All He Really Needs by Emily McKay

back?”
    “No.” It would be four in that part of Africa as it was. This
was the best he’d been able to do.
    Sydney pinched her mouth shut but then seemed unable to contain
her ire. “You really don’t want to blow this. DeValera will be looking for a way
to shut you down. If he gets too much time with Merkins first—”
    “Okay, eight-thirty. I’ll try to move my other meeting
forward.” And he’d talk really fast.
    She must have realized she’d gotten as much as she was going to
because she gave a tight little nod. Then she added, “If you want to send me
your personal schedule also, then I can put everything on a master schedule.
Might make things easier for you.”
    “No. Marion never had access to my personal schedule. You don’t
need it, either.”
    “How can I function as your assistant if I don’t know when or
where you’ll be?” she asked, frowning.
    “Just run everything by me before you firm things up. That’s
how I did it with Marion.”
    Her frown deepened and her jaw clenched even tighter. “But I
can’t—”
    “Marion made it work. So will you. It’s just how I like to do
things.”
    “Fine.” But he could tell from the narrowing of her eyes that
it wasn’t fine at all. She spun on her foot to leave and he was pretty sure he
heard her mutter, “If your personal life has to be that mysterious…”
    He nearly called her back and explained the truth about his
work for Hope 2 O but instead he kept his mouth shut.
    Marion had been hired for him by his father’s assistant. He’d
liked Marion without ever really trusting her. And to be honest, as wily and
cunning as Hollister was, Griffin wouldn’t be surprised if the whole CEO office
suite wasn’t bugged.
    Still he didn’t want Sydney to think he was purposefully
shutting her out—even if that was what he was doing.
    “Wait a second.” Instead of letting her leave, he stood and
crossed to where she hovered near the door. He held out the folder he’d gotten
from Dalton. “Here are all the notes from Dalton about his search for the
heiress. Make copies for yourself and take an hour or so to look it over, then
we’ll talk more.”
    She looked from him to the folder and then back, finally
meeting his gaze as she took the folder. Her expression was cautious but less
openly distrustful than it had been just moments ago. “Okay.”
    “Look, I know I’m difficult to work with. And I know the
company’s in trouble. I’m going to do my damnedest not to screw it up any more
than it already is. Let’s just get through this. Together. Okay?”
    “Okay.” She tucked the folder on top of her iPad and left the
office.
    Alone in the room, Griffin was all too aware of the overbearing
décor, the heavy French furniture and massive mahogany desk that had been in the
office since Griffin’s own childhood. The very walls seemed to close in on
him.
    Juggling the disparate elements of his life was typically
something he excelled at. He kept his work for Cain separate from his work with
Hope 2 O and his love life separate from both. He functioned best with everything
compartmentalized.
    He hadn’t been lying to Sydney when he’d told her was going to
try his damnedest not to screw anything up. That was true for the company and
for his relationship with her.
    *
    Sydney worked furiously for the next couple of hours
setting up the board meeting. The fact that every single member of the board was
willing to rearrange his or her own schedule to be there—either in person or
virtually—was either a good sign or a very bad one.
    A half hour before the meeting she went across to the big
conference room on the other side of the building to verify the folks in the IT
department had gotten everything working for the board members who couldn’t be
physically present. She double-checked that catering had done their job, and she
even removed one limp lily from the floral arrangement on the sideboard. Now
everything was perfect.
    This meeting had to