by Fox, Natalie
‘H-how are you settling in?’ Jade forced herself to ask.
She didn’t even know when Nadia had started. It was Thursday, and though Mel had phoned every night since leaving on Monday he hadn’t mentioned Nadia.
‘Everyone has been so wonderful. I feel as if I’ve been here for years already.’ She smiled but Jade thought she detected just a trace of uncertainty in her eyes. ‘Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Jade; it’s—’
‘We must leave you to get on, Nadia,’ Mel interrupted quickly—so quickly that it aroused Jade’s curiosity. Did he think Nadia was getting too familiar too soon? ‘Go through those artwork details with Dave,’ he added efficiently.
Curiosity piled on curiosity as he took Jade’s elbow and guided her away from Nadia and an eagerly approaching Dave, who looked besotted already with the dazzling little newcomer.
‘When did she start?’ Jade asked as they went through the swing doors to the stairs.
‘Yesterday,’ Mel told her. ‘I must say your staff have made her most welcome. She’ll be OK.’
Before they stepped into her office Jade turned to him. ‘What do you mean she’ll be OK? Any reason why she shouldn’t be? I thought she was an award-winner. This company must be a bit of a let-down to her after—’
Mel interjected with an impatient sigh. ‘Jade, don’t put your own company down. How can you expect to pull yourself out of all this if you don’t think positively?’
He was right, of course, as always. She turned into her office without another word, thinking that Mel had very successfully evaded what she’d asked concerning Nadia. In due course she would no doubt find out why he had placed her here, because for sure there must be a reason. It was a thought which had suddenly blossomed now that Nadia had actually started with the company. She was a successful freelance commercial artist and engaged to Mel and really had no need to work other than for pleasure. And just now she had thanked Jade for giving her an opportunity. An opportunity for what?
‘Oh,’ Jade breathed, flinging her coat down on a chair by the door. ‘Mel, what’s this?’ He’d followed her in and she grazed her high heels on the carpet as she swung to face him, frowning disconcertedly.
‘Another desk, as you can see.’
She watched him as he crossed to the coffee-machine, as if he belonged in the room. For some reason Jade felt a frisson of unease.
‘Yes, I can see it’s a desk and I can see the telephone on it and a lot of paper and office paraphernalia, none of which is mine. What exactly do you think you are doing?’
He looked her directly in the eye as if he had absolutely nothing to hide from her and Jade immediately thought he must have.
‘I’m doing my job, Jade.’
‘Troubleshooters don’t move in and take complete control, Mel,’ she protested, the frisson of unease swelling into something more scary. She felt as if she was being taken over here, her authority usurped! She’d asked for help but wasn’t he taking it a bit too far?
‘They do if it is needed,’ he said coolly. He finished pouring two coffees. He brought hers over and put it down on her desk and without looking at her crossed to his to pick up the phone.
In two strides a worried Jade was across the room and snatching the phone from his hand. She thrust it down on the desk. ‘It is not needed, Mel,’ she insisted, her dark eyes flashing with determination. ‘You are going above and beyond your profession. I asked for help and advice on a consultancy basis. I didn’t ask for your permanent presence here in my office and I didn’t ask for your mistress taking over my art department either. Next you’ll be moving in your cousins and your household pets!’
He smiled, not even taking her seriously. ‘I don’t have any household pets.’
‘Mel, I’m serious!’ Jade cried. ‘ What exactly do you think you’re doing?’
His eyes darkened suddenly. ‘Exactly what you are paying me to do,’ he almost shouted. ‘Trying to save your company from the trash bin, and from what I’ve seen here since getting involved I’ll be hard-pressed to recycle a paper clip at the end of it!’
Stunned, Jade gaped at him, her heart racing. Was he serious? Was all this serious—this necessity to oversee every move she made? Was it all worse than she had imagined? What did he know that she didn’t?
She swallowed nervously. ‘What’s happening?’
