She was going to teach John Worthington a long-overdue
lesson in humility if it was the last thing she ever did,
Maggie Romer told herself as she nervously tightened her
grip on the thick manila envelope she was carrying. Taking
a deep breath, she punched in the security code she'd been
given to get into Worthington's apartment building. The
oversized glass doors obediently slid open.
Maggie stepped into the spacious lobby and looked around,
trying to ignore her feeling of inferiority in the face of
such opulent luxury. She was no longer an unwanted foster
kid on the outside looking in, she reminded herself. These
days, she was a well-paid, highly trained computer
professional.
She was also a woman on a mission. Her soft pink lips
tightened as an image of Sam Moore's haggard features
popped into her mind. According to his wife, he was so
depressed that he just sat around all day, staring at the
wall.
Sam might be powerless, but she wasn't, and she was
determined to get revenge for him. No, not revenge.
Justice.
Justice was everyone's right. Worthington might be the
company's new owner, but that didn't give him the right to
summarily fire Sam and then refuse to give him a
reference. What Worthington had done was unconscionable.
Sam was great at what he did. Not only that, but he was
super to work for. She didn't know a single person in the
entire company who had a bad word to say about him — man
or woman. Yet Worthington had dismissed him without even
so much as a reference. And without a reference and an
explanation for the firing, potential employers would
assume that Sam was incompetent and had only held his job
as president because he was the old owner's son-in-law.
The entire office was in agreement that Worthington
deserved to be called to account for his actions.
In fact, Emily, Sam's former secretary, hated John
Worthington so much she hadn't even been willing to
deliver an important report to his empty apartment,
despite the fact that he wasn't due to arrive from
California until later tonight.
When Maggie had heard Emily vilifying Worthington in the
lunchroom, she immediately volunteered to drop the
document off for her. As far as Maggie was concerned,
getting access to his apartment was a heaven-sent
opportunity to check the place out for clues about his
personal likes and dislikes.
Trying to act as if she belonged in this kind of setting,
Maggie walked across the lobby toward the sour-faced guard
sitting behind a desk near the elevators. He straightened
slightly as she approached, and the furtive gleam of
sexual desire that lightened his eyes sent a chill of
revulsion down her spine. She bit the inside of her lip as
she fought her instinctive urge to hunch her shoulders in
an attempt to hide her breasts.
"I'm Maggie Romer delivering a package for John
Worthington. Emily Adams from Computer Solutions should
have already called to tell you I'd be coming," she told
the guard.
"She did. And I told her that I was the only one on and
couldn't leave the desk to go up with you. She said you
didn't need an escort." He shrugged. "That's fine by me,
but tell her I said if there's a problem not to come to me
about it."
Maggie nodded and walked into one of the open elevators.
Taking out the plastic card Emily had given her that
provided access to the penthouse level, Maggie inserted it
into the slot in the control panel.
Nothing will go wrong, she told herself, trying to ignore
the feeling of impending doom that engulfed her as the
elevator doors snapped shut. She'd leave the envelope on
his desk in the study as Emily had instructed and then
take a quick look around for any information about his
personal habits that she could enter into the program she
had written about John Worthington.
A sense of satisfaction filled her at the thought of the
novel computer application she had come up with in her
quest to teach Worthington a lesson. She'd been listening
to a couple of her friends talk about their experiences
with Internet dating when she suddenly realized that it
should be possible to create a program that would tell her
exactly what kind of woman John Worthington found
attractive. After all, those Internet dating sites found
potentially compatible mates all the time. And if she
could do that, there was the possibility — even if it was
a slim one — that she could turn herself into something
close to his idea of perfection and get him to fall for
her. Then, once he'd committed himself, she could laugh in
his face and walk out, letting him find out what it felt
like to be rejected. To be treated as if he were a thing
of absolutely no value. Job, be darned.
Even though Maggie had created the program, she knew her
plan was a long shot. Still, there were several points in
her favor.
For one, Worthington's electronics empire was
headquartered in San Francisco, and, now that his father
was semiretired, he spent most of his time there with
occasional trips to the company's offices in the far east.
His presence in New York was so rare that there had been
speculation in the financial press that his allocation of
six whole weeks to oversee the integration of their
software company into the parent company meant that
Worthington was positioning himself to move into the
applications side of computers.
Maggie reasoned that since Worthington was a stranger in
town, he wouldn't know anyone, and since he wasn't
planning on staying, he probably wouldn't bother with the
local social scene. That would drastically limit the
number of women competing with her for his attention.
Second, as a key member of his staff, she would see him at
the office on a regular basis. The opportunity was
definitely there if she could take advantage of it. She'd
considered the possibility that he might not be willing to
date an employee, but she quickly pushed that aside.
Interoffice dating was more common than companies liked to
admit, and when he saw that she was the woman of his
dreams, how could be resist?
