âAnd now youâre telling me you havenât got one room available in this entire hotel?â
âIâm afraid that is correct, sir. Well, we do have an accommodation, butââ
âWeâll take it.â
Dana touched Griffinâs arm. âMcKenna,â she whispered.
Griffin swung towards her. âWhat?â
She looked at the clerk, then at him. âWe cannot share a room.â
âDid you hear what the man said? This room heâs offering us is all there is.â
âI donât care. There is no way I am going to share a room withââ
âOh, it isnât a room, madam.â
Griffin and Dana both looked at the clerk, who swallowed nervously.
âItâs a suite.â
A slow smile edged across Griffinâs face. âA suite? Donât tell me. What is it? The Presidential Suite?â
The clerk looked from Griffin to Dana. She could almost feel his distress. âNot exactly, sir,â he said, and cleared his throat. âItâsâitâs the Bridal Suite.â
CHAPTER ONE
GRIFFIN MCKENNA was a pirate.
The newspapers, and the Wall Street pundits, said he was a financial genius, but Dana Anderson knew better. McKenna was a pirate, plain and simple. He took whatever he wanted, whether it was a corporation or a woman.
What else could you call a man like that?
Gorgeous, that was what, according to the gossip columns. Dana supposed there were some women whoâd find him attractive. The sapphire-blue eyes, the thick, silky black hair, the cleft chin and the nose that was almost perfectly straight except for a faint bend in the middle...all of it seemed exactly right for McKennaâs broad-shouldered, long-legged body.
So what? Nobodyâd ever said pirates had to be homely.
McKenna bought companies that were in trouble, scooping them up like a kid taking candy from a dish, and turned them into moneymakers. And, they said, he managed such feats because he had skill, courage and determination. They left out the fact that heâd also started life with an inheritance big enough to float a small kingdom, or that he got obvious pleasure from controlling the destinies of others.
And from having people fawn over himâespecially women.
But not all women, thought Dana as she marched down the hall to McKennaâs office. No, definitely not all. She, for instance, was not the least bit impressed by the man. Sheâd seen him, early on, for what he was. Not just a pirate but a charter member of the Good Old Boys club. An arrogant, egotistical, self-important Male Chauvinist, capital M, capital C.
What he needed, instead of gushing columnists and swooning females, was the truth.
Well, she was about to deliver it.
She paused outside his office.
Not the truth about his overrated, overpublicized self. Dana wasnât a fool. She had more than a job here, at Data Bytes; she had a career, one sheâd worked damn hard for, and she intended to keep it. The truth sheâd tell him. the truth he needed to learn, was about the companyâs all-new, highly touted computer program, the one that was going to be on display at the big software convention in Miami this coming weekendâthe program that was supposed to save Data Bytes from going belly-up.
But it wouldnât. It couldnât, because the code that underlay it was a disaster.
Sheâd already tried telling that to McKenna a week ago.
âMr. McKenna is a very busy man,â his secretary, the formidable Miss Macy, had said. Dana had replied that The Very Busy Man himself had made it clear, during the organizational meeting heâd held, that he was also A Very Approachable Man.
She hadnât mentioned that heâd also made it clear he was a man who believed in gender equality the way a skunk believed in deodorants.
Not that it came as a surprise. What kind of man got his name into the gossip columns all the time? What kind of man was photographed with a different woman each week?
What kind of man made the sort of joke McKenna had made at that organizational meeting?
âRemember,â heâd intoned solemnly, âweâre all in this together, people. If Data Bytes is going to fulfill the vision I have for itâand I assure you, it willâitâll be because every man here works his tail off to make it happen.â
âEvery man, and woman,â Jeannie Aarons had called out, and McKenna had grinned along with all the others.
âAn interesting observation,â heâd said with wide-eyed innocence, and, after the laughter had died down, heâd added that he never doubted the value of the âfemale of the species.â
âIâll just bet you donât,â Dana had muttered under her breath.
If she had any lingering doubts, McKenna had swept them aside when sheâd met with him last week, after Macy had finally agreed to grant her an audience. She had come armed with printouts to support her contention that the new code was not going to be ready on timeâbut McKenna hadnât been the least bit interested in listening.