Enamored by Diana Palmer Page A

carried her off the plane and to a waiting limousine for the trip to the Lincoln Park apartment he maintained, and she had to grind her teeth to keep from reaching up and kissing his hard, very masculine mouth as he held her. She hoped he didn’t see how powerfully his nearness affected her. She was still vulnerable, even after all the years apart, but she didn’t dare let him see it. She couldn’t let him destroy her pride again as he had once before.
    The apartment was a penthouse that overlooked the park and the shoreline, with the city skyline like a gray silhouette on the rainy horizon. Melissa was put to bed at once in one of the guest bedrooms and told to rest while Matthew explored the apartment and Diego introduced Melissa to Mrs. Albright, who was to do the babysitting as well as the cooking and cleaning. Apollo had recommended the pleasant, heavyset woman, and she’d been taking care of the apartment for Diego for over a year now.
    Mrs. Albright was middle-aged and graying, with a sweet face and a personality to match. She took Melissa coffee and cake in bed and set about making her as comfortable as possible, insisting that she stay in bed to recuperate from the long flight. Then she took Matt off to the kitchen to spoil him with tiny homemade cream cakes and milk while she listened to his happy chatter about the flight from Tucson.
    Once the boy and Melissa were settled, Diego picked up the phone and punched in a number.
    Melissa heard him, but she couldn’t make out many of the words. It sounded as though he were speaking to Apollo, and in fact he was, because Apollo showed up at the apartment an hour later with a slender, petite black woman.
    Diego introduced the tall, muscular black man in the gray suit. “This is Apollo Blain. Perhaps you remember him.” Apollo smiled and nodded, and Melissa smiled back. “And this is Joyce Latham, Apollo’s secretary.”
    “Temporarily,” Apollo said with a curt nod in Joyce’s direction.
    “That’s right, temporarily,” Joyce said in a lilting West Indian accent, glaring up at the tall man. “Just until the very second I can find anybody brave enough to take my place.”
    Apollo glowered down at her. “Amen, sister,” he bit off. “And with any luck I’ll get somebody who can remember a damned telephone number long enough to dial it and who can file my clients alphabetically so I can find the files!”
    “And maybe I’ll get a boss who can read!” Joyce shot back.
    “Enough!” Diego laughed, getting between them. “Melissa has survived one disaster. She doesn’t need to be thrust into a new one,
por favor.
”
    Apollo grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. I got carried away.” He shot a speaking glance at Joyce.
    “Me, too,” she muttered, shifting so that she was a little away from him. Her features weren’t pretty, but her eyes were lovely, as deep and black as a bottomless pool, and her coffee-with-cream complexion was blemishless. She had a nice figure, probably, but the floppy uninspired blue dress she was wearing hid that very well.
    “It’s nice to meet you,” Melissa told the woman, smiling. “I remember Apollo from years ago, of course. How long have you worked for him?”
    “Two weeks too long,” Joyce muttered.
    “That’s right, two weeks and one day too long,” Apollo added. “Dutch and J.D. are coming over later, and Shirt says he and his missus are going to fly up to see you next week. It’ll be like a reunion.”
    “I remember our last reunion,” Diego said, smiling faintly. “We were evicted from the suite we occupied at three in the morning.”
    “And one of us was arrested,” Apollo said smugly.
    “That so?” Joyce asked him. “How long did they keep you in jail?”
    He glared. “Not me. Diego.”
    “Diego?” Melissa stared at him in disbelief. The cool, careless man she knew wasn’t hotheaded enough to land himself in jail. But perhaps she didn’t really know him at all.
    “He took exception to some remarks