Secretary on Demand

by Cathy Williams

  ‘Maybe.’ Kane turned around in his seat to manoeuvre the car into a parking space, his arm splayed along the back of her seat behind the headrest. ‘But then again, maybe,’ he said, facing her but with his arm still behind her seat, ‘she’ll grow up with other siblings and shed out all her money on treats for them. Who knows?’

  ‘You mean you want another family?’ For some reason, the thought was shocking. It also made her wonder, uncomfortably, whether there was another woman on the scene somewhere. A prospective Ms Right, discreetly lurking in the background. Very discreetly, since she had seen nothing of her, but, then, Kane Lindley was a very discreet man, wasn’t he? If he wanted to hide something, he would do it with the utmost tact.

  ‘Not,’ she added hastily, ‘that it’s any of my business.’

  ‘You sound astounded. Isn’t the desire to procreate as natural as breathing?’

  They walked into the jazz club which was small, intimate and reassuringly dark so that he couldn’t see the flush that had spread across her cheekbones.

  ‘Your coat?’ He reached to help her out of it and Shannon resisted the urge to cling tightly to the comforting barrier of wool concealing her scantily clad body.

  ‘I might be cold.’

  ‘I doubt it. It’s pretty warm in here and after a couple of dances you’ll be hot.’

  ‘A couple of dances?’

  ‘If you can slow your tempo to accommodate an old man.’

  ‘I wish you’d stop referring to yourself as an old man,’ she grumbled, relinquishing her coat with reluctance and refusing to wilt under his thorough inspection. ‘You certainly didn’t seem old when…when you…’

  ‘Swept you off your feet? Well, thank you very kindly. I trust that was a compliment?’ He glanced down at her, very slowly.

  ‘The little black dress,’ he murmured. ‘It is little, isn’t it? I hope the men here can stand the strain on their blood pressure.’

  Her own blood pressure appeared to be soaring through the roof as he continued to gaze at her with her coat draped elegantly over his arm.

  ‘Do you know,’ he said with a low laugh, ‘I didn’t quite believe you when you told me that you possessed a little black number?’

  Shannon gave a tinkling laugh. Tinkling and, she hoped, mildly amused at the suggestion herself. ‘Didn’t you? I have a wardrobe of them back in Ireland!’

  ‘Have you now?’ They handed their coats to the girl at the counter and were given a disc which Kane slipped into the pocket of his jacket.

  ‘Oh, yes. Of course, I couldn’t bring them all down here to London. I knew I wouldn’t have the space to hang them.’

  ‘What a complex little creature you are, reds,’ he said, as they were shown to their table which was tucked away at the side. Very cosy, very intimate, very nerve-racking. ‘How to equate the girl who spent her hard-earned money buying presents for her siblings with a provocative woman with a wardrobe of daring numbers?’ He called a waitress over and ordered a bottle of champagne and then resumed his inspection of her. ‘Perhaps I’m a typical man who naturally puts women into categories, and the category of someone who’s obviously so good with children doesn’t seem to slip into the category of a woman who willingly flaunts her charms by night.’

  Flaunts her charms? Well, on the one hand, he was, she thought with heady pleasure, admitting that she had charms to flaunt. On the other hand, the woman he was describing didn’t seem to bear any relation to her at all.

  ‘That is a typical man,’ she agreed in a smoky voice. In the presence of this man, she was discovering another side of her which hadn’t existed before. Someone sensual and responsive, far more sensual and responsive, in fact, than she had ever felt in the company of Eric Gallway, whose pursuit had made her feel giddy enough, but giddy in the manner of a teenager. She’d enjoyed his attention, but most of all she’d enjoyed the sensation of feeling herself to be in love. Well, she wasn’t in love now, but Kane certainly had the knack of making her feel like a woman.

  Perhaps, at long last, she was finally breaking out of her chrysalis to spread her wings and fly free from the cheerful girl next door she had always been. Just the thought of this new woman emerging sent a racy thrill through her body.

