job is to protect Long Road Records from exposure. Your sister has exposed us to tremendous liability.”
    “I’m going to keep saying it until you hear me—she is sick . If anyone tries to sue her for breach of contract, we can provide documentation from the hospital in Oklahoma City.”
    “I’d like to have that for the file.”
    “Fine, I’ll fax it to you when I get home.”
    “Fine.”  
    His sleepy-looking green eyes took a