Chapter Six

"Good morning," April said cheerfully as Jewell reached her desk. "How was your weekend?"

Jewell smiled and shifted her paper-wrapped bouquet of flowers in the crook of her elbow as she set the customary cup of Dunkin" Donuts coffee on April"s desk. The two women began a tradition during Jewell"s second week at Bulwark. April made a special trip each morning to Bruegger"s Bagels for one sesame seed bagel with lite cream cheese and one egg bagel with vegetable cream cheese. They split the bagels so each woman had half. It was Jewell"s duty to make it to Dunkin" Donuts for a large "Dunkin" Midnight" for herself and a large french vanilla roast for April. For a month the system went uninterrupted.

"Oh, it was fine. Between doing research for Mr. Roth, I went to a cookout for my little sister"s Girl Scout troop and helped my mother do some canning. I"m tired, but I feel like I accomplished something."

April removed the cover of her sweet coffee and inhaled deeply the rousing aroma. "Mmm. Nectar of the Gods."

Jewell looked towards Benjamin"s closed door. Anxious tension gripped her insides. "What kind of mood is he in this morning?" she asked hesitantly.

April moaned, closing her eyes. "Black. Very, very black."

Jewell sighed. With steel resolution, she picked up her briefcase and moved to her open door. Despite the lack of necessity to do so, she moved around the office in silence. As she did every Monday morning, Jewell replaced last week"s flowers with a fresh bouquet that filled the room with a calming fragrance. She turned on her terminal and opened the blinds on her window. Just as she was about to sit, Benjamin"s voice called out loudly from the adjoined office. For someone with no tangible concept of his volume, his voice could be bone-chilling and ear-piercing.

"Ms. Kincaid," he yelled again.

She tugged down the hem of her suit jacket and squared her shoulders in preparation for battle. With resolute steps, she crossed the room and entered his office. Benjamin stood at his desk, one fist planted at his hip. In his other hand he held a bound report Jewell recognized as the one she compiled for him the previous week. A dark scowl distorted his features. As she neared him, he tossed down the report.

"What the hell is this," he demanded.

"It"s the report on England Associated Bank and Trust you wanted."

"I"m talking about these figures. They are completely off and contradict every prediction I formulated for the board." His hands moved quickly and abruptly, expressing his anger.

"They are completely accurate."

"Bullshit," he yelled.

Jewell closed her eyes and clenched her fists. When she opened them again, Benjamin stood only feet away, having come around the desk. Now both fists pressed into his trim waist. His forehead furrowed deeply, and his lips formed a thin, straight line. Dark storm clouds rolled behind his stern eyes.

"You are yelling," she signed slowly.

"I don"t care."

"You might not, but I do." She accentuated the statement with a sharp jab of her finger into her chest. "The figures in that report are accurate and up-to-date as of September 15th."

"They don"t coincide with the predictions."

Jewell threw her hands up in frustration. "I"m sorry, Mr. Roth, if they didn"t live up to your expectations. Perhaps someone should have told the president of the bank what your wishes were. I"m sure he would have worked harder to please you. But those are the facts. The integration of several small chain purchases into their banking system has slowed profits. As far as I know, you didn"t hire me to fabricate information. You hired me to research and provide you with truthful and precise numbers."

"These can"t be right."

"Do you want me to pull them out of the air?"

Jewell"s frustration got the best of her. She walked to the desk and snatched up the report. Turning to make sure he watched her, she dropped it on the edge near her. As if pulling fruit from a tree, Jewell grabbed at empty air with her fingers. With a scowl, she glared at Benjamin and pretended to drop the imaginary numbers onto the report cover. Report in hand again, she stalked to him and slapped it against Benjamin"s chest. Shock registered on his face and he lifted a hand to hold it.

"There," she threw at him. "Next time I"ll pull them from a hat. Or do you have another preferred method of fabrication?"

Benjamin stared at her for a long time. Jewell stared right back. She was sick and tired of his dark moods and nasty attitude over the last three weeks. Enough was enough! Her chest rose and fell with the exerted effort to calm her nerves. There was no way in hell she was going to put up with him any longer. He might have managed to send other women cowering away with their heads hung low, but damn it if she would!

He looked down at the report and turned it so the title read the right way. Benjamin"s stormy eyes snapped up at her. His face was stoic now, almost solemn. The sudden change from his previous rampage disarmed Jewell.

Benjamin walked by her. His shoulder brushed hers as he made no effort to step around her. It wasn"t a rough contact, but enough to throw her slightly off balance. The report fell loudly on his desk. Jewell turned and watched his back. Broad shoulders seemed to drop just slightly.

He didn"t turn back to her again, but took his suit jacket off its rack and headed to the door. "I"ll be gone the rest of the day," she heard him say to April.

Then he was gone.