  At the back of her mind, she recalled that she was his secretary, but the boundary lines were blurred, particularly as she saw him so regularly out of work, even if it was still in the controlled setting of his house with his daughter present.

  ‘Or maybe,’ she mused thoughtfully, ‘you’ve always mixed with women who slotted into one role or the other. Beautiful career-women, for example, clever and self-confident but unable to cross the barriers into normal, boisterous family life…?’

  ‘Maybe I have…’ He sipped his champagne and continued to look at her over the rim of the glass. ‘So do you think I’ve been playing it all wrong?’

  ‘I think so!’ Shannon said airily. Funny stuff, champagne. It felt as though she wasn’t drinking at all.

  ‘What do you think I should do to correct my preconceptions?’ he asked meekly.

  ‘Look beneath the surface.’ Shannon gave him a wise look from under her mascara-tipped lashes.

  ‘I’ll try my best,’ he replied gravely.

  There was a sudden flurry of activity on the slightly raised circular platform towards the back of the room and then the jazz band appeared, eight men dressed in black who then proceeded to give a spirited rendition of a recognisable Gershwin piece, which was heartily applauded, followed by a more subdued and atmospheric number which saw couples flocking to the dance floor.

  Shannon turned to show her appreciation of the music to Kane just as a tall, dark-haired beauty materialised at his side and tapped him on his shoulder.

  She leant over him so that her long raven hair rippled along the back of his shirt, exposing in the process, Shannon noticed viciously, a bird’s-eye view of a very ample cleavage. She could feel her heart beat savagely inside her and gulped down some of the champagne so quickly that she had to stifle an undignified coughing fit. She couldn’t hear what was being said but she had no need to be an expert lip-reader to see, from the body language of the slender arm casually resting along Kane’s shoulder, that they were more than just passing acquaintances.

  ‘Would you mind,’ the woman said, leaning over Kane to address Shannon, so that the generous breasts which seemed intent on bursting forth from the tight-fitting red top rested tantalisingly close to his face, ‘if I drag this gorgeous beast up for a dance?’

  ‘Be my guest,’ Shannon responded through tightly clenched teeth, thinking that she could drag the gorgeous beast backwards through a holly bush for all she cared, but Kane was having none of it. He made his apologies with a rueful smile and a shrug of his broad shoulders and the woman departed with a ‘Maybe later’ promise between them.

  ‘My apologies for not introducing you,’ Kane said, standing up and extending his hand for Shannon’s so that she had no option but to ungracefully submit to a dance, ‘but the music was a bit loud and I didn’t want to keep Carole from her dinner companion…’ Another slow, soulful jazz number was being played, and he pulled her close to him, cupping the small of her back with one hand while the other clasped her own hand which felt ridiculously small engulfed in his.

  ‘She didn’t seem all that bothered to keep her dinner companion waiting,’ Shannon pointed out coolly. Her cheek was resting lightly against his chest and she could feel his heart beating.

  ‘Well, perhaps I thought it rude to keep my dinner companion waiting,’ he said into her hair, and Shannon drew away slightly to look at him.

  ‘It didn’t bother me one way or another.’

  ‘Didn’t it?’

  Her green eyes were unable to sustain the glitter of his dark ones and she was the first to look away. It was impossible not to feel vulnerable and disadvantaged, she thought, when she had to crane her neck upwards to look at him, like a woman arching up to receive her lover’s kiss.

 
; ‘No.’ Shannon’s voice was resolute. ‘I was more than happy to sit on my own and listen to the music.’

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of letting you do any such thing.’

  ‘Because you’re too much of a gentleman?’ she heard herself sniping, and he smiled.

  ‘Possibly.’

  His ambiguous reply sent a flare of dangerous excitement coursing through her body which was instantly quenched by the memory of the glamorous brunette who, from all appearances, would have ditched her dinner companion for the sake of an evening with Kane.

  ‘So,’ she asked after a short silence, during which his body against hers seemed to burn with increasing heat, ‘who is she, anyway? Feel free not to answer if you don’t consider it any of my business.’ Her voice implied that whether he chose to answer or not was a matter of supreme indifference to her because she was merely making convenient small talk.

