“Yes. Difficult. ”

Twelve

IT WAS ALL over the front page the following Monday.

“Jason’s Mystery Woman!”

Of course, Taylor—apparently the only person in Los Angeles who did not have a subscription to Us Weekly—had no knowledge of this until she got to work and found Linda and the secretarial cohorts camped outside her office. Because of Taylor’s connection to one Mr. Jason Andrews, her secretary had become the queen bee of the administrative staff.

Linda was agog. In her whole life, that word had never come to Taylor’s mind, but it really was the only way to describe her secretary on that particular morning.

“Have you seen it?” she asked as soon as Taylor walked in.

Taylor thought perhaps the judge had sua sponte granted summary judgment in her case. “Seen what?” she asked excitedly.

Linda held up a copy of Us Weekly. Taylor stared at it, confused. Strangely, she recognized the white shirt and jeans before she realized that the woman in the picture was her.

But there it was.

Beneath the screaming headline—“Jason’s Mystery Woman!”—was a photograph of the two of them stepping out the front door of Mr. Chow’s. Per Jason’s instructions, the photo showed Taylor only from the back, hiding her identity.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Linda asked breathlessly.

It was indeed her. Right there on the cover of a national gossip magazine with the biggest star in Hollywood. For Taylor, the moment went beyond surreal.

She peered up from the magazine and saw Linda and ten other pairs of eyes staring at her.

“It’s not what you think,” she said quickly.

“You had dinner with Jason Andrews,” Linda replied in awe.

Taylor shook a finger at her. “No, no. I had a meeting with Jason Andrews that happened to take place over dinner. There’s a big difference.” She braced herself for more interrogation.

But instead, Linda surprised her.

“Okay,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “If that’s what you say, then that’s all it was.”

Taylor stood by and watched as Linda shooed the other secretaries back to work. That was far easier than she had expected.

“Oh. Okay—great.” Taylor couldn’t help but be a bit surprised by Linda’s sudden indifference. “I’m glad that’s settled, then.” She waited for another moment. When no one said anything further, she turned and headed into her office. Once inside, Taylor took a seat at her desk.

Wow. That was the fastest fifteen minutes of fame she’d ever seen.

Not that she cared about such things, of course.

A FEW DAYS later, Taylor returned early to the office. Court had unexpectedly finished ahead of schedule when one of the plaintiffs’ witnesses had failed to show up to testify.

Linda called out from her desk as Taylor walked by. “How was court?”

Taylor grinned proudly. The trial was going even better than expected. If she wasn’t such a modest person, she would have to say she was utterly destroying the plaintiffs’ witnesses on cross-examination. She doubted it was coincidence that one of them hadn’t shown up today.

Taylor was fully aware that she had flaws—lots of them, in fact. But the one thing she knew beyond any doubt was that she was a damn good lawyer.

“The plaintiffs are struggling,” she told Linda, thinking that was a more than generous description of her opponent’s position. “But we still have a long way to go—you never know what a jury’s going to do.”

Linda nodded in agreement. “True, true. Oh—by the way,” she added casually, “Mr. Andrews called. He said to tell you that he’ll pick you up tomorrow after work. He said he’s keeping it a surprise where he’s taking you, except that I should warn you that he’ll be the one teaching you something for a change.”

After relaying the message, Linda waited expectantly for any instructions. Taylor shifted uneasily. Somebody had some ’splaining to do.

“Linda, it’s not—”

Her secretary held up her hand. “No need to say anything. I got it, this is purely business. Just like you said—we will handle the Andrews Project with the highest degree of professionalism.”

Linda moved on to other matters. “Also, a Ms. Foster called for you. She said you could reach her at her work number.” She turned back to her typing.

The office was quiet, unconcerned, as everyone went about their normal course of business. This gave Taylor an opportunity to ponder Jason’s cryptic message. She spun around toward her office, wondering what he meant by—

She gasped in shock at the sight before her eyes.

A solid wall of Jasons grinned out at her.

Her entire office door had been wallpapered with the latest cover of People magazine. It was the “Sexiest Man Alive” edition and apparently, the votes were in.

The smiling Jasons all stared at her, mocking her with their smug little the-odds-are-heavily-in-my-favor-that-you’re attracted-to-me grins. “This will do wonders for his ego,” Taylor muttered dryly under her breath.

The cover photo had captured him perfectly. He looked amused, and devilishly so. He wore his usual confident look—the look that said he knew something you didn’t and wasn’t quite ready to tell. And those damn blue eyes . . . despite the fact that it was merely a photograph, they seemed to bore straight through her.

As she took in the photo, she heard giggling behind her. “Very funny, guys,” she called over her shoulder, to the secretaries she knew were watching. “Very cute.”