Night Heat. Brenda Jackson

hit her with a stiff fine and make her life miserable.

      “And how did you know? I’m sure Manuel wasn’t wearing a painted sign on his forehead,” she all but snapped. A part of her was grateful Bas had saved her from possible misery under Duran’s hands, but another part of her resented that he had discovered something she hadn’t.

      “I picked up on his nervousness when Reese introduced us. Trust me, in my line of work at the Steele Corporation, I’m faced with this fairly often enough. I wished there was a way around it but the law is the law.”

      She glared at him. “I know the law, Bas, and I don’t have to trust you. But still, I appreciate you finding out about Manuel before I was faced with repercussions that I don’t want or need. Thank you.”

      “No need to thank me. I was merely doing one of the things Jim brought me here to do.”

      And that was what bothered Jocelyn the most, knowing her father actually had brought him here and hadn’t bothered to tell her. Jim Mason had been talking and in his right mind up to forty-eight hours before he’d died. Her father of all people knew that she didn’t like surprises and should have told her about Bas.

      “Fine,” she said and began walking, annoyed when he automatically fell in place beside her. “That’s a point for you. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak with my crew.”

      “They aren’t here.”

      She stopped and stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. She quickly rounded the wall and looked around. “Where are they? It’s only three o’clock. There’s another hour of work time left.”

      Bas leaned back against an unpainted wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “I gave them the rest of the day off.”

      Jocelyn’s mouth dropped. She wondered why it hadn’t just fallen to the floor with his statement. “What do you mean you gave them the rest of the day off?”

      “You would have done the same thing. Manuel has worked with these guys for almost a year. They’re like family. All of them were shocked that he’s in this country illegally, but they still felt bad that he won’t be working with them any longer. They like him.”

      Jocelyn inhaled deeply. Bas was right. Now that she thought about it, she would have done the exact same thing. “What’s going to happen to Manuel? He has a family. A wife and child.”

      “Yes, and he also admitted to receiving public assistance benefits, public education for his son, public housing and other taxpayer-funded benefits over the past year without being detected.”

      Jocelyn glared. “You make him sound like a criminal,” she snapped.

      “Just stating the facts, ma’am. And something else you need to remember is that illegal immigration in this country is a crime that extends to anyone giving them a job.”

      “I know that, and I’m sure Dad didn’t know he was an illegal. Like I said, Manuel’s papers looked legit.”

      “I’m sure Jim didn’t know. As for what will happen to Manuel, I have a feeling he’ll be moving his family again. I agreed not to turn him in to the authorities.”

      Despite herself, she appreciated him for that. “Thank you.”

      “You’re welcome.”

      For a long moment neither said anything else, but Jocelyn felt it just as clearly as if it was something tangible that she could reach out and touch. It was there, that same damn attraction she had felt from the first moment when her gaze had collided with his in Jason’s office. It was the same attraction that was there each time she’d stopped pacing on Jason’s carpeted floor and found him staring at her with those intense dark eyes of his.

      And it was there now as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his head cocked to the side as if taking in the full view of her. A little more than a few feet separated them and whether she wanted to or not, she could feel his heat, and even at the distance she stood she could actually feel the warmth of his breath on her lips, coaxing her own to draw in his heat, mingle in his taste.

      She inhaled deeply, thinking she must be losing her mind. She didn’t want to be attracted to the man who owned a fourth of her company. The man who would be a pain in the butt for the next few months.

      A man who had her stomach sizzling and intense heat gathering between her legs.

      Drawing in another deep breath, she took a step back, started to move past him and stopped when he reached out and grabbed her wrist, gently pulling her closer, bringing her toe to toe, body to body.

      “And another thing,” he said huskily, before reaching out and lifting his hand to the knot in the scarf on her head. “I understand that on occasion you’ll wear a hard hat or a scarf like this when there might be a lot of dust in the air. But just so you’ll know, I really like seeing your head uncovered.” And with that, he expertly took off her scarf, which made her curly locks tumble to her shoulders. And, as if he was satisfied with what he’d done, he then handed the scarf to her.

      She balled it in her hand, crushed it while wishing it was his neck. Tilting her head, she glared at him. “I don’t care what you like.”

      “Then maybe you should,” he said, leaning in close, bringing his lips within a breathless inch. He smiled. “You have some temper and whenever I see you mad it makes me want to taste your anger.”

      Taste her anger? What he said didn’t make sense because she didn’t have a temper…at least not normally. Typically, it took a lot to make her mad. But she had to admit that for some reason he seemed to bring out the worst in her. When she opened her mouth to state that fact, he inched even closer and was within a heartbeat of closing his mouth over hers when the sound of a car door slamming had them quickly moving apart.

      Jocelyn was grateful for the timely interruption before anything could happen. Something they would both regret.

      “That’s probably Marcella coming to check on today’s work…as well as to make more changes. Goodbye, Bas,” she said, moving swiftly past him and walking as fast as her legs could carry her.