“Jason, aren’t you supposed to be at the two o’clock meeting?” he’d asked haughtily. “Mr. Gregson was very insistent that everyone arrive exactly on time today since there’s a very lengthy agenda.”

Jason had rolled his eyes in exasperation. “I’ll bet he was,” he’d muttered darkly. “But the old chap can cool his heels for a minute longer.”

Andrew had looked down from his superior height at the other man. “Shall I pass that message along to him? Or would you prefer to deliver it in person? Tessa, when can I expect to receive that spreadsheet I asked you to update?”

Silently blessing her supervisor for unwittingly rescuing her from a very uncomfortable situation, Tessa had assured him that she would have it finished within the next half hour, and took the opportunity to practically scurry back to her desk. She’d vowed to be extra diligent when she was away from her desk in the future, and made a mental note to never walk past Jason’s office again, even if it meant taking the long way around each time.

Tessa took a quick peek at the master calendar – the one Marisol updated on a regular basis and showed at a glance where each member of the executive staff was on any given day. She breathed a little sigh of relief to notice that Jason had evidently been on vacation this entire week, and was not due back to the office until next Wednesday. It was highly unlikely, therefore, that he would have taken the time out of his holiday to order such an expensive gift for her. And he was such an arrogant ass that surely he would have happily taken credit for the act, instead of sending an anonymous, untraceable present. With his egotistical mindset, Jason would have assumed that she would owe him something in return – the something quite obviously being the gift of her body.

Tessa shuddered in revulsion as she recalled some of the ugly, nasty things he’d whispered to her, and she longed to work up the nerve to confide in Andrew about the whole sordid mess. She honestly didn’t think someone as prim and proper as her supervisor would side with Jason, especially since the two men seemed to be constantly at odds with each other. But she couldn’t take the chance, couldn’t risk losing her job when it was the only dependable means of support she and Peter had. So she decided to keep her mouth shut for the time being, and simply renew her efforts to avoid Jason like the plague that he was.

But making that resolution didn’t give her any clearer idea of who might have sent her such an exquisite bouquet. Had it possibly been Andrew? Had he detected that she was the only one of the team without flowers? It was certainly something he would have noticed, as he never missed a trick, and Tessa often swore he had eyes in the back of his head. But Andrew was also not especially emotional, and definitely not the least bit romantic, so it was hard for her to believe he had sent the flowers.

One other person who could have possibly sent the bouquet was her very formal, very standoffish boss. He could certainly afford the cost of such an extravagant gift, and the elegant vase and hothouse roses practically shrieked class – just like Mr. Gregson did.

But even as such a thought popped into Tessa’s head she dismissed it automatically. After all, Ian Gregson barely acknowledged her from day to day, and she wondered sometimes if he even remembered her name. There was no possible way he would have sent her a gift like this – not when he didn’t even know she existed.

“Bad day at the office, Ian? It’s not like you to drink at this hour.”

Ian offered up a small shrug and an apologetic smile to Matthew Bennett, who sat across the table from him. “Not exactly a bad day, Matthew. Just – well, a way to forget what day this is.”

Ian very seldom drank alcohol before the cocktail hour, so ordering a glass of merlot with his lunch today had been out of character. He and his good friend Matthew tried to meet for lunch at least once a month, something that wasn’t always possible given their equally hectic schedules. Matthew didn’t have to travel nearly as much as Ian did, but did have an enormous amount of responsibility on his shoulders as the CEO of a billion dollar software company that he’d taken public just a few years ago.

Matthew grimaced. “Yeah, well, there’s no possible way Lindsey would ever let me forget that today is Valentine’s Day. She’s gone way beyond throwing hints, and actually gave me a list of what she expected from me today. So far I’ve sent her flowers, made dinner reservations at Le Mistral, got tickets for Phantom of the Opera, and bought her a mucho expensive set of emeralds.”

Ian let out a low whistle. “Quite impressive. She should be pleased with all of that, no?”

Matthew made a dismissive motion with his hand. “You’d think so, huh? And hopefully it will be enough to pacify her, considering what she really wanted to do was jet over to Paris for a long weekend. But there’s no possible way I can get away right now, not with the launch of a brand new product line in less than two weeks. Not to mention Casey’s basketball team is playing for the championship this weekend. Wouldn’t miss that for the world.”

Casey was Matthew’s son, and from what Ian recalled the boy was around ten years old. Matthew and his wife Lindsey also had a daughter who was a few years older.

“You’re a good father, Matthew,” assured Ian. “And Paris will always be there. I’m sure Lindsey understands that there are other priorities at the moment.”

Matthew sighed. “You’d like to hope, wouldn’t you? This was actually one of the developments I feared most when I decided to take the company public. I knew there’d be constant demands on my time, continual conflicts with my personal life and the family. But Lindsey just dismissed all of that, told me over and over again that we’d work it out, and that the important thing was being able to improve our quality of life. And now that it all turned out exactly as I figured she’s constantly nagging me about how little time we spend together. Go figure, huh?”

“Balancing work with one’s personal life is a constant struggle,” acknowledged Ian. “And having a wife and young children does tend to complicate matters that much further. At least I’m single, so there’s no one to complain if I work fourteen hour days, or travel three weeks out of every five.”

“But the drawback of that is the loneliness,” pointed out Matthew. “And I know that you must be lonely at times, Ian, even with your involvement in all those performing arts and charitable organizations. Friends and social acquaintances are no substitute for a family. Or even a special someone in your life. Especially on Valentine’s Day.”