Lori dressed with more than her usual care the next day, conscious of the fact that she would be seeing Luke Randell this morning. She played down her looks, the black suit she wore was not one of her favourites, being too severe in style to be totally flattering, as was the white cotton blouse she wore beneath. The soft cloud of her hair she brushed down severely, and her make-up was almost non-existent. She didn’t want to attract the attention of Luke Randell, and the playing down of her beauty was done so subtly it was barely discernible.
At least she thought it was! Claude Hammond’s double-take as he came into the office at nine o’clock seemed to say she hadn’t been as successful as she thought she had. The cool expression in her steady brown eyes warned him not to make any comment. Wise man that he was, he heeded that warning, softly closing his office door behind him, although he seemed to do it with a puzzled shake of his head.
Ten-twenty-five had Lori going to the kitchen to make Mr Hammond’s morning coffee, carefully adding two cups, placing the tray on his desk without a word. As she returned to her own desk in the outer office she schooled her features for the moment Luke Randell walked through the doorway.
At exactly ten-thirty by the Roman-numeralled wooden wall-clock he strode through the doorway. And Lori was glad she had had warning of his arrival! In the grey morning suit at the wedding he had looked devastatingly attractive, now in a navy blue three-piece pin-striped suit he looked breathtaking, oozing self-confidence, and an animal magnetism that he didn’t even seem aware of—or if he was he simply accepted it as part of himself.
If he was in the least taken aback by her appearance—or lack of it!—he didn’t show it, grinning widely as he breezed over to her desk, looking almost boyish in his pleasure at seeing her again. ‘Hello, kitten,’ his mouth quirked at the involuntary tightening of her lips. ‘I told you we would meet again,’ he drawled.
Lori ignored him and pressed the intercom. ‘Mr Randell is here to see you, sir,’ she informed her employer coolly.
‘Show him in, Lori,’ Claude’s voice boomed. ‘Show him in.’
‘Now that wasn’t nice,’ Luke shook his head, leaning against her desk. ‘I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes first.’
She stood up and walked to the connecting door. ‘Mr Hammond will see you—’ somehow Luke Randell had managed to reach the door before she did. For such a big man he moved with amazing grace and speed, blocking her way very effectively as she would have opened the door. ‘Would you like to go in?’ She remained cool, although his proximity was a little unnerving.
‘No,’ he told her bluntly, his gaze speculative. ‘Have dinner with me tonight.’
‘I’m sorry—’
‘Why not?’ he probed sharply.
Lori sighed, knowing that subtle as it might have been, the severity of her appearance hadn’t deterred from her looks at all as far as this man was concerned. ‘Because I would rather not,’ she refused.
He frowned, his grey eyes thoughtful. ‘Why have I made such a bad impression on you?’
‘You haven’t—’
‘Oh yes,’ he mused, ‘I have.’
‘Would you please go in?’ Agitation entered her voice now. ‘Mr Hammond is expecting you.’
‘And I’m here,’ he nodded. ‘But I’m not quite ready to go in yet.’ One hand snaked out and curled about her nape, pulling her slowly towards him. ‘I imagine this was for my sake,’ he fluffed her hair about her face. ‘But don’t you know,’ he shook his head, his arms encircling her waist as he moulded her body to his, ‘that you could be dressed in a sack, and yet to me you would still be the most beautiful thing on two very sexy legs?’
He was like a snake charming a rabbit, and to Lori’s fury his strength was such that she couldn’t escape him. She moved her head from side to side in an effort to escape the descent of that sensual mouth, knowing she wouldn’t be able to bear it if he should kiss her. He had her arms trapped within the circle of his, and her eyes spat her hatred of him as he lowered his head that final couple of inches, claiming her lips with his own.
He kissed like an expert, she could tell that; the movement of his lips on hers was slow and drugging, the tip of his tongue probing the edge of her mouth as her lips stayed firmly clamped together, resisting the intimacy.
His mouth became bolder on hers, his arms tightened, arrogantly assuming that she was putting up only a token resistance.
