by Helen Brooks
‘Don’t be fooled by the old adage that men can only think of one thing at once, at least not where Steel’s concerned,’ Joy said, once they’d ordered their soup and rolls. ‘He can think of several things at once and he expects everyone else to keep up with him. He’s a workaholic but he plays hard too, although he never, ever gets seriously involved with a woman. Love ‘em and leave ‘em, that’s Steel’s style.’
‘The original bachelor?’ Toni put in drily.
‘And how.’ Joy nodded. ‘Work is his motivating force; women have to fall into line and accept an affair with him is only semi-permanent and strictly sexual. They queue up for the privilege,’ she added wryly. ‘And I’m not joking.’
Toni hadn’t thought she was.
‘He adores his sister though.’ Joy spent a few moments explaining how Steel had brought Annie up, finishing with, ‘You know she was in danger of losing her baby recently?’
‘Uh-huh. How are things?’
‘OK. Annie’s confined to bed from here on.’
They talked some more and Toni found herself wishing Joy weren’t leaving at the end of the summer. She felt the two of them could have become good friends. Joy had already started advertising for her replacement; Steel wanted his new secretary in place long before Joy left so when the time came everything ran as smoothly as he expected.
‘Patience is not one of Steel’s virtues,’ Joy had murmured earlier that morning, eyebrows raised meaningfully, and Toni had nodded that she understood. It wasn’t exactly reassuring on her first day when she felt she knew nothing about anything.
Steel had gone out to lunch with a business colleague and the two women were deep in their respective work when he returned. The interconnecting door opened and he put his head round long enough to say, ‘Five minutes and we’re leaving for the new site, Toni. Bring the plans and anything else you need.’
She must have looked somewhat alarmed because when the door shut again, Joy said, a touch of laughter in her voice, ‘His bark is worse than his bite. He’s quite human really.’
Toni smiled weakly and began to collect her things together. She was ready and waiting when Steel buzzed Joy to say he was leaving, and as she joined him in the outside corridor and they walked towards the lift he reached out and took the plans and other data from her, tucking them under his arm. ‘Settled in?’ he asked briefly, his voice deep and slightly husky in the quiet surroundings as the lift doors glided silently open.
Toni’s stomach muscles tightened. Once in the carpeted mirrored box he seemed very close, even though there were a good few inches between them. ‘Yes, thank you. Joy’s been very kind. She’s shown me around and introduced me to everyone.’
‘She’s a damn good secretary. I’ll be sorry to lose her.’
Toni nodded to this, even as she thought, Joy has worked for you for years. Won’t you be sorry to lose her, as a person, and not just a secretarial machine? And then she answered herself immediately. Of course he wouldn’t. The smooth running of his precious office was all that mattered; the man was barely human. Perhaps he was really a futuristic robot, a creature from a sci-fi film with the appearance of a flesh and blood man? It would fit in with Joy’s warning that he was capable of carrying out a complex series of thoughts and actions simultaneously.
As they exited the lift and walked towards the huge glass doors that led into the street, Toni felt she knew what it was like to be in the presence of royalty. Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and smile and murmur a ‘Good afternoon, sir,’ as they passed, and the burly security man in the foyer practically saluted.
‘Philip has brought your car round, Mr Landry. He said you didn’t want him to chaffeur you this afternoon? I hope that’s right?’ he added, jumping forward to open the outer doors.
Steel nodded. ‘Quite right, Bill. How’s the wife? Over that last hospital spell, I hope?’
‘She’s doing all right, Mr Landry, and still going on about the holiday you sent us on. That week in the sun did her the world of good. Set her up, it did.’
‘Good. Glad to hear it.’
They exited the building into the street. A smart young man was standing by a black Aston Martin parked at the kerb, which had the passenger door open. As they walked towards the car Steel murmured, ‘Bill’s wife’s fighting a particularly nasty form of cancer and it’s been touch and go a few times. He worships the ground she walks on and they’ve never had kids, so it’s just the two of them. It’s hit him hard.’
