His Girl Friday

"I—I'm Not The Kind Of Woman Who Inspires Violent Emotions,"

Danet a stammered. "I'm old-fashioned and quiet and.. "

"And exquisitely sexy," Cabe breathed as his mouth brushed softly against hers in a shocking, sweet contact. He tilted his head and searched her expres ion, as es ing her helples response with pure pleasure. His eyes were darker now, glit ering with emotion. He framed her face in his hands and drew her mouth up under his.

"You said.. the other day. ." She faltered, trying to think, when al she knew was the warm whisper of his breath on her lips.

"I said that once my mouth covered yours there was no going back," he murmured.

Dear Reader:

It's October and there's no stopping our men! October's Man of the Month comes from the pen of Leslie Davis Guccione, whose books about the Branigan brothers have pleased countles readers. Mr. October is Jody Branigan, and you can read al about him in Branigan's Touch.

Coming in November is Shiloh's Promise by BJ James. You might remember Shiloh from his appearance in Twice in a Lifetime, We received so much positive feedback about this mesmerizing man that we knew he had to have his very own story—and that he'd make a perfect Man of the Monthl Needles to say, I think each and every Silhouet e Desire is wonderful. October and November's books are guaranteed to give you hours of reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Lucia Macro Senior Editor

HIS GIRL FRIDAY

Published by Silhouet e Books New York

America's Publisher of Contemporary Romance

One

Danet a Marist glared at the closed office door with al her might. He could just sit in there until he took root and grew into his expensive gray leather chair for al she cared. He never made mistakes; she did. If something was mis ing, then she misplaced it.

"It isn't worth putting up with you just to make car payments," she informed the closed door. "I'm a great secretary. I could get work anywhere. Al I have to do is reply to ads in the paper, and prospective bosses wil trample you trying to get me to work for them, Mr. Cabe I-Am-The-Greatest Rit er!" She tucked a loose strand of curly light brown hair back into its high coiffure and her gray eyes stared daggers at the elegant wood door of his office. She twirled a pen in her slender fingers while she thought about the advantages of typing her resignation and stuffing it up his arrogant nose. Wel , she wasn't apologizing to that bad-tempered ex-dril rigger, not for anything. It wasn't her fault that he got the calendar dates mixed up and went to a busines meeting at the wrong restaurant and lost an important contract. Was she to blame because he couldn't read?

It was just like him to accuse her of doing it deliberately. He accused her of everything from stealing his pens to drinking his bourbon, and why she stuck with the job, she didn't know.

The pay was good, of course. And he did let her have the occasional hour off during the week to go shopping. And he wasn't real y al that bad.. On the other hand, the office was forever full of salesmen speaking a strange language that seemed to have no relation whatsoever to English as they talked about various valves and parts of dril rigs and heavy equipment. Danet a knew how oil was removed from the ground, but the technical nature of her job was stil Greek. She did know what a geologist's survey looked like, and that the work the geologists did was top secret when they were looking for new oil fields. She knew that because her cousin Jenny, with whom she roomed, worked for Cabe Rit er's father.

But despite her halting at empt to say so, Mr. Rit er's oilman father, Eugene, who seemed to spend his life looking for new ways to upset Cabe, had taken up one of her lunch hours explaining a geologist's duties, along with many other things she'd never wanted to know about the oil busines . Eugene owned an oil company for which Cabe no longer worked. That defection into the oil rig equipment busines was the source of most of the friction between the older Rit er and his son. Cabe had been certain that Eugene would go bust during the oil glut, but he hadn't. The old man had made money because he had super geologists on his payroll who could find things like strategic metals that he could sel to the government. It was al sort of cloak and-dagger, as she'd learned from her secretive cousin Jenny, but the discovery of the metals made money even when oil didn't.

Danet a did nothing quite as adventurous and secretive as seeking important geological formations. She wrote up orders, took dictation, typed let ers for her impatient boss, made appointments and caught hel on a regular basis. And when friends and family asked what the Rit er Equipment Corporation made and sold she just grinned and pretended to have gone deaf. Once, with a straight face, she actual y told an uncle of hers that Cabe Rit er designed and built photon torpedoes. Unfortunately the uncle wasn't a Star Trek fan, so things had gotten sticky for a few minutes, especial y when the uncle happened to meet Cabe and remarked that he sure would like to see one of those planet-busters work ,"Can't you read, for God's sake!" Cabe Rit er broke into her thoughts as he muttered over the intercom. "Why didn't you tel me I had a chamber of commerce meeting at noon? It's ten minutes until twelve, and the restaurant where we meet is twenty minutes away and I'm the program chairman!" With a sigh she pushed the appropriate button. "The meeting isn't today, Mr. Rit er," she said with forced pleasantnes . "That's tomorrow. You're looking at the wrong date." Again, she added under her breath. "This is April the tenth, not the eleventh."

