Page 28 of Park Avenue Princess

“So, about that—” We both begin at the same time.

Addy, er, damn, Lynne—that’s gonna take some getting used to—looks up at me with wide eyes and I grin at her. “Go ahead.”

I watch her movements intently as she licks her lips before swallowing. She’s unnerved, affected, and I love it. It may seem petty but I’m glad she’s rattled. Means she’s not the stone-cold ice queen others have made reference about. That sure wasn’t the person I met in Hawaii. The woman I spent time with was warm and fun, sexy as well as charming. And if I have my way, I’m going to resurrect that woman and rattle her a whole lot more. Over and over. No way am I going to let her slip away from me again.

“Do you need some water? Coffee? Anything?” I ask as she takes another very audible swallow.

She blinks rapidly then clears her throat. “No, no I’m fine.” She looks back to her laptop while speaking. “About that discrepancy of funds distribution from DOF to your agency.”

“The paperwork Karen already corrected just this morning? What about it?”

She looks up at me, her face neutral. “It’s missing, which I’m going to take a wild guess and say that means you don’t actually have those funds at the moment.”

I sit up a little straighter and feel my eyes narrow. Although I’m not angry at Lynne, she leans back a bit in her chair, eyes locked on me. With a level voice, I say, “What do you mean, missing? Karen assured me it was taken care of and those funds are already allocated to an on-going project.”

“Well I’d check the account, but I’m pretty sure you’ll see you’re short about three hundred thousand dollars.”

“What’s going on?”

Instead of answering, she hits me with more questions.

“Have you had problems with funding, with DOF prior to this instance? Withanyother department or agency?”

I sit back, hoping to appear more relaxed instead of intimidating. “I’ve had no problems since becoming CFO with Design and Construction, which will be two years come October. That being said, my first order of business with the department was to run a full audit, accounting for every cent. There’d been discrepancies within a few agencies in years past, DDC included.”

“So you worked with other agencies prior to becoming DDC’s CFO?”

I nod. “Yes, I worked within the DOF itself for three years before being appointed CFO.”

“And were those discrepancies traced? Were the funds eventually accounted for?”

“Most were.”

It’s her turn to narrow her eyes as she cocks her head. “Mostwere? How can money just disappear and go unaccounted for?”

I fight a grin. She’s a little tigress with her inquisition and no-nonsense attitude. It’s a fucking turn-on. “Because everything is done electronically and humans make errors. You realize there’s no real money being exchanged.” Of course she’s smart enough to know this; I just like poking the beast.

She sits up primly, pursing her lips. “Of course I realize it’s all electronic. A digital invoice, an electronic transfer,” she waves her hand. “But still, there are procedures that need to be followed, paperwork that needs to be filed. I still don’t see—”

“Lynne.” We both freeze when I say her name—herrealname. I realize I like the way it sounds coming from me and I’m tempted to say it again just for the hell of it. But I clear my throat and continue with the discussion. “After completing the audit, a very small sum of two hundred thousand dollars was all that remained unaccounted for. Considering my agency handles over four billion dollars for various projects, I’d call that winning. That doesn’t mean I’m happy about it at all, but after exhaustive tracking, it was simply, lost.”

Her lips pinch but she nods her head as if to say, okay. “I’m working on finishing up my assessment and have uncovered an error within the Department of Buildings.”

“Yes, one hundred grand.”

She cocks her head. “How do you know that?”

I smile. “Had an interesting conversation with Jimmy over at DOF earlier this morning.”

Lynne closes her eyes and shakes her head. “Freaking jackass,” she mumbles, causing me to chuckle. Her eyes open and lock on mine.

“That’s putting it much nicer than I would. He’s a chauvinistic asswad.” She sputters, trying to stifle a chuckle as I continue. “He should be investigated and his work should be reviewed.”

“Definitely on my to-do list. He wanted me to overlook thatchump change, as he called it. Fat chance.”

I grin at her and her lip twitches as she now fights a smile. A smile I’d kill for. We continue to stare at one another, and it takes all my self-restraint and dignity not to ask all kinds of questions regarding Hawaii. Instead, I bite my tongue and continue to give her the floor. But when she remains silent, I prod her for more information about her assessment.

“Have you uncovered other discrepancies, errors in fund distributions?”

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