Bargaining With The Boss (Harlequin Romance)

by George, Catherine

  ‘That was when he asked me to reinstate the lady young Toby Maynard had told him about. It was a bit late in the day, he admitted, but it had slipped his mind.’ James’s grasp tightened cruelly on her wrists. ‘It gave me great pleasure to tell him that there’d never been any question of your losing your job.’

  Eyes incandescent, Eleri reached up and kissed his cheek, rather startled when James stiffened at her touch. He dropped her hands and turned away briskly, the air of importuning lover falling from him like a cloak.

  ‘Right. Time we had something to eat. You must be hungry.’

  Feeling as though she’d been dropped suddenly from a great height, Eleri stood still, ‘bemused, incredulous elation fizzing through her veins like champagne.

  ‘Tell me what you brought and I’ll do a meal,’ she said, pulling herself together.

  James gave her a look which brought the colour to her face, then began to unpack the box of food. ‘I hope you’re lost in admiration of my will-power. We’ll return to the subject of our mutual feelings after supper.’

  Helena Cartwright had packed- bread, cheese, eggs and thick rashers of bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh pasta, and an apricot tart.

  ‘Made,’ said James, ‘by her own hand. For an academic she’s a fair cook. I hope it wasn’t intended for Sam’s dinner tonight.’ He gave her a friendly smile totally at odds with the heat in his eyes. ‘How about a good old fry-up? I’m starving.’

  By the time Eleri had inspected the store-cupboard and the oven she had her emotions well in hand—other than a certain irrepressible excitement. With a speed fuelled by hunger she set about heating the grill and a frying pan to achieve a meal as quickly as possible, instructing James to lay the table and slice bread. Within a miraculously short time they were both tucking into two sizzling platefuls of food, taking care to ignore the emotional tension still heavy in the air between them.

  James talked about his parents’ home in Provence during the meal, and Eleri, not sure whether he’d regretted his outburst or was simply giving her breathing space, listened quietly as he described the lavender-filled garden and white-shuttered house his parents had bought years before, ready for retirement.

  He put down his knife and fork at last with a sigh of pleasure. ‘That was wonderful. I was allowed a liein this morning after my babysitting labours, so I ate a sort of brunch at mid-morning and nothing since. How about you?’

  ‘Just toast and coffee about the same time,’ she admitted. ‘Could I make some more tea?’

  ‘Just sit there. I’ll do it.’ While the kettle boiled James opened the back door to take a look outside, and came back in hurriedly, shivering. ‘Still snowing like blazes out there. The wind’s risen even higher, too.’ He made. tea and brought the tray over to the table. ‘How about some of Nell’s apricot tart?’

  Eleri shook her head regretfully. ‘I shouldn’t have pigged out on the bacon and eggs. I don’t have room. I’ll just wash these plates—’

  ‘Don’t bother. Stick them in the dishwasher. But first I’ll take the tray into the sitting room and put a match to the fire.’

  Eleri cleared the table and put everything away, aware in every fibre of the intimacy of their situation. They were isolated from the world for the time being. When the kitchen was tidy Eleri went into the sitting room and closed the door behind her. James was hunkered down on his heels in front of the fire, adding more logs. He turned to look up at her with a smile.

  ‘Come and sit down, Eleri. I don’t have a television here, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Good. Makes a nice change.’ She poured tea, trying not to think of later when it would be time for bed. She leaned over to hand him his cup, then sat back, sipping from her own, her eyes on the dancing flames. ‘It’s very peaceful here.’

  ‘That’s the snow. Normally we get quite a bit oftraffic through here in the evenings, due to the excellent food served in the village pub.’ James got up and sat down in one of the leather chairs. ‘Though good food isn’t quite the draw for you that it is for some, I imagine.’

  ‘No.’ Eleri smiled. ‘Frankly I enjoyed our fry-up more than anything I’ve eaten in a long time.’

  ‘Not a girl to be put off by dramatic scenes, then,’ he observed dryly.

  ‘It’s a long time since I was a girl,’ she said obliquely.

  ‘You’re not even thirty yet!’

