Falling for Fate by Caisey Quinn Page A

her. He’d never been more certain of anything in his life.

“F ate.”
    A low whistle pierced the air.
    “Hello. Earth the Fate. Anybody home?”
    “God, sorry.” Fate Buchanan smiled at the woman beside her.
    Gwendolyn Scott was her roommate and only actual friend in New York. She’d come by to eat lunch with Fate at her second job. The bar was crowded and she was dead on her feet only a few hours into her shift. Both women had already spent the previous evening at Lux for a party to welcome the new Chief Financial Officer at Maxwell Medical, where they were both marketing assistants. But Fate was the only one of them who’d had to come in the next day and wait tables.
    “Out of it today.” She waved her hand between them. “Hey, I have to get back to work. But I’ll see you at the apartment.”
    “Yeah, don’t forget. New boss starts on Monday. So rest up. We have that presentation to give.”
    Dread pressed down on her and she wished she could just take one day off to breathe. Yeah right.
    “Yeah, I know. I’m working the lunch shift tomorrow so we can run those numbers again tomorrow night.”
    A table of older gentlemen began waving her over, so she said goodbye to her roommate and headed their way.
    “Hi, beautiful,” one of them said in greeting.
    She didn’t know if was the exhaustion of working two jobs, the fact that she was running on very little sleep, or the stress of the situation back home catching up to her. But for a split second, the man’s words sent her reeling back in time.
    Three months ago, a man had called her beautiful on the worst day of her life, had made love to her on the beach without even knowing her name. When she snapped back to the present, she half-expected sand to be stuck to her legs.
    Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she forced a smile. “What can I get for y’all?”
    “For starters, you can tell us how you came by that enticing accent of yours,” the same man who’d called her beautiful said.
    “Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, sir,” she informed him.
    There was something strangely familiar about him. His hairline, the shape of his eyes, and the coloring of his skin. He reminded her of someone—someone she made a point of not thinking about. She definitely needed more sleep.
    “Well, darlin’,” he drawled, obviously teasing her, “can you grab us a few fingers of scotch?”
    She flashed her sexiest grin even though the way the man was leering at her was making her a little twitchy. “Sure thing, handsome.” With a wink, she turned to go fill their order.
    After waiting on her other tables, she returned to the older men and picked up the leather padfolio.
    “You ever get tired of this place, you come see about working for me. I can always use another pretty secretary.” The man gestured to the business card he’d tucked inside the leather pad and then checked his watch.
    Yeah, use being the operative word, she’d bet. She forced a smile and a nod before walking away, but when she began to process his payment on the high-tech touchscreen, she nearly swallowed her tongue. The black AMEX card said ‘Daniel Dean Maxwell.’
    Holy hell.
    She did work for him. He was the CEO of Maxwell Medical, the company she’d been hired at as an assistant to the director of marketing. Thank God she hadn’t been rude to him—not that she would’ve been anyways. She needed this job just as much as she needed the one his company had given her. She was finally making enough money to support herself and pay for her mom’s stay at The Second Chance Ranch, a rehab facility back home.
    She debated long and hard about telling Mr. Maxwell that he already employed her, but it seemed like a bad idea. So she kept her mouth shut as she returned his card and receipt. But when he lightly patted her ass, she barely resisted the urge to grab his wrist and tell the man to keep his damned hands to himself.
    “You gentlemen have a lovely evening,” she drawled before