Toni didn’t have a chance to reply before they reached the car. The young man helped her into the leather-clad interior while Steel walked round the gleaming bonnet to the driver’s side.
It was just as well she had a few moments to collect herself; his kindness to the security man had thrown her completely. She wouldn’t have put Steel Landry down as a philanthropist in any way, shape or form. First mistake, then, and probably not her last.
The man was an enigma, she told herself crossly. He wouldn’t stay in the box she’d parcelled him up in in her mind. Which was unsettling. And then she was even more unsettled when he slid into the low sleek car, so close the faint, delicious smell of him swamped her senses. He reached round and threw the plans and other documents into the back seat, his shoulder brushing hers and causing a chain reaction right down to her toes.
‘OK?’ He gave her a brief smile, clearly not requiring an answer before he started the car and pulled out almost immediately into the London traffic.
She wouldn’t have said OK, no, Toni thought wryly. Taking a deep breath, she composed herself and tried to concentrate on anything rather than the hard male body at the side of her. It wasn’t easy. In fact it was impossible and as closing her eyes wasn’t an option she did the next best thing and stared determinedly out of the side window until she had control of her breathing.
They had only travelled a couple of miles when the car’s Bluetooth phone system cut into the tense—at least Toni felt it was tense—silence. It was a business call, and Steel had barely finished speaking before the phone rang again. It set the tone for the journey.
Did he ever stop working? Toni asked herself as Steel manoeuvred the powerful car in and out of the heavy London traffic while discussing facts and figures as decisively as though he were sitting at his desk with the relevant papers in front of him. But then she knew the answer to that; Joy had told her he played as hard as he worked.
She closed her mind to that particular avenue of thought before it took hold. Over the last few nights she’d had one or two particularly erotic dreams, which had been embarrassing to recall in the light of day. And they’d all featured Steel. Thank goodness he’d never know. A little frisson of horror at the notion he might suspect she’d fantasised about him—albeit subconsciously, which was hardly her fault—slivered down her spine. This was so unlike her, it really was.
A good few miles—and a good few phone calls—later, Steel pulled into a parking space in front of a huge, somewhat grim-looking factory building, which still had ‘E. C. Maine & Son, Quality Furnishings’ over the massive arched front doors. ‘I think the most you can say about the exterior is that it looks solid,’ Steel murmured wryly. ‘I doubt we can do much there.’
‘Oh, I don’t know …’ Toni gazed up at the seemingly hundreds of small windows. ‘We’ve already got permission to join some of the windows together to make large, more attractive ones and they’d look great with outside shutters to break up the brickwork. And look at the detail above the windows; the Victorians did that sort of thing so well. If we follow that through with the alterations and pick out some of the brick patterns with gold and black paint, just above the windows and nowhere else, I think it might look quite charming.’
Steel nodded. ‘I see what you mean.’
‘And the yard at the back which is going to become the communal garden could be enclosed with ornamental iron railings augmented with the same design to tie in with the building.’
‘I like that.’
He smiled. ‘I like that very much. Do it.’
His approval brought pink into her cheeks but Steel was already striding up to the main doors. By the time he had unlocked them and stood aside for Toni to precede him into the old fusty factory she had gained control.
Seeing the building in its raw state made the project come alive. Carried along on a wave of enthusiasm, Toni found it easier to concentrate on the job in hand and ignore the attraction of the tall dark man prowling about at her side. She was full of ideas, some practical and some not so practical, but by the time they left she knew she could make each apartment spectacular. Initially the vast basement had been designed as a caretaker’s flat, but on seeing it Toni had suggested a much smaller, more compact one-bedroomed dwelling with the remaining space kitted out as a gym with sauna and steam rooms for the occupants of the apartments. ‘And a jacuzzi,’ she’d added, after Steel had approved the idea. ‘For the ladies.’
One dark eyebrow quirked. Steel turned from locking the front doors, a lazy smile twisting the stern mouth. ‘That’s a little sexist,’ he protested mildly. ‘Males like jacuzzis too.’
