Читать книгу Carole Mortimer Romance Collection - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 24

‘WHY so pensive, Juliet?’ Liam asked with some amusement as they approached the Carlyle offices.

They had driven into town in separate cars, Juliet having decided that she did not want to be dependent on Liam for her transportation home. But Liam had been waiting for her in the car park once she arrived, a much faster driver than she.

‘I’m not pensive.’ She met his gaze steadily, determined not to sound as if she was on the defensive.

The two of them had met for breakfast earlier— the first time they had seen each other since Liam’s cutting remarks the night before. It had been an extremely quiet meal, with the minimum of conversation, both of them leaving for the office at eight-thirty by tacit agreement.

And Juliet wasn’t pensive. She was stressed, however, and knew that a lot depended on what Liam decided today.

He raised blond brows at her as he held the door open for her to enter the building. ‘Sure?’ he mocked.

No, she wasn’t sure; she would have liked to smack that self-assured smile right off his face! And for a person who abhorred violence…!

‘Very. Thank you,’ she bit out tautly, nodding to the girl who sat on Reception, not in the least surprised when Linda looked at Liam with frank appreciation—he seemed to have that effect on most of the female population! Including her, she acknowledged with an inward groan. But after last night she was sure that that would never happen again!

Liam looked about him critically as they moved through the building, and Juliet tried to see it through his eyes. Carlyle Properties had the bottom floor of the office building, the ten staff comprising mainly the computer department and Accounts. The offices were plushly decorated and carpeted, but that was because William had believed that it gave a better impression to clients and prospective clients, rather than because of any excess of money in the company.

She smiled at John Morgan, her assistant since William died, as he hurried down the corridor towards her, and hoped that he was going to help her today to convince Liam that the company was still viable. ‘John—’

‘Thank God you’re here, Juliet,’ he cut in, a worried look on his youthful face; at twenty-five, he had been groomed by William to help Juliet when the older man had semi-retired. ‘I tried calling you at home, but Janet said you had already left, and—’

‘Calm down, John,’ she cut in soothingly, very conscious of Liam standing behind her, the last thing she wanted was to be met by a crisis as soon as they walked through the door!

‘But you don’t understand.’ John was still frowning deeply. ‘A Miss Gilbraith arrived about half an hour ago, and—’

‘Liam?’ Juliet had turned sharply towards him at the mention of his assistant’s name. What was Diana Gilbraith doing here already?

‘We’ll talk about this in your office, Juliet,’ he returned evenly, his gaze meeting hers challengingly.

For long, almost timeless moments she met that gaze, trying to read his expression. But she was wasting her time; Liam was one of the most enigmatic men she had ever met in her life!

‘It’s all right, John,’ she turned back to assure the younger man, forcing a strained smile. ‘I know who Miss Gilbraith is.’ But not what she was doing here! The last she had heard of the other woman, she was having a holiday with her family…!

‘You do?’ John looked relieved by the information. ‘Well, I wasn’t sure what to do with her, so I put her in your office…’ He gave a selfconscious grimace. He was tall and dark-haired, his attractive face youthfully earnest.

‘Thank you, John.’ Juliet gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’

‘That was extremely rude of you,’ Liam remarked softly once they were alone again in the corridor.

Rude of her? This man’s assistant was already in the building, in her office, and he had the nerve to accuse her of being rude? He—

‘You should have introduced—John?—and me,’ he continued arrogantly.

She drew in an angry breath. ‘I believe you should have told me Diana Gilbraith was already here!’ she returned.

He shrugged unconcernedly. ‘Of course Diana is here; she’s my assistant.’

‘And it would have been polite of you to tell me she was already here,’ Juliet told him heatedly.

He gave another dismissive shrug. ‘I can’t see that it’s important. Would you like to take me to my father’s office,’ he added coldly, ‘and send Diana along to me there?’

Juliet’s eyes widened. ‘But—’

‘I believe it’s my office now?’ Liam raised dark blond brows.

No one had used that office since William’s death two months ago, but it was the obvious choice for Liam during his time here. Juliet just hoped that that time was going to be short!

‘Unless you’re using it now?’ Liam looked down at her challengingly.

