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Rafe admired independent, spunky females—admired but avoided involvement with. At this point in his life he wasn’t into high-maintenance relationships. But Natalie Warner wasn’t just self-reliant, she was the sort of prickly, pigheaded female who wouldn’t have asked for a glass of water if she were on fire just to make a point.
‘Have you considered that she could have a good case of constructive dismissal if she wanted to take it farther?’
Maggie quickly assured him she had covered this. ‘Her job title will be the same, and there will be no drop in her salary. The content of her job would even be the same on paper.’ The older woman shrugged. ‘So she can’t claim she’s been demoted.’
‘This is in fact a sideways move,’ Rafael mused drily.
‘Exactly.’
So much for the sisterhood he was always hearing about. ‘It doesn’t bother you that she’s a single parent with a child?’
This time even Maggie couldn’t miss the steel in his voice. She blanched as his long lashes lifted from the sharp angles of his razor-sharp slanting cheekbones to reveal disapproval glittering in his deep-set eyes.
‘Bother me?’ she echoed, evincing confusion while she did some fast thinking. It was becoming clear that, far from being pleased with her ingenuity, Rafe was inexplicably furious—in that quiet but devastating way he had. ‘In what way?’ she questioned, desperately trying to retain her composure in the face of the displeasure of a man she deeply admired and whose approval she craved.
‘Don’t play the innocent with me, Maggie,’ he drawled, an expression of simmering impatience stamped on his classically handsome features.
‘You say yourself that there’s no room for sentimentality in the workplace,’ she reminded him with a hint of desperation.
‘I rather think you might be taking that quote out of context,’ he returned drily.
Maggie flushed. ‘So you want her to stay where she is?’
Do I…?
Ironically his life would be a lot more comfortable if he let Maggie install the distracting thorn in his side in some dark cupboard. He sighed; as tempting as it was, he couldn’t let her do it. God, sometimes he wished he weren’t a good guy.
‘You will not hide Natalie Warner away in some Godforsaken back room, Maggie.’ Firmly he spelt out his instructions so there would be no convenient misunderstandings. ‘Neither will you move her anywhere without my personal say-so.’ He saw the alert expression appear on Maggie’s face and wished he had omitted the ‘personal’. The last thing he wanted was that sort of rumour starting up again.
A while after Natalie had started at Ransome it had come to his attention that there had been whispers that he’d been taking a particular interest in their smart new recruit. He blamed himself for not having foreseen his actions could have been interpreted that way—he knew all too well how people’s minds worked.
He could still remember the hurt look of surprise on her face when she’d come to him excited by an idea she’d had, and he had cut her dead—he had made sure there had been plenty of people to witness the snub. It had been a case of being cruel to be kind. Even if the affair had been fictitious, the rumour that she had made it, not on talent, but because she was sleeping with the boss, would haunt a woman through her career.
‘You will carry on treating her exactly the same way you do all the other trainees,’ he elaborated quietly. ‘Do I make myself clear—?’ He lifted one brow questioningly and the woman beside him gulped and nodded.
Having made his point, he allowed the door to open and stood aside to let her pass. ‘Incidentally,’ he called after her, ‘there’s a meeting scheduled next month to discuss flexible working hours.’ Or at least there would be once he’d asked his PA to organise it. ‘You might like to ask around to see what the level of interest would be in a crèche.’
The last of Natalie’s co-workers had left an hour earlier, laughingly predicting how many valentine’s cards they would receive.
‘Are you doing anything special, Nat?’ asked the young woman who had just boasted that her boyfriend had booked them a table at a really swish restaurant—and was pretty sure he was going to propose.
‘I’m going to a wedding,’ Natalie explained.
‘How romantic, getting married on Valentine’s Day!’ someone exclaimed enviously.
Then someone else asked the question Natalie had hoped they wouldn’t.
‘Anyone we know, Nat?’
‘Mike, my ex-husband, is getting married to his girlfriend, Gabrielle Latimer…the actress.’
‘Your ex!’
‘Oh, God, she’s gorgeous!’ someone else breathed, only to be elbowed by the guy standing beside her.
‘Personally,’ someone else remarked, ‘I don’t think she’ll age well—now, if she had your cheekbones, Nat…’ Everyone looked at Natalie and nodded. ‘And I read the other day she’s had a boob job.’
Natalie smiled. She appreciated the loyal attempt to make her feel better but, like the others, she knew that when it came to looks she couldn’t even compete in the same league as the younger girl.
Natalie would have actually preferred to spend Valentine’s Day having root-canal work than attending the wedding of the century, but her daughter, Rose, who was to be a bridesmaid, had flatly refused to attend if Mummy wasn’t there, too.
At least Luke would be there for moral support.
With a sigh she set about reducing the pile of paper on the desk. When half an hour later Luke Oliver put his good-looking blond head around the partition that separated her from the rest of the large office she had made good inroads into the backlog.
‘You’re working late, Luke,’ she observed as the rest of his body followed suit.
‘I’m not the only one—after Brownie points?’ he teased lightly.
‘There wouldn’t be any point, would there?’ Natalie felt guilty when Luke looked embarrassed by her dry observation. ‘I’m making up for a late start,’ she admitted hurriedly. ‘Rose had another asthma attack last night.’ Natalie pinned an upbeat smile on her face as Luke’s good-looking face creased with sympathy. ‘Fortunately I managed to get her an early appointment at the doctor’s this morning, but they were running late and by the time I’d finally got her settled with Ruth it was almost eleven.’
‘How is she?’
‘She’s loads better this morning, thanks.’ Even so it had torn Natalie apart to leave her fragile-looking daughter. It was a guilt thing, of course. Rose had been more than happy to stay with Ruth, who doted on her and was more than capable to cope with any crisis.
‘So now you’re working twice as hard as everyone else to prove you don’t expect any special favours just because you’re a single mum,’ Luke suggested perceptively.
Natalie gave a rueful smile and rotated her head to relieve the tension in her neck and shoulders. ‘You know me so well, Luke.’
Luke’s glance dropped to the delicate, clear-cut features lifted to him—features made nonetheless attractive by dark smudges of fatigue under the wide-spaced, darkly lashed hazel eyes and lines of strain around the wide, softly curving lips.
‘Not as well as I’d like…’ he sighed huskily.
Natalie’s smile morphed into a wary frown as she registered the suggestive warmth in his expression; she’d thought they’d got past all that stuff. ‘You know that I’m not…’ she began wearily.
Luke sighed and held up his hand. ‘Sorry, I know I said I wouldn’t go there, Nat, but…’ his attractive smile flashed out ‘…you might change your mind?’
‘No, I won’t change my mind.’ Natalie hardened her heart against Luke’s hurt puppy-dog look. ‘And anyway, you know as well as I do that office romances never work.’ She smiled to lessen her rejection. ‘Besides, there’s no room in my life for a man.’ Or for that matter much for anything but work and sleep, and not too much of the latter when Rose wasn’t well!
