AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With a sharp shake of his dark head, he abruptly folded his long frame into the miracle of ergonomically designed blonde wood-and-metal chair behind the desk and directed his probing stare at the tips of his long, brown steepled fingers.
He heard her take a deep breath before she spoke. ‘I’m sorry, I know this is a bad time, but I’m leaving.’
His eyes lifted as he expelled a long, sibilant sigh of irritation and fought to keep a lid on his frustration. In four years, Matilda Raven had only taken time off for a root-canal filling and had been directly back at her desk, though he’d sent her home because he hadn’t been able to understand a word she was saying. Now she was calling him an unfeeling monster and absenting herself just when her presence as a sounding board would be useful.
‘How long do you need?’ He didn’t ask for reasons. He was assuming something worse than a root canal. To his mind, his staff’s personal life was none of his business so long as it did not impact their efficiency during working hours. His distracted gaze slid from her face and, though he was not a person inclined to question the staring-you-in-the-face obvious, he heard himself ask, ‘Are thosejeans?’
Matilda’s eyes drifted downwards. ‘Yes, and for ever... I’m resigning.’
‘You choose your moment.’
She shook her head, seeming bewildered by his calm reaction.
Ezio felt the muscles along his jawline quiver. This was not the moment for Matilda to start negotiating for a rise. ‘Shall we cut the drama? How much do you want? Actually, can this wait until later? Or, better still, contact HR and tell them I’ve authorised a pay rise...you decide what you’re worth. I need to find out if—’
‘No!’ she blurted.
The frown playing across his broad brow deepened, digging out the semi-permanent frown line that was developing between his dark brows. She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him, the two red circles on her cheeks emphasising she hadn’t even applied the discreet make-up she normally wore to the office.
He had never seen his PA wear anything but black, normally an A-line tailored skirt teamed with a white blouse. There had been black trousers that had revealed details that the skirt had not, but in jeans that went double...possibly treble. Her legs were slim and disproportionally long for her diminutive height and her behind was... Clearing his throat, Ezio lifted his gaze, irritated it required an effort.
Admiration of feminine bottoms had its place in his life but not in his work place. He maintained a scrupulously clear-cut, unambiguous line between the personal and private and he expected his staff to do the same. Realistically, relationships developed, but when they did he expected that line between professional and personal to be observed.
It was perfectly possible to do so, just as it was possible to notice that his PA was good to look at,despiteher efforts to disguise the fact, without dwelling on the fact she had a waist and one so slender he could have spanned it between his hands.
He met the eyes looking back at him, the colour indeterminate behind the pinkish-tinted lenses of a pair of owlish spectacles. Her fashion sense was unimportant to him; the important thing was he could always rely on her sharp brain, cool head, her calm practicality and her absolute, total discretion.
He clenched his teeth, then dug deep into his reserves of patience and smiled. ‘Look, Matilda, shall we start this conversation again? Clearly you’ve had some issues this morning.’Though not as bad as mine, he thought, congratulating himself on being so tolerant.
Tilda pushed her glasses further up and folded her arms across her heaving chest. He wasn’t listening, he wasn’thearing. ‘The smile isn’t going to do it.’
He looked bemused by the tart comment. ‘And it’s Tilda, not Matilda. Everyone else in the universe knows that!
‘I thought Matilda was your name.’
‘It is but that isn’t the point—the point is, I’m resigning.’
‘Resigning?’
She nodded, taking a tiny spurt of irrational pleasure from the stunned disbelief on his face. ‘And you know something? You’re making it so much easier because you’re just...just...’ She scanned his face and closed her lips against the unwise but honest addition that was on the tip of her tongue.
Best left unsaid but true. Hewasthe most incredible-looking man on the planet, and the irony was he was probably too arrogant even to have noticed. His confidence had nothing to do with his amassed billions or his painfully perfect profile—it was as much part of him as his fingerprints.
Dragging a few shallow breaths, she tried to regain some sort of sanity, and failed when his gaze zeroed in on her face. Her stomach dipped dramatically. She had seen that look before, seen the perfect symmetry of his face harden to ice and watched the dangerous smile that left his eyes cold...the moment before he went in for the kill in the financial sense.
‘Just...?’ Ezio prompted, the chilly edge of his voice making it clear, if she hadn’t already twigged, that his anger had shifted from the ex-lover who was putting his business deal at risk.
Her chin lifted as she embraced her antagonism. After all, they were things she had wanted to say for four years, so why not?
‘An entitled, selfish...’ She stopped and swallowed a sob that was trying to fight its way out of her chest.
‘Oh, don’t hold back, this is fascinating.’
‘I shouldn’t have said that... I have liked working for you, but that doesn’t mean you’re a...aniceperson. I know you’re going to say I was late and you didn’t bawl me out, but that’s only because you know I’ll make up the hours. You haven’t asked me what’s wrong because, the fact is, you’re not even vaguely interested, you’re the most selfish, self-absorbed man I have ever met.’
‘A monster, in fact.’
A beautiful monster!
