Read Online The Courtship of Dani by Ginna Gray - Free Book Online Page A

marched toward the door. You could be imagining it all. Some men just naturally flirt with every attractive woman they meet. It's an automatic reflex. It means nothing. He may not even be aware of it.
    ❧

    The thought came back to haunt her time and again over the next few weeks, for to Dani's secret chagrin, it was soon apparent that whatever attraction Jason had felt for her—if, indeed, he had ever felt any-1—had fizzled practically overnight.
    Once Dani and her crew got down to business, Jason's main and seemingly only concern was making the Stratter-Lite factory a profitable enterprise, and he worked with them tirelessly toward that end.
    Before an analysis could be made or any changes recommended, Dani and her team first had to know the company's resources and liabilities and understand its method of operation. Dani and her people began the long, in-depth interviews that would give them the information they needed, starting with the top executives and working downward through the chain of command within the company in a reverse pyramidal pattern. Jason often sat in on the interviews, sometimes asking penetrating questions of his own and adding fresh insight to the overall picture that was emerging.
    He made it a point to keep up with the progress on the project, and with their connecting offices, Dani saw him several times a day. Often Jason took Dani to lunch, and a few times she joined him and Arthur for a drink in Jason's office at the end of the day when everyone else had gone home. Occasionally Dani caught him watching her with that warm look in his eyes, but he never said or did anything that could be construed as remotely suggestive. He was polite and friendly but nothing more.
    At first Dani didn't know whether to be hurt or relieved. But finally, chiding herself for being utterly foolish, she decided to put the whole thing out of her mind. After all, what were a few smoldering looks and an invitation to dinner? And in all honesty that was all that had ever passed between them.
    Her heart still beat a little faster and that strange, tight achiness still gripped her insides whenever she was near Jason, but Dani told herself it meant nothing. It was just a physical attraction. Eventually it would pass.
    When he flew to the east coast on business, three weeks after the project started, Dani ignored the empty feeling in her chest and concentrated even harder on her work.
    "Burning the midnight oil again?" Arthur asked on Friday evening when he poked his head into her office to say goodnight. Since Jason's departure on Monday she had worked late every night, and Arthur had finally given up trying to talk her out of it.
    Dani looked up and smiled. "Yes. I have a little more I want to get done before the weekend."
    Arthur's gaze went to the window behind her desk. It was dark outside, and everyone else had left hours ago. "You want me to stay and wait for you? I hate to leave you here alone."
    "No, no. You go ahead; I'll be fine. I'll only be a little longer. Besides, I'll be perfectly safe with a guard at the gate."
    "Well, okay. If you say so," Arthur agreed reluctantly. "But I'll stop on my way out and tell Homer that you're still here. Good night, Dani. See you Monday." He lifted his hand in a farewell gesture, then he was gone.
    Dani heard his footsteps recede down the hall, followed by the subdued rattle of the elevator doors, but by the time Arthur drove out the front gate she was once more immersed in the report that Bob Loman had turned in to her that afternoon.
    She was still poring over it a half-hour later when a harsh male voice shattered her concentration and made her jump with fright.
    "Well, well, well. If it isn't the beautiful and brilliant Ms. Edwards, still hard at it. What are you doing, Dani, trying to impress my old man with your devotion to duty?" Lewis drawled hatefully from the doorway. "It won't do you any good, you know. As much as he admires that king-size brain of yours, he's not about