An Executive Decision by Grace Marshall Read Free Book Online

you have no experience in the field.’
    She nodded. ‘I know.’
    A tight silence stretched between them, and then she asked the obvious question. ‘This has nothing to do with – what happened between us?’ Now the blush was evident, and she held his gaze with difficulty.
    ‘No! Nothing.’ In spite of being prepared for it, he still felt as though she had slapped him. Not that he didn’t deserve it. Then he added quickly. ‘That was the reason Beverly wanted you to join her for drinks after the meeting you were to have with her. She’d made up her mind.’ 

Chapter Five
    Back at home, Dee opened her briefcase and pulled out the one remaining resume. It was hers. She had been carrying it around ever since Beverly hired her to find her replacement. She could have given it to her at any time, but she’d planned to wait until Beverly got back from Brazil.
    Working with Ellison Thorne was her dream job. It had been since she first researched him and Pneuma, Inc. while studying business law at Oregon State. She’d followed the company’s successes through her years at Harvard and through her time as a headhunter. All of her fantasies were of working next to Ellis, and yes, it was true, all of her fantasies, when they turned erotic, involved sex with Ellis. But never sex before she had made herself invaluable to him, to Pneuma Inc., never sex before she had proven to him that she was worthy of the position in which he’d placed her. Never comfort sex, never sex that might have been with anyone, any warm body who was sympathetic.
    Apparently that was all it had been for him, or so it seemed in his office today. He treated her as he would have any other employee, and that was a good thing. That was what she wanted. She wanted the chance to prove herself without the stigma of sex between them. So why wasn’t she happier about the situation?
    Eight weeks he’d made no attempt to contact her and every attempt to avoid her, and now, all of a sudden, he was hiring her as his executive assistant. She had seen all the resumes that had crossed Ellis’s desk. There were some really sharp people in those files, people who had much more experience than she did. She wanted to believe that she was his choice too, but she’d had sex with him, and no matter how she tried to view it, that had muddied the waters.
    She changed into cut-offs and a T-shirt, all the while trying to convince herself she should be elated. This was her dream come true, but the reality of the situation made her feel she’d somehow gotten the position by cheating.
    She padded barefoot into the kitchen. The rain had cleared, so the barbecue was a go. The gang would be here soon. McAllister and O’Kelly, the resident red tabbies, ignored her. They crouched on the windowsill, their full attention on the fluttering occupants of the birdbath. She poured herself a glass of iced tea then headed outside, still trying to ease the knot of self-doubt in her stomach.
    She was just getting the grill started when Harris joined her on the patio with Kendra right behind. Both carried grocery bags.
    Harris gave Dee a peck on the cheek, and she aimed a kiss in the general direction of his closely trimmed beard, now sun-bleached golden from time spent in his kayak.
    ‘Thought you might like this.’ He handed her his copy of Wilderness Vanguard . Instead of the magazine’s usual photo of bear or elk or pristine mountain scenery, Ellis smiled back at her from the cover. The caption read WV’s Man of the Year: When Pneuma Inc.’s CEO deals, even the wildlife goes away happy.
    ‘You can keep it if you like. I’ve read it.’ Harris was a part-time editor and photographer for the magazine. He did it for love, not for money. The magazine couldn’t afford to pay him, but fortunately he did well for himself as a wildlife photographer. That he also did for love, after having given up his law practice for it. ‘Thorne’s pretty impressive,’ Harris said, setting down the