‘Slow down!’ He began heading back towards the working part of his office and, in his wake, Ellie heard the laughter in his voice. She gritted her teeth with frustration. He glanced over his shoulder and, sure enough, his lips were twitching.
‘Before I do anything, I’ll have to run the gauntlet and face the sea of nosey parkers waiting out here. Wouldn’t want to have to bring out the smelling salts because someone’s fainted with curiosity. You know as well as I do that some of those computer guys out there can be drama queens...’ He paused, one hand on the door. ‘And don’t despair, Ellie. Give me half an hour, and we’ll be back to our usual routine. Boss, secretary...and no lines to be crossed...’
CHAPTER TWO
ITWASRAININGthe following morning when Ellie left her flat for work, a fine, demoralising drizzle that seeped under her lightweight mac and clothes, and settled with clammy persistence on her skin.
She’d had a restless night. The‘back to the usual routine’,which James had jauntily flung at her before departing to satisfy the demands of his unashamedly curious staff, had failed to materialise.
At least for her.
The door he’d opened had remained stubbornly open even though she had thrown herself into work for what had remained of the day, barely lifting her eyes from her computer as she’d blitzed all the emails waiting to be dealt with and given ferocious attention to whatever slim backlog of reports there were to go through.
Head bowed, she had still managed to feel the full wattage of his attention on her, however. He’d perched on her desk, rattling off instructions at his usual breakneck speed, and she’d felt his eyes boring into her, felt his curiosity about those titbits he had managed to eke out of her, opinions she had somehow found herself forced into confiding. She had slid her eyes sideways and been confronted with his black jeans pulled taut over a muscular thigh and had hurriedly had to look away.
So now, hurrying against the blowing, fading summer drizzle, the last thing she expected was to hear a woman’s voice calling her name from behind. In fact, she ignored the summons for a few seconds, and only stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, at which point she swung round sharply, blinking as the wind blew back the hood of her mac and the rain fell lightly against her face.
She peered up, subliminally taking in the high black shoes, the stupidly long, slender legs, the short red burst of skirt and the black top, all partially concealed beneath the distinctive cream and black check of a designer trench coat. The leggy blonde was enviably dry because she’d had the basic common sense to carry an umbrella with her. So, while Ellie pushed her wet hair from her face and grappled with the hood of her mac, which insisted on doing its own thing, the other woman managed to look only slightly and attractively tousled.
‘You probably don’t remember me.’
Ellie remembered very well. Not many people could forget Naomi. They had met in passing a month ago, purely by chance, when Ellie had been hurrying to cross the road to get to her bus on the other side. Naomi had been in the passenger seat of James’s Ferrari and he had screeched to a halt at the kerb to offer Ellie a lift to wherever she was going. Perfunctory introductions had been made, and in five seconds Ellie had been able to commit to memory the bored blue eyes of his companion, the shiny, long, straight blonde hair swept over one shoulder, the pale golden tanned skin flawlessly smooth and the tiny diamond stud in her perfectly straight nose.
No mistaking the blonde standing in front of her now, although the eyes were more desperate than bored.
‘Can you please give this to James? He’s not picking up any of my calls and he’s not answering my text messages... I know I acted out yesterday, but I love him, and I just want to talk to him...’
‘Naomi?’
‘I’ve been waiting for ages in the coffee shop over there to catch you.’ Her voice wobbled and she breathed in deeply. ‘I know he’ll go spare if I show up at his office, and it’s just not me to lurk by his house waiting for him to get home. Plus, I’d never know when to expect him. I justneedto talk to him...’
Ellie looked at the outstretched hand clutching an envelope and sighed.
‘I’d rather not get involved...’
‘Please! Look, it’s pouring out here, and we’re both getting soaked. You just have togive him the envelope. That’sall.’ Desperation had morphed into the natural state of command, which was often the default position of the very beautiful, and Ellie reluctantly took the envelope. In point of fact,shewas the only one getting soaked and, frankly, she didn’t want to stand out in the rain trying to make a point for the next five minutes, getting nowhere.
‘Super.’ Naomi beamed and stepped back. ‘Thanks.’
‘I’ve got to go,’ Ellie returned politely. Then she spun round on her heels and bolted for the office with mounting, simmering resentment.
So much for putting behind her the unfortunate business of boundary lines being crossed! So much for returning to the safety of theirboss-secretaryrelationship and relegating that brief lapse of the day before to the past, never again to be revisited!
The slim envelope in her hand was now forcing her to prolong a situation she didn’t want, and resentment had turned to fuming anger by the time she entered the converted warehouse that served as James’s cutting-edge office.
If she’d had time, she would have been tempted to go straight to the huge courtyard behind the red-brick building so that she could get her thoughts in order. There, with its rose garden and fountain and benches and abundance of trees and plants and shrubs, all cleverly laid out to provide a peaceful outdoor space for his staff in the middle of buzzy East London, she would have had the opportunity to calm down.
However, at a little after eight-thirty there was no time for calming down, and for the first time since she had joined the company she walked straight into James’s office without bothering to knock and without bothering with her usual routine of getting rid of her bag and her mac and readying her computer for the day ahead.
‘This is for you.’ She slapped the envelope on his desk and then stood back with her arms folded.
In the middle of a phone call, James looked up, and Ellie could see for a few fleeting seconds that he just couldn’t believe his eyes.
Where was his well-behaved, dutiful PA? The one who was ‘mysterious’ yet blatantly dull?She felt a kick of satisfaction as she glared at him narrowly, waiting as he took the envelope and gazed at it, eyebrows raised.
‘Going to explain what’s going on? Or do you want me to play a guessing game?’ he asked, ending his call.
He pushed himself away from his desk and relaxed back to look at her. He’d dumped the envelope on the desk without opening it. Ellie had to take deep breaths, because all she wanted to do just at that moment was wipe the lazy, questioning look from his face.