There was a brief pause. "Who turned the page?" the deep, slow drawl demanded.

"I gues I did," she mumbled with resignation. "God knows, I turned loose the last hurricane that hit the coast and I'm sure I cause gingivitis and tooth decay—"

"Shut up and come in here."

She picked up her pad and pen, smoothing her skirt over her full hips and straightening her white midi blouse. She was tal , but she had a perfect figure and long, sexy legs. Her thick light brown hair reached to her waist when she let it down. She looked very pret y with it left long, but she always pulled it up into a chignon while she worked and she was careful not to apply more than a touch of makeup to her face, barely highlighting her soft, pale gray eyes with shadow. Her face was a perfect oval, and its gentlenes gave the skin a delicacy beyond words. She wasn't beautiful, but she was at ractive, and most bosses probably would have noticed her even though she didn't draw at ention to her as ets.

She downplayed them because her boss was a womanizer, and she didn't want to risk her heart to him. She knew that she was vulnerable, because he'd given her a long, smoldering look last Christmas when she'd dres ed up for a party with some of the other office girls in the building. He'd captured her under the mistletoe just as she was leaving, and her heart had al but beat her to death when he bent his dark head toward hers, with his pale eyes glit ering on her soft mouth and no expres ion at al on his hard face. She knew she'd stopped breathing entirely. But to her surprise, he'd suddenly checked the downward movement of his head, muttered something under his breath and the kis had been redirected to land on her cheek. He'd walked away with a curt "Merry Christmas." After that, he'd suddenly started cal ing her "Dan" instead of "Mis Mar-ist" and treating her like a younger brother. She'd pretended not to notice, but since he'd made it so obvious that he wasn't going to make another pas at her, she'd never dres ed up since. It was safer to be his younger brother.

Her parents in Mis ouri would have approved of her caution. He seemed to prefer blondes, and very sophisticated ones at that. He was quite openly a playboy, and that turned Danet a off completely. She'd never told him how she felt about his life-style, since it was none of her busines , but she'd never want to get serious about such a man. Anyway, she was only twenty-three to his thirty-six, and he seemed to think of her as a child because in the two years she'd worked for him, he'd never made a single real pas at her. He talked to her as if she were a younger man, about sports and sometimes even about his women. He didn't seem to notice that his bluntnes made her blush; he seemed to be talking more to himself than to her anyway.

Lately he was dating a very elegant and cool blonde named Karol Sartain, and she'd set led him somewhat. He was much les restles than he'd been for the past few months, even if his temper was growing shorter by the day. Just yesterday, Danet a had caught him watching her with the oddest expres ion she'd ever seen. He'd looked at her as if he suddenly wished her in Siberia, and she didn't understand why.

Wel , it was probably bet er that he disliked her. A man of his experience was hardly the perfect partner for a repres ed maiden who kept a giant lizard for a pet. She opened his office door and walked in. His sheer physical presence always took her breath away, especial y combined as it was with his spectacular good looks. He was tal and muscular, a big man with an aggres ive personality. He was a world-beater, and he looked it, with pale blue eyes that could burn holes in steel and thick, wavy dark hair that fel onto a broad forehead. He had thick black eyebrows over his deep-set eyes, and high cheekbones. His nose had been broken at least once, and his chin had a slight cleft and a couple of tiny scars etched into his dark complexion. But despite those slight flaws, he was devastating to look at, and women couldn't seem to resist him. He had al the charm in the world when he wanted something, and if that didn't work, he had fists like hams. He was afraid of nothing on earth. Except snakes. Danet a had never told him about her pet. She wondered if his fear ran to lizards.

Muscles rippled when he moved. He was al muscle. He'd worked on dril rigs until he started his equipment company, and he looked like a crew chief. These days he didn't work on rigs, but when he was in a real y foul mood, he went out and worked it off on his father's ranch outside Tulsa. The elder Rit er had been a semipro basebal player back in the heyday of that sport, and he'd wisely invested his earnings in a smal ranch and a string of fil ing stations in Texas and Oklahoma. With keen busines sense, he'd parlayed that start into a succes ful oil busines and his son, Cabe, had helped until he'd decided to get away from his father's wel -meaning dominance and start his own company—