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 just need to 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 to give him the envelope. That’s all.’ 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, she was 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 their boss-secretary relationship 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.
Like the members of staff, he had no time for the formality of suits, but he had a series of meetings later, and for once was dressed the part. His shirt was crisp and white, although casually rolled to the elbows, and his tailored trousers were charcoal-grey and matched the linen jacket which had been chucked on the walnut unit standing against the brick wall.
He looked incredibly sophisticated, incredibly expensive and breathtakingly sexy, but for once her heart didn’t skip a beat.
‘Guess who I bumped into outside?’
‘Ah. So we’re going to be going down the guessing game route... How many guesses am I allowed?’
‘Naomi.’
He lowered his eyes for a fraction of a second and stilled. ‘Ah... And I’m taking it...’ he murmured, reaching for the envelope and twirling it absently between his fingers, ‘That this is a missive from her?’
‘She said she’d been waiting in the coffee shop opposite to catch me because she didn’t want to hand-deliver it to you herself. Look, I come here to work. I don’t come here to get involved in any tiffs you have with your girlfriends.’
‘Sit down.’
Ellie hesitated. She had more to say on the subject, but he was still her boss, and how much could she complain before he began drawing lines? He was notoriously liberal and open-minded with the people who worked with him. He preferred to get results through nurture rather than wielding a whip. A happy employee, he had told her once, was a productive employee, so he made sure his employees were happy.
But she had seen him with difficult clients and wayward suppliers. She had seen the cold face of a guy who sat at the top of the pile. There was very much a steel hand within the velvet glove, and there was no way she intended to antagonise him by giving him an earful about what she thought of being dragged into his private dramas.
If he didn’t want dramatics, she could have told him, then he should try and have a straightforward love life. She clamped down hard on the thoughts running wild in her head and did as told.
‘I apologise.’ He looked at her and for once that easy, watchful charm was missing. ‘You’re right. You come here to work and everything else is irrelevant. You don’t have to tell me that, Ellie. I’ve had three years to get the message loud and clear. Yesterday, you found yourself forced to share some of your opinions with me, and I expect you’re desperate to get the balance back to normal. Am I right?’
Ellie blushed and tore her eyes away from his remarkable face. ‘I don’t want to be a go-between between you and your girlfriend,’ she prevaricated.
‘Ex-girlfriend. Even if she doesn’t want to believe that at the moment, and even though I’m being bombarded with text messages begging for a second chance. You don’t need to know any of this because you’re absolutely right—being a go-between definitely isn’t part of your job description. Believe it or not, the last thing I want is for you or anyone else to get accidentally involved in my private life.’
The blue eyes resting on her were thoughtful and serious. ‘The world sees beautiful women on my arm...’ He shrugged and smiled wryly. ‘The world doesn’t get to see what happens between those beautiful women and me. Which is why Naomi’s behaviour here yesterday left a sour taste in my mouth. Which is why I am below zero interested to read whatever is in that envelope.’
Ellie hesitated, lured in by the pensive seriousness in his voice, and the feeling that something was being shared between them. Which, of course, was an illusion and yet... What he had just said so perfectly dovetailed with what she thought, that she wanted him to expand on it.
‘If you don’t read it and respond,’ she ventured, ‘then you might find that she keeps trying to get in touch until you do.’
‘And naturally you don’t want to be accosted for a second time by a persistent ex.’
‘It’s not about that. It’s just that...problems don’t go away because you want them to.’ She flushed. ‘At least, that’s what I think.’ If only they did. If only the problems with her mother had conveniently vanished when she’d been a teenager, leaving her to enjoy her youth without the complications of dealing with situations for which she had been ill-equipped. She felt a shocking urge to cry, and blinked rapidly and with some embarrassment, hoping that he wouldn’t notice her crazy reaction.
‘Perhaps,’ she picked up crisply, ‘You’d like me to return when you’ve dealt with...whatever you need to deal with in reply to...er...whatever is in that envelope?’
‘Stay
where you are. There’s something I need to discuss with you.’ He slit open the envelope, scanned the contents and then stuck it to one side. ‘I can deal with this later. Now. Tell me what your plans are for the next week or so...’