  ‘True. But some women are “girls” well into middle age. I’m not one of them.’

  James shook his head. ‘No, you’re not. You’re an intelligent woman with the type of good looks which last into old age.’

  ‘Thank you. Though I wasn’t complaining—merely stating the obvious.’

  There was silence in the room while they both stared into the flames. Then James reached forward to put on more logs, and when he sat down again he took the space on the sofa beside her instead of returning to his chair. He took one of her hands in his and held it tightly.

  ‘So what are we going to do, Eleri?’

  ‘Do?’ she said, startled.

  ‘I wasn’t suggesting a game of charades or a hand of bridge,’ he said with sarcasm. ‘I was referring to what happens tomorrow when we get back to Northwold.’

  Eleri wondered if his fingers were registering her galloping pulse. ‘We may not get back there tomorrow.’

  ‘If not tomorrow, the next day. One way or another life will go on,’ he said inexorably. ‘I’m merely asking how you want affairs to proceed.’

  ‘I’m not sure what you mean—’

  ‘Don’t be coy, Eleri. It’s not your style.’ James turned to look at her. ‘It can’t have escaped your memory that only a short time ago I made a declaration of love. It may have been untimely, and in many ways I wish I’d kept my mouth shut, but the fact remains that for the second time in our association I’ve uttered three little words which shocked the living daylights out of you. I might just as well have saved my breath on both occasions for all the good it did me.’

  Eleri stared back at him, unable to tear her eyes from the bright, searching gaze she knew so well. ‘You mean that having said that—that—’

  ‘I love you,’ he prompted.

  ‘Do you mean,’ she went on with care, ‘that you won’t want me to stay on at Northwold?’

  James glared at her, incensed, and tossed her hand back into her lap. ‘Is that all you can think about? Your job?’ He swore colourfully, and jumped to his feet. ‘I need a drink. Can I get you one?’

  ‘Yes, please.’

  ‘What would you like?’

  ‘I don’t know—anything.’

  James seized the tray and went into the kitchen, leaving Eleri in despair, wondering how to tell him that his sentiments were returned in full. Her chin lifted as he came back into the room with a glass in each hand.

  ‘The choice was limited,’ he said shortly. ‘I’ve got Scotch, but I know you dislike that so I brought you some dry sherry.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She took it from him, feeling it was hardly the time to tell him that she loathed dry sherry even more than whisky.

  James resumed his seat beside her and sat staring morosely into the fire. ‘You obviously feel you can’t continue working with me now.’

  Eleri downed some of her drink like a dose of medicine. ‘I didn’t say that.’

  He threw a brooding look at her. ‘So what are you saying?’

  ‘I want to go on working for you. Unless,’ she added, sitting straighter, ‘you don’t want that.’

  ‘What I want and what I’m going to get are obviously two different things,’ he growled, and slumped lower in his corner of the sofa. ‘Hilarious, really. I’ve known quite a few women at one time or another—most of them more beautiful, and all of them more willing. Why in heaven’s name must you be the one I can’t do without!’

  Eleri stared at him, then began to laugh helplessly.

  ‘I can’t help it,’ she gasped. ‘It was such an outrageously back-handed compliment. It almost convinc
es me you mean it.’

  ‘Of course I damn well mean it, Eleri,’ he said with controlled violence. ‘It’s not the type of thing one says lightly. For me, anyway. What the devil can I do to convince you?’

  She ran the tip of her tongue round dry lips, her laughter suddenly gone. There was a very easy way to convince her if James would only stop talking and make love to her. She was about to tell him so in words of one syllable, when the lights went out.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE flames from the fire gave them enough light to see by as James, cursing volubly, made for the hall to check the trip switch. He came back in the room, shaking his head at Eleri’s look of enquiry.

  ‘No such luck. It does trip sometimes, in a thunderstorm, but I suppose it was too much to hope for on a night like this. Probably the whole neighbourhood’s out. I’ll ring the pub.’

  A brief conversation with the landlord confirmed that the Boar’s Head was functioning on an emergency generator and the rest of the village was in darkness.