‘Of course I’m not.’ Juliet drew in a deep, controlling breath. This man meant to annoy her, and he could see that he was succeeding; there was a mocking glint in the dark blue of his eyes. ‘That office is empty,’ she told him stiffly.

His mouth tightened. ‘Not any longer!’

He really was the most objectionable…! The truth of it was that she couldn’t bear the thought of anyone using that office. The room represented William to her, and she could never enter it without thinking of him. It was where she had first met him, where they had spent a lot of their time together during the last seven years; the thought of Liam now using it as his office was unacceptable to her.

‘Do you have a problem with that?’ He continued to look at her coldly.

Yes, she had a severe problem with it! ‘Not at all,’ she assured him coolly. ‘It’s this way.’ She led the way down the corridor to the last door on the right-hand side, one hand on the door-handle as she turned briefly to look at him. ‘This is my office.’ She indicated the door on the opposite side of the corridor.

His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘How cosy!’ he drawled.

She literally had to bite her bottom lip to stop the sharp comment that instantly sprang to her lips, and turned abruptly away from him to push open the door to his father’s—his!—office.

As with the house, this room was decorated and furnished in the style that William liked; the desk and accompanying chairs were antique, the walls papered a muted green, the carpet the same shade of green. The green leather desktop was bare now, but during William’s day it had been littered with paperwork—paperwork that was now in Juliet’s office, where Diana Gilbraith had been waiting for the last half an hour.

‘I’ll send Miss Gilbraith—’ Juliet turned to leave the room so sharply that she walked straight into Liam as he stood behind her. She stared up at him wordlessly, their bodies almost touching.

‘I don’t know how you’ve behaved in the past, Juliet, but I don’t approve of that sort of thing in the office!’ he rasped harshly, clasping the tops of her arms to put her firmly out of his way as he walked further into the room. ‘And when you get into your office would you ask Diana to come in here?’ he added by way of dismissal, moving to sit in the high-backed chair behind the desk.

Juliet was glad to escape from the room; she couldn’t bear the sight of him sitting in the chair which William used to occupy. She wished, not for the first time, that she had never gone to Majorca, had never found Edward William Carlyle at all!

Except, as she very well knew, she hadn’t exactly found Liam at all; he had found her. And he had been playing games with her ever since!

She took a deep, steadying breath before opening the door to her office and standing in the doorway to look across the room to where Diana Gilbraith sat, not, as Juliet had assumed, behind her desk but on the opposite side of it.

Diana looked up with a warm, friendly smile, a file open on her knee as she sat with her elegantly curved legs neatly crossed. ‘Hello again.’ She stood up in one smooth movement. ‘Are you feeling better now?’

Juliet wasn’t quite sure what she had expected when she entered her office, but it certainly hadn’t been this woman’s friendliness! And as far as she could see none of the papers on her desk had been disturbed.

She stared at the other woman blankly. ‘Better?’ she repeated with a frown.

‘Hmm,’ Diana nodded, her blonde hair as neatly styled as usual, her skin still tanned from the time she had recently spent in Majorca. ‘When Liam telephoned me yesterday he explained that the reason he had been delayed was that you hadn’t been too well. I must say you have a bit more colour in your cheeks than the last time I saw you,’ she added encouragingly.

Juliet wasn’t too sure of this woman’s friendliness. After all, Diana did work for Liam. Maybe she was just lulling her into a false sense of security!

‘I spent several days in the sun,’ she answered vaguely. ‘Er—Liam is in the office across the corridor,’ she added, her voice hardening at the mere mention of his name. ‘He would like you to join him.’

Diana nodded lightly, her blue eyes still warm. ‘I’ll probably see you later, then.’ She left the room with a smile.

Juliet closed the door thankfully behind the other woman before moving to sit behind her desk, letting out a sigh as she did so, relieved to be on her own again.

She should have known Liam was a businessman through and through; he hadn’t succeeded in his own business without being extremely competent at what he did. And ruthless. God knew what hornets’ nest she had opened up by seeking him out and having him come here. But she couldn’t possibly have known he would want to come here personally to investigate the company; she had assumed that he would send an assistant, someone like Diana Gilbraith, to come and check things out. But then, she hadn’t known Liam Carlyle and the type of man he was…

‘It would appear that this is the office to be in!’