‘Not as much as women do.’
Steel shrugged, his silver-blue eyes watching the way the evening sunshine brought out the red in her dark brown hair. It was natural, he’d swear to it, he thought inconsequentially. When had he last seen a beautiful woman with hair that owed nothing to a bottle for its rich colour? ‘Don’t the pins and what have you in that thing make your head ache?’ he said suddenly, nodding at her tightly secured coil of hair.
She stared at him as if he’d gone mad—and perhaps he had, Steel thought ruefully. Personal remarks to employees weren’t his style.
‘A little, perhaps,’ she said slowly after a moment or two. ‘But it’s neat and out of the way for work.’
Steel glanced at his watch. ‘It’s nearly half-past five. You’re officially in your own time.’ He could hear himself speaking but didn’t seem able to stop himself.
If she understood she didn’t give any sign of it. ‘I can sketch out some of our new ideas and have them ready for you in the morning.’ Her voice was cool, businesslike. ‘Of course the cost will be pretty general at this stage.’
Damn the ideas. His body had been throbbing with sexual frustration all afternoon and now he gritted his teeth as he walked to the Aston Martin and opened the passenger door, helping her into the car. ‘There’s no rush.’ He leant one arm on the roof of the car and smiled at her. ‘Leave them till tomorrow. Fancy a drink now the working day is done?’
What are you doing? another part of his brain ground out. You’re breaking every rule in the book.
Ah, but they were his rules. He was the boss. He could break them if he chose to do so. Anyway, what was the matter in two working colleagues enjoying an end-of-day drink?
She seemed a little flustered but her voice was firm when she said, ‘Thank you, but no, I ought to get home. The girls will be having their bath soon and I like to be there when I can.’
Steel blinked, disconcerted to find he’d forgotten her children existed in the last few minutes. ‘No problem.’ He shut her door, mentally kicking himself as he walked round the bonnet.
When he slid into the car he saw she was sitting very straight and still. He cursed silently. During the afternoon she had relaxed with him and now they were back to square one. ‘How about I take you straight home now, unless you need to call in the office for anything?’ he suggested quietly. ‘That way you shouldn’t miss time with your children.’
She glanced at him and he saw her eyes were wary. ‘Thank you,’ she said after a moment or two. He got the feeling she would have liked to refuse the offer and wondered why. Was she bothered about what the neighbours would think when she was brought home in a nice car by a strange man, or didn’t she want to run the risk he might meet her family? Neither reason sat well and he felt an edge of anger to his curiosity about what made this dark-eyed, honey-skinned woman tick.
Toni sat hugging the folder of plans and her notes to her chest during the journey as though she needed their protection. Steel wondered what she’d do if he suddenly pulled into a quiet side road and cut the engine, and toyed with doing just that to see her reaction for a second before he had the grace to feel ashamed of himself. But she made him want to do something outrageous, he told himself in justification for his crassness. She was so in command of herself, so restrained. She made him feel like one of the lecherous villains from the old silent movies. He could understand why her opinion of the male sex was at an all-time low, but did she seriously think he was so boorish as to make a move on her in his car of all places?
The thought of having her in the back seat, of making her shake and shiver and moan beneath him as his hands and mouth explored every inch of her delectable body, nearly caused him to drive into a large family saloon. After this Steel gave all his attention to the rush-hour traffic and let his self-induced arousal subside.
When he drew up outside the terraced house where her parents lived Toni opened the door even as he cut the engine. ‘Wait, I’ll help you,’ he offered as she began to scramble out of the car, but by the time he’d walked round to her the inevitable had happened and the plans and papers were all over the pavement.
He bent to help her retrieve them, wincing as their heads collided and then catching her as she stumbled.
‘I’m so sorry.’ She was scarlet. ‘It’s your car, it’s so low.’ And then she blushed still more if that was possible.
He thought it showed remarkable restraint when he didn’t point out that if she had waited as he’d suggested there wouldn’t have been a problem. He managed a creditable laugh. ‘I’ll use the four-by-four next time.’