At last he raised his head. ‘Kitten, stop fighting me,’ he groaned.
‘I’m not—’
‘Lori, is—Oh!’ A surprised Claude Hammond stood in his open office doorway behind them. ‘I couldn’t think what was delaying you, Luke. I think I must be older than I realised!’ he chuckled in self-derision.
Lori hastily pulled out of Luke’s arms and went back to her desk, her face averted. ‘I’ll have these letters ready directly, Mr Hammond.’
‘No hurry,’ her employer shrugged. ‘For the first time, Luke, I’ve seen my efficient secretary not so cool. And you’re the cause of it!’
Lori noisily fed four fresh sheets of paper into her typewriter, ignoring both men, aware that she was a source of amusement to them.
‘See you later, kitten,’ Luke drawled as he closed the door behind them.
Her fingers ground down on her typewriter keyboard, all the keys tangling into each other. She put her hands up over her face. Oh, why had she let him get to her in that way!
And the memory of his lips on hers was so overpowering it felt as if he was still kissing her! The feeling was so strong that she had to leave her office to go and thoroughly scrub her face, erasing what little make-up she had been wearing.
Her face was pale in the mirror, her eyes huge and haunted. And haunted was the way she was beginning to feel! So much for Little Miss Cool—she had been made to look like an absolute idiot, and in front of Claude Hammond too! She had made it a policy, since her disastrous engagement to Nigel, of keeping her private life strictly separate from her work, and now in one week she had been out to dinner with one of the seven lawyers in the practice and caught by Mr Hammond kissing a family friend in her office. She hadn’t been kissing Luke Randell, but to Mr Hammond it must have looked that way.
She determinedly got on with her work once she returned to her desk; the two men were still talking in the inner office.
‘Lori, bring in the Danfield file,’ Mr Hammond buzzed through to her on the intercom several minutes later.
It was the most important case he was working on at the moment, and she spared a moment to wonder why on earth he should want Luke Randell to see the file. No doubt he had his reasons.
She entered the office after only the briefest of knocks, ignoring the man sitting across from Claude Hammond, although she could feel the way he was looking at her ‘sexy legs’. Damn him! He had no right to look at her like that in front of her employer.
Claude Hammond seemed to view her bristling antagonism with amusement, his eyes twinkling up at her as he thanked her. As she turned to leave Luke Randell strolled over and opened the door for her, willing her to look up at him.
Lori refused to raise her gaze above the sensitive hand resting on the door handle. It obviously wasn’t the hand of a, manual labourer, although it also wasn’t the hand of a man who sat behind a desk all day either. There was strength in the supple fingers, sensitivity too.
‘I sail,’ he murmured.
Now her startled lids were raised, and she looked straight into quizzical grey eyes. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Yes, what do you mean, Luke?’ Claude sounded puzzled.
A lazy smile lit the hard features of the other man as he turned to smile at him. ‘I was just telling Lori I love to sail.’ His gaze returned to her flushed face. ‘Perhaps you would like to come with me one day?’ he offered softly.
‘I get seasick,’ she refused in a flat voice, pushing past him.
‘I could cure that,’ he said gently from behind her, standing between the two offices.
Lori turned as she reached the relative safety of her desk. ‘I don’t want to be cured.’ She looked at him steadily, seeing by the tightening of his cynical mouth that he had caught her double meaning.
‘The cure could be worse than the ailment, you mean?’ he questioned huskily.
‘Undoubtedly.’ She gave a distant inclination of her head.
‘Have you ever tried it?’ His voice dripped with innuendo.
‘Several times,’ she answered coolly.
‘And the—result was always the same?’
‘Always.’
He shrugged. ‘Perhaps you’ve just—sailed with the wrong men.’
Her mouth tightened. ‘No, I don’t think that’s it at all, Mr Randell.’
‘You don’t?’ he drawled.
‘No,’ she said stiffly. ‘I just don’t think I—like it.’
