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‘Can I come in?’ Lucas asked patiently.
‘What?’ And then she caught herself, flushing hotly as she said, ‘Oh, yes, of course. Come in.’
He looked incredibly big and dark in her little cream-painted hall, and as she indicated for him to walk through into the sitting room she kept a good three feet between them, moving hurriedly to the other side of the room away from his disturbing presence as soon as she could.
He was wearing a thick dark-charcoal overcoat over his suit and it increased the impression of brooding masculinity tenfold, freezing her thought process and making her all of a dither as she said, ‘Sit…sit down, won’t you?’
‘Thanks.’ He undid his overcoat before taking the seat she had offered with a wave of her hand, placing both hands on the arms of the easy chair and crossing one knee in a pose that was utter male.
She had thought she would at least have another fourteen hours or so before she had to face him again, and with the memory of the afternoon burning hotly and making her heart pound like a sledge-hammer further small talk was quite beyond Kim. Why was he here?
And then Lucas answered the unspoken question as he said coolly, his voice expressionless, ‘I was looking for the financial report Clare sent through today. I’d attached a note to it asking you to confirm a couple of figures but I assume you left that for tomorrow? I couldn’t find it when I looked on your desk, though, and I need it to work on tonight along with the Clarkson file.’
‘Financial report?’ Kim stared at him. ‘It was in the papers I gave you this afternoon,’ she said uncomprehendingly.
‘I know.’ His voice was still flat. ‘I looked at it and made the notes and gave it back to you along with the correspondence to go out tonight,’ he repeated evenly.
She continued to stare at him but now a terrible suspicion had rendered her dumb.
The silver eyes hadn’t changed expression, neither had he spoken again, but somehow—in spite of Lucas’s apparent calmness and immobility—Kim knew the same suspicion had occurred to him.
‘You’re sure you gave it back to me?’ she asked faintly.
He nodded once.
‘And…and you can’t find it?’
He shook his head.
She felt sick, her stomach churning so much it threatened to let go of the soup and crumpets. ‘I…I didn’t see it,’ she admitted miserably.
‘Which means?’
The full enormity of the colossal mistake was sweeping over her. She hadn’t been thinking straight when she had stuffed the letters into their envelopes that afternoon; she could easily have included the report with one of them. That was bad enough in itself, but it was a highly confidential breakdown of profit margins and sources to several suppliers, one or two of which Lucas had written to that day. If the report was in one of those envelopes…
Kim didn’t prevaricate, taking a deep breath which didn’t ease her thumping heart at all before she said, ‘I must have sent it out with the letters. I’m terribly sorry, Lucas.’
‘Any idea which one?’ He hadn’t raised his voice by so much as a decibel.
She wanted to shut her eyes and wring her hands, at the very least to groan out loud, but she shook her head, her eyes tragic as she said again, ‘I’m so sorry, I really am. There’s no excuse for such carelessness. I’ll resign immediately, of course.’
‘I don’t want you to resign, Kim. I want you to think and tell me which letter the damn report is in.’
‘I don’t know.’ It was in the form of a wail. ‘It could be in any one of them.’
‘Including Turners and Breedon?’ In spite of all his efforts Lucas’s voice was no longer expressionless.
/> ‘Yes.’
He looked down at his handmade shoes, the blue-black of his thick short hair adding to the overall dark maleness which seemed so alien in her little home, and Kim watched him helplessly. How could she have been so irresponsible, so criminally slipshod? This was the end; it had to be. Even if he didn’t demand her resignation right away there was no chance of him ever trusting her again.
Useless to tell herself that she had been suffering the worst attack of panic she’d ever experienced in her life at the time of the blunder. That the feel of being in his arms, even for a few short moments, had caused emotions she’d never thought to feel again—never had felt, really, because certainly Graham, even in their carefree university days, hadn’t inspired such overwhelming sexual awareness.
Lucas Kane didn’t want to hear all that, even if she could tell him—which of course was impossible. She would rather be hung, drawn and quartered!
‘Mummy?’
As Kim’s eyes focused on the tiny figure of her daughter standing in the doorway she was aware of Lucas’s head snapping upwards, but she was already walking across the room, her voice soft as she said, ‘It’s all right, sweetheart. You finish clearing up your room and I’ll be up in a minute.’
