A Woman's Touch

efficient and intelligent, Rebecca had turned the place upside down. She had a flair for management. As Kyle’s executive assistant she had restructured everything from his daily routine to the way the mail clerk delivered the mail.
    Most importantly, as far as his staff was concerned, Rebecca could handle the boss. Kyle’s temper was legendary, but he never lost his temper with Rebecca. Never.
    True – he argued with her frequently, occasionally growled impatiently when he was dissatisfied, and sometimes he snapped when she overstepped even the wide bounds he had indulgently allowed her. But he never really lost his temper. Not the way he did with lesser mortals.
    They called her the Lady with the Magic Wand, Kyle knew. The image amused him, but there was an element of truth in it. When he was breathing fire and no one else dared enter his office, Rebecca could walk calmly into the dragon’s lair and emerge unruffled and unscathed.
    He had wondered just what he had let himself in for at the end of her first week of employment. She had breezed into his office, omnipresent clipboard in hand, and announced that she was instituting a series of weekly reports.
    These Friday morning reports were to be viewed as a management tool, she’d informed him.
    „Your management techniques are barbaric,“ she’d stated. „I’ll grant that your blunt way of doing business attracts and holds a certain type of client who appreciates directness and honesty. But dealing with one’s employees requires a slightly different approach.“
    „I’m not supposed to be honest with my employees?“
    „You are supposed to be diplomatic with your staff.“
    „Diplomacy, Miss Wade, is not one of my strong points.“
    „Then you’ll have to work on that element of your management style, won’t you, Mr. Stockbridge?“ she had retorted with a charming smile. „And while you’re at it, you’ll start working on other management techniques, too. It’s time, Mr. Stockbridge, that you learned to delegate.“
    „I like to know what my people are doing.“ He’d defended himself with a scowl.
    „There are other ways of finding out besides looking over their shoulders.“ She’d frowned slightly in concentration as she’d bent over her clipboard. „Now, then, the first item on this week’s report is…“
    „My name.“
    She’d looked up quizzically. „I beg your pardon?“
    „The first item on the weekly report is my name. If you’re going to take over my company, Rebecca, we might as well put ourselves on a first-name basis.“
    She’d been slightly flustered. „I assure you, I have no intention of usurping your authority, Mr. Stockbridge.“
    „Then try to follow a few of my orders from time to time. It will create the illusion that I’m still in charge. Call me Kyle.“
    She’d smiled slowly, a little shyly. „Very well, Kyle.“
    That smile had done dangerous things to his insides. He’d sat and watched as she’d returned to the weekly report, and all he’d been able to think about was what it would be like to remove her neat, professional little black-and-white checked suit and lay her down on the leather couch in the corner. He’d had a feeling Rebecca Wade’s creamy body would look very good lying nude on rich cordovan brown leather.
    In the following days she had set about changing the way he functioned in his own office. For the first time in his life, Kyle was learning what it meant to delegate authority. He wasn’t sure he liked running his business that way, but so far things seemed to be working.
    She was attractive enough, Kyle told himself, striving to be objective, but definitely not outstanding. There were other women in the room who were far more beautiful although he discovered he couldn’t seem to name one right offhand.
    Rebecca’s rich, dark brown hair was sleek and shining tonight, he noted. She had it in a classic twist that exposed her delicate ears and the small gold rings she wore in them. The style also revealed her nape, which for some reason seemed incredibly sexy to Kyle. He had a violent urge to stroke her there where he knew she would be soft and sensitive and very, very vulnerable.
    Taken individually, the rest of Rebecca’s features were unremarkable, with the exception of her spectacular amber eyes. A straight, no-nonsense nose, a firm little chin, a mouth that smiled readily – all pleasant enough, but not stunning. But the whole was animated by an intelligent awareness