Gideon stiffened. ‘What do you know about Petra and myself?’
Laura visibly quaked at his haughty anger. ‘I—Only what I’ve been told.’
‘Office gossip,’ he dismissed scathingly. ‘Haven’t you learnt yet that it’s usually wrong—or out of date?’
She blinked up at him, unnerved by the way he suddenly seemed closer to her, the smell of the aftershave she found so potent now discernable to her. ‘You mean you’re no longer seeing Miss Wilde?’
‘That’s right,’ he nodded grimly.
‘But—’ she broke off, chewing on her bottom lip.
‘Yes?’ He moved even closer, their thighs almost touching now, his hands on her upper arms, his warm breath ruffling her loose auburn waves. ‘What now, Laura?’ he bent his head, his lips caressing against her throat.
Heat coursed through her body as Gideon continued to hold her, her breath coming in short, telling gasps. ‘I saw you—I mean, I saw a picture of you, with Miss Wilde.’ He was biting her earlobe now, breathing erotically in her ear. ‘In a magazine,’ she fought for sanity against the pleasure his lips were arousing, feeling curiously as if she were drowning. ‘You were at the premiere of Gentle Foe.’
‘That was over a month ago.’ His lips were moving slowly across her jaw towards her waiting mouth.
It seemed that she had been waiting for this moment since they had first me. But she had never in her wildest dreams thought Gideon could feel the same way about her, that the attraction could be mutual.
‘So you and Miss Wilde are finished now?’ she persisted.
‘Yes,’ he ground out. ‘For God’s sake, Laura! I don’t expect to talk about Petra when I’m making love to you.’ His eyes glittered down at her.
Making love to her? Was he? Yes, he was! His hand now rested possessively against her breast, feeling the fast beat of her heart for himself, the shattering effect he was having on her. ‘I thought—I thought perhaps you loved her.’ Talking of the other woman seemed to be the only way she could stop herself letting Gideon make love to her fully here and now, so devastating was his effect on her.
He moved back with a sigh. ‘Petra and I have just spent three weeks together in the Bahamas proving that neither of us loved the other.’ His gaze ran slowly over her slender curves in the casual clothes. ‘Although there’s a lot to be said for physical attraction,’ he drawled.
So much for her dream that he might come to love her, as she surely loved him! She had heard that sometimes it happened this way, that sometimes a look was all it took to love someone. But Gideon was too cynical to be so easy to love a second time. And she wasn’t the type to go in for an affair, no matter how much she loved him.
She pulled out of his arms. ‘I—Would you care for a drink? Tea or coffee?’
His mouth twisted mockingly, his eyes hard as he guessed the reason for her withdrawal. ‘Do you have any whisky?’
‘Um—I—I’m not sure. Wait a minute,’ her face brightened. ‘I think Mum got some in last Christmas.’ She looked at him anxiously. ‘Does whisky go off?’
‘Not that I’m aware.’ He sat down again. ‘Doesn’t your brother drink?’
She shrugged. ‘A little. When he’s home. He’s been in America for the past two years.’
‘I’ll risk the whisky.’ He made himself comfortable, unbuttoning his jacket and stretching his legs out in front of him. ‘What is your brother doing in America?’
Laura smiled. ‘As far as we can tell he’s changing his women as often as he changes his shirt.’
There was no answering smile from Gideon. ‘Is he still in advertising?’
‘Yes. I didn’t realise you knew him personally.’ She found the half bottle of whisky in the back of the cupboard, took out a glass and half filled it with the fiery liquid.
Gideon eyed the glass mockingly. ‘I intend walking out of here, not staggering out,’ he taunted. ‘What would the neighbours think?’
Laura looked down at the liberal amount of whisky she had poured into the glass. She blushed. ‘Shall I pour some of it away?’
‘I’ll leave what I don’t want,’ he dismissed, taking the glass from her trembling hand.
Oh dear, she felt stupid. She was doing everything wrong, was acting like a gauche schoolgirl. But she wasn’t used to entertaining men, especially men of Gideon Maitland’s calibre, in her home.
