How to Resist Prince Charming(24)

His gaze accidentally latched onto Tom’s disapproving glower, and Braxton quickly turned away. Suddenly, the only thing he could see was Lenna’s face, her pert nipples, silky blond hair, creamy thighs...

A trickle of sweat rolled down his spine. He took a deep breath and faced his employees. God, how was he going to do this? He swore Tom Davenport was glaring laser beams at him, frying him from the inside out.

Needing more air, Braxton tugged his tie loose. As soon as he unbuttoned the top button, however, his secretary wolf whistled.

“Wow. Nice hickey, boss,” Tasha said, making other employees snort.

Eyes widening, Braxton slapped his hand over the spot where Lenna had teasingly left a very distinct mark. The collar of his shirt had been effectively hiding it all day until he’d forgotten and opened a button.

He flashed a quick, guilty glance Tom’s way and swallowed when he saw the unimpressed frown on the older man’s face.

Quickly re-buttoning the collar, Braxton cleared his throat and tried to ignore the fact he was blushing. “Let’s get onto our first topic of business. The Trevis account.” He turned to the woman sitting three seats down on his right. “Gloria, I assigned that to you. How’s it going?”

“What?” Gloria’s face flamed bright red. “Oh, I, uh, I passed it on to Tom.”

Braxton froze. “You did?” Dear God, he was going to have to look at Tom. “Why?”

Gloria quickly glanced from him to Tom and back to Braxton. “It, uh, I was swamped with work and he’d just finished that ad sheet we sent to Consumer Reports, so...” She shrugged.

Braxton stared at her a moment, wanting to strangle her for making him turn his attention to Lenna’s father.

Hands fisting under the table, he shifted his eyes across the room. “Tom?”

Davenport leaned back in his chair, rocking as he folded his hands behind his head. “It’s going good.”

Studying the man’s face a moment longer, Braxton said, “Would you care to elaborate?”

Tom’s jaw knotted, his face darkened, and a vein bulged in his temple. “They signed the contract.”

Braxton wasn’t up for going a round with him this morning, so he merely turned away and murmured, “Good.”

He switched the topic to budgeting and the allocation of funds, thankful he didn’t have to speak to the arrogant dick through the rest of the meeting.

After they were finished and people were heading out the door, Pat Foley paused to grin at him. “Guess you had a good weekend, huh, kid?”

Braxton glanced up.

Pat winked and slugged him on the back. “Boy, do I remember when I was young and single. Good times. Good times.” He sidled closer. “But I gotta know,” he murmured confidentially low. “Was she really as frisky as it looks?”

Braxton scowled, too insulted for Lenna’s sake to even be embarrassed. He wondered what Foley would say if he knew he’d just called the very girl who’d labeled him her prince at the Christmas party, frisky. The lecherous old coot.

Eyes narrowed, he said, “I think you need to go work on the budget I just assigned you.”

Pat jerked back, surprise in his gaze. Nodding, he cleared his throat and shot out the door.

Braxton gazed after him. He didn’t realize Pat had just left him alone with Lenna’s dad until Tom spoke.

“I know your little secret.”

The papers Brax had been gathering slipped from his hands, scattering across the tabletop.

Tom knew?

His eyes about popped out of his head as he looked up. “You do?” Holy God, that was fast. How had he found out? Had Lenna told him?

Tom nodded.

Bursting to his feet, Braxton lifted his hands. “Look, I know what you must be thinking.” He paused and squeezed his eyes closed. Lord, what was he saying? “Okay,” he amended. “I have no idea what you’re thinking, but I can imagine you’re very upset right now. And I take full responsibility for this. I never meant it to go that far, and—”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tom interrupted, staring at Braxton as if he’d lost his marbles.

Braxton froze and stared back. Oh, hell. Tom didn’t know.

“What are you talking about?” he hedged.

“I’m talking about your plans to go international.”

Braxton gave the other man a blank look before he sank back into his chair. “Oh. Uh…well, I haven’t actually decided to do that yet. I was only researching the possibility of—Wait a second—” He cut himself off. “How do you know about that? I haven’t discussed this with anyone in the firm yet.”

Tom shook his head and brought his hand to his brow as if he thought Braxton was hopeless. “Kid, when are you going to learn that nothing is a secret around here? If someone sneezes on the first floor, someone else on the fourth is going to say, ‘Bless you.’”

“Right.” Braxton ran a hand through his hair, shocked the rumor had spread so fast. He was going to have to mind his P’s and Q’s from here on out.

“Do you realize how risky this venture is?” Tom demanded. “If a project like this fell through, everyone on staff would feel the aftershock. You’d have to lay off—”

“I know exactly how risky it is,” Braxton cut in. “That’s why I haven’t made a decision yet, why I was looking into every detail before I even brought it up. But I can see from his notes, Dad was considering the possibility too, and—”