serious.’
‘Never been more serious in my life. I have a reputation to protect and I intend to make sure that you don’t damage it.’
‘It’s not as though everyone doesn’t know that…’
‘I don’t care who knows that I play the field.’ Luc helped her out, his tone dismissive. ‘I do, however, care that they don’t know I’ve been crazy enough to play the field right in my own back yard.’ Only he was capable of recognising the subtle but important distinction, which was that for the first time he was willing to play the field in his own back yard.
Agatha’s mind latched on to that single word ‘crazy’. She wanted to tell him that she had been the crazy one ever to have allowed herself the folly of falling into his arms as if her entire life had been building up to that very moment. Instead, she resolved there and then to do everything within her power to wipe him out of her head.
She took a few shaky steps away from him towards her desk and then turned to him with a sullen shrug.
‘You already have a secretary.’
‘Helen’s daughter has just had her second child. She would welcome a break of a few weeks. I had planned on asking my agency to send a temp over, but in all events this is a far more satisfactory solution.’ And one that had occurred to him on the spur of the moment. He could only sardonically admire his talent for creativity when it came to breaking his own rules so that he could invent a couple of new ones.
‘I’m not really qualified to do Helen’s job.’ With ever-vanishing hope, Agatha clung to that observation with the tenacity of a drowning swimmer clinging to a life belt, but in her heart she knew that it was a pretty futile hope. He was a deeply suspicious man in a situation over which he fancied he lacked total control. How wrong he was!
‘She’ll spend the next couple of days filling you in and I’ll handle anything sensitive.’
‘Will that include buying presents for your lovers?’ She pressed her hand to her mouth as if she could somehow stuff the words back in and swallow them down.
Luc looked at her narrowly, eyes gleaming. When he tookone step towards her, Agatha instinctively fell back. ‘Would that bother you? Would you be jealous?’
‘No!’
A slow smile curved his sexy mouth and he dropped his eyes, which actually didn’t do very much to release her from her semi-frozen, trance-like state. ‘Well,’ he drawled. ‘You’ll be thrilled to hear that I won’t be calling on you to do that.’
Did that mean that he would recommence his high-octane love life, just omitting her from the responsibility of buying gifts, reserving restaurants and seats at operas? she wondered feverishly, and then was ashamed of letting her thoughts go down that pointless road.
‘And look on the bright side. There’s another reason why you should applaud my decision to bring you to the director’s floor. If you decide to go into another office job after this, you’ll want a good reference. Work for me and come up to scratch, and you’ll be in demand the second you leave this building. All told, you can see that I’m doing you a favour.’
‘Your favours never feel like favours,’ Agatha breathed on a rebellious sigh.
Mutual attraction, the brief game of pursuit and capture then gratification. That was the course of events he had always followed with women, and after the gratification came the gratitude. He was cynical enough to know that he was a catch, maybe one of the biggest in the sea.
Agatha had turned that normal course of events on its head. Was that why he was driven to get her back in his bed at all costs and even at the expense of his fabled self-control?
At any rate, he sucked in his breath sharply and said with curt self-restraint, ‘Come up to the director’s floor when
you’ve cleared your desk. I’ll be out for the remainder of the day, but Helen will show you the ropes.’Which, Agatha supposed as she trudged with her possessions
‘Never been more serious in my life. I have a reputation to protect and I intend to make sure that you don’t damage it.’
‘It’s not as though everyone doesn’t know that…’
‘I don’t care who knows that I play the field.’ Luc helped her out, his tone dismissive. ‘I do, however, care that they don’t know I’ve been crazy enough to play the field right in my own back yard.’ Only he was capable of recognising the subtle but important distinction, which was that for the first time he was willing to play the field in his own back yard.
Agatha’s mind latched on to that single word ‘crazy’. She wanted to tell him that she had been the crazy one ever to have allowed herself the folly of falling into his arms as if her entire life had been building up to that very moment. Instead, she resolved there and then to do everything within her power to wipe him out of her head.
She took a few shaky steps away from him towards her desk and then turned to him with a sullen shrug.
‘You already have a secretary.’
‘Helen’s daughter has just had her second child. She would welcome a break of a few weeks. I had planned on asking my agency to send a temp over, but in all events this is a far more satisfactory solution.’ And one that had occurred to him on the spur of the moment. He could only sardonically admire his talent for creativity when it came to breaking his own rules so that he could invent a couple of new ones.
‘I’m not really qualified to do Helen’s job.’ With ever-vanishing hope, Agatha clung to that observation with the tenacity of a drowning swimmer clinging to a life belt, but in her heart she knew that it was a pretty futile hope. He was a deeply suspicious man in a situation over which he fancied he lacked total control. How wrong he was!
‘She’ll spend the next couple of days filling you in and I’ll handle anything sensitive.’
‘Will that include buying presents for your lovers?’ She pressed her hand to her mouth as if she could somehow stuff the words back in and swallow them down.
Luc looked at her narrowly, eyes gleaming. When he tookone step towards her, Agatha instinctively fell back. ‘Would that bother you? Would you be jealous?’
‘No!’
A slow smile curved his sexy mouth and he dropped his eyes, which actually didn’t do very much to release her from her semi-frozen, trance-like state. ‘Well,’ he drawled. ‘You’ll be thrilled to hear that I won’t be calling on you to do that.’
Did that mean that he would recommence his high-octane love life, just omitting her from the responsibility of buying gifts, reserving restaurants and seats at operas? she wondered feverishly, and then was ashamed of letting her thoughts go down that pointless road.
‘And look on the bright side. There’s another reason why you should applaud my decision to bring you to the director’s floor. If you decide to go into another office job after this, you’ll want a good reference. Work for me and come up to scratch, and you’ll be in demand the second you leave this building. All told, you can see that I’m doing you a favour.’
‘Your favours never feel like favours,’ Agatha breathed on a rebellious sigh.
Mutual attraction, the brief game of pursuit and capture then gratification. That was the course of events he had always followed with women, and after the gratification came the gratitude. He was cynical enough to know that he was a catch, maybe one of the biggest in the sea.
Agatha had turned that normal course of events on its head. Was that why he was driven to get her back in his bed at all costs and even at the expense of his fabled self-control?
At any rate, he sucked in his breath sharply and said with curt self-restraint, ‘Come up to the director’s floor when
you’ve cleared your desk. I’ll be out for the remainder of the day, but Helen will show you the ropes.’Which, Agatha supposed as she trudged with her possessions
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