AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’d offered the faintest of smiles. ‘It’s not in my job description to complain.’
‘It’s your job to ensurealldetails are met. You can’t do that if you’re not properly fuelled.’
‘Well, if we’re considering blame, then perhaps it’s your job—as my employer—to factor in proper breaks for your workforce. It’s late and we’ve been going nonstop for hours.’
It was one of the rare times she’d challenged him—with a hint of insolence that had barely surfaced since.
That night Elias had planned to celebrate prepping the deal with his date of the day. But he’d cancelled. He’d never stopped to truly consider why before. But he’d got sidetracked watching Darcie Milne eat cheese. And from then, he now acknowledged, he’d ensured such snacks were always available in the office. Over time he’d discovered it wasn’t just cheese she was partial to but dried fruit—apricots, mango, apple—and nuts—walnuts, cashews, macadamias. She was like a little mouse who needed frequent feeding because she point-blank refused to attend business dinners with him. If they were abroad she retreated to her hotel room to work. He’d not argued with her decision. In fact he’d appreciated the barrier it kept between them. They were professional, never personal. But he’d always ensured there was a platter available for her. But she’d touched none of the supply he insisted was kept on the plane today. He pointedly gestured to the plate the flight crew had put on the table.
‘You’re not hungry?’ he prompted her.
She shook her head.
He didn’t like her silence. He didn’t like the bruised look returning to her eyes. And he certainly didn’t like the hot feeling tightening his gut.
His rule was to reject responsibility for how someone elsefelt. He always, always maintained emotional distance. After the hellish years with his father’s coercion and his mother’s misery, he’d rejected such a future for himself. Yet he hadn’t been able to stop himself not just reacting to Darcie now, but provoking her in turn. And his reaction wasn’t only irritation any more.
At the register office she’d been so compelling he’d been unable to release his hold on her. But she’d barely spoken since lambasting him then. He knew she was striving to regain her self-control and it was taking quite some doing—just like the day he’d met her. He’d never forgotten the emotion she’d tried and failed to hide during the interview. Fear had widened her eyes. He’d almost dismissed her as too nervy to cope with the relentless hours he frequently required in the office. But that same thing had made him take a chance on her. She’d not only wanted work, he’d sensed she’d desperatelyneededit.
Frankly he hadn’t been afraid to use that need—hungry workers were driven and focused. Turned out none more so than Darcie Milne. She’d not allowed any distractions to interfere with her performance. She’d been available almost any and every time he’d asked. The one exception she’d stipulated was a two-hour stretch on Sunday afternoons. She’d made it clear nothing could interfere with that and given how accommodating she was the rest of the time, he’d respected it. Though he’d long wondered what the appointment she kept so religiously was. Even when they’d been abroad she’d locked herself in the hotel room for those two hours for a phone or video call. But he’d never asked.
He’d known from the first that she was smart, that she could grow into someone indispensable. And she had. Two weeks from when the agency had sent her he’d offered her a permanent position at four times her agency rate. Then when he’d found out she was working towards some qualifications online late in the evening when she wasn’t working for him, he’d insisted on paying the tuition fees. He was reaping the reward of her diligence anyway. But even with that extra workload, she’d never broken down, never lost it with him for asking too much—not even after they’d pulled all-nighters to get deals ready. It was a miracle in his experience. Prior to Darcie he’d burned through executive assistants. He wasn’t volatile but he knew his expectations and demands on their skill and time were extreme. For those who could hack it, it was great. Those who couldn’t left. Many had left. And because of his father’s infidelity with his secretary Elias never mixed business with pleasure. The moment he’d offered Darcie Milne a job was the moment he filed her in thedo not touchcategory.
Do notthink about her beyond the professional.Do notwonder about what she did at night when she wasn’t working, and certainlydo notdwell on who she may or may not do that stuff with. Yet shockingly Darcie Milne sometimes slid into his dreams. He couldn’t control those. So for a time he’d been determined to prove she wasn’t his type. He’d dated other women the absolute opposite to her. He’d refused to get hung up on one individual he barely knew and who was utterly out of bounds. Only his dating had become more sporadic in these past few months. It was because he’d dived even deeper into work.
