How could he forget his keys?
Jack was glad that his secretary hadn’t locked up and left the office yet.
He stopped dead in his tracks.
Standing in his office was a delicious-looking woman who stared straight back at him with a dazzling pair of inky-lashed green eyes that tilted exotically at the corners. Chestnut hair shot with sunlight tumbled in vivid contrast around the blue denim jacket that she wore over a skimpy top.
Jack frowned, noting a vague resemblance to his secretary. Yet…other than sharing similar height and possibly hair color, there was nothing definitive that he could quite pin down. “Keely?”
Her mini-skirt hung low on shapely hips and its funky frayed hem rippled against luscious golden thighs. Jack shook his head slowly.
“Definitely not my secretary,” Jack murmured the comical thought that flashed through his addled brain. This woman might be a cousin, niece, or sister, but no way did those legs belong to the quiet office mouse who worked the front desk!
His nostrils flared. The office smelled different, too, like delicate night flowers. His secretary didn’t wear perfume.
He glanced at the darkened monitor on her desk. Keely was nowhere to be found.
Jack glanced at the lovely stranger and surrendered a hopeless, puzzled smile. “Have we met?”
Her boss’s inquiry, coupled with his probing blue
stare, gave Keely such a panicked rush that she thought for sure he could hear the blood swooshing around her brain. Oh no, she thought, shaking her head at her stupidity. She should have locked the front door.
The dryness shrinking her throat didn’t help. She felt like she’d just swallowed the contents of a dust filter.
Time to come clean. The idea made her feel faint. Without the protection of her workday disguise, her own boss didn’t recognize her as the dowdy secretary who stayed out of his way whenever he was in the office.
“We haven’t met,” he asserted, mistaking the shake of her head.
“No, I’m…” she gulped back the tickle in her throat, as Jack waited for her to finish what she was trying to say.
“I’m her…” her throat picked that moment to seize right up, breaking off her confession.
“Cousin?”
She shook her head as she coughed, helpless, unable to correct him. After all, she’d just told him I’m her, meaning she was she; Keely!
Keely took a tissue from the box he swiped from her desk and extended to her. She dabbed at the corners of her watering eyes.
“Sister?” he queried, trying to be helpful even as he made a split-second decision for her; a choice to tell a little white lie.
Keely grabbed that moment to be the woman that could capture his interest. The way Jack Sloane stared at her made her feel really, really good. The heated masculine interest in his gaze stirred her blood and weakened her legs even as her insides wound up tight.
She nodded. He smiled.
“So you’re Keely’s sister, hmm?” He tugged a tissue from the box and moved closer to help her finish patting away the moisture running down her cheek. “All better?” he inquired gently.
Keely nodded and cleared her throat. “Yes. Th- Thanks.”
Goosebumps danced down her spine. Her lungs spasmed, suddenly desperate for air. Though Jack was circumspect in the way he dabbed the tissue on her skin, his touch and the subtle, piney scent of him frazzled and excited her down to the tips of her toes.
“I didn’t know she had family,” he continued. “She doesn’t say much. You’re both…” his gaze flashed quickly over her, “…very different.”
Keely licked her lips and nodded. She didn’t dare speak just yet.
He didn’t recognize her.