Читать книгу The Irresistible Tycoon - HELEN BROOKS, Helen Brooks - Страница 8

OVER the next few weeks Kim worked as she had never worked before. She made copious notes of everything June told her, taking reams of paper home each night and sitting up until well past midnight, memorising anything and everything which was relevant. She acquainted herself with every file, every company, every individual who played a role in Lucas Kane’s business life until she had more facts and figures in her head than June did.

One of Melody’s schoolfriends lived directly opposite her daughter’s school and Kim came to an arrangement with the child’s mother that in return for the payment of a small fee she could drop Melody off at just gone eight every day, enabling the blue BMW to purr into Kane Electrical’s car park every morning before half-past eight.

Kim had imagined, the first day, that it would be just her and possibly the caretaker in the building, but Lucas’s sleek, champagne-coloured Aston Martin was already in residence when she had pulled up and it continued to be so every morning.

He had come to the door of his office on her early arrival and gazed quizzically at her for a moment or two, but beyond a request for one of the endless cups of coffee he consumed all day had made no comment.

Christmas had come and gone, and Kim had gulped slightly at the size of her very generous Christmas box from Lucas in the form of a cheque, and in the second week in January she and Melody had moved into the small but charming two-bedroomed cottage she had found not far from her daughter’s school.

And then the Monday of the third week was upon her, the first day June wouldn’t be there to cushion her from any minor panics, the other woman having left for Scotland the previous weekend. And Kim found she was as nervous as a child on its first day at school.

She’d gone to extra trouble with her appearance, the clothing allowance having enabled her to buy a new wardrobe consisting of several stylish, neatly tailored suits, blouses and accessories which perfectly projected the image Lucas Kane’s secretary needed to give, and Kim knew the dove-grey suit and salmon silk blouse complemented her English peaches and cream colouring.

Nevertheless, her soft brown eyes were wide and faintly anxious as she checked the coiled braid on the back of her head, her thick straight fringe just brushing the tops of her fine eyebrows.

‘Nothing has changed in the last forty-eight hours,’ she told the efficient-looking reflection softly. ‘You’ve been working for him for the last week or so with June doing little more than observing; you can handle anything now.’

Kim had to remind herself of that last comforting assurance in the next minute or two.

Over the last weeks she had slipped into the pattern of serving Lucas coffee as soon as she arrived in the office, but when, after the normal customary polite knock, Kim opened the door, it wasn’t the usual immaculately attired and perfectly groomed tycoon she had grown accustomed to who looked up from his desk.

Lucas had obviously been asleep until she had woken him, and now, as he straightened and peered at her from bleary eyes, Kim’s heartbeat went haywire.

It wasn’t the fact that he hadn’t shaved or brushed his hair, or that his dishevelled appearance bore evidence to the fact that he had slept in his clothes that had her insides turning cartwheels.

At some time during the last hours he had discarded his suit jacket along with his tie, and now his open shirt revealed a deep V of tanned flesh sprinkled with dark curling body hair and a muscled—devastatingly muscled—male chest of Olympic athlete proportions.

He worked out. He very clearly worked out. Kim was glued to the spot, the tray with the coffee and plate of biscuits wobbling dangerously in her hand. And he was… Well, he was something else, she admitted with silent shock. Clothed, he was pretty intimidating and all male, but partly clothed… No wonder June had told her that the fast car went with equally fast, glamorous women and a love ’em and leave ’em personal life where work—always—came first.

‘Not that it seems to put them off,’ June had murmured confidentially. ‘Of course, the circle he moves in are all of the same mind, I guess, so that helps. Lucas has never been one for the dumb blonde type female; he goes for brains as well as beauty. The last one was a lawyer, the one before that a mogul with her own business—they all seem to find him irresistible.’

She hadn’t made any comment at the time although she had silently told herself that irresistible was definitely not a word that came to mind when she thought of Lucas Kane, but now, if nothing else, she could appreciate what drew and held such women.

Taken off his guard like this, and with his office mode in abeyance for once, she was seeing the raw animal magnetism she had sensed once or twice—well, a lot more than once or twice, she admitted ruefully—in all its deadly power.

‘Hell, what’s the time?’ The silver eyes were clearing even as he spoke and granite was replacing the faint smoky hue that had been so stunningly sexy.

‘Eight-thirty.’ It was succinct but all she could manage until her hormones sorted themselves out.

‘Is that coffee? You’re an angel.’ He leant back in the chair and stretched magnificent muscles before raking back his hair, none of which did Kim’s equilibrium any favours. ‘I’ve been here most of the weekend; the Clarkson deal blew up in our face and needed some quality time.’

‘Right.’ Kim nodded in what she hoped was an informed, efficient sort of way and wondered if he was aware he was half naked. If he was it clearly didn’t bother him.

