Crash Into You by Roni Loren

“Good luck with your stranger, Brynn.”
    Your stranger
. Her lunch threatened to make an encore appearance, and she turned on her heel, striding away before Reid could see how much he’d gotten to her.

      SIX      
     
    then
     
    Brynn flinched as Davis Ackerman slammed his fist on his desk, a strand of perfectly gelled hair falling across his forehead.
    “Dammit, Brynn. How could you leave the governor on hold that long?”
    She stared down at her skirt, worrying the hem between her fingers and wishing—not for the first time—that she worked directly for Reid’s uncle and not for the power-happy campaign manager. “I’m so sorry. I… um… I had an emergency call on the other line. I got distracted.”
    “What call could possibly be more important? He’s the goddamn governor!” Davis’s face turned the color of the cinnamon gum he incessantly chewed.
    Tears brimmed her eyes, but she blinked them back. Explaining to him that her sister had called her in hysterics a minute after she thought she’d transferred the governor’s call would not win her any points. She cleared her throat. “I promise it’ll never happen again.”
    “You got that right,” he said, rising from his chair, his handstill clasping a copy of the e-mail the governor had sent to him about sitting on hold so long he’d hung up. “I know Patrick has taken a liking to you, but this kind of thing will not be excused. No more mistakes, Ms. LeBreck.”
    She breathed an inner sigh of relief. Thank God. No pink slip today. She nodded and stood. “Yes, sir, I understand. Thank you.”
    She yanked open the office door and escaped in such a hurry she didn’t notice Reid until she barreled into him. A stack of papers dropped from his hands. “Whoa, there.”
    “Shit,” she said, sinking to her knees to gather the mess. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
    He knelt next to her and laid a hand over hers, stilling her frantic pace. “Hey, chill. It’s okay. What’s wrong?”
    She glanced up to meet his gaze and died a little when a hot tear slid down her cheek.
No, please, not in front of him.
She wiped the moisture from her face and pulled her other hand from beneath his. “I’m fine, just in a rush.”
    He glanced at the closed door behind her. “Did Davis upset you?”
    She shook her head and straightened the documents into a neat stack before handing them to Reid. “It’s nothing. I made a mistake, and he was talking to me about it.”
    Reid stood and set the papers onto a nearby desk, his blue eyes narrowing. “More like yelling. I could hear him from across the office. God, that guy can be such a prick sometimes. He thinks just because he landed a management position at thirty he can piss on everyone else.”
    She walked past him and grabbed her purse from underneath the reception desk. “It’s not a big deal. I deserved it. I shouldn’t have messed up.”
    “Hold up.” He caught up to her and grasped her shoulder, spinning her to face him. “It doesn’t matter what mistake you made. You never deserve to be yelled at.”
    His touch burned through the thin material of her blouse, andthe worry in his eyes made her want to cry again. She shrugged out of his reach. She
would not
let Reid see her shed tears. And she certainly wasn’t going to tell him why Davis yelling was the least of her worries at the moment.
    She had managed to maintain her friendship with Reid, even while dodging his repeated invitations for a second date. She refused to ruin it by letting him see who she really was. “I appreciate your concern, really. But I’m fine. And I have to go. I have a bit of a family emergency to deal with.”
    She hurried past him and headed for the exit door. Home. She needed to get home. Kelsey had blubbered through most of the conversation. But Brynn had gotten the gist. And she wasn’t looking forward to what she would face when she arrived.
    She climbed into her ’88 Chevy and turned the ignition, but the