Perfect Partners

Blackstone?” she asked politely.
    “No.” He smiled faintly. “I dressed for the occasion with Charlie in mind. I worked for him for nearly ten years, and I never once saw him with a tie.”
    Morgan chuckled. “Good man. Charlie was always telling us how useful you were. He claimed it was solely because of you that he got to spend the past ten years fishing full-time.”
    “I did my best to take the day-to-day problems of running Thornquist off his shoulders,” Joel murmured.
    “I know you did. I’m sure you and Letty are going to work very well together, too,” Morgan announced. “You two have obviously got a great deal to discuss.”
    “Dad, please,” Letty said, “this is hardly the time or place to talk about business.”
    “Nonsense,” Morgan retorted. “Uncle Charlie would not have wanted us to get maudlin. And you and Joel need an opportunity to get to know each other. The sooner the better. Letty, why don’t you come on back to the cabin in Joel’s car? You can give him directions, and the two of you can introduce yourselves properly.”
    Joel saw the uncertainty in Letty’s eyes as she considered that proposition. He decided then and there that the best way to handle his new boss was to save her the difficulty of having to make challenging decisions all by herself.
    “Good idea,” Joel said easily. He took a firm grip on Letty’s arm and started toward the church steps. “My Jeep is parked right outside.”
    “Well…” Letty’s eyes darted quickly back and forth between her father and Joel. “If you’re sure you don’t mind?”
    “I don’t mind at all.”
    Just as Joel had anticipated, his own decisiveness seemed to make up Letty’s mind for her. Clutching her black shoulder bag, she allowed him to draw her along in his wake.
    No sweat, Joel thought. This was going to be like taking candy from a baby. Charlie had been just as easy to handle in his way.
    Right up until the end, that is, when good old Charlie had screwed him over royally.
    “Ouch,” said Letty. “You’re hurting my arm.”
    “Sorry.” Joel forced himself to relax his fingers.
    Charlie, you bastard, how could you do this to me
?

    Letty sat uneasily in the passenger seat as Joel drove the Jeep through the tiny mountain community and onto the blacktop road that ran along the small river gorge. She gripped her purse firmly in her lap and slanted her new CEO an assessing sidelong glance. She was puzzled by the tension she sensed in Joel Blackstone.
    Granted, funerals were emotional occasions, but this was more than the somber mood one would have expected at the loss of a boss. There was a restless impatience in Joel Blackstone. Letty could feel it. It burned in his tawny gold eyes and vibrated along every line of his lean, hard body.
    He seethed with it, although he was masking it well beneath a layer of cool self-control. There was anger burning in him, too. Letty could feel it, and it sent a shiver down her spine.
    Angry men were dangerous.
    The sense of potentially explosive power in Joel was underlined by the fiercely molded planes and angles of his face. It was a savage face, Letty thought, a face that reflected the ancient hunting instincts that by rights should have lain deeply buried in a modern, civilized man. They were clearly much too close to the surface in Joel Blackstone. She guessed he was in his mid-thirties, thirty-six or thirty-seven, perhaps. Something about him looked and felt far older, however.
    Letty was torn between a nearly overwhelming curiosity and an equally strong sense of caution. She had never met a man who managed to make her wary in quite this manner. It was a primitive sensation.
    “How long did you work for my great-uncle, Mr. Blackstone?” she finally asked politely when the silence got to be oppressive.
    “Nearly ten years.”
    “I see.” Letty moistened her lips. “He, uh, spoke highly of you. Said you were very sharp. He thought you had a certain instinct for business.”
    “Yeah. I had an instinct instead of an M.B.A.” Joel flashed her a brief amused glance. “He spoke highly of you, too, Ms. Thornquist. Said you were a bright little thing.”
    Letty winced. “I don’t think Great-Uncle Charlie was very much impressed by academia. He always treated it with a sort of indulgent condescension.”
    “He was a self-made man. He didn’t think too much of the ivory tower life.”
    “And neither do you, I take it?” With effort, Letty kept her tone