Juliet was startled by Liam’s intrusion, looking up sharply from the file she had been working on. ‘But this is my office.’ She frowned her puzzlement. What was it? Didn’t he like the view from William’s office?

The door across the corridor from her own had remained firmly shut during the forty-five minutes since Diana Gilbraith had entered it, and after fifteen minutes of sitting at her desk waiting for some sort of reaction from Liam—she wasn’t even sure what!—Juliet had decided to get on with some of the work on her desk that had accumulated since she left for Majorca nearly two weeks ago.

Whatever Liam had been doing in the last forty-five minutes, he didn’t look very happy! Juliet tensed guardedly.

After closing the door with quiet purpose behind him, Liam strode forcefully into the room, looking about him curiously as he did so. Juliet’s office was decorated in blue and white—white walls, dark blue carpet, her dark wood desk and chair serviceable rather than richly ornate as William’s office furniture was. She preferred to work in this more clinical atmosphere, felt comforted by the starkness of the room. But somehow Liam managed to make her feel uncomfortable about it as he stood across the desk from her looking down at her with such superiority!

She sat back, determined not to be intimidated. ‘I don’t think this room altogether meets with your approval,’ she recognised drily.

He gave a dismissive shrug of those broad shoulders beneath the pale blue shirt, having removed the jacket to his dark blue suit. ‘I don’t care one way or the other,’ he asserted scornfully. ‘My comment referred to the fact that my father’s office appears to be empty of all relevant information concerning Carlyle Properties!’ He looked down at her with raised brows.

She had known it wouldn’t take him long to realise that—in fact, she was surprised it had taken this long! She hadn’t wanted to work directly from William’s office after his death, and so the logical thing to do had been to move all the files into her office. It had taken her and John a day to do it, but everything was now filed away in the cabinets that lined one wall of her office.

Liam saw her quick glance in their direction. ‘Do we move them back, or do you want me to work from here?’ He turned back to her challengingly.

She most certainly did not want him working in here, and he knew it, damn him! ‘I’ve asked John to come to my office,’ she answered him calmly enough. ‘We’ll move all the relevant information into Will—your office later this morning.’ There was a slightly haunted look in her eyes at the acceptance that the office opposite this one now belonged to Liam.

He shook his head, his expression grim. ‘That isn’t good enough, I’m afraid,’ he bit out tersely.

He wasn’t ‘afraid’ at all—just very determined to have things the way he wanted them. And that included the Carlyle files! ‘I——’ She broke off abruptly, looking towards the doorway as John Morgan entered her office after the briefest of knocks.

‘Juliet, rumour has it——’ John broke off just as abruptly, looking very uncomfortable as he saw the other man standing in the room.

Liam looked at him speculatively, his stance relaxed, fully relaxed. Which the other two people in the room certainly weren’t, Juliet freely acknowledged. John looked uncertain of himself and the situation, and Juliet didn’t even try to hide the fact that she wasn’t happy with it either!

‘Rumour has it…?’ Liam prompted softly, his dark blue gaze fixed steadily on the younger man.

John recovered quickly, straightening slightly, although there was still a slightly uncomfortable flush to his cheeks. ‘Rumour has it that you’re Edward Carlyle,’ he announced.

Juliet couldn’t help but admire John’s outward calm; he might be quaking inside—Liam certainly had that effect on people!—but on the surface the younger man now looked completely composed. William’s choice of John over other applicants for the job of junior assistant seemed to have been well calculated.

Liam nodded abruptly. ‘I am,’ he confirmed shortly. ‘But my friends call me Liam,’ he continued less harshly, holding out his hand in greeting. ‘Which is probably why Juliet calls me anything but Liam!’ he added tauntingly, glancing at her, his brows raised mockingly.

John didn’t look too sure about the latter remark, but he willingly shook the older man’s hand. ‘John Morgan,’ he supplied. ‘I was your father’s—’

‘Junior assistant.’ Liam nodded tersely. ‘The one thing that did seem to have been left in my father’s office was a file on personnel,’ he said coldly, reminding Juliet that little else had been left.

Her mouth tightened at the unspoken rebuke. ‘Your father and I both had copies of that file so there was no need for the duplication in my office,’ she returned defiantly.

