“Damn it, I—” He interrupted himself, glaring at her from narrowed, brilliant eyes. “You aren’t being fired,” he finally continued in a clipped voice. “You’re being transferred to Dallas, to Spencer-Nyle headquarters.”
Stunned anew, she opened her mouth to say something then closed it when nothing came to mind. Transferred! “I can’t go to Dallas!”
“Of course you can. It would be foolish of you to refuse this opportunity. You won’t be executive secretary to the CEO, of course, but there will be a substantial increase in salary. Spencer-Nyle is much larger than Bronson Alloys and pays its employees well.”
Panic edged into her eyes, her voice. “I won’t work for you.”
“You wouldn’t be working for me,” he snapped. “You’ll be working for Spencer-Nyle.”
“In what capacity? Shoved into a closet sorting paper clips, so I can never get my hands on any valuable information?”
He leaned over the table, rage turning his eyes dark green. “If you say another word about being a security risk, I’ll take you over my knee wherever we happen to be, even if it’s the middle of the street—or in a restaurant.”
Claire sank back, warned by the look and the barely controlled ferocity in his face. How had she made the colossal mistake of thinking him civilized? He had the temperament of a rampaging savage.
“Now, if you’re through with the sarcastic remarks, I’ll give you your job description,” he said icily.
“I haven’t said I’ll take the job.”
“It would be foolish of you to turn it down. As you pointed out, your job at Bronson Alloys will no longer be there in a short while.” He named a figure that was half again as much as she was currently making. “Can you afford to turn down that much money?”
“There are other jobs in Houston. My entire family is here. If I moved to Dallas, I’d have no one.”
His jaw tightened, and his eyes went even darker. “You could visit on weekends,” he said.
Claire sipped at her tea, not looking at him. It would be foolish to turn down that much money, even though it meant moving to Dallas, but her instinct was to turn it down, anyway. If she relocated to Spencer-Nyle’s headquarters she would be in Max’s territory, seeing him every day, and he would have authority over her. It wasn’t a decision she could make immediately, even though logic said she should jump at it.
“I’ll have to think about it,” she said with the quiet stubbornness that her family had learned to recognize.
“Very well. You have until Monday.”
“That’s just three days, counting today!”
“If you decide not to take the job, another person will have to be found,” he pointed out. “Your decision can’t be very complicated—you have to relocate or join the unemployment lists. Until Monday.”
She saw no sign of relenting in his eyes, even though three days seemed like no time at all to her. Claire didn’t hurry toward change; she liked to do things gradually, becoming used to changes by slow increments. She had lived all of her life in or near Houston, and to move to another city was like asking her to change her entire life. Things were difficult enough now without being lost in a totally new environment.
Max’s prime rib was served, and he devoted himself to it for a few minutes while Claire nursed her tea and turned the idea of moving over and over in her mind. At last she pushed it away. She couldn’t decide now, and she had other things she wanted to ask him.
“What did you tell Sam?”
He looked up. “Concerning what?”
“Last night. The fill-in secretary said that Sam told her I’d fainted and wouldn’t be working today.”
“Embellishment on his part. When he asked me this morning what the hell I was doing following and harassing you last night, I told him to mind his own bloody damn business and that it was a good thing someone made certain you got home safely because you collapsed.”
“I didn’t collapse.”
“Really? Do you remember when I undressed you?”
She looked away, her cheeks heating. “No.”
“I didn’t cheat. I don’t take advantage of unconscious women. When I make love to you again, you’ll damned well be awake.”
She had noticed that the more irritated he was, the more crisp his accent became, and he was practically biting off his words now. “If I don’t go to Dallas,” she whispered, getting up from the booth, “it will be because of you, because I can’t stand being near you.” Then she walked off before he could say anything, fleeing back across the street to the relative safety of the office.
Max watched her go, his face stiff. He hadn’t thought that she would reject the job offer, but now it seemed that she might, and he was afraid that if he lost track of her now he might lose her forever. Damn it, after all the strings he had pulled, she had to take the job!