AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I hope not.’ Kim’s voice was suddenly firmer. ‘It’s a terrific job and I’d hate to have to leave it.’
‘You’d do that? Even fancying him the way you do?’
Kim dragged in a deep breath and expelled it quietly. ‘I don’t want a man in my life, Maggie,’ she said grimly. ‘Not now, not ever. I’ve done all that, I’ve got the T-shirt, and in my case it really is once bitten, twice shy.’
‘But he wouldn’t be like Graham,’ Maggie said softly. ‘You do see that, don’t you? You can’t let Graham ruin your life, Kim.’
‘Funny, that’s exactly what Lucas said.’ Kim smiled at Maggie, a sad little bitter smile as she added, ‘But I don’t see it that way. Besides, how long do you think a man like Lucas would be interested in someone like me? A month—two, maybe? It might stretch to six at a pinch. I don’t belong in his world, Maggie.’
‘How do you know that unless you give it a try?’ Maggie asked reasonably.
‘I know, all right.’ Kim suddenly wanted the conversation to end. ‘Anyway, there’s
Melody to consider too, don’t forget. I don’t want her getting fond of someone only for them to disappear in a little while. There’s one or two of her friends who have “uncles” who are here today and gone tomorrow, a new father-figure every time the wind changes. My child isn’t going to have to go through that.’
‘Okay, okay.’ Maggie had the wisdom to know when to call a halt. ‘Anyway, it’s nearly half-past seven; you’d better go and get dressed.’
Kim had just walked out of the shower when Maggie had knocked, and was still wearing her bathrobe with her wet hair bundled in a handtowel turban-style, and now she glanced at the sitting room clock in horror before flying out of the room, calling over her shoulder as she made for the cottage’s narrow stairs, ‘Melody’s milk and biscuits are ready on a tray in the kitchen. I said you’d read to her while she eats her supper.’
‘No problem.’ Maggie continued to stare after her friend for a moment or two before walking through into the neat and sparkling kitchen, and her broad freckled face was anxious. No problem, she had said, but unless she was very much mistaken there was a problem of momentous proportions brewing here.
Kim was lovely, exquisitely lovely to look at, but more than that she was lovely inside where it counts. But vulnerable, painfully vulnerable, and she hid that vulnerability behind an armour that somehow this Lucas Kane had managed to penetrate—whether Kim acknowledged it or not. And that wasn’t good.
Maggie frowned to herself as she reached for the tray and made her way upstairs. She’d have a good look at this tycoon who was so apparently irresistible tonight, and if she thought he was the type to give Kim the run-around—well, she’d just have a good look at him tonight and take it from there, she told herself stoutly, but her mouth was set in an uncharacteristically grim line and her expression was formidable.
Kim wasn’t downstairs when Lucas knocked at the front door just before eight, so after warning Melody to stay in bed Maggie made her somewhat ponderous way to the front door.
‘Good evening.’ Lucas smiled at the dour-faced woman in the doorway. ‘You must be Maggie. I’m Lucas Kane.’ He held out a huge bunch of flowers as he added, ‘These are for you, to say thanks for babysitting at such short notice.’
Maggie smiled back as she took the flowers—she could hardly do anything else, she told herself silently, when she experienced a moment’s contrition at her easy capitulation, besides which she had to admit Lucas had quite taken her breath away—and managed to say, a little breathlessly for her, ‘Come in, won’t you? Kim will be down in a moment.’
‘She’s trying to dry her nails but they’re taking ages.’
This last was from Melody who, unbeknown to both her mother and Maggie, had slid out of bed and was now perched at the top of the stairs, staring through the banisters at Lucas with great brown eyes.
‘Are they?’ As Maggie and Lucas glanced upward, Lucas grinned at the tiny miniature of Kim. ‘Mine took ages, too,’ he assured her solemnly.
‘Silly.’ Melody giggled and wriggled her small body. ‘It’s only ladies who paint their nails.’
‘You’re supposed to be in bed, young lady.’ Maggie was flustered and it was a new feeling for her, one she didn’t care for. ‘Back you go and I’ll be up in a minute to finish that story.’
‘Here, take this before you go.’ Lucas reached into the pocket of his overcoat and drew out a small wrapped package which he threw up to Melody, who caught it deftly. ‘That’s for being a good girl for your Aunt Maggie. You are going to be a good girl, aren’t you?’
‘Melody’s always a good girl.’ Maggie felt she had lost control of the situation somehow and she wasn’t quite sure how it had happened.
‘I’m sure she is.’ Lucas smiled down at Maggie again, his voice soothing, and then as Melody shrieked her delight with the beautifully dressed little teddy bear the parcel had contained, he added quietly, ‘You go up and see to her, Maggie. I’m fine, really. I’ll just sit and wait for Kim.’
‘Right.’ Maggie stared at him, nonplussed and out of her depth. ‘I’ll just put the flowers in the kitchen.’ She looked down at the magnificent array of yellow roses, white carnations, baby’s breath and freesias, and then, as she glanced at Lucas again, she saw his mouth was twitching.
‘I admit it, I’m trying to win you over,’ he said softly, reading her mind so aptly Maggie turned beetroot-red. ‘I need all the help I can get with Kim.’
‘I…I’ll put the flowers in water.’ Maggie berated herself as soon as she’d left the room for not seizing on such a perfect opportunity to ask Lucas how he felt about Kim, but somehow—now he was here in the flesh and a hundred times more daunting than ever Kim had described—she hadn’t dared.
Which made her the wimp of the decade, she told herself irritably as she hurried upstairs to Melody’s pretty pink and cream bedroom which she and Kim, along with Pete, had decorated the first weekend Kim had moved into her new house.
Just a few yards along the landing, Kim was surveying herself in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. She hadn’t known what to wear—what did women wear for a date with a multi-millionaire anyway? she thought with wry humour—but had finally put on one of the two new evening outfits she had bought a couple of months before, courtesy of Kane Electrical’s clothing allowance.
The sleeveless olive-green silk and cashmere dress had a matching waist-length cashmere jacket and had cost an arm and a leg, but when Kim had seen it in one of the more exclusive little shops in Cambridge she had known it was eminently suitable for any evening function she might attend as Lucas’s secretary. It was chic without being ostentatious, elegant and stylish, and fitted her like a dream. The colour emphasised the striking contrast between her hair and her eyes and brought out the honey-gold tone of her skin to the extent she had gasped when she had first tried the outfit on.