‘You said you knew my brother,’ she prompted.
‘No, I didn’t. I know he worked in our advertising department, but I didn’t know him personally. I know Clive Brady was sorry to lose him.’
Laura sat down opposite him, perched on the edge of her seat. ‘Martin’s always been the same, never able to settle in one place or one job. My father was in the Navy, and I think Martin inherited his wanderlust.’
‘But not you?’ He watched her over the rim of his glass.
She gave a selfconscious laugh, feeling as if Gideon had placed her under a microscope, and was now determined to know everything about her. ‘I don’t have the courage,’ she admitted honestly.
‘But you would like to travel?’
‘Wouldn’t everyone?’ she shrugged.
His mouth twisted. ‘I don’t particularly enjoy it.’
‘That because you—’ she broke off. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered.
‘Because I what?’
Gideon wasn’t a man who particularly appreciated half-sentences, and she seemed to have said nothing else since his arrival. Laura’s self-disgust deepened. ‘You travel mainly on business, and usually alone,’ she made herself say.
He eyed her mockingly. ‘Are you saying I should take someone with me?’
‘No, I didn’t mean—’
‘Yourself, for example?’ he drawled.
‘No!’
‘Why not, you’re my secretary.’
‘I—Only temporarily,’ she defended indignantly. How dared he imply she had been angling to be taken away with him on business!
Gideon looked at her calmly. ‘It could be arranged that you stay with me permanently.’
Once again her temper rose to save her, or damn her, depending on which way she looked at it. She took her resignation out of her back pocket. ‘Perhaps you’d better take this back, Mr Maitland,’ she said tightly. ‘I have no intention of—’
‘Of becoming a rich man’s amusement,’ he finished dryly. ‘But you don’t amuse me, Laura,’ he added hardly.
‘Then what— Would you just take this and go!’ She thrust her resignation at him.
His face hardened, his eyes narrowing. ‘Don’t push it too far, Laura,’ he advised softly. ‘I just might take you at your word.’
She drew in an angry breath. Damn the man! He must realise how badly she wanted to keep her job. Her hand shook. ‘I don’t see how I can continue working for you when you believe I’m intent on having an affair with you. Please, take this.’ She would rather face her mother’s disappointment than be thought no more than just another willing female to occupy Gideon Maitland’s bed. She had some pride, and she didn’t intend keeping her job by currying favour with this man, not in the way he obviously expected her to, anyway.
‘Laura—’
‘Please, Gid—Mr Maitland,’ she held her arm straight out, waiting for him to take the letter and go.
‘Okay, Laura,’ he sighed, sitting forward in his seat. ‘You win.’
She swallowed hard. ‘I—I do?’
‘Yes. For the moment we’ll forget about you becoming my—secretary. Now, shall we go out and eat?’ he asked briskly.
Laura frowned. ‘You aren’t taking my resignation?’
He sighed. ‘If you insist.’ He took the envelope, ripping it, and the letter inside, into four pieces. ‘Perhaps you could dispose of these?’ he held them out to her.
‘Yes,’ she agreed huskily.
‘Do you have any preference in food?’
‘Er—English,’ she admitted awkwardly.
‘Then get your coat. I’m hungry.’
He stood up, stretching like a lazy feline—the dangerous kind.
Laura hurried to her bedroom to get her jacket before he changed his mind. After what she had just told him she hadn’t thought he would still be interested in taking her anywhere.
‘Will we be late?’ she asked as he helped her on with the jacket. ‘You see, my mother doesn’t know I’m going out—’
‘Because you didn’t intend to,’ Gideon said dryly as they walked down the stairs together. ‘What time will your mother be home?’
‘About eleven-thirty.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll make sure you’re back before then.’
Laura blushed as he held the door to his Jaguar open, sliding into the low seat, glad that she was wearing trousers. In a dress she would probably have shown more thigh than would have been comfortable. But her attire was caual in the extreme, and she couldn’t imagine Gideon being able to take her anywhere that he wouldn’t find her appearance embarrassing. If only she had taken a few extra minutes to change!
