Falling for Her Impossible Boss

by Alison Roberts

  And she could hear her name being shouted.

  ‘Bella!’

  * * *

  Oliver’s heart stopped when he saw Bella falling. It started again with a painful thump as he leapt down the final few steps to the level of that ledge, her name wrenched out of him in an agonised cry.

  The dreadful fear was contained when he saw that Bella hadn’t fallen very far at all. She was caught between tree roots and was in no danger of falling to the rocks below. Instantly, the fear morphed into anger as he moved onto the ledge.

  ‘For God’s sake, Bella.’ He was careful enough to keep hold of the roots above his head with one hand, close enough to reach his other hand down to where she could grasp it. He hauled her to her feet, more angry words pouring out. ‘You just couldn’t be bothered sticking to the steps? Not adventurous enough for you? Too predictable? Boring? What were trying to do, anyway—find a short cut down to the beach?’

  He knew he shouldn’t be shouting at her. He hated the way she was staring up at him, looking so terrified as he pulled her closer. But there was no way he could contain that fear and anger any longer.

  ‘You scared the hell out of me,’ he informed her as she got close enough for him to catch her with both hands. To pull her into his arms and back to the safety of the steps.

  Bella was shaking like a leaf. And sobbing. All Oliver could do was sink down onto the wide step and hold her in his arms, cradled against his chest. He stroked her hair and asked questions that she was nowhere near ready to answer.

  ‘What were you doing?

  ‘Have you hurt yourself?

  ‘Are you getting any cramps or anything?’

  Eventually, he felt the shaking subside and he heard Bella take a deeper breath.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said, in a small voice.

  * * *

  She’d done it again, hadn’t she?

  Done something stupid in front of Oliver. No wonder he was angry but why was he still holding her like this? He’d been stroking her hair even, as though he really cared about her. The stroking had stopped but Bella could feel a different kind of touch. Oliver’s face pressed against her hair? It had to be because she could feel the puff of his breath on her cheek.

  And when she turned her head a little, his lips were right there.

  And he was kissing her.

  Kissing her with a passion that was barely under control. A tenderness that was laced with…fear?

  ‘I could have lost you,’ Oliver murmured between kisses. ‘You could have lost the baby.’

  ‘But you don’t want the baby.’ Bella had to pull back far enough to see his face. ‘My getting pregnant was an accident.’ She screwed her eyes shut. ‘No. It wasn’t an accident. It was me being stupid. Like I always am.’

  ‘No. You’re not stupid, Bella. Just…impetuous.’ Oliver was smiling at her. ‘It’s one of the things that makes us so different. One of the things I love about you so much.’

  Love? Had the L word just crossed Oliver Dawson’s lips?

  Unbelievable. Maybe she had knocked her head without realising it.

  It might be a good idea to change the subject before she really made an idiot of herself and told him about all the things she loved about him.

  ‘I was trying to rescue Bib,’ she told him. ‘She’s out there on the branch. See?’

  Oliver seemed to have difficulty changing the direction of his gaze. Bib got no more than a brief glance.

  ‘She’s safe enough for the moment. Cats are very good at getting out of trees. They just need a bit of time to figure things out.’ Oliver was pressing his lips on Bella’s hair now. ‘Right now, it’s you I care about. Only you.’

  Bella was staying very still in his arms. She hadn’t imagined it this time. If she didn’t move for a while, maybe it would start seeming real.

  ‘I was trying to tell you,’ Oliver said. ‘That’s why I told you about my parents because I wanted you to understand that it was different for us. That I didn’t want to marry you just because other people might expect it.’

  ‘But…you said that we came from very different backgrounds.’

  ‘And we do. Thank goodness. And maybe some people will think it’s not a perfect match. Maybe that’s what you think too but…I’m in love with you, Bella. So much in love.’

  There it was again. The L word.

  ‘And maybe I’m just lucky that you were careless about contraception because now there’s a chance that you might consider marrying me.’

  Bella was confused again. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

  ‘Because I’m…stuffy. Boring and predictable.’ Oliver was smiling again as he tightened his hold on Bella. ‘Like the steps?’

  ‘You’re crazy,’ she told him. A smile was trying to break out on her face. She could feel it coming, her face muscles softening. Her heart singing. ‘I’d marry you if there was never going to be a baby.’

  ‘You would?’ The mix of surprise and delight in Oliver’s voice made Bella’s smile escape further.

  ‘Of course I would. I love you, Oliver. I have for ages. Ever since you smiled at me that time. That first day when I was looking after your mother.’

