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‘I don’t mean to be rude, but what do you want with me, Mr Walker? You must be a very busy man, and it’s really not clear to me why you’re here.’
Meeting her gaze equally frankly, Blaise leant forward to rest his elbows on his knees. ‘I was hoping you’d call,’ he said.
A flame of hope flickered and blazed with the strongest compulsion in Maya’s heart. Then cynicism and hurt moved swiftly in to douse it.
‘I didn’t call because I’m not interested in seeing anyone at the moment…To be absolutely blunt with you it’s the very last thing I need! The only thing I really need right now is—’
Her guest cut across what she’d been going to say with that devastating smile of his—the one that seemed to have the disturbing ability to suspend her thoughts and dive deep down into her most secret core, awakening every fragile dream and hope that slumbered there, making them flare into vibrant and dangerous life again.
‘How do you know that I’m not the perfect answer to what you need if you don’t even give me a chance?’
Oh, he was good. For a fleeting, vulnerable moment Maya almost wanted to give him that chance—but then she quickly remembered who he was. Hadn’t she had enough examples of men in the arts like him, who completely disregarded women’s feelings and lied to them as easily as breathing? Artists were a selfish, self-obsessed breed. She’d learned that to her cost…her father being a case in point. His constant lies and unfulfilled promises about taking care of her had demolished every bit of trust she’d had, and it had been obvious that he preferred to put his work and so-called friends first. She was under no illusions about what men like him could or couldn’t deliver when it came to close personal relationships.
Now, as she levelled her glance at Blaise, every single one of her defences slammed and then doublelocked into place.
‘You have no idea what I need…none! But I’ll tell you this much—it isn’t another man who’ll lie to me and make promises he has no intention of keeping! And it isn’t a man who hasn’t the slightest inkling of who I really am and…worse than that…can’t see past what I look like to even trouble to find out!’
‘Maybe you’ve just been seeing the wrong kind of men, Maya.’
‘And maybe we should just change the subject.’ Pushing to her feet, she crossed the room to a curtained-off area that secluded the small confined space that was the kitchen.
‘Do you want some tea or coffee? I have fruit tea if you don’t want caffeine.’
Her heart still thudding with emotion, she splashed water into the kettle and then inserted the plug into the wall socket. She sensed a tangible, perturbing shift in the air with the realisation that Blaise had stepped up behind her.
‘I didn’t come here to distress you,’ he said, quietvoiced, and it was as though sensuous strokes from the softest sable brush had skimmed across Maya’s skin. A deeply sensual pull in the pit of her stomach made her long to close her eyes, so that she could revel in the pleasure of it for a little while longer.
‘You told me you were intending to quit Faraday’s agency and, apart from wanting to see you again, I came here to offer you a job.’
She turned at that and blinked at him, disconcerted to find him suddenly so close. In those electrifying few moments as she gazed at him every thought in her head was emphatically silenced—even the one that insisted she wasn’t interested in dating anyone…especially someone like Blaise Walker, whose looks and credentials were too reminiscent of her father’s phoney celebrity friends all those years ago and threatened to awaken ghosts she’d prefer to let lie dormant.
‘A…a job?’ she echoed, unable to stem the sudden quaver in her voice.
‘I need a personal assistant for a few weeks to help me gather information for my new play. I’ll be working from my house in Northumberland, so if you don’t mind being away from London for a while, the job’s yours.’
‘And why would you offer me such a job? You must know people who are far more qualified and capable, I’m sure.’
‘If you must know, I spoke to someone at the temp agency you work for and they told me you’re hard-working, quick to learn and extremely reliable.’
Maya knew she was well liked at the agency, and that she did indeed do her job well, but it was still a bit of a shock to learn that Blaise had personally spoken to someone to discover that for himself.
‘And this job you’re offering…it’s on the level, as they say? I mean…’ she flinched a little ‘…you’re not just stringing me along?’
