Absolutely, Positively

competitive world of small business. In addition to running her shop, she was the sole trustee of the Abberwick Foundation, a charitable trust established by her father, the late Jasper Abberwick. Jasper's inventions were the real source of the wealth in the Abberwick family. It was the business of the trust that had brought Molly to Harry a month ago.

    “You don't want to fire me,” Harry said.

    “It's the only thing I can do,” she retorted. “There's certainly not much point in continuing our association. Nothing is getting done.”

    “What, exactly, did you expect from me?”

    Molly threw up her hands in exasperation. “I thought you would be more helpful. More positive. Moreexcited about the various grant proposals. No offense, but waiting for you to approve one is like watching trees grow.”

    “I don't do excited. I take a deliberate approach to my work. I thought you understood that. That's why you hired me in the first place.”

    “You're deliberate the same way a stone wall is deliberate.” Molly clasped her hands behind her back and began to pace the carpet in front of the windows with long, angry strides. “Our association has been a complete waste of time.”

    Harry watched her, fascinated. Molly's whole body vibrated with outrage. The volatile emotion should have worried him, but it only seemed to add yet another intriguing dimension to her riveting face.

    Riveting? Harry frowned at the thought.

    “I knew you would probably be difficult.” Molly turned her head to glower furiously at him over her shoulder. “But I didn't think you would be impossible.”

    Definitely riveting, Harry decided. He could not recall the last time he had beenriveted by a woman.Rivet was a word he generally reserved for other areas of interest. A discussion of Leibniz's claim to the invention of the calculus wasriveting . Charles Babbage's design for an analytical engine wasriveting . The ramifications of Boole's work in symbolic logic wereriveting .

    Tonight Harry knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Molly Abberwick had to be added to the list of things that could rivet him. The knowledge made him deeply uneasy even as it fed his hunger for her.

    “Look, I'm sorry that you think I'm difficult,” Harry began.

    “Not difficult. Impossible.”

    He cleared his throat. “Don't you think that's an overly personal way to characterize my professional decisions?”

    “Calling Duncan Brockway's grant proposal fraudulent is an overly personal way to characterize poor Duncan.”

    “Forget Brockway's proposal. I only did what you pay me to do, Molly.”

    “Is that right? Then you're overcharging me.”

    “No, I'm not. You're overreacting.”

    “Overreacting?Overreacting ?” Molly reached the granite counter. She whirled around and started back toward the opposite wall. “I'll admit that I'm fed up. If you want to call that overreacting, fine. But it doesn't change anything. This relationship of ours is not working out at all the way that I thought it would. What a disappointment. What a waste of time.”

    “We don't exactly have a relationship,” Harry said through his teeth. “We have a business association.”

    “Not any longer,” she announced triumphantly.

    From out of nowhere, Harry felt the dark, brooding sensation descend on him. He should have been thanking his lucky stars for a narrow escape, he thought. A relationship with Molly would never have worked.

    But instead of a sense of relief, he knew a hint of despair. He recalled the day Molly had walked into his office-study for the first time.

    She had announced that she wished to hire him as a consultant for the Abberwick Foundation. The trust had been established by her father to make grants to promising inventors who could not get funding for their work. Jasper Abberwick had known the problems such people faced all too well. He and his brother, Julius, had labored under financial difficulties for most of their careers. Their cash flow problems had not been resolved until four years ago, when Jasper had succeeded in patenting a new generation of industrial robots.

    Jasper had not been able to enjoy his newfound wealth for long. He and his brother, Julius, had both been killed two years ago while experimenting with their latest creation, a prototype design for a man-powered aircraft.

    It had taken a year to get the Abberwick Foundation up and running. Molly had invested the money very shrewdly and was now eager to use the