They sank back in their silence, Blake stroking his fingers up and down Andy’s arm. After a few minutes, he said, “How did you end up in my life, Andrea ‘sounds-like-Princess-Leia’ Dawson?”

She’d actually been reflecting on just that very thing. “You posted a job opening and my sister set up an interview.”

“Uh-uh. Too vague. Why were you even looking at jobs like the one I had posted?”

She drummed her fingers on his chest as she considered how to answer. “When I quit working for Max Ellis, I didn’t leave on good terms. In fact, I left on very, very bad terms. Terms that pretty much ended my chances of finding a decent job afterward.” She poked him playfully in the ribs. “So I was forced to take what I could get.”

“Cute.” He shifted her to the pillow next to him so that they were face-to-face. “But that’s not cutting it. Tell me the terms. What happened?”

“Well…” She couldn’t believe she was about to admit the truth. Though, lying naked with Blake, no covers on them even, it didn’t seem as big a deal as it usually did. “Okay. The last year I was with Max, he got more and more … touchy … so to speak. Finally he out-and-out propositioned me.”

“For sex?”

She nodded. “When I said no, he fired me. I could have won a lawsuit against him, I’m sure, if I’d had my head about me. But when he fired me, I couldn’t help myself, I got so mad that I had to do something immediate. So I, um, burned a bunch of his employee files. I mean, like, a bunch.” She kept her eyes down, unable to meet Blake’s gaze. “He was the one who sued me. And he won, not surprisingly, which cost me all my savings and the little condo I owned. And my car. And the tennis bracelet I’d bought myself. Basically, he left me destitute and dependent on my sister. Pretty pathetic, I know.”

“But you didn’t sleep with him?”

She propped her head up with her elbow and met his gaze. “Is that all you can think about after that story?”

“No. I’m also wondering how I managed to have my office remain undestroyed after my own proposition.” His grin suggested that he was half kidding.

But she knew Blake—or she was beginning to know him—and so she was sure he was also half serious.

“I wouldn’t say it remained undestroyed.” She winked at him. “There was the broken wingback.”

“I’ve never been so happy to lose a piece of furniture.” He cupped his hand behind her neck and brought her in for a brief kiss.

She shivered at his words as much from his kiss. Misreading her goose bumps, Blake suggested they get under the covers. When they were bundled up and she was snug in his arms again, their conversation resumed.

“Do you have any regrets?” he asked.

“About the wingback? No.” None at all. “About Max Ellis? Yes. Lots of regrets.”

“Such as?”

“I shouldn’t have burned his files, but I really don’t feel all that bad about that. That was every single bit of work I had done, for my entire career. Just because I learned what I did in kind of sketchy ways doesn’t mean I hadn’t worked really hard. Eight years of hard-core applied psych, that he was going to keep, and try and do me on top of. Burning it felt cathartic. If his lawsuit hadn’t cost me so much, I wouldn’t feel bad at all.”

She pulled out of Blake’s embrace and sat up against the headboard. Though she’d thought about this a lot over the last year, she’d never said any of it aloud. “Mostly, I regret the person he trained me to be. He taught me to seek out weaknesses in employees that would prevent them from doing well at his company. And I was good at that. Good at cutting people down and ignoring the best parts of them.” It didn’t paint the prettiest picture, she knew, and she was somewhat embarrassed to admit it.

When she glanced at Blake, though, there was only compassion and interest written in his expression. It encouraged her to go on. “But I realize now that you can’t always judge a person’s potential by their profile. It’s a nice idea, but not very practical. And if you base a whole life or business on that thinking, you’ll likely miss out on some truly amazing people.”

Andy let her words replay in her head. Though she’d been talking about her job with Ellis, she could just as easily have been talking about the one with Blake. She couldn’t set up a match for him because profiles didn’t contain the whole of a person. There was no way they could. So she could find a woman with the right eyes, the right social background, the right goals and ambitions, but how would that ever be an indication of chemistry or emotional compatibility?

The same lesson could be applied to her initial impression of Blake. Hadn’t she judged him by his “profile”? She’d decided what kind of a man he was—arrogant, self-centered, inflexible. Time together had taught her that he was so much more than that. If she hadn’t been forced into his company, she’d never have given him a second look. And that would have been the biggest regret of her life.

Blake shifted so he was sitting up next to her. “Yes. I believe you may be right.” He cocked his head. “So if you’ve lost your faith in the profile method, why is it again that you’re working for me?”

She weighed her options for a moment—she could come out and tell him that her job was ridiculous, that he should fire her immediately and then date her earnestly.

But even though it was possible he felt the same, she wasn’t willing to risk ruining their beautiful night. Not yet. So she gave a safer answer: “Because you begged me to.”

He chuckled. “I guess I did.”

“Like a desperate man.” She sandwiched one of his hands between both of hers, admiring how small hers were next to his. How strong his were. “It’s comical, actually. Blake Donovan, desperate?”

“Hey, I was desperate.” He pulled her hand that was closest to him into his lap and began massaging it. “I’d tried other methods of finding potential dates. Let’s just say I had my own burned-bridges sort of situation.”

“You must tell me more.” Also, he really must keep doing that to her hand. It felt amazing.

“Must I really? It’s embarrassing.”

“Tell me. I won’t laugh.” She paused. “Or, I’ll laugh, but it will be in good fun.”

His focus on his hand massage, he asked, “Have you heard of Millionaire Matches?”

Andy nodded. Who hadn’t? It was the only matchmaking company that actually had any proven results. It also had a lot of notoriety since the men and women who paid for the service were generally wealthy. Many of their more notable matches made the gossip columns.

“Well, I was signed with them.” Blake worked the sensitive area between her thumb and index finger. “Until I got blackballed.”

Andy’s jaw dropped. “What did you do? Did you accuse your personal matchmaker of having man-calves?”

“Worse.” Sheepishly he met her gaze. “I slept with the CEO.”

Her hand flew from his lap to her mouth. “Oh, my God.” She was struck that along with being appalled, she was also rather jealous. Though she knew it wasn’t reasonable, she hated the idea of Blake sleeping with other women. Even when it had occurred before he’d met her.

Blake scratched the back of his neck. “When I refused a repeat performance, she blackballed me. Then she told the other matchmaking companies in the area that I was a bad risk. That I was only using the program for easy sex.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “You do have a reputation of sleeping with your dates, Blake. Or, I mean, not sleeping with your dates.” She sounded terse, and she knew it. Well, too bad. She felt terse.

“Andy…” He trailed off, and she braced herself for whatever horrible thing he was going to say next. If he had to preface it by calling her that, it couldn’t be good. “I never slept with any of the dates you set me up with.”

“Of course you did,” she scoffed. Not this again. So much for not ruining the night.