‘No, I didn’t mean—’
She was still in his arms and every muscle in his body had tightened as evidence of the fact. He looked down at her face, noticing a tiny indentation in her nose—the result of an injury when she was young maybe?—and the way her full lips were slightly apart showing small white teeth. He wondered what she tasted like. Sweet as honey. Without a doubt.
It took more will power than he knew he possessed to resist kissing her, to resist plunging his tongue into the moist, undefended territory of her mouth. He wanted her so badly he was in danger of shaking with the need. The scent of her was warm and inviting, teasing his nostrils, and her hair smelt of summer fruit—peaches, apples perhaps.
He straightened, letting his arms fall to his sides and taking a step away from her before he gave in to the sensual desire turning his blood to liquid fire. She didn’t move, staring at him with huge eyes, her body as still as his. How long they would have stood there he didn’t know, but when the front door to the house opened and shrill shrieks of ‘Mummy!’ broke the unnatural silence that had fallen she reacted with a speed that took him by surprise. One moment she was staring at him with great dark eyes, the next she was meeting the two little girls who ran pell-mell towards her with outstretched arms.
Steel found he was transfixed. It was an effort to raise his gaze to the stout, grey-haired woman in the doorway who called, ‘I’m sorry, dear, but they’ve been watching from their bedroom window for you to come home and once they caught sight of you …’
‘It’s all right, Mum.’ Toni disentangled herself, turning to Steel with a strained smile as she said, ‘These are my children, Amelia and Daisy.’
He’d been right with his second guess. She hadn’t wanted him to meet her children. The knowledge hit at the same time as he acknowledged he was experiencing a feeling of tremendous relief that the twins were tiny copies of their mother, apart from their hair, which was a riot of tight brown curls. He couldn’t see any obvious evidence of the man who had sired them.
‘Hello, Amelia and Daisy,’ he said smilingly. ‘Who is who?’ He crouched down to make himself less intimidating.
‘I’m Amelia. She’s Daisy.’
One of the twins was burying her face in her mother’s neck but the other little
girl surveyed him with the penetrating, steady gaze of a child as she spoke. Steel nodded at the tiny figure. ‘My name’s Steel Landry, Amelia.’
‘Steel?’ The minute nose wrinkled. ‘That’s not a name, that’s what things are made out of.’
‘It’s what I’m made out of,’ he counteracted swiftly as Toni murmured an agonised ‘Amelia'.
‘Like a robot?’ Amelia asked interestedly.
‘Sort of.’ Steel found himself laughing.
The little girl thought for a moment, then she said, ‘There’s a boy at nursery, his name’s Tyler, and he’s always picking on Daisy. If I tell him my mummy’s got a friend who’s made of steel I bet he won’t pick on her again.’
‘It’s worth a try,’ said Steel seriously.
Amelia beamed. ‘I’ll tell him tomorrow.’
‘Hello, Mr Landry.’ Toni’s mother tottered towards him, holding out her hand. ‘It’s very nice to meet you. Can I offer you a coffee? My husband’s just made a fresh pot.’
Toni was looking at her mother and he could see her rejection of the idea on her face before she had time to hide it. It was the spur he needed to answer, ‘That would be most welcome. Thank you. If you’re sure it’s no trouble.’
Crazy. As he followed the women and children into the house Steel knew he was playing with fire. This was a woman with more baggage than royalty travelled with, but it didn’t make any difference. It should have; everything in his orderly, controlled life to date was screaming that fact at him. But it didn’t. He wanted to see her in her natural habitat and the fascination wouldn’t be denied. He might regret it—he very probably would, he acknowledged wryly, but he hadn’t got to where he was today without taking chances.
He needed to—he had to—peek under the façade Toni presented to the world and see her, the real woman. He’d ached with a combination of lust and uncertainty since the first moment he’d laid eyes on her and that just wasn’t the way he was made. He was a mature, experienced man, rational and logical, even sagacious. He didn’t do reckless and impetuous, he told himself again.