‘Hmm.’ Liam nodded slowly, steadily meeting the cool grey of her gaze with one equally cold. ‘I thought it must be something like that,’ he dismissed scathingly. ‘Nice to meet you, John,’ he said more warmly to the younger man. ‘I’m sure you and my father worked well together. I hope we can do the same.’

Juliet gave him a sharp look. What did he mean by that remark? Surely, if Liam agreed to keep the company running, he intended being a silent partner? Although, somehow, she doubted Liam had ever been silent about anything in his life!

‘To continue our conversation,’ Liam interrupted her musings hardly, the warmth gone from his voice as he spoke to her, ‘later this morning isn’t good enough,’ he repeated firmly.

She had already guessed that from his earlier reaction. ‘Look, Liam…’ she deliberately used his name, if only to show that she did call him that too ‘…I’ve been out of the office for almost two weeks. I have a lot of catching up to do.’ She indicated the pile of paperwork on her desk.

‘There are two of us here now, Juliet,’ he bit out coldly. ‘And the sooner I’m familiar with the workings and dealings of the company, the better I’ll be able to help you deal with the backlog.’

Grey eyes clashed with deep blue ones as the two of them visually duelled. Juliet was very aware of John in the room with them, and knew it put her at a disadvantage; without his presence she might have been better able to deal with this situation. Might. But somehow she doubted it! It was not her intention that Liam should help her deal with anything, let alone the workings of Carlyle Properties.

Finally it was her gaze that dropped, and she turned to John instead. ‘Do you have time to help me with this, John?’ She sounded clam, but inside she was seething.

Liam had spoken to her as if she were half-witted! Of course she knew he would have to know about the company—he couldn’t make a judgement without that knowledge—but it had never been her intention that he should actually help her run it, even on a temporary basis. And he could have been more diplomatic in his approach…That was rather stupid of her, she thought; the words ‘diplomatic’ and ‘Liam’ could never be used together!

‘Of course.’ John was still frowning, obviously sensing the hostility between Juliet and Liam and not feeling quite sure of his own place in the midst of it.

She turned back to Liam. ‘We’ll see to your request as quickly as possible,’ she informed him distantly. ‘As soon as I’ve dealt with anything on my desk that needs my immediate attention,’ she added stubbornly; she was not about to drop everything else in order to jump to this man’s bidding.

His mouth thinned with displeasure, his deep blue eyes narrowing coldly at what he knew to be her deliberate evasion. ‘Very well,’ he finally nodded abruptly, and strode over to the door.

Juliet breathed a sigh of relief at his imminent departure.

‘One more thing, Juliet.’ Liam paused at the open doorway, his gaze unblinking as he looked across the distance of the room at her.

She knew from the determination of his expression that she had breathed that sigh of relief too soon. ‘Yes?’ she prompted warily.

‘I realise that it will take you some time to organise the bulk of the files back across the corridor,’ he acknowledged. ‘But there’s one account I would like you to send over immediately.’

Juliet frowned. As far as she was aware, Liam hadn’t been involved with the company for at least ten years, so how could he now be asking for a specific account?

‘It’s ten years old, so you may have to get it from the store-room in the basement.’ He shrugged. ‘I take it you still store dead accounts down there?’

‘Yes,’ Juliet confirmed dazedly. She was totally thrown by his request; what possible interest could he have in a project that was ten years old?

He nodded tersely. ‘I’d like the Walters account from December of that year,’ he instructed abruptly before leaving as suddenly as he had entered a few minutes ago.

Had it been only a few minutes ago? Juliet had the feeling of having been swept along in a whirlwind for timeless minutes. She…

‘Wow.’ John dazedly echoed her sentiments. ‘So that’s the long-lost son.’ He shook his head as he sat down in the chair opposite Juliet. ‘Not quite what I expected,’ he said speculatively.

He wasn’t quite what Juliet had expected either, which was why she hadn’t initially made any connection between Edward Carlyle and the Liam she had met in Majorca. She wished she still hadn’t!

And there was still the puzzle of why he wanted the Walters file. Of course he had still been here himself then, and might have been involved in the project, but even so it still seemed a very strange request to her.

She was curious to see that file now herself, and fully intended looking through it thoroughly before passing it on to Liam. She had quickly learnt that Liam Carlyle didn’t do anything without purpose. There had to be a reason why he wanted that specific file. And she doubted very much that he intended telling her what it was!