THE MAN MEANS BUSINESS.

by Annette Broadrick.

To Ralph and Betty Carruthers, who believe that family comes first, for which I'mextremely grateful.

One.

"Man your battle stations! Incoming! Incoming!"

Jodie Cameron grinned at the innovative way the receptionist notified her that theman she worked for had finally arrived at the office on this gloomy winter day inChicago.

"Thanks, Betty." Jodie cleared her computer screen, brushed a wisp of hair thathad escaped the tidy knot at the back of her neck away from her face and waited forhim.

Jodie knew something was up with Dean Logan. In the five years she'd worked forhim Dean had never come to work this late in the morning. He generally was alreadythere when she arrived.

Earlier she'd checked his calendar to see if he was scheduled to go out of town,but he had nothing written down. She had wondered if he'd decided not to come insince it was Friday and he planned to go on a week's vacation starting on Sunday.But that didn't seem likely. He would have called to let her know.

This would be the first vacation he'd taken since she'd been his secretary, andshe looked forward to having the time to clean out files, set up subfiles and workuninterrupted.

At least Betty had warned her that he wasn't in the best of moods. Dean was moodyat the best of times, but no matter how cranky he was this morning, she could put up with him for one more day.

She waited at her desk for him to enter her office.

Dean was an astute businessman and he'd worked hard to build his electronicsecurity business. She had no idea why he didn't appear content with what he'daccomplished during the past fifteen years.

The man looked more like a football player than the head of a multimillion-dollarcorporation. Too bad he rarely smiled. As far as she could recall, she'd neverheard him laugh.

He was not the jovial type.

His face looked as if it had been carved out of granite and his nose had beenbroken at some point. His heavy brows and piercing silver-blue eyes would never gethim selected to a list of America's sexiest bachelors.

Not that his looks stopped the bevy of beauties who flocked around him. Each hopedto have the distinction of becoming Mrs. Dean Logan.

From what Jodie could tell, he neither encouraged them nor discouraged them.Rachel Hunt was his latest arm candy. He'd been seeing her for almost three monthsnow, which was close to a record for him.

Jodie knew when he started seeing someone new because he had her take care ofsending flowers, ordering gifts, obtaining tickets for various events and, attimes, listening to his comments about the women who came and went in his life.

He knew that most of the women were more interested in his money and connectionsthan in him. He listened cynically to confessions of undying love and a yearningfor a commitment he refused to give.

Hence the number of women who came in and out of his life.

There were times when Jodie saw the loneliness in his eyes. At some point, longbefore she'd come to work for him, Dean must have made the decision not to allowanyone to get close to him. She found that to be very sad. Not that she'd ever lethim know that she pitied him. No, she listened when he needed to talk and kept heropinions to herself.

Of course, her sister would never believe that, since Jodie was known forexpressing her opinion on myriad subjects at any given moment. She smiled at thethought.

Dean moved silently, and she had grown used to his suddenly appearing in herdoorway. As he did now.

"Good morn-"

"No, it definitely is not a good morning." Dean stopped in front of her desk,pulled an envelope out of his coat pocket and handed it to her. "I won't needthese." He started into his office. "Would you mind getting me some coffee, please?I have a hellacious headache."

"Sure," she replied absently. She picked up the envelope and looked inside. Theenvelope held the airline tickets to Hawaii that she'd ordered for Dean and Rachel.Had Rachel changed her mind about going?

She stood and walked over to the coffeepot, filled one of the large mugs she keptnearby and followed him into his office.

Dean stood with his hands in his pockets looking out the window. She set the cupon his desk and sat in her usual chair.

"What happened, Dean?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead he stared out at the spitting snow andoccasional ice blowing against the glass. She waited.

After several minutes of silence, he turned and sat down behind his desk, reachingfor the coffee. "Do you have any aspirin?"

"Certainly." She went to the small bar behind a sliding door and poured him aglass of water before she picked up the aspirin bottle and set it in front of him.

He really was in a ferocious mood. His frown, always intimidating, was firmly inplace. No wonder people were wary of him. She didn't think he realized how gruff hesounded...and that was on one of his good days.

When she'd first gone to work for him, Jodie knew she had replaced a string offour women who had attempted to work for him and left after only a few weeks. Soshe'd been warned.

However, she was made of sterner stuff. She'd been raised with three brothers andshe and her sister had learned to hold their own with the boys.

After several minutes of silence, Dean looked at her with a puzzled expression."Why are you here?"

"I work here," she replied with a straight face.

He closed his eyes. "Sorry. I'm not in the best of moods."

No kidding. And he'd actually apologized! She must mark the day on her calendar.

"How long have you worked for me?"

"Five years."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"If I'm such a disagreeable person, why do you put up with me?"

"Who said you're a disagreeable person? I find you extremely agreeable as long asyou get your own way," she replied lightly.

"Rachel says that everyone in this office is intimidated by me. But you aren't."

"I wasn't aware that was part of my job description. Is that what's bothering youthis morning?"

"No."

"Do you care what people in the office think of you?"

"No. Well, except for you. What do you think of me?"

She sat back in her chair and considered her answer. Finally she looked him in theeye and said, "I think you're a brilliant man who is impatient with people, a manwho has single-handedly built this company into a thriving corporation by ignoringthe naysayers and following your own vision."

"Hmph."

He took the aspirin and drank the water. Then he picked up his coffee and sipped.

They sat in silence for several more minutes.

Finally Dean said, "Rachel broke up with me last night."

She couldn't hide her surprise. That must be a first for Dean. He was generally

the one who broke things off any time a woman wanted more from him than he waswilling to offer.

"Because you wanted her to go to Hawaii with you?" she asked, her disbelief plain.

He grimaced. "Actually she didn't give me a chance to surprise her with thetickets before she informed me that she never wanted to see me again."

Jodie was caught off guard by his admission. "Oh? I didn't realize you'd plannedthe trip as a surprise."

"Well, I did. Turns out I was the one surprised."

"What in the world happened?"

"I forgot we had tickets to the opera last night. I worked late to clear my deskand I'd forgotten to put the opera on my calendar."

"Oops."

"By the time I checked my cell phone messages on the way home, I was an hour latepicking her up."

"Uh-oh."