  He pulled her fractionally closer to him so that their bodies were now grinding against one another, as though engaged in a slow mating ritual. Shannon shivered.

  ‘She was a business acquaintance and…personal friend…’

  ‘Was a personal friend?’ Shannon asked innocently. ‘Oh, dear. Friendships are so valuable. Did you fall out?’

  This time it was his turn to draw back and look down at her, catching her wide green gaze with enough of a dry smile to make her very aware that he knew what she was playing at.

  ‘We concluded our relationship,’ he said. ‘And if you want to find out precisely what kind of relationship we had, why don’t you just ask?’

  Shannon flushed and stared at the button on his shirt for a few seconds. When she was sure that her expression was composed, she looked back up at him and smiled sweetly. ‘I take it that it was an intimate relationship and I assure you I’m not in the least interested in prying for details.’

  ‘Shall I give them to you anyway? To satisfy whatever faint shreds of curiosity there might be playing around in sweet little head of yours?’

  ‘If you like.’

  ‘I met her through work. She’s a lawyer, and we got to know one another earlier this year over a period of a few months, but time showed that we weren’t suited at all and we mutually agreed to call it a day.’

  ‘She looked as though she might be persuaded to re-kindle the affair,’ Shannon said, feeling horrible because the remark was so obviously catty, but he didn’t appear to take any offence.

  ‘Possibly. But…’ He tucked her hair behind one delicate ear and whispered, ‘Once I’ve decided on something, I don’t change my mind.’ Which was just the sort of remark to egg on her already seething curiosity to further unprepossessing heights. Fortunately, before she could launch into yet more questions, the number ended and she used the brief respite in the music to mention food.

  And for the next hour they chatted about non-threatening topics. Safe discussions about music and Ireland and celebrities and Kane’s massive experience of other countries, while Shannon’s champagne-fuddled brain tried to pinpoint precise things he had said to her while they had been dancing. The brunette did not reappear, although halfway through their crème brûlée Shannon spotted her on the dance floor in the arms of a tall, attractive, fair-haired man who seemed to be having a whale of a time, his hands roaming over every inch of her body within respectable limits.

  ‘Having a good time?’ Kane leaned towards her and Shannon gave a merry laugh.

  ‘Fabulous food…great music… Of course I am!’ More than that, she felt wonderfully alive, burning with energy, in fact.

  ‘In that case, care for another dance?’

  ‘I need one,’ she said breathlessly, ‘if only to burn off some of the calories of the food I’ve just eaten!’

  ‘Nonsense, you don’t need to lose an ounce of weight.’

  ‘You haven’t seen me…seen me without…’ The observation, which had started off impulsively enough, trailed off into an embarrassed silence.

  ‘No, but I’ve felt you.’ He rescued her from the no-entry road down which her conversational impulse had foolishly taken her.

  ‘You’ve what?’

  ‘Felt the shape of your body through that very minute dress you’re wearing, and believe me when I tell you that you don’t need to watch what you eat.’

  Shannon narrowed her eyes at the open, innocent expression on his face. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter how much I eat, I’ll never attain the proportions of the lovely Carole,’ she said nastily, falling into step with him once again and feeling as though their bodies were in perfect sync.

  ‘She is rather tall and well-endowed, isn’t she?’ he said with a low laugh that brushed against her cheek like warm breath.

  ‘And clever with it,’ she couldn’t resist adding.

  ‘And very clever with it,’ Kane concurred. ‘Just the sort of woman I should be steering well clear of, in fact. Too one-dimensional.’ He gave another low laugh which made Shannon wonder whether he was being condescending at her expense but her suspicious eyes met another of those bland, innocent looks with which it was difficult to find fault.

  ‘Eleanor didn’t care for her anyway,’ he added, which gave Shannon a treacherous stab of satisfaction. ‘And I’m old-fashioned enough to want approval from my daughter for any woman I choose to have a serious relationship with.’