  ‘How are you off for logs?’ said Eleri as James came back from the kitchen with a pair of candles stuck on saucers.

  ‘Stacks of them. I also,’ he added smugly, ‘possess a small camping stove, so you can even have some more tea if you want.’

  ‘What more can I ask?’ she said, smiling.

  ‘What indeed?’ he said dryly, and looked at his watch. ‘Almost eleven. It might be a good idea to get to bed soon, while we’re still warm. Separately, of course,’ he added suavely. ‘The beds are made up, but they’ll be cold. I don’t possess a hot water bottle.’

  ‘Can you spare a pair of socks?’

  ‘Of course—good idea.’ He gave her a grin which turned into a sudden yawn. ‘Sorry. Must be the fire.’

  ‘You’re probably tired after that nightmare drive,’ she said, and got to her feet. ‘I shan’t bother about more tea, thanks. I’ll take myself off to your spare room and let you get to bed.’

  ‘Right.’ James picked up the candles and handed her one. ‘Follow me.’

  He led her upstairs to the door next to the bathroom. ‘I’ll go in first and put this somewhere so you can see.’

  The room was small, and in the dim light it was hard to make out anything other than the bed and a dressing table. James put the candle down in front of the mirror, and pointed out her hold-all on a chair. ‘Pretty basic, I’m afraid, but I’ve put an extra quilt on the bed and there are more blankets in the wardrobe over there.’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she assured him, trying to find some way of asking him to stay with her. But the words refused to come out, and after a moment’s hesitation James put out a hand to touch her cheek. ‘Goodnight, Eleri. Sleep well.’

  ‘Goodnight.’

  She listened to his footsteps on the stairs, then fished in her hold-all for her toilet things and went to the bathroom, candle in hand. Shivering, she made swift preparations for the night then hurried back to her room. She tore off her clothes, pulled on a sweatshirt and leggings, then blew out the candle and dived into bed.

  A knock on the door brought Eleri upright again, her heart pounding.

  ‘I’ve brought the socks,’ said James outside the door.

  ‘Come in—but be careful, it’s dark.’

  James came over to the bed, candle in one hand. He chuckled. ‘All I can see are two enormous eyes and a mop of hair.’

  ‘It’s too cold even to put my nose out,’ she said, shivering, and reached out a hand to take the socks. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘My pleasure. Goodnight again.’

  ‘Goodnight.’

  When he’d gone, Eleri reached down in the bed and pulled on the socks, then curled up in a ball with the covers over her ears. Downstairs, in the warmth from the fire, she’d felt sleepy. But a session in James’s ice-cold bathroom had put paid to any drowsiness, and now she felt wide-awake. Gradually her eyes grew used to the darkness, and she lay staring at the grey light filtering through the window, cursing herself for a fool. James, it seemed, hadn’t felt like risking rejection a second time. Other than shaking her when she laughed at him he’d hardly touched her, except to hold her hand. The next move, if there was one, obviously had to come from her.

  Eleri tried in vain to sleep. She heard James come upstairs, and water running in the bathroom, but after that there was nothing. Any faint hope that he might join her was gone. She tossed and turned and grew gradually colder. And after what seemed like hours it became necessary to make another visit to the bathroom. She hadn’t thought to ask James for matches to relight the candle and had to grope her way across the creaking floor in the dark. When she emerged from the bathroom she gave a shriek as she cannoned into a hard, warm body.

  James grabbed her and held her close. ‘Sorry. I heard you get up and wondered if anything was wrong.’

  ‘Sorry to wake you,’ she muttered into his chest.

  ‘Did you honestly believe I’d sleep?’

  ‘I couldn’t either. I was so cold. I’ll never get to sleep on my own.’ She heaved in an unsteady breath, then said in a rush, ‘Can I come in your bed?’

  Before the words were out of her mouth James had picked her up and was carrying her to his room. She clung to him, her arms round his neck and her face buried against his throat.

  ‘Are you laughing again?’ he demanded fiercely. She nodded as he thrust her into his bed and got in beside her. She turned to him, burrowing against him, and his arms closed round her. ‘So tell me the joke, Eleri,’ he ordered hoarsely.