Moments later, April stood in the doorway with a look of bewilderment on her face, her jaw hanging open. Jewell was pretty sure the same look was on her face. What just happened? After three weeks of snappy comments, dark scowls, and nasty diatribes, had she won an argument with him? Had this ever happened?

"What was that all about?" April asked.

Jewell raised and lowered her shoulders slowly, not even sure in her own mind. "He flipped out over some numbers he didn"t like. I guess he just pushed me too far. I got angry, and probably did something I shouldn"t have."

As she explained, her voice slowed and a dreadful realization formed. She probably just cost herself a job.

"I think the guys in accounting heard the yelling," April told her. "I"ve never heard him like that. And I"ve worked for Mr. Roth for three years." A kind of worshipful awe tinged April"s voice.

Jewell figured April had never heard him like that because no one was ever stupid enough to be so belligerent back at him. Jewell crossed her arms over her body and walked to April. She extended her hand, and the woman took it in a kind of farewell shake.

"It"s been nice working with you, April, but I have a feeling I won"t be here much longer."

April dismissed Jewell"s comment with a pass of her hand. "Oh, don"t be ridiculous. He wouldn"t fire you because you stood up to him. If that were true, you would"ve been gone weeks ago. Heck, you probably wouldn"t have been hired to begin with."

Jewell wished she could believe the affirmation, but right now it was impossible. She turned and went back to her office. Until the ax fell, she figured she would continue with the latest bit of research he wanted.

Two hours later, Jewell pushed back from her desk with a huff and pulled open her desk drawer for the bottle of headache medicine she kept on hand. She"d needed it a lot in the last few weeks, but never as much as today. She grimaced as she swallowed the three tablets with the cold, thick dregs of her flavored coffee. A soft knock at her door drew Jewell"s attention as she tossed the now-empty paper cup into her trash. Kevin Burke leaned into the doorjamb with his hands in his trouser pockets. A brand new knot of dread landed next to the first, and unease flittered over her skin. Since the evening event she"d attended with Benjamin—and the snide-but-subtle remarks Burke had made, she"d felt uneasy around him. She could feel his eyes on her when she walked into the hall, and he often smirked when she caught him watching her. Jewell slipped her reading glasses off and set them on the desk.

"Can I help you with something, Mr. Burke?" she asked, keeping her voice level.

"Please, call me Kevin," he insisted as he came into the room. "I think we"re beyond formality."

Jewell said nothing to affirm his request, silently waiting for him to continue. He shifted his hip up on the edge of her desk and looked down at her. "I heard the yelling this morning," he stated.

Heat rose in Jewell"s cheeks and she rubbed her fingers across her forehead. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. With a subtle push-off, Jewell moved the chair back to create some space between her and Kevin. "I think everyone heard the yelling. I"m very embarrassed over the whole thing."

"Lovers" quarrel?"

Jewell momentarily lost the ability to speak. She realized her jaw had fallen open and looked away from Kevin"s smug expression to regain her composure. When she again met Kevin"s stare, an all-knowing grin spread across his face.

"I"m sorry?" she managed to ask, her dry throat making it hard to speak.

"It"s certainly not a secret, Jewell," he said. "Everyone has noticed the little glances and subtle touches that pass between the two of you. Anyone in attendance at the dinner party a few weeks back had to be blind not to see the chemistry. You looked very hot that night, and Benjamin wasn"t the only one taking advantage of the view." One eyebrow bobbed up and down suggestively.

Jewell stood up, no longer feeling comfortable sitting below his line of sight. "You are mistaken, Mr. Burke," she stated, stressing her return to the formal address. "You and everyone else who believes there to be anything but a professional connection between Mr. Roth and myself."

"Everyone there saw the two of you on the dance floor?—"

"We weren"t the only ones dancing?—"

"Have you forgotten how I caught the two of you on the balcony? Looked very cozy to me, Jewell."

"I needed some air," she exclaimed, annoyed at the high-pitched twinge in her voice, and his insinuation.

Kevin smirked. "You arrived together and you left together. Benjamin Roth has never spoken to his EAs outside of work, let alone taken them to formal dinner parties." He leaned forward and winked. "Not that I blame him."

Jewell struggled for words. Why was it she could so easily counter Benjamin"s arguments, but when this jerk tossed out lewd and vulgar comments, she had nothing? She was in shock. The man took some very innocent, very meaningless events and made them into something scandalous.

"We both know you two were doing more than reviewing some numbers that afternoon I interrupted you. B.P.'s been around enough. He should know better and lock his door before getting you on your knees."

It was all Jewell could do to keep from slapping the lecherous smile off his face. She bit down hard, focusing on the heat in her cheeks and steadying her breathing again before she spoke. Jewell took a step toward him, and the look on her face had to be enough warning to Mr. Burke because he slid off the edge of the desk and stepped back, giving her plenty of space.

"Mr. Burke," she said, stressing the formal address. "I would like to remind you that sexual harassment in the workplace is an offense that I understand Bulwark takes very seriously."

