Читать книгу His Darling Valentine - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 5

WELL—!

For the second time that morning Tazzy found herself at a complete loss for words. And it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet!

She moved to sit down abruptly in her chair behind the desk, moving a hand up to tentatively touch lips that still tingled from contact with Ross’s.

Not by word or deed had he ever before stepped over that line between employer/employee. Leaving Tazzy to wonder why he should have done so now … She didn’t—

‘Tazzy, could I have the file on the Hanson hotel chain?’ Ross stood in the open doorway between their two offices, his manner completely businesslike now.

Just as if those kisses, that melting touch of his lips on Tazzy’s, had never happened!

He raised dark brows at her silence. ‘Today, if possible?’ he teased.

She stood up abruptly, inwardly urging herself to pull herself together; Ross Valentine was far from the first man to kiss her, for goodness’ sake. But at the same time, he was the first man she had ever been in love with who had kissed her!

‘Yes, of course, Mr Valentine.’ She moved to one of the filing cabinets that stood along one wall of her office.

At least, that was what she intended doing—until she sensed that Ross still stood in the doorway, leaning nonchalantly against the frame as he made no effort to hide the fact he was watching her every move.

Making Tazzy feel extremely self-conscious! ‘I’ll bring it through once I’ve found it,’ she assured him sharply.

‘Fine,’ he accepted, making no effort to move. ‘You know, Tazzy—’

‘I thought we had agreed that it was much more suitable, during our hours of working together, if we stick to Mr Valentine and Miss Darling?’ she reminded him coolly. Goodness knew it was strange enough actually working in this man’s house, without being any more familiar with each other.

She had thought it an unconventional arrangement when she’d first come for her job interview eighteen months ago, but once she had met Ross Valentine she would have agreed to work out in the garden shed!

‘As I remember it, you were the one to come up with that particular rule,’ Ross drawled. ‘Personally, I’ve always thought it sounded very unfriendly.’

‘Unfamiliar,’ Tazzy corrected briskly, at the same time whipping the appropriate file from the drawer and holding it out to him. ‘I really do think that it’s best during office hours.’

He took the file, his expression one of reproach. ‘Well, as we don’t seem to have any “out of office hours,” when do I get to call you Tazzy?’

Her eyes widened with impatience. ‘You don’t.’ That was the whole idea, for goodness’ sake!

She wasn’t sure, spending as much time as she did in his company, often travelling abroad together for several days at a time, if she would be able to cope with working for him at all if she hadn’t put up some sort of barrier of formality between them from the first.

‘I’m not sure I particularly care for that,’ he pondered.

She looked at him in exasperation. ‘Mr Valentine—’

‘Tazzy Darling?’ he came back blandly, dark brows raised in innocent query.

Her exasperation deepened. Not that she wasn’t used to her surname being the butt of jokes, had been teased about it unmercilessly ever since she’d first started school; it was just that she wasn’t used to her employer resorting to such inanity.

‘Miss Darling will do,’ she said impatiently. ‘I—’ She broke off as a knock sounded on her office door, Ross’s housekeeper opening the door seconds later to admit the man who accompanied her.

At least, Tazzy presumed it was a man. It was a little hard to tell when he—she?—was carrying the hugest bouquet of red roses Tazzy had ever seen in her life!

‘The gentleman has instructions to deliver the roses personally,’ Mrs Brown, the housekeeper, explained apologetically.

Tazzy turned accusing eyes on Ross Valentine; she knew that he dated occasionally, but none of those women seemed to last very long—which begged the question, which one of them had sent him this huge bouquet of red roses for Valentine’s Day? Honestly, it was totally out of—

‘Miss Darling?’ the delivery man prompted as he looked at her hopefully.

Tazzy turned slowly to look at the man, her tone wary as she answered him. ‘Yes …?’

The man nodded his satisfaction with her answer. ‘Then these are for you.’ He placed the bouquet into her unresisting arms. ‘Whoever he is, he must have it real bad!’ he added, giving a knowing wink in Tazzy’s direction before departing the room, Mrs Brown following behind him.

Tazzy didn’t move. Couldn’t move. Could only stare at what had to be dozens of deep red roses in her arms.

There had to have been some sort of mistake. These flowers couldn’t possibly be for her. She never received roses, on Valentine’s Day, or any other day.

But thinking of Valentine …

She glanced across at her employer, a blush warming her cheeks as she saw he was looking straight back at her, dark brows raised in a question.

