‘It’ll do you good to get some time away,’ she’d sighed, before wistfully recalling happy days when she and Robert had had fun saving their pennies and travelling as much as they could. ‘You’ve done nothing but look after me for years. You’re a good girl, Ellie, but you need to spread your wings and enjoy yourself, and a little break would do you a power of good. Believe me, I know how much you’ve sacrificed for me and I’m really happy you’re going to have some time out. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.’
Bewildered, Ellie had wondered whether her mother had been listening to a word she’d said and, if she had, whether something had been lost in translation.
‘It’s going to be aboutwork, Mum,’ she’d said firmly.
‘But in such a glorious place. Your dad and I always wanted to go to that part of the world. He’ll be smiling down right now to see you getting there...’
‘Getting thereto work. You haveno ideawhat a hard taskmaster James is. My nose will be pressed to the grindstone every minute I’m there.’
Could it be that her mother no longer needed her quite like she used to? For a moment Ellie had felt a little disoriented...had wondered whether looking after her mum had become part of her comfort zone. And were that to be ripped away...well, how would she deal with it? She would have to engage emotionally with the outside world for the first time since her father’s death. It had felt scary, and a thought best put on ice for the moment.
‘How are you going to be able to work when the sun’s shining outside and there’s a beach a stone’s throw away?’
It was a very good question, but Ellie knew better than to give it too much mental air-time. Instead, with all the arrangements in place, she had ducked any uncomfortable speculation and convinced herself that there was no reason why anything should be different simply because of a change of scenery. She’d worked for James every summer for the last three years, hadn’t she, when the sun had been shining down? Since when had a little hot weather got in the way of doing a job?
She wasn’t going to be marooned with him on a desert island, was she? The hotel would be full of tourists milling about, and when they weren’t working she would be able to happily lose herself in that throng, or escape to her room, where she would be able to catch up on her reading. She had a backlog of books to get through. There was also a state-of-the-art gym at the hotel, and she intended to make full use of the lavish facilities.
She suspected that, with work out of the way, she would be left to her own devices while her charming and determined boss wined and dined the young businessmen he intended to add to his stable. Pursuit, when it came to getting what he wanted, was an art form to him. He had perfected it, and he would happily leave her behind once the nitty-gritty had been dealt with. She was his PA, after all, not Naomi, whom he had probably banked on helping him with the client entertaining. Tall, blonde and stunning would have been a definite asset.
Still, her stomach was clenched with nerves as she paused outside the airport terminal for a few seconds to gather herself. She’d seen precious little of James over the past few days, having returned from visiting her mother. On the one hand, that was good, because it put distance between her and the uneasy inroads he had made into her private life, leaving her unsettled and desperate to re-establish the status quo. On the other hand, it was less good, because now her nerves were racing through her like quicksilver as she briskly made her way to the first-class desk where they had arranged to meet.
For all her inner pep talks, Ellie knew that her forbidden attraction was a dangerous weakness. She needed the physical strictures of their working office environment to protect her from...herself and her foolish imagination. It was one thing to begin nurturing thoughts of cutting the apron strings that attached her to her maybe no longer quite so dependent parent, but another to engage emotionally with a guy and finding her feet in a world that had passed her by. It was quite another again to nurture any thoughts about a guy who was utterly inappropriate.
Even from a distance, James Stowe effortlessly stood out. So impossibly good-looking but, more than that, so much in control of his audience. Right now, this consisted of several young, attractive women behind the check-in counter and a pilot, all of whom appeared to be absorbed in whatever he was saying. Lounging against the counter, legs lightly crossed at the ankles, hands shoved into the pockets of his pale, linen trousers, James was talking, half smiling, his head inclined, which gave the appearance of rapt attention.
Which didn’t mean that he failed to notice her slow approach, because she could see him straighten fractionally, eyes narrowing as he took in her outfit, which, now that she was in the airport and surrounded by the buzz of excited holiday-goers, felt stiffly uncomfortable.
‘What are you wearing?’ was the first thing he asked as they headed towards the first-class lounge, having checked in.
‘My usual,’ Ellie countered. This was the first time she’d been to an airport in for ever, and she had never stepped foot into a first-class lounge before.
She did her best to stop her jaw from dropping to the ground at a world fashioned exclusively for the rich and famous. Uniformed staff were there to await their every command. Would they like something light to eat in the restaurant? Perhaps a late breakfast before taking off? Champagne? Cocktails? They were shown to a buffet sideboard where every type of pastry was there for the choosing. Businessmen sat frowning in front of their computers and, here and there, partners and kids lounged around with plates of half-eaten delicacies in front of them.
James barely seemed to notice their surroundings. ‘Ellie, we’re going to a hot and humid island. You might findyourusuala little restricting when we get there.’
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Breakfast?’
‘I grabbed a coffee before I left home...’ She glanced at him to find him gazing back at her with amusement. ‘But maybe a pastry would be nice. What would you like?’ How did it work here? she wondered, glancing around. Did she summon a waiter across? Head to the breakfast station herself and hope the espresso machine wasn’t as terrifying to operate as it looked from where she was? Or, did she do as she was doing now and stare back at him in a welter of indecision, wondering where her work hat had gone?
‘I’d like to find somewhere to sit.’ He looked around and then nodded towards the window. ‘And,’ he continued, leading the way, ‘you don’t have to fetch and carry for me, Ellie. Yes, you’re here in a professional capacity, but I’d like you to relax and not stand to attention because you feel you have to.’
‘Of course.’
James frowned but resisted the urge to carry the conversation further.
Why on earth was she wearing a knee-length navy-blue skirt and a white top that was destined to crease within five seconds of take off? And were thosetights?
Of course, he knew exactly what was going on. The second he had seen her he had knownexactlywhat was going on. With one hand guiding a wayward wheelie suitcase, the other struggling with her pull-along, and wearing her neat navy and white work-ready ensemble, she looked very similar to the three women behind the counter who had been flirting with him.
Except she wasn’t, was she? She wasn’t just smart. She wasn’t just his valued secretary who was quick enough to actually follow what he was saying and sometimes even pre-empt him. No, she wasmuchmorethan that,as he had discovered a few days earlier.
Andthatwas what she was desperately trying to extinguish by showing up at the airport in her impossibly inappropriate gear. She wanted to remind him that his duty wasto forgetthat little interlude when she had shed her starchy veneer and, possibly for the first time ever, had actuallycommunicatedwith him with heart-felt sincerity.
Surely, she should know that a healthy dose of curiosity had got him where he was now? If he hadn’t been curious enough to explore outside of the confines of his family dynasty then he would never have discovered the gold mines that lay in the fascinating world of artificial intelligence and all things of a techy nature. He had taught himself coding as a hobby at university and, by the time he’d emerged with his first class degree in Engineering from Cambridge, he’d been equipped not only to help his brother handle the juggernaut of the company he had brought back from the brink, but to develop his own multi-million-pound empire—just as Max had branched out to dabble in the world of boutique hotels and the infrastructure that went with it.
He was curious now, and it had briefly occurred to him, when he had watched her walking towards him pulling those cases, her body language advertising in no uncertain terms the fact that she wasn’t here of her own choosing, that he had been curious about her for a while.