‘My plans?’ Ellie looked at him, bewildered.
‘I was due to head to Barbados to initiate talks with that start-up company in the expectation of closing the deal a bit further down the line, post a certain wedding ceremony in Hawaii...’
‘Yes.’ Ellie had no idea where this was leading but she would find out in due course. At least they were no longer skating on the thin ice of personal conversation, although she was still toying with what the contents of that envelope might be.
She had seen the other woman’s face, had seen the stark desperation there. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever had prompted her outburst of the day before had now given way to horror that she might have blown her relationship with London’s most eligible bachelor. That said, bombardment by text message was definitely not the way to go to get a point across. Not to someone like James Stowe.
Poor Naomi. Did she think that James Stowe was the kind of guy to do U-turns? Ellie could have warned her not to hold out hopes for any such thing, but of course she would never have done that, because none of this was her business.
Cool reason and the sheer habit of keeping herself to herself fought in vain against stupidly inappropriate curiosity. Was there any side to him that was vulnerable? Could any woman get behind that easy charm to find someone deeper?
She tilted her head to one side and did her best to look engaged with what he was saying, but questions were running around in her head, as though released from a Pandora’s box. He was saying something about the start-up company in Barbados and she wondered whether she should be flicking open her tablet at this point to take notes.
‘Sorry,’ she finally interrupted him. ‘Could you please repeat what you just said?’
‘Have you been listening to a word I’ve been saying, Ellie? Or did you temporarily lose touch with Ground Control?’
‘Of course I’ve been listening!’
‘Then which bit would you like me to repeat?’ He raked his fingers through his hair and flicked her an impatient glance that was tinged with just a shade of disbelief, because not paying attention was something he could never usually accuse her of.
‘Forget it. I’ll start from the beginning. My plan was to go to Barbados, stay a few days—just long enough to begin the takeover process with the guys over there from Sailstart—and then head over to Hawaii for the wedding at the end of the month. Naomi was going to be in tow, enjoying the hotel she chose, but getting any serious work done with a girlfriend there would have been impossible. So, my plan was to return later in the month for the serious stuff to begin. Following me so far?’
‘Please don’t be condescending,’ Ellie said politely, and he grinned.
‘I am very much liking this new version of Eleanor Thompson,’ he murmured. ‘Can we have a bit more of her?’
His eyes roved over her in leisurely appraisal and Ellie reddened.
Where was the sensible girl with the sensible clothes and the sensible shoes? Why the heck had she been replaced by this outspoken lookalike with rebellious thoughts, a sharp tongue and a devil-may-care attitude that could only land her in trouble?
‘But,’ he continued briskly, ‘getting to the point, I’ve had a long chat with the boys over there. Did a bit of groundwork on Zoom and everything has been pushed forward. I aim to complete this deal when I’m there, and as you know that will be a critical period, so looks like my trip over there is going to go ahead after all. It’ll probably be longer than the original handful of days. The whole circus of lawyers and accountants are going to have to get involved, so it’s going to be a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days.’
He frowned. ‘No, not a couple of weeks. Scratch that. I need a bit of time to get prepared for Max’s big day. Ten days max out there. I’ll kill the island-hopping tourist jaunt, so extending the trip shouldn’t be a problem.’
‘Great.’ Ellie plastered a smile on her face. ‘I’ll make all the arrangements. Shall I keep the booking at the hotel in Barbados? Or would you like me to change it for somewhere else, now that Naomi won’t be going with you?’ She paused and wondered whether she had got ahead of herself with that assumption. Did she know the faintest thing about men and U-turns when it came to sex? Lust? She’d read enough articles to know that men were capable of doing extraordinarily idiotic things when they started thinking with the wrong part of their bodies.
Discomfort overwhelmed her as her mind hived off at a tangent and, just for a moment, she had a very graphic image of her boss naked, muscular and aroused.
She felt faint. Her body tingled and she was horrified at the dampness that slowly seeped between her thighs. Her breasts were suddenly hyper-sensitive, wanting to be touched.