That look was enough to shake Tazzy out of the daze she had lapsed into on being presented with the red roses. ‘I think there must have been some mistake, and these were meant for you.’ She grimaced as she held out the flowers to him.

Ross shook his head, making no effort to take the blood-red blooms from her. ‘He distinctly said they were for Miss Darling, and as we both know that’s you …’ He strolled over to pluck out the white card that nestled amongst the roses. ‘“To Anastasia. Much love,”’ he read out. ‘No, they’re definitely for you, Tazzy.’ He grinned teasingly. ‘As the man said, someone’s got it bad,’ he added with an appreciative glance at the dozens of roses.

To Anastasia. Much love …

The card attached to the kitten earlier this morning had read, ‘To Anastasia. With love.’ The messages were so similar that it was impossible not to wonder if the kitten and the roses hadn’t been sent to her by the same person. But if so, who could that person be?

She had no idea!

She really didn’t. Oh, several of the men she had met while travelling with Ross had flirted with her or paid her compliments, but she was certain that none of them knew her name was Anastasia.

The postman occasionally paid her a compliment when she went to the door to collect the mail from him, as did the young man from the courier service they habitually used, but as there had to be at least fifty red roses here, delivered on Valentine’s Day too, Tazzy would hazard a guess at such an extravagant gesture of love being out of either of their financial leagues. No, she really had no idea who could have sent them to her.

Neither did she appreciate their being delivered here at her place of work, in front of Ross, of all people; on today’s evidence he was going to believe there was someone serious in her life!

‘Have you been holding out on me, Miss Darling?’ Ross’s next words seemed to confirm that particular worry. ‘You aren’t thinking of leaving me in order to get married, by any chance?’ he asked.

‘Certainly not!’ Tazzy dropped the roses down onto her desktop as if she had been pricked by one of their thorns. ‘I think someone must be playing a practical joke on me,’ she excused lamely.

‘An expensive practical joke,’ Ross disagreed with a shake of his head. ‘No, Tazzy—Miss Darling,’ he corrected himself as she gave him a pointed look, ‘I think you should look at the distinct possibility that you have a secret admirer.’ He lightly touched one of the velvety soft flowers.

Then whoever it was had kept it such a secret that she didn’t have a clue as to who it could possibly be!

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped, deciding that office protocol had been broken enough for one day. ‘I have some work to do,’ she added pointedly when Ross still made no effort to leave but continued to look at her speculatively.

‘I think, Miss Darling,’ he finally murmured consideringly, ‘that you and I ought to have lunch together today in order to discuss the possibility of someone stealing you away from me, don’t you?’

She glared at him. ‘I told you, there is nothing to discuss!’

Ross shook his head. ‘I disagree.’

Oh, great, not only did she not know who was indulging in these ridiculous Valentine pranks, but now she had to try and explain it to her employer!

She gave a heavy sigh. ‘I’ll ask Mrs Brown to make us both some sandwiches.’ It would be far from the first time Tazzy had worked through her lunch-hour.

‘No, I don’t think so.’

Tazzy gave a puzzled frown. ‘You would prefer me to ask her to prepare something else?’ A cooked lunch would save her the problem of cooking for herself this evening when she got home. In view of the fact that she had to do something about the kitten, that arrangement could work out quite well.

Ross smiled as he shook his head. ‘I would prefer it if we went out somewhere to eat. What’s the name of that little place you occasionally go to with that friend of yours—Anne, isn’t it?—that sometimes calls for you here?’

‘Luigi’s?’ Tazzy supplied with a frown.

‘That’s the place!’ His smile deepened. ‘We’ll go there for lunch.’

For one thing, Luigi’s was a small Italian bistro, hardly the sort of place Ross usually frequented, with his accumulated wealth and preference for French cuisine. For another, she did not relish the idea of going there with Ross only to bump into her friend Anne—who did go to Luigi’s often. Knowing Anne, she would demand to know all the details the next time the two of them met! What was wrong with Mrs Brown’s cooking anyway? It had always been good enough before!

Then she remembered …

‘Have you forgotten what day it is today?’ she reminded Ross.

‘That would be a little difficult, wouldn’t it, when your office is full of red roses?’ He gave the long-stemmed blooms a pointed look.