"We"re just having a conversation, sweetheart." Burke shrugged, dismissing her answer before she gave it. "Everyone thinks the two of you are sleeping together already. Do you really think your word will be taken over mine?"

"Do you want to test that theory?"

He didn"t move toward her beyond a slight tilt of his upper body. A harsh edge dug into his expression, and when he spoke, it was through tight lips. "Question is, do you?

Burke turned on the balls of his feet and left the office. Alone again, Jewell dropped into her chair and held her burning face in her hands.

When the hell did everything go so wrong?

* * *

Benjamin threw back another shot of whiskey. It warmed his tongue and burned his throat all the way down. Unfortunately, it did little to clarify anything for him. He stared at the facets of the Waterford Crystal decanter on the lamp table beside him. Artificial light cast from the lamp played on its angles and peaks, momentarily mesmerizing him.

He took a deep breath and set his tumbler beside the vessel. If drinking half the contents hadn"t cleared his thinking yet, neither would the other half. One of the few things he had ever learned from Jonathan Roth was the answers to life"s problems were never found at the bottom of a bottle of liquor. Benjamin saw his father fail in his search far too many times to leave any doubt.

Today was the first day in all his years at Bulwark he hadn"t put in a full day. Not once had he called in sick, left early, or taken a vacation day.

Never before had he run from a fight, either. The fight today was one he could not win and had no business starting in the first place. Jewell was right. He was being an ass. The only thing he could do was walk away.

No, he could have admitted he was wrong. He could have apologized. Benjamin only started the fight in the first place to get her into his office. To see her and maybe catch a hint of her perfume as it drifted in the air. But he was a Roth, right? Roths don"t apologize. They don"t ask. And they are never, ever wrong! Was that another lesson he"d learned from his father?

Jewell didn"t deserve his anger and frustration. The only thing she had ever done was be the most competent EA of any at Bulwark, and be so completely desirable he could think of little else. The last three weeks had been sheer hell.

Since the night of the Bulwark dinner party, Benjamin thought of nothing but Jewell. Never had a woman looked so beautiful as she had been that night, and as cliché as that statement sounded, he believed it. Every set of male eyes in the place was on her, and Benjamin was glad to be the one standing at her side.

But she wasn"t just beautiful. Jewell Kincaid was intelligent and witty. He didn"t have to pull the conversation along or fill in the gap where her input might have lacked. She was beauty and brains wrapped in one utterly feminine package. Were there any woman in the world compatible enough to devote a relationship to, it would be Jewell.

Compatible enough?

Benjamin shot up off the couch and paced the Oriental rug spread out in front of his fireplace. Where the hell was that coming from?

He remembered the infuriated look on her face that morning. Her outburst and the outrageous example she"d made by plucking imaginary numbers from thin air and throwing them in his face, now made him smile. No woman, or man for that matter, had ever dared come back at him like that. Her indomitable courage was highly admirable. Besides, wasn"t that the reason he"d fought tooth and nail to get her? Benjamin was sick of cowering, nervous people who backed down whenever he raised his voice to speak or hand to sign. If they expected an ogre, that"s what he gave them.

For three weeks he had pushed her hard. In the back of his mind, he realized it was to drive her out. If he pushed hard enough, she would quit. If she quit, she would no longer be an employee of Bulwark and other possibilities would be open to him. That explained only part of his nasty mood. The other, much larger part, was born of pure sexual frustration.

It was obvious now she wouldn"t be shoved out. Jewell was too strong-willed and self-confident to let that happen. Leaving would be accepting defeat, and Jewell wouldn"t do that. They couldn"t go on like this. She was the best executive aid he"d ever had, and could ever hope to find. Benjamin was an idiot to want to get rid of her.

He would just have to get over his pounding libido and idiotic pride and get on with the job at hand. There was only one way to fix things now.

Benjamin went to his bedroom, took a quick detour through the kitchen for a cup of black coffee, and stepped into the giant glass and stone shower stall in his bathroom. Cold water assaulted him, making his heart beat faster and clearing his muted senses. The icy barrage did little to cool his thoughts of Jewell.

He stepped out of the shower onto the Italian marble floors. The elegant and expensively decorated bathroom opened into a carefully decorated bedroom in sage and white. The details of the room went ignored.

Benjamin walked into his bedroom, towel in hand. The darkness outside his window shocked him. How long had he sat on that couch and pondered Jewell? It had to have been hours. Paying little attention to what he grabbed, he dressed and ran a quick comb through his damp hair.

With resolution in his step, Benjamin went downstairs to get the keys to his car. He opened his contacts in his phone as he headed for his garage, and viewed his Maps app to Jewell's address. He'd only partially paid attention the night of the party when he was a passenger. Within minutes, he had his silver Lexus out of the garage and he drove through the quiet streets of Boston.