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‘I wasn’t looking for anything,’ she said. ‘Just some fun.’
Nico’s dark gaze rested speculatively on her fine-featured face. Did he believe her? No. Not really. She was a serious woman who wanted more than just a bit of fun.
Was Internet date number one the beginning of that search?
Nico lowered his eyes. Images rushed into his head of her with a man, finding true love. He’d been goading her. Just a little bit. Just to see the tinge of pink in her cheeks, spurred on by who knew what?
But now, when he thought of his serious secretary in the arms of whatever soulmate she was looking for, he felt something tight and uncomfortable in his belly.
A woman in love was an unreliable employee, he grittily told himself, banking down a little voice that wanted to whisper different things in his ear.Thatwas why he was suddenly disconcerted at the turn of the conversation.
‘So,’ he drawled, ‘shall we wrap up this soul-searching for the moment and do what we do best?’
It took Grace a few disoriented seconds before her work hat was back in place as she registered his brisk change of tone and she nodded.
‘Back to work.’ She smiled and stood up and brushed some non-existent dust from her skirt and flashed him a smile.
‘You have a dentist appointment, after all,’ he murmured.
‘So I do.’ She’d completely forgotten. For the past forty minutes, she’d completely forgotten far too much.
CHAPTER THREE
NICOTERMINATEDTHEforty-five-minute phone call with his father in Greece and sprang from where he’d been relaxing in his sprawling sitting room to prowl to the kitchen for a drink. He needed it. Something very strong to deal with what had been thrown at him out of the blue.
‘It is your uncle, Nico,’ his father had said heavily, after the briefest of pleasantries. ‘You do not know it, but he has been ill for some time. I have had news of his death. Arrangements will have to be made, son. I, myself, would go but you know your mother is still recovering from her operation last month. I am in no position to leave her and the process should only take a few days. I am relying on you to step in on my behalf.’
Now, Nico poured himself a glass of whisky and mused that this was not what he had had in mind when he had decided to head back to his place for one of his rare evenings in on his own. It was Friday, it was only just a little after six and he had planned on kicking back in front of a complex computer program that had been submitted from the small, innovative logistics company he had recently bought. Peace. And a chance for his head to be somewhere else because, for the past three weeks, far too much of it had been taken up with his secretary and her sudden irresistible appeal.
Curiosity was proving annoyingly immune to all the usual stun-gun weapons in his armoury. Things had settled back to where they had once been, before that blip. She was once again the dutiful, highly professional secretary who dealt with whatever was thrown at her without complaint and with praiseworthy efficiency.
If he had imagined that their first truly honest conversation might have opened a door that would stay ajar, then he had found himself to be completely mistaken.
She might have been slightly more forthcoming when he’d asked her how her weekend had been...or what she thought of this or that piece of gossip in the news...or, daringly, whether there had been any more Internet hopefuls on the scene...but the politehands offmask was firmly back in place. As were the suits and the neatly tied-back hair and the lowered eyes as she sat in front of him, her fingers flying over her laptop, doing what she did so well. Working.
Nothing wrong with that, Nico repeatedly told himself. He needed a calm, stress-free working environment and she had always provided that and was continuing to do so now.
He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told her that she was the best PA he’d ever had. Previous to her, he had endured the nightmare of three too young and too easily panicked secretaries, one harridan with only a passing acquaintance with the software he needed her to know and one efficient older woman who had dramatically had to leave after six months because her daughter in Scotland had had triplets and had wanted her to be on hand to help.
Grace had shown up for the interview and within minutes Nico had known that he was going to hire her.
So he was frustrated and impatient with himself for his sudden lack of self-control now whenever he was around her.
And on the back of that phone call? Well, it was no good trying to while away a couple of pleasant hours playing with all the mathematical intricacies of the computer program, trying to improve some of the complex coding, which would have guaranteed total preoccupation with something else.
His uncle.
A blast from the past.
Nico nursed the whisky and thought about the implications of heading off to a tiny island in the Bahamas for what might be longer than the optimistic couple of days his father had opined, in order to wrap up his uncle’s affairs.
Sander Doukas, the disgraced black sheep of the family, was a shadowy figure who had never featured in Nico’s life, except anecdotally.
He had brought disgrace on the family name. Photos of him in compromising situations had been so numerous that you could wallpaper a house with the cuttings. He had been in rehab three times. He practically had a loyalty card there.
That was the gossip Nico had gleaned from a variety of sources.
What Nicodidknow for certain was that Sander Doukas had come so close to running the family company into the ground that the ensuing battle for power between his father and his uncle had destroyed whatever family bond they had once shared.
