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She’d phoned him as soon as she’d got back but he had seemed less enthused to hear from her than she’d expected and she’d wondered what was wrong.
In a flash, all the worries she had blithely cast aside during her heady stay on the island had returned in full force. He could be moody. She didn’t blame him because he had suffered so many setbacks for someone as young as he was and he just didn’t have the stamina to deal with them.
She had asked him to come to her place instead of her going to his as she usually did.
The change of scenery might do him a power of good. He would stay over and she would pamper him and listen to him and get him back on track.
She surfaced to find Nico staring at her intently and she wondered whether he was making assumptions that her weekend would be an uneventful one. Their eyes met and she shifted and flushed and then said, a little defiantly, ‘I have plans, as a matter of fact.’Completely true,she thought wryly, althoughadventurouswould be a definite overstatement.
‘Really? Going anywhere exciting?’
‘The excitement will be at my place,’ she chirped. ‘I plan on cooking a really fantastic meal...’
‘Special occasion?’
Grace blushed and shrugged mysteriously and looked away all at the same time and when she spoke it was to throw over her shoulder that she would text and email him confirmation of his dinner booking.
He was still standing, hands shoved into his trouser pockets, a slight frown on his face, but then his expression cleared, returned to one of lazy amusement and he nodded and began galvanising himself back into action.
‘Walk down with me,’ he murmured, pausing as she bustled out to her desk and began busying herself with her computer.
‘I...’ Grace glanced at him, heart pounding, desperate to get out of his presence so that she could wallow in her misery that he had resumed his old life without so much as a backward nod to what they had shared. For a few breathless seconds, their eyes locked and it felt as though the air between them had been drained of oxygen. She knew, with dismay, that her cheeks were on fire when she at last managed to break eye contact. ‘I...have one or two things to do before I leave, Nico.’
‘What?’
‘Some emails to get through...that report with the financial figures still has to be compiled for Robert in Accounts...’
Nico sauntered towards her and gently but firmly pressed shut her computer with one autocratic finger.
‘No, you don’t. I’m the boss and I’m giving you permission to stop work for the day.’
‘And also to walk down with you? Is that an order as well?’ She’d been aiming for light, but she heard a sarcastic, resentful edge to her voice that he picked up on because his expression cooled.
‘Is this where we are, Grace? You’ll only actually walk ten steps with me out of this office if I tell you that you have to?’
‘No, of course not!’ Hot colour stained her cheeks and she licked her lips, mortified because he was right. This wasn’t where she wanted to be. Yet how could it ever be possible to feel normal around him when she was in love with him? When they had been lovers?
She gathered her things at speed, conscious of his eyes on her as he waited.
‘What will everyone think?’ This to try and lighten the sudden tension between them, but her voice was brittle and her smile was watery. Inadvertently, she had alluded to the relationship they had shared and she went even redder. ‘I mean...’ she stammered, then fell into awkward silence.
‘Whatwilleveryone think?’ Nico purred silkily. ‘By everyone, I take it you’re referring to everyone we’re going to pass on the way to the elevator?’
‘This isn’t funny, Nico.’
‘You’re my secretary,’ he said mildly. ‘I think it’s safe to say that no one is going to think anything. Are you afraid your reputation might be ruined?’ His eyebrows shot up and he stepped back to open the outer door so that she could precede him. He leant to whisper in her ear. ‘Only you and I know the truth, don’t we, Grace?’ He pulled back and briskly walked away and she hurried after him. ‘Your reputation is already so interestingly sullied...’
If the merest mention ofanythingto do with what they’d had opened a Pandora’s box, then it was obvious that she was going to have to be very careful to skirt round it all and truly pretend none of it had happened. Her ears were burning and her throat was dry at the flurry of images those wickedly whispered words provoked. It reminded her that her hunt for another job would have to be an urgent one because how much more would it take for her to just be able to control her wayward responses?
He was off on his hot date!
Yet, he wasn’t averse to alluding to their brief affair. Did he think it was funny to embarrass her?
She was hot all over as they rode the elevator down to the basement and she looked at him with alarm as it shuddered to a stop.
‘Where are we?’
‘I’ll give you a lift home.’