  ‘I’m just glad it’s dark,’ she said unsteadily. ‘I’ve never tried to seduce a man before—I’m not dressed for the part.’

  James ran a hand over the fleecy material covering her breasts, then moved on down to the leggings and his own cricket socks. He shook with laughter. ‘I see what you mean—well, not see exactly—’

  ‘Just as well—’

  ‘It doesn’t matter a damn what you’re wearing.’

  ‘Good, because it’s not very alluring.’

  ‘You’ve got all the allure I can handle just the way you are,’ he said roughly, and turned her face up to his. ‘I almost begged to stay when I brought you the socks.’

  ‘I wish you had.’

  ‘I wish I’d known you wanted me to.’

  ‘I was going to tell you how much downstairs. But the lights went out.’

  James swore under his breath. ‘So we’ve wasted at least two hours trying to get to sleep, when all the time we could have been together?’

  ‘So let’s not waste any more—kiss me!’ she said crossly, and James gave a crack of delighted laughter and did as she ordered.

  The moment their lips touched the laughter was over, and Eleri wondered feverishly how she could have felt so cold only a short time before. His seeking mouth was hungry, and she gave him back kiss for his kiss, the longing building inside her so rapidly she revolved her hips against him in shameless enticement. He took in a great gulp of cold air and held her still, his fingers digging into her hip-bones, then he began to caress her, his hands learning the shape of her in the dark, demonstrating why her choice of nightwear was immaterial as he dispensed with it summarily along with his own.

  The cold of the night was forgotten as Eleri responded to him with such uninhibited ardour she felt a rush of triumph when James was so obviously forced to fight for control, striving to slow things down as he used all the skill he possessed to prolong their lovemaking. Eleri gasped and writhed as he kissed and caressed every inch of her body, wanting him so much she gasped in protest as he tore himself away for a moment. Then he turned back to her, sliding her beneath him, and kissed her fiercely as their bodies merged together at last, seeking each other in question and answer until they blended in a rhythm which brought them all too soon to the culmination Eleri experienced before him. She uttered a hoarse little cry of wonder, then clutched his head to her breasts in fierce possession as James surrendered himself to his own release.

  Held close in each
other’s arms, shaken by their united heartbeats as their breathing slowed, it was a long time before James raised the head he’d buried against her throat. He reached out a hand to touch her face.

  ‘Warmer now?’ he whispered, and she laughed huskily.

  ‘Yes. You’re much better than a hot water bottle.’

  ‘What a romantic little soul you are!’

  ‘Are you seeking praise?’

  ‘Not praise, exactly.’ He inched up the bed and held her close, drawing the covers over them. ‘I suppose I’m asking if it was as miraculous for you as it was for me.’

  ‘A lot more, probably.’

  ‘I seriously doubt that.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I love you, Eleri. It’s as simple as that.’

  She curled closer, muttering something unintelligible into his neck.

  ‘What did you say?’ he demanded, turning her face up to his.

  ‘I said,’ she repeated desperately, ‘that I love you too. I’ve been in love with you from the first day you arrived at Northwold—where are you going?’

  James had leaned out of bed and was searching on his bedside table. He struck a match and lit a candle, then brought the candlestick over until the light shone full into her flushed face.

  ‘Say it again!’

  She put up a hand to shield her eyes. ‘Blow it out, James—please!’

  ‘Not until you tell me all that again.’

  She felt the blood rush to her face, then, stammering over it a little, she repeated what she’d said before. ‘Now put the light out!’

  James blew out the candle and returned it to the bedside table, then slid down in the bed and kissed her until her head reeled. ‘If,’ he growled menacingly, ‘you’ve loved me all that time, why have you been so damn difficult?’

  She stiffened. ‘Difficult?’

  ‘Yes! Tonight, downstairs, I told you I loved you. And, as I mentioned at the time, it’s not something I’ve ever told a woman before. Couldn’t you have put me out of my misery—told me that you felt the same for me? It was a hellish daunting experience to confess my love to someone who never even flickered an eyelash in response.’