One Night with the Boss by Teresa Southwick

grinning and giving her a nod of approval for her vote of confidence. Since when did reassuring his mother fall under her job description? His ego needed taking down a peg or two. “Like all men, he can be influenced by a well-endowed woman. Seriously, wouldn’t you worry if he weren’t?”
    He mouthed, “Hey, that’s my mom,” and she threw him a satisfied smirk.
    “A mother worries about everything,” the other woman confirmed.
    “Hang in there, Maureen. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
    “From your mouth to God’s ear. I wish you weren’t leaving him. With you there it was one less thing I worried about.”
    “How sweet of you to say that.” Her voice caught on the emotion produced by the unexpected compliment. “I promise I’ll give him the message.”
    “Thanks, sweetheart. Bye.”
    The line went dead and Olivia put the phone back in its place, then prepared for a barrage of questions from Brady.
    “So, I’m influenced by a woman’s physical virtues?”
    “Your mom said it first.” To his credit, Olivia thought, he kept his gaze on hers. But then, maybe she didn’t have any physical virtues to speak of.
    “May I ask what this is all about?” He didn’t look annoyed, just highly amused.
    “She called to give you the four-one-one—”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Information,” she explained. “That hussy—her words, not mine—Tiffani Guthrie is back in town. She had visual confirmation. Again, her words.”
    He nodded. “I heard.”
    “Good news travels fast.”
    Try as she might, Olivia couldn’t tell from his expression what was going through his mind. He wasn’t angry or upset, happy or excited. His face was blank, as if wiped clean of emotion.
    Did that mean he was over Tiffani? Or, like he’d said yesterday, that he wasn’t interested in getting serious? The curiosity was too much for her and she really wanted to know. She was leaving anyway. What could it hurt?
    “Can I ask you something?”
    “Sure. Anything.” He moved around the front of her desk and settled a hip on the corner. “Shoot.”
    Olivia was momentarily tongue-tied. The spicy scent of his cologne wrapped her in a sensuous cocoon, swirling a spell around her. For just a second she pictured herself in his arms, their lips pressed tightly together, bodies so close it was as if they were one. Her pulse quickened and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath.
    “Liv? What did you want to ask?” he prompted.
    She shook her head to clear it of the erotic image. If she was going to speak, breathing was a vital component. Here goes, she thought.
    “I was just wondering. Is Tiffani the reason you’re not the marrying kind? Did she hurt you that much?”
    “It was a bad time for me.” For just a second there was a pained expression on his face, then it disappeared. “Senior year in college. There was a lot of stuff going on. Exams coming up. I just—” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “It’s hard to explain being a quitter, but I just didn’t have the reserves to stay in college. Not then.”
    “So you were vulnerable?”
    He shrugged. “Bottom line is that she didn’t have faith in me, so she said we were over.”
    “That must have hurt a lot.”
    “It’s so long ago I don’t even remember how I felt.”
    “So,” she said, “after that you became cynical about women?”
    “No. I realized she did me a favor.”
    It took Olivia a few seconds for her brain to switch gears enough to ask, “What?”
    “I’m actually grateful to her for breaking it off.”
    “Why?”
    “It was a lesson that took some time to integrate.” He looked thoughtful. “But I finally figured out that she found someone else pretty quickly.”
    “Meaning?” Olivia wanted to hear him say it.
    “She didn’t love me. We were a habit and when she walked away I didn’t miss her. It never would have worked with us. After awhile it became clear that deep feelings aren’t part of my skill set.”
    “And that’s why