‘Unless,’ she croaked, ‘you’ve changed your mind, in which case...er... At any rate, maybe you could let me know. I wouldn’t want to presume anything...’
‘You’re glowing like a beacon,’ he pointed out unhelpfully, and Ellie wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. She would be very happy to be disgorged at some later point, after she’d got her act together.
‘Am I?’
‘Naomi won’t be coming along,’ he said. ‘Although, from what I’ve glimpsed in that letter of hers, she would like nothing more than just that. I’ll keep the room and the hotel, but you’ll have to book a separate room as well.’
‘A separate room?’
‘And an additional flight.’
‘Of course. I’ll need the details of your companion.’ Ellie’s imagination leapt into instant overdrive. Another leggy blonde? she wondered. How fast could one man move? At supersonic speed, it would seem. Had Naomi’s replacement been waiting in the wings all along? Surely not?
‘And,’ he countered thoughtfully, ‘I really should find out whether your passport’s up to date.’
‘My passport?’
‘You’ll be coming with me.’
‘To Barbados?’
‘You’ll have to make sure that everything’s in place for Trish or Caroline to take over the handling of some of your work, although you should be able to keep on top of most of it remotely, and Higgins will fill in in my absence.’
‘Why would I be coming to Barbados with you? I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible.’
James frowned. ‘Not possible are two words that have no place in my organisation,’ he said coolly. ‘I run this ship on the assumption that everything is possible. And the reason you’ll be coming with me is simple. I’ll need my secretary there because, like I said, I’ve managed to pull things ahead. And no one else is going to do because you know how I work. Originally, like I also said, I hadn’t planned on finalising anything on this trip. A few preliminary talks and the rest to be clinched at a later date—probably inviting them here for the sake of convenience. But, as things stand, that option isn’t on the cards, so yes, you’ll be coming out with me.’
‘But...’ Ellie breathed in deeply and thought two things at once. The first was that she couldn’t imagine being with her boss in a tropical setting, even if work was on the agenda. No. Not at all. And the second thing to cross her mind was her mother, whom she planned to visit at the weekend because the depression seemed to be kicking in once again. After those heart scares, Ellie was determined to do everything in her power to keep her mother on an even keel, and that was to be the weekend’s mission. Nice walks, pep talks, home-cooked food.
She took a deep breath and ploughed on. ‘I do understand that you might want someone there to keep minutes and do all the usual stuff, but I’m really sorry. I can’t take that much time out to go away.’
‘Why not?’ He leaned forward. ‘Boyfriend situation? Sorry
, but he’ll have to take a back seat for a few days.’
‘Won’t Caroline do?’
‘There’s no debate around this, Ellie. Unless you have a water-tight reason for not coming, then I’ll expect you to do what you’re paid to do.’
And there it was, she thought, the unyielding steel that had got him where he was now. When it came to the crunch, he was hard line, and woe betide if she decided to fight him on this. Aside from which, who in her right mind would fight to avoid an all-expenses luxury trip to sunny climes, when there would be no down side at all, because she would be doing the job she enjoyed doing?
She would have to see her mum, though, and she gritted her teeth and did her utmost to not flinch at standing her ground.
‘Of course. But I will need to...have a couple of days off before I go. I’m assuming the timelines will be the same as they were? I mean, leaving on the same day?’
‘Why do you need a couple of days off?’ He tilted his head to one side and looked at her with a frown. She could see the cogs in his brain whirring, piecing her together, filling out the bits he had started filling out when she’d opened up to him yesterday.
It was annoying, but she was resigned to the fact that it was inevitable, and he would soon get bored with the game. He had a lively mind, so it wasn’t surprising that he was happy to push at a door that had opened a bit.
And did it matter? She’d assumed that their working relationship would suffer if those lines between them weren’t drawn in cement, but really, would it?
They would rub along—and, yes, he might know a bit more about her—but there was nothing to fear in that.
She shoved aside those uneasy responses she felt when he was around...when he got too close to her...when those sharp blue eyes rested on her for a second longer than they should...
Claiming His Cinderella Secretary Page 3