‘You have a week to spare for me to read the list of problems out to you?’ he drawled sarcastically.
White-lipped, Jade stepped backwards and slumped into her seat. Her father would never forgive her for this. He had trusted her and had enough confidence in her abilities to let her take over. And she had let him down.
Mel came across to her and sat on the edge of her desk. ‘I’m sorry, that was out of order,’ he said quietly.
She nodded, accepting his apology, though she thought it could have come with more feeling.
‘So tell me something,’ he began. ‘What was going on in that pretty little head of yours last year when your top artist left with his greedy little fists clutching your best contracts? You could have stopped it, you know. A few well-timed phone calls to those clients and you could have smoothed everything out for yourself.’
Jade lifted her chin and glared at him. She knew why she had missed what was going on and if she told him he’d probably laugh in her face. The whole awful business had coincided with Nicholas’s and Trisha’s engagement announcement and sent her spiralling down into a pit of depression and self-pity. She didn’t begrudge them their happiness one iota but oh, how it had brought home to her her own empty life. It had been one of her worst times, missing Mel so, knowing that she had lost the only love of her life. Was it any wonder she hadn’t been thinking straight at the time?
‘It was just one of those things,’ she admitted with a shrug, looking away from him. ‘For some reason I wasn’t as sharp as I usually am.’ It was a feeble attempt to account for her actions but all she could come up with without making a complete fool of herself.
‘A lover maybe?’ Mel suggested with a measure of malice that didn’t go unnoticed by Jade.
It was an appalling suggestion and she narrowed her eyes at him. ‘No lover, Mel. I learnt my lesson with you. You spoke of not trusting me a few days ago—well, the same goes for me too. I wouldn’t trust another man with what’ s left of my emotions since you wrung the life out of them.’
‘So you lead a celibate life, do you?’ he mocked.
‘I would say that was obvious as I don’t have a lover,’ she retorted, very much resenting the way this conversation was going. ‘Anyway, I object to the suggestion that I would allow a lover to interfere with the way I run the company. It makes me sound as if hormones run my life.’
‘Trouble is, women in commerce sometimes do allow hormones to interfere in their business decisions.’
‘That is a blatantly sexist remark, Mel, and you are only saying it for effect,’ she said with contempt.
‘Yes, very probably,’ he conceded unexpectedly, effectively getting out of that one.
‘Are you serious about moving into this office with me?’ she asked. She didn’t think she’d be able to bear it if he was. There were moments when she truly despised him and others when she felt utterly vulnerable in his presence, and the combination of the two was wearing her ragged.
He didn’t answer straight away. He held her dark eyes for an uncomfortably long moment. He seemed to be trying to read her thoughts. Jade gave nothing away. This week she had resolved to keep her emotions under wraps and she was doing her best to keep that resolve. Eventually he broke the eye contact and got up from her desk and went to his own.
‘It will only be on a part-time basis,’he told her, drinking his coffee and flicking through his personal organiser. He lifted the phone again and dialled a number but carried on talking to her. ‘I have other commitments but I need to keep close to what is going on here.’
He wanted to keep close to Nadia, that was all, she conceded
dismally. Why had she allowed it all to happen? He was here and had wasted no time at all in slipping Nadia in. She might have talent and bring valuable new clients to the company but she was also his mistress.
She wished with all her heart that she hadn’t listened to Nicholas because now she was in too deep to get out. As far as the company was concerned she had to admit there was a new vibrancy about the place. She had only been off sick a handful of days and in that time Mel had turned it all around. And turned her emotions inside out and on end.
‘I must admit he’s working a miracle, Nicholas. This Nadia talent is pulling in some fantastic work.’
Jade was dishing up a lasagne she had been laboriously preparing since getting in from work. They didn’t often dine together but Trisha was up north on an investment course and Nicholas was at a loose end, and as they had hardly seen each other lately an evening in together was an ideal opportunity to catch up with each other’s gossip.