Once her program had spelled out what his ideal woman
looked like, Maggie had completely revamped her image to
conform to it as closely as possible. Her plain brown hair
now sported reddish highlights and fell to her shoulders
in a sexy tumble of loose curls, and her pleasing, if
unspectacular, features were enhanced by the best makeup
money could buy. As for her clothes...
She winced slightly as she caught sight of herself in the
mirrors that lined three of the four elevator walls. She'd
started wearing her new wardrobe two weeks ago so that all
the surprised comments from colleagues about her wearing
something other than her usual nondescript suits and
comfortable sweaters would be over before Worthington
arrived in town.
Unfortunately, she'd discovered that two weeks wasn't long
enough for her to feel comfortable with her new image. She
shifted uncomfortably as she studied the way her black
slacks clung to her slender hips before faithfully
outlining her long, slim legs. A lifetime might not be
enough, she conceded.
The elevator came to a smooth stop on the top floor and
the doors opened onto a discreetly lighted foyer carpeted
in a soft dove-gray. There was a real floral arrangement
sitting on a gilt table beside the door to the penthouse
apartment.
Maggie straightened her shoulders, trying to ignore the
way her action tightened her black silk shirt over her
small, high breasts. She was determined to teach
Worthington a lesson, and if dressing sexier was what it
took, then that's what she'd do.
With anticipation, Maggie took out the key to
Worthington's apartment Emily had given her. Unlocking the
door, she slipped inside.
A soundless whistle escaped her as she took in the wall of
glass in the living room that gave her a panoramic view of
Central Park twenty stories below. Money might not buy
happiness, but it sure could buy beautiful surroundings,
she thought. The room looked like something out of a
decorating book for the seriously rich.
John Worthington certainly believed in pampering himself,
although...
Maggie frowned slightly as she took in the chintz prints
on the sofas and overstuffed chairs. From the extensive
research she'd already done on him, she would have guessed
that his taste in furniture leaned more toward priceless
antiques. This room seemed out of character with the image
of him on her program. Maybe the taste reflected here
wasn't Worthington's.
She knew from what Emily had said that Worthington hated
living in hotels and one of the first things his
advanceman, Daniel Romanos, had done when he'd arrived in
town last week had been to lease his boss this apartment.
Maybe Romanos had leased it furnished?
Hmm... What now? Did she enter a liking for chintz and
English country into her program or put in that
Worthington was adaptable enough to live with decor not to
his taste? She didn't know which was more accurate, but of
one thing she was certain: the program was becoming a lot
more complicated than she'd originally anticipated. The
variables seemed both endless and endlessly fascinating.
Maggie walked farther into the room, wondering if any of
Worthington's personal effects had arrived yet. According
to Emily, his flight wasn't due to arrive until after
midnight, but he could have shipped some of his stuff
along with Daniel Romanos.
She reached down to open the drawer in the end table
beside one of the sofas when she heard a loud clanging
sound coming from down the hallway to her left. A shiver
ran down her spine and she automatically took a step back
toward the front door before common sense told her that it
couldn't be a burglar. For one thing, it was too hard to
get into the building. For another, one of the first
requirements of burglarizing would be quietness. And
whomever it was had made no attempt to be quiet.
Maybe Worthington had sent his housekeeper from San
Francisco ahead to get the place ready for him, she
thought in a sudden burst of excitement. A housekeeper who
might be able to give her personal facts about him
firsthand. So far, all her information about Worthington
had been gleaned secondhand from magazine and newspaper
articles.
Eagerly, Maggie headed toward the sound. At the very
least, she could ask whomever it was where the study was
so she could drop off the envelope and do some snooping in
his desk drawers.
Maggie quickly located where the noise was coming from.
Sticking her head around the half-open door, she peered
inside. Her eyes widened when she saw the bottom half of a
man sticking out from beneath the bathroom vanity. Her
mouth dried and she slowly ran the tip of her tongue over
her lower lip as her eyes measured the impressive breadth
of his chest before wandering down over his flat stomach
to linger on the long, lean length of his denim-clad
thighs.
I wonder what the rest of him looks like? she thought,
suppressing an urge to look under the cabinet and find
out. Why had she never found a plumber built like that?
Her apartment building was serviced by a surly, middle-
aged man with a beer belly who wouldn't raise a lustful
thought in a nymphomaniac, while this guy...
She took a deep, steadying breath as her gaze returned of
its own volition to his tight jeans.
"Excuse me," she began then instinctively jerked back when
the man's body suddenly jackknifed. There was a hollow
ringing sound as what she assumed was his head hit
something hard under the cabinet.
Maggie barely registered the curse that rolled out from
beneath the cabinet. She was far more interested in the
deep, dark, velvety tone of his voice. It lapped
enticingly against her skin, nudging each and every nerve
ending she owned to eager, expectant life. Her breath
caught in her lungs in anticipation as the man wiggled out
from under the cabinet. A powerful surge of awareness
engulfed her as she got her first clear look at him.