  For a long, long moment, they simply gazed at each other. Basking in the kind of glow that only newly declared love could bring.

  The gift of that love was the biggest joy that Bella had ever received. She wanted to do something just as big for Oliver.

  ‘I promise I won’t do anything irresponsible again,’ she whispered.

  Oliver simply smiled. ‘You are who you are, Bella, and I love you. Maybe my stuffiness will help keep you safe in the future. You will certainly keep reminding me how joyful life can be. What it feels like to be

  really alive.’

  Bella’s smile couldn’t get any bigger. She could never feel any happier. This moment was absolutely perfect. Except…

  Except poor Bib was still stuck in the tree.

  Bella tore her gaze from that of the man who was going to become her husband and looked over her shoulder, up into the branches of the old tree. As she did so, she could hear the faint cry of an elderly woman’s voice coming from the garden well above the step she was sitting on with Oliver.

  ‘Bib? Bib, Bib, Bib? Come here at once, you naughty cat.’

  Bella wasn’t the only one who’d heard the command. Oliver was smiling. And Bib? The small, fluffy grey and white cat trotted along the thin branch until it got to the main trunk of the tree. Then she turned herself around and shimmied down backwards until she reached ground level. With barely a glance at the couple locked in each other’s arms, Bib scooted past, up the steps, towards the garden and Lady Dorothy.

  Bella laughed. ‘She knows who she wants to get a cuddle from.’

  ‘So do I.’ Oliver’s arms tightened around Bella again.

  She raised her face for another kiss but a tiny frown was creasing Oliver’s brow.

  ‘What about all the things you were dreaming of for your future, my love?’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘A dozen kids?’

  Bella grinned. ‘It’s a big house. We could fit in more than one, couldn’t we?’

  Oliver laughed but then looked serious again.

  ‘The overseas travel?’

  ‘Aren’t we going to have a honeymoon?’

  ‘Of course. We could go anywhere you want. Where would you most want to go?’

  ‘Ooh…London,’ Bella said dreamily. ‘Barcelona. Paris.’ She kissed Oliver. ‘We could go dancing in Paris.’

  Oliver made a face. ‘They do line dancing in Paris?’

  Bella shook her head, laughing. ‘Tango,’ she told him. ‘That’s the only dance for Paris, I think. I’ll teach you.’

  It was Oliver’s turn t
o kiss her. ‘It takes two to tango,’ he whispered.

  ‘Lucky we’ve got each other, then, isn’t it?’ Bella wanted to hold this moment for ever. To look into Oliver’s gorgeous brown eyes. To have him looking at her like this. With so much love. ‘There’s two of us.’

  Oliver’s gaze softened even more. ‘And there always will be,’ he said softly. ‘Always.’

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  THE Dawson wedding was a much more lavish affair than Kate and Connor’s wedding had been.

  It was held in one of the most prestigious churches the city of Auckland had to offer and the guest list ran to hundreds.

  The guest with the prime position in the front row was, of course, Lady Dorothy Dawson. For this wedding she was wearing another silk dress and matching jacket and hat but this time they were in shades of apricot and they were an even better match for the garnet necklace she had chosen for her accessory.

  And this time she was wearing her matching ring—a symbol of just how far she had come in her recovery.

  Sitting beside her, Kate was glowing with her advancing pregnancy and Connor already had the air of a proud father. Thanks to the most recent scan, he knew he would be welcoming a son into the world before very long. Bella had had a scan at almost the same time but she and Oliver had decided to keep the gender of their baby a secret. The knowledge that there would be two little boys so close in age keeping the family bonds strong was a treasure they weren’t quite ready to share.

  Bella’s dress wasn’t as slim fitting as Kate’s had been but there was still no hiding the bump of her expanding belly. And, yes, there’d been a few sideways glances from some of the Dawson social set who would have been terribly offended if they hadn’t been invited to the wedding of the year but it didn’t bother Oliver or Bella or Lady Dorothy one little bit.

  They’d made the wedding arrangements with all the speed possible for such an occasion because it was very important that Oliver and Bella could have their honeymoon before the pregnancy made it impossible to embark on an international flight.

  Before their family responsibilities made it impossible to spend a night dancing a tango in Paris.

  A dance for two people.

  A dance of love.

  * * * * *

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  ISBN: 9781459238886

  FALLING FOR HER IMPOSSIBLE BOSS

  First North American Publication 2012

  Copyright © 2012 by Alison Roberts

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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