  ‘That’s not old-fashioned, it’s considerate and compassionate. I know my mother would never have contemplated settling down with a man who didn’t get full approval from all of us.’

  ‘A tall order for any man,’ Kane said with a groan, and Shannon giggled.

  ‘I know. Not that we wouldn’t want our mum to have every chance of happiness…’

  ‘But to appeal to seven! I take it your mother never remarried?’

  Shannon shook her head. ‘She’s had quite a few dates. She’s still an attractive woman considering we should all have put a thousand lines on her face over the years, but she’s always said that her hands were too full to contemplate settling down and adding a man to the list of people to take care of.’

  ‘Worries about you all, does she?’ He unclasped one hand to place it at the back of her neck so that her hair fell over his fingers. She could feel every touch of every individual finger like a branding iron against her flesh. Thank goodness he was unaware of her reaction, she thought jerkily, because he would laugh his head off if he knew. In fact, in the cold light of morning and without the effects of champagne drifting like incense in her brain, she would, no doubt, laugh her head off at the memory herself.

  ‘Of course she does,’ she said. ‘Don’t all mothers? No, that was naïve of me. Of course they don’t all. We were lucky with Mum and I guess we sometimes take that for granted. But you worry about Eleanor, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh, inordinately. As you say, it should come with the territory.’

  They danced in silence for a while and in fact, the snippet of conversation lay semi-forgotten at the back of Shannon’s mind when, on the way back to her flat, he raised it once again via the circuitous route of quizzing her more about her family. If he seemed suddenly fascinated by her background, Shannon didn’t notice. The champagne had taken its toll and she was on the verge of falling asleep, even though she kept forcing herself to open her eyes every time she felt herself beginning to drift off. She had a vision of herself slumbering peacefully against the door of his car, blissfully unaware of everything, mouth half-open, and it didn’t make a pretty picture.

  But she could barely answer his questions without yawning, so when he slipped his vital question in, she was almost unaware of the implications. She assumed it was yet another family-type question until her brain deciphered his message and she sat up abruptly and asked him to repeat what he had just said.

  ‘I merely said,’ he obliged, talking very slowly and keeping his eyes fixed to the road ahead, ‘that you should consider leaving that hovel you’re renting in view of the anguish it would cause your mother, if nothing else, and move in with me.’


  ‘Move in with you.’ It was such a ludicrous suggestion that Shannon nearly burst into laughter at the thought of it. ‘Are you crazy? What sort of offer is that?’

  ‘A perfectly reasonable one, as it happens.’ He slowed down as they approached her building and managed to find a space for his car directly outside, but when she turned to open the car door, he swiftly reached across and stopped her by placing his hand over hers.

  ‘Reasonable?’ Shannon shrieked.

  ‘Just listen to me for a minute.’ He let go of her hand and sat back with one arm resting loosely on the steering-wheel. ‘That bedsit of yours is no place to live. In fact, your landlord should be shot for carving up the house into such small rooms just to squeeze more money out of gullible young people…’

  ‘I am not gullible!’

  ‘And as you agreed earlier on, your mother would hit the roof if she knew your living conditions…’

  ‘Well, she doesn’t!’

  ‘So what better solution than for you to move in with me? My house is more than big enough to accommodate an extra person. In fact, you’ll have a suite so that your privacy won’t be invaded in any way whatsoever, and it would ease my mind if I knew you didn’t have to endure that walk back to this dump every evening. Naturally your working hours with regard to Eleanor would remain unchanged, and if you wanted to go out in the evenings, Carrie would babysit as she always has in the past…’

  Shannon felt as though she had been cruising blithely along only to suddenly find herself on a mad roller-coaster ride.

  ‘No, wait just a minute—’

  ‘Of course, the situation would only stand until you find somewhere else, and as I won’t charge you any rent, you would be able to save all the more quickly for just that…’

  ‘No, it really is out of the—’

  ‘Think about it overnight.’ Kane stepped out of the car and opened her door for her. She nearly fell out.

  ‘We’ll discuss it,’ he continued implacably, ‘first thing on Monday morning.’