‘Pity,’ he murmured dryly. ‘It can be so—exhilarating.’ He turned back to Claude Hammond. ‘You were going to tell me about Danfield,’ he was saying as he closed the door behind him.
Lori sank slowly into the chair behind her desk. Lord, why had she let him get her into a conversation like that one! Neither one of them had been talking about sailing, and they both knew it. It had once again been his ability to read her mind that angered her, that had provoked that almost juvenile exchange.
The trouble was that Luke Randell made her feel juvenile. Whenever he was around she wanted to snap and snarl at everyone.
CHAPTER FOUR
LUKE was ‘around’ a lot the next three days, and by the time Friday afternoon arrived Lori was almost at breaking point. It seemed to have become a challenge to the man to get her to go out with him, and his determination to succeed had even prompted her to accept another invitation from Jonathan, when she had had no intention of going out with him again. Luke had made his invitation for Saturday this morning, which as usual she had refused, only to have Jonathan come in a few minutes later and issue another invitation. Remembering the determined glitter in steely grey eyes, she had accepted Jonathan’s invitation out of desperation. His unhidden pleasure had made her feel guilty, but at least when Luke had repeated his invitation this afternoon she had been able to say, in all honesty, that she already had a date.
‘Anderson?’ he had drawled.
‘Yes,’ she answered with satisfaction.
Luke shook his head. ‘He doesn’t really mean anything to you.’
Hot colour flooded her cheeks. ‘And how would you know that? Don’t tell me,’ she scorned. ‘You know me, right? Only you don’t, Mr Randell. And you never will!’
‘I won’t?’
‘No!’
‘If I didn’t know your aversion to me was genuine, I’d think it was a case of “the lady doth protest too much”, but—’
‘You know my dislike is genuine?’ she repeated incredulously.
He was sitting on the side of her desk, one leg swinging idly back and forth. ‘Oh yes, I know, kitten,’ he was serious now. ‘But it makes no difference.’
‘To what?’
‘My plans to marry you.’
‘Oh, for God’s sake…’ She stood up angrily. ‘Mr Hammond said you were to go straight into his office once you returned from lunch. I would be grateful if you would do just that.’
He stood slowly to his feet, a good six or seven inches taller than her, even in her high-heeled sandals. ‘Anything to make you happy, kitten,’ he drawled.
‘Anything?’
‘Within reason,’ he derided her eagerness.
‘Stay away from me?’
‘Not possible, I’m afraid. Not now, or in the future.’
‘Why?’ she pleaded.
‘You really want an answer to that?’ he mocked.
‘No,’ she sighed.
‘Good,’ he said with brisk satisfaction. ‘I’m wearing you down, bit by bit, aren’t I?’ With that he went through to join Claude.
Lori wouldn’t have believed it was possible for her life to be so upset a second—no, third time. First with her father, then with Nigel, and now this hounding by Jacob Randell’s son. She had thought after the first half a dozen refusals to his invitations that he would stop asking her and perhaps take out one of the other secretaries who worked here, all of whom would have gone like a shot. But no, it was Lori he was determined to win, and today was far from the first time he had repeated his plans to marry her. It was almost as if to him the whole thing was decided, that he was just trying to break down her final resistance.
He was even at the weekly staff meeting that afternoon, sitting beside Claude Hammond, power in every line of his relaxed body, almost like a sleepy feline. Come to think of it, he looked more like a cat who had stolen a saucer of milk, with a smile of satisfaction playing across his harsh features.
Lori took notes of the casual conversation flowing through the twenty or so people in the room, knowing that Claude would want a typed reminder of what had been discussed. He very often came up with ideas for improving office relations from concentrating on what was said—and sometimes on what wasn’t said.
Today was a little different. Claude called for silence a few minutes after they had all gathered in the large staff-room.
