Daring to Trust the Boss (Harlequin Romance) Read Free

needed to have done.
    Satisfied, he made two conference calls. Just as he disconnected the second, his door opened.
    “I’m sorry—”
    Temper rumbled through him. It was one thing to be clueless about the etiquette of an executive office, to need some experience. It was another to be rude and open a door without knocking. “What are you doing?”
    “I don’t know how to operate the space shuttle’s worth of computer equipment you refer to as a phone, and a call—”
    He sighed. “You’re supposed to screen calls. I don’t talk to just anybody who phones. Go find out who it is. Take their number. I’ll decide if I’m calling back.”
    Her mouth thinned. Her pretty blue eyes filled with storm clouds.
    Fine. He didn’t like wimps. But he also didn’t like interruptions. And there was no better way for an assistant to learn that than by having to go back to her desk and apologize to a caller.
    “It isn’t a caller. At least not a call for you. The security guard in the lobby is on the line. You have a guest.”
    “Same instructions. I don’t see people who just drop in. Call the lobby, tell them to get the person’s name and if I want to I will call him back and schedule an appointment.”
    “Okay. I guess that means you don’t want to see Maria Bartulocci.”
    His head snapped up. “What?”
    “Maria Bartulocci is here. She wants to know if you have time for her. I guess the über-rich don’t just know how to keep themselves out of the limelight. They also drop in unexpectedly.”
    He replaced the receiver of his phone. “Tell them to send her up. Then get a notebook. I want you to sit in and take notes.”
    She nodded and raced back to her desk.
    Missing experienced, polite, sophisticated Betsy, Tucker ran his fingers through his hair. Two minutes later the elevator bell rang. He listened as Olivia greeted Maria and sighed with relief when she was nothing but polite and efficient.
    Thick cloying perfume reached him long before dark-haired, dark-eyed Maria did. Tall and regal, educated at Harvard, and well-versed in art and music, Maria was exactly the kind of woman Tucker liked to be seen with. Arm candy with a brain.
    “Tucker, how sweet of you to make time for me.”
    * * *
    Vivi almost gagged. Holy cow on the cologne, but calling Tucker Engle sweet? This woman obviously wanted something.
    “I’m sorry for the wait.” He glanced at Olivia, then smiled at Maria. “A little miscommunication with my assistant.”
    Vivi shook off the insult of that. He hadn’t told her any of his preferences, especially not about calls. But he probably assumed she knew those kinds of things, which meant she’d have another assignment that night. Not only did she have to figure out how to stifle her tongue, but she’d have to call her mom, a lifelong administrative assistant, to learn a bit about working for the top banana of a company.
    “I’m thrilled you decided to drop in on us.” Tucker seated Maria with him on the sofa and motioned for Vivi to sit on the chair beside it.
    She opened her notebook.
    Maria smiled at her. “No need to record our conversation, darling.”
    “Miss Prentiss isn’t going to record our conversation, just the salient points.”
    Laughing, she patted Tucker’s knee. “Is your memory that bad, Tucker?”
    He slid his arm across the sofa, and nearly around Maria. “There are three of you. I’m going to talk with all of you and compare stories.”
    Her lips turned down into a pretty pout. “Really? You don’t trust me?”
    He chuckled. “A man doesn’t get to where I am without having fail-safe mechanisms in place. Miss Prentiss is one of them.”
    Maria’s gaze crawled over to her.
    She took in Vivi’s khaki trousers and simple white blouse. Then the long strawberry blonde hair Vivi had put into a ponytail that hung over her shoulder.
    “I see.”
    A flush crept up Vivi’s neck to her cheeks. As if the condescending appraisal wasn’t bad enough, Maria Bartulocci’s