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‘Nonsense. The office won’t grind to a halt in your absence and neither will I. Hire me a temp who’s half as efficient as you and I’ll survive the week just fine.’
‘Perhaps you should listen to your boss, cara,’ came a silky voice in her ear, and she stifled the adolescent urge to stamp her heel onto his foot.
‘I’ll think about it,’ she said to David. ‘I promise. But right now we should get back to work. I’m sure Leo’s taken enough of your time.’
A slight shift in her stance dislodged his hand from her hip. She turned, forced a smile onto her stiff lips.
‘Shall we grab a quick coffee before you go?’
CHAPTER FOUR
HELENA OPENED THE door to a vacant meeting room, stood to one side and waited for Leo to enter. He paused, gave the room a cursory once-over, then crossed to a large bank of windows overlooking the River Thames and the City of London’s eclectic skyline of spires and towers.
‘Not bad, Helena.’ He turned his back to the view. ‘You were a little stiff, but we can work on that.’
She closed the door, sucked in a deep breath and counted to twelve before the urge to shout had safely passed.
She
expelled the air from her lungs. ‘Why?’
‘Why do we need to work on it?’
She made a ticking sound in her throat. ‘Please don’t play games with me.’
One eyebrow hooked up, as did one corner of his mouth—a subtle shift of facial muscles that barely qualified as a smile, yet Helena had the distinct impression he was enjoying himself.
‘The only game I’m playing is the one you wanted to play, cara.’
‘Stop calling me that.’ She crossed her arms over her chest. ‘And stop avoiding the question. I assume you’ve changed your mind about things since Friday? Why?’
Moving with more grace than a man of his height and size should possess, he propped his hip on the long conference table dominating the room. ‘You’re assuming my mind was made up.’
‘Wasn’t it?’
‘No.’
‘Then why did you let me leave?’
He shrugged. ‘I wanted time to consider your proposal.’
She huffed out a breath. The possibility that in the interim she might change her mind clearly hadn’t occurred to him. She changed tack. ‘Why are you here?’
His brow furrowed. ‘Did we not just establish that?’
‘No, I mean why are you here? At my office. Talking to my boss.’ She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘How did you know where I work?’
‘You gave me the address yourself.’
She thought about that, then bit her lip. He was right. She’d jotted down the address so he could send a car to collect her on Friday. A simple enquiry at the downstairs security desk would have filled in the rest. Still, it didn’t excuse his turning up here with no warning. He had her mobile number. He could have phoned.
Like you could have phoned him before turning up at the hotel?
She slammed a lid on that voice. ‘And your little tête-à-tête with David? What was that all about?’
His mouth quirked again. ‘He invited me into his office. Refusing would have been rude, no?’ The quirk lingered a few seconds more. ‘Your boss seems a pleasant man—he speaks very highly of you, by the way. But tell me...’ He paused, all trace of levity leaving his face. ‘Why are you wasting your time in a job like this?’
His question stung. It shouldn’t have, but it did. It reminded her of her father and all the hurtful criticisms she’d endured as a child. The small, painful barbs that pierced the protective wall her mother tried to erect between father and daughter. Her list of faults was exhaustive. And while being born a girl surely drove the first of many nails into her coffin, opting for design school over a law degree and dating a man not of her father’s choosing certainly hammered in the last.
