AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Angling his chin, Luc eased onto one hip as he surveyed her with a lazy stare. ‘So you’re not the same girl I had against a wall in London?’
For a moment she was too shocked to speak. ‘You were as desperate for it too, I seem to recall.’
Luc’s surprise at her counter-attack flashed across his face. He was so used to dominating everything and everyone around him that he took it as his right.
A tense silence resulted. She would not back down. And then a question came into her head. She had a baby to look forward to in her future, and the tragedy of her parents’ wasted lives in her past, as well as hormones bombarding her, but what drove Lucas to behave so unreasonably? Her maternal instinct was in full flood, Emma accepted, hence the caring when otherwise she might have been inclined to walk out on him right now. ‘I’m the mother of your baby,’ she said steadily, ‘and though neither of us can ever forget London, I would ask you to not to cheapen what we had.’
‘What we had?’ he said, frowning.
At least they were talking, she thought.
‘You’re right,’ he said at last, nodding his head. ‘We do have to sort this out.’
She was just breathing a sigh of relief when he added, ‘I won’t stand for you embarrassing me in front of my staff again.’
CHAPTER TEN
‘EMBARRASS YOU?’ Emma fired back as Luc closed the door, enclosing them both in the controlled atmosphere of his elegant boardroom. ‘How do you think I felt when I arrived here? How do you think I felt walking into that meeting, where everyone knew me—or, at least, knew about me—but no one seemed to know what I was supposed to be doing at the meeting?’
‘Of course they knew. I spoke to my secretary...’ Luc’s brow crinkled as if for once in his charmed life he had forgotten to mention that Emma would be attending the meeting.
‘Either your secretary’s incompetent or you forgot,’ she said bluntly. ‘Everyone was seated when I arrived. They weren’t expecting me, and there was no place for me. You should try that on for embarrassment.’
‘I was wrong in that instance,’ Luc admitted tersely. ‘So, what am I supposed to do about it?’
She firmed her jaw. ‘Embarrassment I can recover from, but going forward I need something more. I need a reason to be here—a reason your staff can understand that doesn’t involve my sharing your bed.’
‘You’re right,’ Luc said thoughtfully, taking the wind from her sails. ‘I left you stranded and I apologise for that, but there was a crisis to handle that couldn’t wait. I could have given you clearer guidance.’
‘You could have given me some guidance,’ she argued quietly.
Luc’s black eyes plumbed the depths of hers. ‘Why the fuss, Emma? You’re not as feeble as you make out. You’re not feeble at all. You can handle embarrassment and any other situation that comes your way, so don’t expect me to mollycoddle you while you’re here.’
‘I don’t expect different treatment from the rest of your staff. I just expect the respect you show them. My intention is to do the best job possible for you. I can make my time here count, but you have to make that possible.’ Luc was the gatekeeper. Without his say-so she would be a redundant cog in a very large wheel, with nothing to do other than to wait patiently for the birth of their child.
‘Are you hungry?’
His change of tack was so swift she had to pause a moment. Luc’s thoughts were always leaping ten steps ahead. So where were they now? She decided to play along and see where that took them. ‘I’m expecting a baby. I’m always hungry.’
‘How about a late breakfast, and then we can chat through things?’ he suggested.
‘That will make me late for manning the phones, or whatever other work you decide I should do.’
‘Not if we meet in the restaurant,’ Luc argued. ‘You can take a look around, eat, and then you can start work there immediately afterwards. Manning the phones can wait.’
‘Work in the kitchens,’ she murmured as she thought about it. ‘Better,’ she agreed, remembering the waiters attending to room service and how they had to run about. Working in the kitchens would give her a proper chance to work out something more manageable for them.
‘Have you eaten today?’ Luc demanded.
Care for the brood mare, she thought, shaking her head with exasperation. ‘I do have money with me, and there are cafés here. I’m not as helpless as you seem to think.’
