“Do I at least have a comment on the mystery woman?” Jason’s eyes darted over to Taylor as he summed her up succinctly.

“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.”

Linda appeared at Taylor’s side. “You mean ‘sexy,’ don’t you?” she asked innocently, gesturing to the pictures. Then she couldn’t resist any longer—she burst into laughter.

As the other secretaries joined in, Taylor stood there, trying to hold back her smile. Finally, she gave in and laughed along with them.

Okay, fine. She probably deserved that.


DUE TO HER unexpected afternoon off from trial, Taylor had a few free minutes to return Valerie’s call. She answered the phone just as Taylor was taking a seat at her desk.

“Hey, it’s me,” Taylor said. “I got your message—what the hell—”

Apparently, Linda and the cohorts had stuck an extra copy of People magazine on her chair—just in case she had somehow missed the fifty plastered on her door.

“Something wrong?” Valerie asked, amused by this intro.

Taylor pulled the magazine out from under her. “Nothing—I just realized I was sitting on Jason Andrews’s face.”

“Yum. Call me back in an hour and let me know if it’s every bit as fantastic as I imagined.”

Taylor laughed. “My secretary left People magazine on my chair,” she explained.

“I just bought a copy this morning on my way to work,” Val said breathlessly. “You know this is the third time they’ve named him the Sexiest Man Alive? That’s more than anyone else.”

“You’re a music professor at an Ivy League university. How do you have time to keep up with all this stuff?”

“Are you kidding? We’re talking about Jason Andrews. I’ve seen all of his movies. Like six times.”

Taylor’s smile quickly changed into a frown. That stupid statistic.

She glared at the picture of Jason for being right. It was then that a second photograph in the lower right corner of the magazine cover caught her eye.

“Hey—I like the picture of Scott Casey,” she said appreciatively. Under the caption “Other Contenders” was a photo of the actor in his A Viking’s Quest costume.

“He’s so beautiful, isn’t he?” Valerie sighed wistfully. “I mean, I know you don’t usually say that to describe a man, but Scott Casey really is just the very definition of the word.”

“Do you think he’s almost too pretty?” Taylor examined the picture. She sighed, adopting a melodramatic air. “I suppose I could deal with it if I had to,” she said. She laughed at the very thought. As if.

“Speaking of dealing with things . . .” Valerie treaded lightly at first, then came right out with it. “Kate tells me you’ve been wasting your days away, hiding out in that office of yours.”

The comment instantly put Taylor on the defensive. “Doesn’t anybody understand that I’m on trial?”

“I don’t know who else you’re referring to, but Kate and I are your friends. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs during this posttraumatic period if we weren’t encouraging you to get on with your life.”

Taylor scoffed at this. “I’m not going through any ‘posttraumatic period.’ I promise you, I’ve moved on with my life.” And as she said the words, she realized just how true they were. She hadn’t thought once about Daniel since the day she had received his flowers. She’d been preoccupied with other things . . .

“And if it makes you feel better,” she continued, “I’m even going out tomorrow night. But don’t get too excited,” she added quickly. “It’s just a business”—she searched for the right word—“related event.”

Val sounded somewhat appeased by this. “Is there at least a man involved?”

Taylor considered how to answer this question. She was tempted to tell Val all about Jason. But she had decided it was better to do it in person, when she and Kate came to visit. She needed to exercise some spin control, particularly where Valerie was concerned. Taylor loved the girl to death, but keeping information on the down low was not one of her strong points.

“A man is sponsoring this event, yes.” Taylor figured at least that answer was true. Sort of.