Tazzy felt the warmth in her cheeks. ‘Hardly full,’ she said, shifting the bouquet to one side of her desk. ‘I was actually trying to point out to you that there is no way we will get a table at Luigi’s for lunch today. He was fully booked weeks ago.’

‘He was?’ Ross looked startled by this information.

Tazzy found it quite endearing that it obviously hadn’t even occurred to him that almost all restaurants would be fully booked today, both at lunchtime and this evening; apparently he had never tried to take anyone out to lunch on Valentine’s Day before!

‘Okay, forget Luigi’s,’ Ross dismissed impatiently.

Tazzy nodded. ‘Shall I ask Mrs Brown to get us both a sandwich, after all?’

‘Certainly not!’ he said firmly. ‘I invited you out to lunch, and out we will most definitely go.’

‘But—’

‘Leave it to me,’ Ross interrupted. ‘I’ll book us a table somewhere for lunch.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You will?’

‘I will.’ He nodded, his expression becoming mocking at her obvious surprise. ‘Tazzy, believe it or not, before the advent of your undoubtedly efficient self into my life, I was quite capable of telephoning a restaurant myself and booking my own table!’

She knew that he still did that if he was taking a woman out to dinner. Something, in view of her own feelings towards him, she had always been grateful for.

But that wasn’t the point she had been about to make; it was the fact that this didn’t sound like a business lunch to her, and the two of them having lunch together under any other circumstances was not a good idea …

‘I’m sure you were,’ she soothed. ‘It’s just that—’

‘I said leave it to me, Tazzy,’ Ross insisted, moving towards the connecting door.

‘Use the intercom the next time you need something,’ Tazzy was stung into advising him sharply as he was closing the door, inwardly wondering when the strangeness of today was going to end!

The door opened again, Ross grimacing across at her. ‘I loathe that damned intercom,’ he muttered. ‘I rue the day I ever let you persuade me into having it installed.’

She was well aware of Ross’s feelings concerning the intercom system between their two offices. But, for her part, it was yet another move to keep their relationship on a businesslike footing; before the intercom had been installed Ross had been altogether too fond of just wandering into her office whenever he felt like it, sitting on the side of her desk to discuss whatever problem was bothering him at the time. And in the process usually managing to upset Tazzy’s equilibrium for at least half an hour after he had left—by which time he had usually wandered back in again! The intercom system had stopped all of that. At least … until today, it had …

‘Nevertheless, it’s there to be used,’ she insisted primly.

‘So was the guillotine!’ Ross pointed out. ‘And we all know what use that was put to! Not all machines are progress, you know, Tazzy.’

This sounded more than slightly ridiculous coming from a man who specialized in clearing any glitch or bug that might attack a computer or its software!

He had also called her by her first name yet again! It was way past time this familiarity was put to an end!

‘I’m afraid I really can’t have lunch with you today,’ she told him determinedly. ‘I have to go and check on the kitten,’ she explained as he gave her a frowning look.

His brow cleared. ‘We’ll both go,’ he offered. ‘We can go on to the restaurant from there.’

Tazzy stared at him. Never once during the eighteen months she’d worked for him had there been a need for him to go to her home. ‘I don’t think—’

‘Oh, come on, Tazzy,’ he encouraged. ‘After all, I might end up taking the kitten off your hands.’

‘I told you, I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’m going to keep it myself!’ she came back defensively.

‘Going to wait and see who gave him to you first, is that it?’ Ross teased, brown eyes definitely laughing at her.

‘Certainly not,’ she denied crossly. ‘Oh, very well, you can come with me at lunch-time,’ she capitulated. ‘You’ll just have to excuse the mess,’ she added ungraciously, knowing there was no mess, that she kept her home as tidy as she kept her office.

But the thought of Ross in her home, the one place she never had to remember him having been, was not a pleasant one. Her little terraced house was her sanctuary. A sanctuary that was about to be invaded!

‘I’ll do that.’ Ross grinned knowingly. ‘While we’re there, you could also change into something a little less … businesslike,’ he added before continuing on his way to his own office.

Tazzy glared at the now closed door between the two rooms. She had no intention of changing into something less businesslike! Businesslike was how she liked to be whenever she was around Ross, and she had no intention of ever changing that.

Whoever the practical joker was who had sent her first the kitten, and then these roses, had a lot to answer for. Because she had no doubts that it was the anonymous gifts she had received today that had prompted Ross into inviting her out to lunch, if only to try and find out from Tazzy exactly how serious the relationship was.

When there was no relationship!