But she needn’t have worried in that direction, the restaurant they entered twenty minutes later was the sort of quietly exclusive place where people dressed as they felt, in whatever was comfortable. It was the sort of place newsworthy people could go to relax, knowing that a reporter would never get past the door.
They were shown to a quiet booth at the back of the room, Gideon choosing to sit beside her rather than opposite her as she had expected him to. The bench seat was quite long, but even so Gideon seemed dangerously close, the hard length of his thigh touching hers, the sensuality of his aftershave once more reaching out to her.
She fiddled needlessly with her knife once the waiter had taken their order, requesting the same as Gideon—honeydew melon, steak and salad to follow, not daring to tell him she had already eaten. She could always leave what she couldn’t eat, he would probably put her lack of appetite down to nerves.
And she was nervous. Gideon ignored everyone else in the room, as if it meant nothing to him that the woman sitting a short distance from them was the star of a popular television show, that the man a little farther down the room was a famous film director. Nearly everywhere that Laura looked she recognised people, either from newspapers or television. As far as she could tell she was the only one who didn’t fit in here!
‘Relax.’ Gideon’s hand came out to cover hers as he turned on the seat, his leg pressing even harder against hers, his full attention on her flushed features. He frowned. ‘You don’t like it here?’
‘It—I—No,’ she admitted huskily.
‘Then we’ll go—’
‘No!’ She put her hand pleadingly on his arm. ‘Have your dinner. Please.’
‘But if you don’t like it here…’
‘I just felt uncomfortable for a moment.’ She gave a bright smile. ‘I’m all right now.’
‘Sure?’
‘Yes,’ she nodded enthusiastically.
His hand covered hers as it rested on his arm. ‘You have no need to feel uncomfortable, Laura. You have as much right to be here as anyone else.’
She wished she could believe him, but she still couldn’t relax. Although the sensuous way his fingers played with hers took her mind off the surroundings somewhat.
No one at work would believe that she had actually been out to dinner with Gideon Maitland. Not that she intended telling anyone! But she could hardly believe this herself. Janice had said Gideon was never interested in office girls, so she knew this was a first for him. He had to like her, he had to!
Gideon had necessarily to release her hand when their first course arrived, although he talked warmly to her as they ate their meal. Laura felt cocooned in his warmth, could believe he really cared for her for these few brief hours.
‘That wasn’t so bad, was it?’ he asked lightly as they drove back to her home.
‘It was lovely.’ And once her initial shyness had passed it had been very enjoyable, she and Gideon seeming to talk about every subject under the sun. She found that Gideon had a lively mind even out of work, his interests very varied.
‘We must do it again.’
‘Er—yes.’ He didn’t want to see her again! It was the usual polite comment when you weren’t going to be invited out again. How many times had she been told in the past ‘we must do this again’ and had never heard from the boy again!
‘Tomorrow?’
She gasped. ‘Tomorrow?’
‘Yes,’ Gideon smiled, although Laura noticed that these smiles rarely reached the coldness of his eyes. ‘Will you have dinner with me tomorrow?’
‘I’d love to!’
As she lay awake in bed later that night she wondered why he hadn’t kissed her goodnight. He hadn’t been so reticent earlier on in the evening, and yet perhaps his courteous goodnight had been proof that he didn’t intend mentioning again his first assumption that she would become his mistress.
Well, it might have been courteous of him, but she felt a sense of disappointment, the ache in her body telling her that she had longed for the touch of his lips on hers. All the time he had been touching her earlier his lips had never once touched hers, and she had been wondering all through the meal how she would react when he did kiss her. Her sense of anticlimax was immense.
It was the early hours of the morning before she finally slept, the deep unfamiliar ache in her body causing her to toss and turn in a restless slumber.
Gideon’s attitude was brusque towards her the next day, so much so that she knew their business and personal relationships were to be kept strictly separate. In a way she preferred it that way, although it was hard to believe the stern, decisive man she worked with all day was also the sensually exciting man she was anticipating meeting that evening. Until James Courtney came into her office, that was, the only other person to know of her meeting with Gideon the previous evening.