He stood up. ‘Now you may have all noticed Luke Randell in the building for the last week.’ There were several ecstatic confirmations by the female members of staff, Lori noticeably not being one of them. ‘As from Monday that will become a permanent thing. As you all know, I have been thinking for some time of retiring as an active member of the practice, and Luke has consented to take my place. I’m sure you’ll all join with me in—’
Lori didn’t listen to any more, didn’t take notes either. Luke Randell was coming to work here, to take Claude Hammond’s place! Where did that, as Claude’s secretary, leave her? Certainly not as Luke Randell’s secretary!
* * *
When it came to the end of the meeting she filed out with everyone else, still deeply shocked. Why hadn’t it occurred to her that Claude Hammond was considering taking the other man into the practice; what other reason could he have had for being here? But it hadn’t occurred to her, and now the realisation was almost too much to take in.
‘That’s a turn-up for the books, isn’t it?’ Jonathan was walking at her side.
‘Yes…’ Her voice came out shaky and uncertain, nothing like her usually confident tone.
‘I had an idea, of course—’
‘You did?’ she said almost accusingly.
‘Mm,’ he nodded, following her into her office. ‘And it’s a feather in Claude’s cap to get such a man for a partner.’
Lori sat down behind her desk. ‘I thought, when the time came, that the promotion would come from within.’
Jonathan shook his head. ‘It was never suggested. No, I would say Claude has had Randell in mind for some time now. And having spent the last week talking with him, watching him I don’t think Claude could have made a better choice. Luke Randell is exactly what this firm needs.’
So much for professional jealousy! It seemed that far from resenting Luke Randell, the younger men were going to admire him.
Well, here was one person who didn’t, and who couldn’t, and the sooner she handed in her notice the better. She didn’t want to leave, far from it, she enjoyed her work here, but she knew she couldn’t even stay in the same building as Luke Randell on a permanent basis.
As soon as she got back to her office she typed out her notice, uncaring that everyone would know she had done it because of Luke Randell coming to work here. She had to go away as soon as possible, and by handing in her notice today she could leave in four weeks. Four weeks, when just this one week had dragged by! But it was going to take Claude at least that long to acquaint the new man with all the cases he would be taking over, so that should ease some of the pressure on her.
When the door opened Luke Randell was alone, slowly closing the door behind him, eyeing her almost warily.
‘Welcome
to Ackroyd, Hammond and Hammond, Mr Randell,’ she said stiffly, taking her resignation out of her typewriter and replacing it with an envelope.
His mouth twisted, the light eyes mocking. ‘I wish that could have been said with a little more sincerity. Still, we can’t have everything, can we?’ he added cheerfully.
There was a flush on her cheeks as she typed Mr Hammond’s name on the envelope.
‘What’s this?’ Luke Randell had picked up the letter and was reading it even as she made a grab for it.
‘That was a private letter,’ she told him stiffly.
‘It was,’ he nodded. ‘Although you may as well realise that all mail that comes through this office in future will be read by me. What’s the meaning of this?’ he tapped her resignation against his leg as he sat on the side of her desk, all teasing gone now, his expression grim.
Her mouth twisted. ‘I would have thought that was obvious.’
‘Oh, it’s obvious,’ he nodded. ‘It’s why that needs explaining.’
Lori looked away. ‘I would have thought that was obvious too.’
‘Maybe.’ His hand was rough on her chin as he wrenched her face round to look at him. ‘You’re doing this because of me?’
She met his gaze unflinchingly, feeling very uncomfortable with his fingers digging into her flesh. ‘Yes,’ she snapped.
His mouth compressed into a thin line, the teasing man of the last week completely erased, to be replaced by a man with hard determination, a man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. In that moment he looked exactly like his father, and Lori wrenched away from his confining hand, even though it physically hurt her to do so and her skin was red and sore where he had held her.
‘You would leave here, a job you obviously enjoy, just because you don’t want to work with me?’ His voice was deceptively soft as he stood up to look down at her, the charcoal-grey suit accentuating the width of his shoulders, the taut flatness of his stomach, the length of his legs.
‘Yes!’ her reply came out unhesitatingly.
‘You dislike me that much?’ he ground out.
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