Defining Love: Volume 3 (Defining Love #3) Read Online Free Page A

quit. There were still so many
obstacles for me to think anything beyond a professional relationship would
ever work between her and me.
    “So?” Henrietta asked the moment we were alone after her presentation.
“What’d you think?”
    She wore that same smile that lit up those eyes so beautifully.
The same one she wore each time she made a breakthrough on our quest to get the
EPG in apartment buildings. The one that took my breath away every single time
and reminded me what I was feeling for her was far more than physical
attraction.
    I wouldn’t say what I really wanted to say, but I refused to
devalue her performance for the sake of being appropriate . “You were
amazing,” I said, smiling even bigger when I saw the added excitement in her
already gleaming eyes.
    It was the truth. She’d nailed it. “I couldn’t have done it
better,” I added and meant it.
    As annoying as it was to see how some of the men in her audience
were captivated by every word she’d said, every move she’d made, she’d very
genuinely and efficiently sold the EPG for everything it was worth.
    She did the last two presentations of the day, and while I hadn’t
thought she had anything to improve on, she did each time. She was a boss’s
dream. My dream. In so many more ways than one now.
    “I was so nervous at first,” she said as we walked toward our
waiting car. “But even in the first presentation I made, I felt completely in
the zone.”
    She turned to me, and I was instantly distracted when her tongue
pushed away a strand of her hair that blew against her lip. Pulling it aside,
she continued speaking excitedly about the presentations as I dealt with my
inner turmoil.
    “I guess my professor was right,” she said as we slid into the
backseat of the car. “Public speaking is my forte. I’ll have to get right to it
as soon as I get back and start checking into changing my major. I can hardly
wait until the next trade show.”
    The relief from hearing that was unexpected. It washed over me
like a glorious hot shower. Last night’s turn of events didn’t appear to have
impinged on Henrietta’s decision to continue to work for me. The pessimist in
me—the realist —knew it was very possible she’d only agreed to still come
this weekend because she knew it’d be too late to get a refund on her first-class
ticket and room. But I didn’t realize how worried I’d been she might still quit
until now.
    Further proof of how crazy I was beginning to feel about her.
    Even as she continued to talk cheerfully, without any noticeable
apprehension like the undeniable unease I’d felt from her that morning, I
wouldn’t get too encouraged just yet. We still hadn’t actually discussed what
Bea had told her. How Henrietta felt about it. How Edi did. That conversation
was inevitable, and her outlook might change once I told her what she’d likely
ask. How would I address the issue when we got back home? But the even bigger
question, one she likely wouldn’t be asking, was even more daunting. I could
leave it alone if she didn’t ask and have it linger like the elephant in the
room it would certainly become, or I could just man up and address it.
    Was there any truth to Mia’s claim that I was infatuated with
Henrietta? I could take the easy way out. Tell Henrietta that I could
understand why Mia might feel insecure but assure her as professionally as I
could that it wasn’t true. Or I could be honest—admit that from day one
I’d been beyond impressed by her fortitude and positive mind-set despite all
she’d been through. Tell her that, after being witness to all her other endearing
personality traits coupled with her undeniable good looks, I’d be lying if I
said I wasn’t attracted to her. I could assure her that I respected her as an
employee and the fact that she was in a relationship. That despite everything I
might be feeling I’d continue to conduct myself around her with the utmost
professionalism as ever.
    It’d be a