But he’d battled an inappropriate arousal from the second she’d stormed into his office this morning. That mood had been brewing these last two weeks and now it exploded.Want. Such bone-aching, endless want. Painful and intense, it was building into an unfettered firestorm of craving that was almost,almostuncontrollable.
Sex was a physical release. But the emotion and expectation of relationships—the burden of someone else’s feelings beyond immediate gratification—he’d mastered the art of avoiding those. He didn’t allow strong feelings of his own. Lust was recreational and love didn’t exist. He liked his life straightforward, and his interactions with women wereverystraightforward. He always made it clear he wasn’t looking for a wife. Some were fine with that while some had pretended to accept it, but thought they might change his mind. They never had. Never would. As for children? No. People screwed up their kids. But he wasn’t going to because he wasn’t having any.
But Darcie was different to him. She had more emotional intelligence. One time she’d shot him a shockingly disapproving look when an analyst had turned in sub-par research and Elias had let him know. He’d caught her soothing the guy after, which was irritating because it wasn’t as if Elias had yelled at the guy. He never yelled at anyone. He’d never allow himself to lose that level of control. She’d told him he could be very ‘dismissive’, which had irked him more than it should. But the fact was her people skills made the office run more smoothly and he didn’t want to lose her. She was a key asset in much of his success, and Elias liked success. He liked the challenge of taking on a competitor and beating them. He enjoyed researching—coolly, rationally assessing the qualities of each investment or acquisition. He picked winners. He was good at it.
He spread his fingers, still feeling her warm, fragile wrist, as he considered what she’d said she needed now. To be married. Darcieherself, he realised, was a prospective acquisition for him personally. If he were to list the attributes of an ideal partner, she would fit most. Calm—usually. Not demanding—usually. She had a similar work ethic plus she already understood his needs and not only accepted them, she worked well alongside him. At least in the business sense. She could give him the ‘values’ he was lacking. She would, he decided, make aperfectwife. She wouldn’t ask too much of him emotionally. And the fact that they had undeniably shocking chemistry was quite the juicy cherry on top.
‘Are we landing already?’ She suddenly sat up.
‘Yeah.’ He stretched the tension from his spine. ‘And we’re all booked in at a chapel. We’ll go there right away.’
Her eyes widened but her chin lifted and he felt that anticipation ripple through him again. Was he actually enjoying himself? He’d not done something this rash in, well, ever. This was spontaneous, quite possibly insane, and while it would be easy as anything to stop, he really didn’t want to. He wanted to see just how far Darcie Milne would go with this.
Her luscious lips parted, but she said nothing as she stared at him.
‘Isn’t that what you wanted?’ he asked blandly.
That spark flared in her eyes. The one he’d not seen enough from her—challenge.
At the sight of it he almost purred inside. Yeah, to his amazement he was enjoying himself. Immensely.
‘Because whatever it is you want, Darcie,’ he added, ‘I’m here to deliver it for you.’
CHAPTER FIVE
DARCIESTILLWASN’Tsure her voice was going to work and certainly wasn’t sure of what she was going to say. They’d quickly cleared customs and the waiting chauffeur had driven them straight to a chapel in an outrageously large limousine that had given her plenty of space from the man formerly known as her boss. Now she hovered just inside the doorway while he conversed in smooth undertones with a gloriously neon-clad receptionist.
Sick with nerves, she checked her phone again but there was still no message from Shaun. Taking a breath, she put it in her pocket and finally let herself look at Elias properly. She’d struggled not to stare at him for the entire flight. Correction, she’d struggled not to stare at him foryears. Tall, dark, devastatingly gorgeous with his lean, muscular frame and hair that needed rumpling and shoulders that deserved to be clung on to...the guy was a long, lush glass of impossible.
‘It’s a veritable mix-and-match platter,’ he said with a sardonic lift of his eyebrows on his return. ‘We can choose any number of things, including variants of our vows depending how flowery you want to get.’
She couldn’t appreciate his looks now. This was all too real and impending panic made her stomach churn. ‘Elias—’
