Riches to Rags Bride by Myrna Mackenzie Page A

anything…instinctive where Genevieve was concerned.
    He glowered.
    She was very silent. Maybe his glowering was scaring her.
    Maybe he shouldn’t have hired someone he could scare so easily. And yet…
    â€œDid you survive yesterday all right?”
    He knew the minute she turned to him. “Yes. Of course. You even told me that I survived before I went home.”
    â€œI know, but…” Damn, but he was bad at this sensitivity thing. “You were working hard. Muscles get sore. The next morning is sometimes tougher than the day before.”
    Her sudden chuckle was soft, whisperlike. “I may have been raised a privileged debutante and okay, maybe I am a little sore, but I’ll get past it. Actually, it was rather nice…the feeling that I had actually used my own two hands to make a difference. So I’m fine, Lucas.”
    Okay, she was fine. And he was looking like an idiot. This was not the way he usually treated his employees. What was it about Genevieve Patchett that threw all of his thoughts out of whack?
    He needed to get his thoughts back in line, restore discipline.
    He would. He’d made his last mistake. Genevieve, he reminded himself, was no Angie. He didn’t really have to worry about her. She was a pampered princess, and if she’d ever met him back in the day when he was a skinny, angry, dirty kid, she probably would have put her nose in the air and run the other way. Besides for the moment at least, she was his employee. He shouldbe treating her as such. The job he had hired her for was too important, too meaningful for all this foolishness.
    He turned his thoughts back to business, ignored the scent of her perfume. Why on earth was she wearing perfume when the smell of cleaning solution would overpower that delicate floral nonsense after a scant few minutes on the job?
    â€œBefore we get started this morning, I’d like to go over some paperwork with you, including your job description,” he said, pulling up in front of Angie’s House.
    â€œAll right. I’ll look forward to it.”
    Those simple words, though soft, were delivered in a professional tone. And they did the trick. He and Genevieve were back to business. All that other stuff, her fragility, his annoying urge to protect, the way her perfume went straight to his senses and made him envision placing his lips on that enticing little pulse point in her throat…darn it, those were irrelevant. Thank goodness she knew how to speak “business style.” As long as she kept that up, he could stop thinking of her as a woman. A good thing, because he needed to be her boss. And nothing else.
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    Genevieve noticed the minute Lucas’s demeanor changed. She had spent her whole life in the background, observing other people, so she was good at noting the little things that signaled a change in direction. Her parents had been volatile people, smiling at customers and sponsors one minute, screaming at their daughter for failing to do or be what they wanted the next. She had tried so hard to please them, but to no avail, and so she had learned to read the signs that a “berate Gen”attack was coming on. Even now her chest felt tight at the memory of those days.
    It wasn’t like that with Lucas. Nothing volatile, no yelling, even though she sensed that under the right circumstances, he could be very dangerous. He was, as Teresa had told her, strong and silent. Still, she noticed the subtle change when he moved from frustrated concern about her having overdone things the day before into total businessman mode.
    And, she told herself, it was a relief to have all that intense concern and attention turned away from her. Wasn’t it?
    Yes, she thought, because Lucas was too overwhelming as it was. Having him paying attention to her, and worse, she admitted, liking the attention, would lead her down the “you’re going to regret this later” road. So, she forced