Too Close To Call. Barbara Dunlop

perfect word existed to describe what had just happened between them.

      She squared her shoulders, the tough, professional Ashley emerging from the soft, romantic goddess. “A really big mistake.”

      She was right, but it pricked his pride. He wasn’t about to let her shift gears that quickly. “You didn’t like it?” he asked.

      “Quit fishing.”

      Jordan gave her a cocky half smile, hoping to shake a reaction out of her. “I don’t need another compliment. Your actions speak louder than words.”

      “What actions?”

      “You kissed me. Seriously.”

      She gave a light laugh, and smoothed her hair back, her expression going neutral. She might have been staring at a log sheet for all the emotion in her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

      Jordan was taken aback by the complete transformation. “Are you telling me I imagined your reaction?”

      No way. Not a chance. A woman couldn’t fake that.

      She smiled smugly. “This is Hollywood, Jeffrey.” She reached past him to pop her disk out of the computer. “Everything’s an illusion.” Then she straightened and saluted him with the plastic cover. “See you at the Board meeting on Friday.”

      Jordan watched the sway of her hips as she walked out the door.

      Acting?

      If she could act like that, the woman deserved an award.

      Of course, this was L.A. And she was in the television business. Who was to say she didn’t start out as an actress?

      Still.

      He’d bet she wasn’t that good.

      And, he’d bet that if they kissed again, he could prove it. He squared his shoulders. If he met her in her office, or in his office, or in one of the 26th floor meeting rooms…

      One more chance, and he could show her who was and wasn’t acting.

      Yeah.

      He nodded his head.

      Then he shook his head.

      What was he thinking? He might be leaving on Friday, but Jeffrey was coming back to stay. The man had to work for Argonaut Studios. He had to work with Ashley. Jordan couldn’t leave a disaster in his wake.

      SOMEBODY UP THERE was out to get Ashley.

      Her heels clicked on the hallway floor as she made her way toward the east wing of the studio at three in the afternoon.

      When Harold Gauthier, the chairman of the board, had asked her to attend tonight’s Platinum party at his mansion, she’d been overjoyed. It was an A-list party, a sure sign she was being noticed in the upper echelons of the studio.

      In the split second after he’d issued the invitation, she’d planned her wardrobe, her hair, even pondered if she’d have time for a quick facial and a pedicure.

      But then he’d dropped the bombshell.

      “Get Jeffrey Bradshaw to pick you up,” he’d said.

      And, of course, she’d said, “love it.” And suddenly, instead of going to the party as an up-and-coming executive, she was going to the party as the date of an up-and-coming executive.

      For a minute there, Harold had actually reminded her of her father. And that chafed.

      What was with men?

      Why couldn’t they simply see her as a professional? Not a female professional, but simply a colleague.

      Her father was wonderful, and she loved him dearly, but he had an annoying habit of trying to second-guess her life. With the best of intentions, he kept asking why she was knocking herself out to get ahead in her career, since she’d probably meet a good man and quit anyway.

      Her brothers were the same way, mired somewhere in 1950s thinking. And the one and only time she’d been in a serious relationship, the man squashed her professional aspirations so fast she’d barely known what hit her.

      “There’s nothing wrong with a career, darling.” Reggie had said as her three-carat diamond solitaire sparkled hypnotically in the candlelight at Ruffino’s. “It just has to be the right career. You know, maybe something at the museum or the gallery, a hostess, part-time. At least until the children come along. You’ve got all the right clothes.”

      Actually, she hadn’t had all the right clothes.

      Thank goodness.

      She had power clothes. He’d wanted low-key elegance followed by designer-maternity and upscale-housewife.

      Ashley definitely did not have the right clothes to marry Reggie Lawrence.

      She approached Jeffrey’s office and took a deep breath, bracing herself to take him on next.

      Men.

      When they weren’t trying to marry you off, they were throwing themselves in your career path.