‘Good afternoon, Laura,’ he greeted her jovially.
‘Mr Courtney,’ she returned stiffly, not trusting his mood of friendliness.
He roared with laughter, at once looking younger. ‘Still in a temper, are you?’
‘Certainly not,’ she replied haughtily.
He looked her over without trying to appear as if he were doing anything else. ‘Well, at least Gideon’s made you look a little more human. I can’t abide prim women myself.’
Laura had kept to her decision to be herself, her hair loose about her shoulders, her make-up light but attractive, the severe jacket to her black suit left at home, the rust blouse she wore totally feminine. She flushed her resentment at this man’s criticism. ‘No one asked you to,’ she snapped, forgetting to be repentant to this man.
James Courtney’s smile didn’t even waver. ‘I like you, Laura. You’ve got spirit!’
So Gideon had been telling the truth, James Courtney had liked the way she stood up to him yesterday. Well, she didn’t intend making a habit of it, but nevertheless this man seemed to bring out the worst in her.
‘If I were a little younger I’d ask you out myself,’ he added tauntingly.
‘If you were a little younger you wouldn’t need to,’ Laura retorted.
‘I wouldn’t?’ He raised one eyebrow.
‘You wouldn’t be so cantankerous,’ she told him bravely. ‘And some woman would have snapped you up long ago.’
This time his laughter was even louder. ‘I’ve a good mind to ask you out anyway,’ he chuckled. ‘You would certainly brighten up my evenings.’
‘I might have something to say about that!’ Gideon came through from his office, his arm going about Laura’s shoulders.
She wasn’t sure she liked this display of intimacy in front of his father-in-law, and yet James Courtney didn’t seem in the least perturbed.
‘You would?’ he asked Gideon now.
Gideon looked down at Laura. ‘I think so,’ he nodded.
‘You talked her round last night, then?’
Laura’s mouth set rebelliously. ‘I don’t like being talked about as if I�
��m not in the room,’ she said tartly, shrugging out of the arc of Gideon’s arm. ‘If you have to discuss me please go through to the other office.’
‘How on earth did you survive the evening, Gideon?’ James Courtney mocked her display of anger.
‘I managed,’ Gideon drawled.
‘I’m sure you did,’ the other man chuckled. ‘I could do with an older version of this young lady to put some zest into my own life!’
‘Laura’s mother is a widow,’ Gideon told him.
‘Really?’ the other man’s interest quickened. ‘Is your mother anything like you, Laura?’
Her eyes sparkled deeply green as she glared at him. She wouldn’t let this man anywhere near her poor unsuspecting mother. ‘If you mean does she know how to stand up for herself in the face of rudeness, then the answer is yes!’
‘Perhaps you could introduce me to her some time?’
‘I—’
‘I don’t think Laura’s reply is very polite,’ Gideon cut in firmly. ‘Was it?’ he smiled.
‘Perhaps not,’ she admitted grudgingly.
‘Let’s go through to my office, James,’ he suggested. ‘You seem to bring out the worst in Laura.’
‘You’ve done the opposite, son. She looks quite beautiful,’ James Courtney could be heard saying as Gideon closed the door.
Rude, insufferable man! Would she introduce him to her mother, indeed! She wouldn’t introduce her least favourite aunt to him. He was—
‘Not again, Laura,’ Gideon’s voice over the intercom interrupted her furious thoughts.
She had no intention of handing in her notice a second time. James Courtney had been equally rude to her. He deserved exactly what he got.
‘Laura?’
‘Yes, sir,’ she assured him that she wasn’t going anywhere.
She could hear James Courtney’s laughter even through the thickness of the door. Hateful man!
* * *
Over the next few days Gideon treated her with cool politeness. Even when they met in the evenings they talked only of general subjects, and Gideon made no effort to kiss or touch her. The nearest they came to intimacy was when Gideon occasionally put his arm about her waist to guide her to a seat or help her into his car.
Passion from the Past Page 5