The builders are in converting the ground floor,’ Jade went on. ‘He’s organised it all—banks, leasing equipment, everything. He spends quite a bit of time in the office and it’s all paying off.’ Jade pushed a plate across to him as he poured the wine.
‘And exactly how much are you paying him for this miracle he’s working?’ Nicholas asked.
Jade looked at him across the table, thinking that no two men could be so different. They were both good-looking but in such different ways. Mel was dark, swarthy, sophisticated, the sort of man who could fit several roles in life—-pirate, bank robber, the financial troubleshooter that he was. Nicholas, with his mid-brown hair, steady hazel eyes, slim, straight, upright figure, exuding stability, could only ever be what he was—a stockbroker.
‘Did you hear me, Jade?’
‘Yes—yes, I heard,’ Jade replied absently. Mel was always in her thoughts, always. She wished it weren’t that way but it was. She was fighting it, but at vulnerable times, such as when she was tired, she seemed incapable of stopping herself from sliding into that pit of remembrance and thinking of all they had once been to each other. ‘I don’t know what his fee is yet,’ she went on. ‘He said he’d name his price when it was all over.’
Nicholas’s fork stayed suspended in mid-air. ‘I hope you’re not serious, Jade. You should have fixed a fee before you went into this,’ he remonstrated.
Jade shrugged and got on with her food. Yes, she knew she should have done, but what Nicholas didn’t know was that she knew Mel and she trusted him—where business was concerned, that was.
‘It sounds as if he’s got his feet well under the table,’ Nicholas went on. Jade looked up to see him frowning. It made her ill at ease straight away.
‘What’s wrong, Nicholas? You recommended him.’
‘Only on the strength of him sorting out a friend’s problems, the friend in question having a staff of four hundred, not sixteen as in your case,’ he said pointedly.
‘Stop messing around, Nicholas. Get to what is bothering you.’
Nicholas lifted his wineglass to his lips before speaking. Jade watched him curiously and waited.
‘Mel Biaggio took only five days to put him on the straight and narrow and he didn’t need to move into the boardroom permanently to do it.’
‘I really don’t get your point.’ Jade shrugged but she couldn’t get rid of the unease inside her. She’d often thought Mel was going over the top in the hours he put into her small ad agency, and now Nicholas thought it odd.
Nicholas suddenly grinned. ‘I think he fancies you.’
‘Don’t be absurd!’ Jade protested quickly, probably too quickly. She took a great gulp of wine. She couldn’t tell Nicholas the truth—that once they had been lovers and because of him they weren’t any more. Mel hated her now—well, maybe not exactly hated—hate was such a strong word—but certainly he didn’t care for her any more. He was doing a job of work, not hanging around because he fancied her.
‘I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest the man could be besotted with you. You’re beautiful and he hasn’t exactly got the reputation of a Benedictine monk. Watch out, Jade; he might be after your heart.’
‘And supposing he is and supposing I give it?’ she retorted teasingly.
Nicholas shrugged. ‘I suppose he’ll let you down. Men like him do. Womanisers make deplorable husbands—if they ever get to the altar, that is.’
‘Leopards can’t change their spots, you mean?’
She really didn’t know why she was carrying on this line of conversation. She knew something that Nicholas didn’t—that Mel hadn’t always been a womaniser. She would stake her life that he had been faithful to her while they were having an affair. Mel had changed his spots for a while and now, apparently, he had changed them back again. Because of his commitment to Nadia he had held back from her at Bankton House. She supposed he was quite an honourable man now.
‘Exactly,’ Nicholas confirmed, helping himself to more lasagne. ‘You don’t get a reputation like his for nothing.’
‘Well, for your information, Mr Reputationless Fields, Mel Biaggio is engaged to be married.’
Why Jade felt the need to leap to his defence she didn’t know but here she was doing it, and to Nicholas, who didn’t even know him personally and never would.
‘That’s a surprise,’ Nicholas uttered, evidently losing interest.
Jade leaned across the table to him. ‘To Nadia, the talent, the lady I was telling you about. The one Mel has put into my art department.’
Suddenly Nicholas was interested again—amazed in fact.
‘You have to be joking!’ he exclaimed.
‘Why should I joke? She’s very beautiful and—’
‘I’m sure she must be but…well…it’s odd. He’s successful and you wouldn’t think he’d…well…allow his fiancĂe to…I mean, I’m not putting your company down but it’s—’
‘I know,’ Jade breathed despondently, wishing she’d never brought any of this up. ‘I know exactly what you are trying to say and I have to go along with you. It’s not as if they need the money…’ Her voice trailed off with the sudden realisation that Nadia’s salary had never been discussed. Jade shrugged. ‘Anyway it’s none of our business and—’
‘I think you should make it your business, Jade,’ Nicholas suddenly cautioned, quite seriously, too. ‘If he’s engaged to be married he can’t be hanging around for you, and he is hanging around, Jade. Giving your company far more attention than he should be. You say you haven’t fixed a fee for his work. I’d advise you to do that immediately and I’d keep a careful eye on what exactly he and his talent are doing within your company. I’d nail my desk to the floor if I were you.’
Jade didn’t need to ask him to spell all that out to her. She knew exactly what he was getting at. At the end of the day Mel Biaggio might name a price she couldn’t afford—like control of the company, lock, stock and barrel.
Suddenly she had no appetite for food any more. Jade leaned back in her chair and lifted her wine to her pale lips. Mel wasn’t to be trusted after all, not with hearts or companies.
‘Don’t be silly, Mel. Nadia must have a salary. She isn’t your responsibility, she’s mine.’
Mel stood up, all potent masculinity, and went to the window, kneading his brow. Jade watched him, uncertain as to his mood. She was still having trouble coping with him being here so much—in her territory, her sexual awareness of him nagging at her silly bones.
Even like this, detached and brooding, he had a magnetism that defied credibility. He’d been like this for days now—unsettled, snappy with her, never with Nadia. Nadia was handled with kid gloves, Jade handled with rubber gloves, as if she was well able to bounce back, which Jade supposed was the impression she gave.
Nadia was turning out to be a strange one. No one could fault her work and the boys in the studio got on well with her but there was a vulnerability about her that flummoxed Jade. Her own feelings about Nadia flummoxed her too. Against her will she found herse
lf liking her and that was definitely puzzling. She had every reason to dislike her intensely; she was the woman who held Mel’s heart in her talented little fingers, after all.
Yes, it was all very peculiar. Nadia had flair and originality but she needed reassurance and a lot of TLC. Mel was certainly giving her a lot of tender loving care but not the sort Jade would have thought you gave the woman you were deeply in love with. At times he seemed to treat her as if…Jade couldn’t fathom it out really; the only thing she could compare it to was…well…say, doctor and patient—and since when had Mel gained any medical qualifications?
‘Mel, did you hear me? I have to instruct Karen, who deals with salaries—’
‘I’ll deal with it!’ Mel suddenly snapped.
‘And don’t snap at me!’ Jade retorted, purposely keeping her own voice calm. ‘Remember I still run this company and—’
‘I know, I know,’ he quickly responded. He slumped down into his chair and looked across at her. ‘Sorry, but—’
‘I know, I know,’ Jade mimicked, waving a hand in the air. ‘Pressure of work, Nadia’s sensitivity, testosterone!’
He smiled, albeit reluctantly. ‘Yes, men have hormones too. That should make you happy.’
Him smiling, reluctantly or otherwise, lifted her spirits. She’d never seen him so tense as he had been lately. She’d questioned it several times, worried for the company and worried for him that because of the past he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to tell her if it all turned out to be hopeless. But he was always quick to assure her that everything was going very well, and really she knew that anyway. Three new contracts this week had assured a healthy working environment for many months to come.