She placed the coffee and biscuits on the desk in front of him and prayed her face wasn’t as flushed as she feared it was.

‘But I’ve got it nailed.’ He reached for one of the biscuits and ate it in a hungry bite before reaching for another.

‘When did you eat last?’ she asked carefully.

‘Eat?’ The crystal-bright eyes that could be so piercingly intent were vague. ‘I don’t remember. Saturday, I think.’

‘Fancy some bacon sandwiches?’

‘Bacon sandwiches?’ He stared at her interestedly. ‘Don’t tell me you can provide those at a moment’s notice, Kim?’

‘Almost.’ She was fighting sexual arousal and it made her voice stiff. ‘There’s a little man on the corner who comes every morning in his mobile and does a roaring trade, apparently. Bacon sandwiches are his speciality.’

‘Then I’d like six rounds from your little man,’ Lucas said promptly, ‘with lashings of brown sauce.’

She inclined her head, as she imagined the estimable June would have done in the same circumstances, and forced herself to turn and walk towards the door. ‘I’ll be ten minutes or so,’ she said evenly over her shoulder and she didn’t look back.

She was fifteen minutes, and when she knocked for the second time that morning on Lucas’s door and walked into his office, her boss had transformed himself—courtesy of the small bathroom and dressing room, which were part of his executive suite—into his usual cool and impeccable self. But in spite of the fresh charcoal suit and pale blue shirt with matching tie, all Kim could see was a mental picture of acres and acres of finely honed muscled flesh and it was disconcerting, to say the least.

It didn’t help that his hair was still slightly damp from the shower and his freshly shaved face more relaxed than usual, either, and the hot prickle of overt sexual awareness that had hit her so forcefully earlier didn’t seem to want to die the death she was willing on it.

‘Six rounds of doorsteps with what looks like a pound of bacon in them,’ she said as expressionlessly as she could. ‘Eat them while they’re hot.’ She handed him the plate as she spoke.

‘You sound like my mother.’

His mother? She narrowed her eyes and smiled sweetly. ‘Don’t tell me you are one of those men who have a mother fixation,’ she said coolly before she thought too much about it and didn’t dare voice the tart retort which had sprung to mind.

‘I don’t think so.’ He was eyeing her with what could only be termed a glint, but a glint of what Kim wasn’t sure. ‘My mother is a wonderful woman and ideally suited to my father, but…no, I don’t think so.’ He took a bite of one of the sandwiches and closed his eyes in ecstasy.

‘How come I haven’t had bacon sandwiches from your little man before?’ he asked almost petulantly.

‘Because you didn’t ask?’ she suggested daringly.

The silver eyes fastened on her, pinning her to the spot, and Lucas smiled slowly. ‘I only have to ask?’ he drawled lazily.

She might have known she had no chance of winning in a war of words with him! Kim was disturbingly aware that something had shifted in the last few minutes, something that had been bubbling away under the surface from the first moment she had laid eyes on Lucas Kane—something that couldn’t, mustn’t, have expression. ‘I’ll get you another cup of coffee.’ She had turned and swept out of the room before he had time to take another bite.

Lucas smiled faintly to himself. There was more, much more, to his efficient, beautiful new secretary than met the eye; he had known that from the beginning. And was that why he had been tempted to choose Kim above other more qualified, experienced candidates?

The thought didn’t sit well with him and the smile turned into a frown. He had chosen Kim Allen because she was the most suitable applicant—qualifications and experience weren’t necessarily the be-all and end-all of a working relationship, he told himself sharply. There had to be a spark, a cutting edge, a quality that was undefinable but which told you any association would be healthy and productive without becoming dull or boring. He had never wanted a mindless android who wouldn’t say boo to a goose. That was why he had chosen Kim. And her qualifications were pretty good too, as was her experience.

June had had it—they had enjoyed some very real altercations in their time, he assured himself firmly, ignoring the little voice of honesty which suggested he was comparing chalk to cheese.

He was suddenly uncomfortable with his thoughts and, reaching for another sandwich, having finished the first, he turned his mind to the Clarkson file sitting in front of him, dismissing all further thoughts of Kim with the single-minded ruthlessness that had made Kane Electrical so successful in the last decade.

It took Kim a good deal longer to get her unregenerate thoughts under lock and key, but once she had succeeded she determined they wouldn’t escape again. Lucas Kane could prance around naked if he so desired and she wouldn’t turn a hair, she told herself on the drive home that evening.

She had to admit he had a certain something, a darkly seductive something—in fact it was a relief to acknowledge it and bring it out into the open, she assured herself firmly. He was a compellingly attractive man—most powerful, wealthy men had an aura that set them apart from the crowd—but it didn’t make them easy to live with or likeable.

And she didn’t have to like him; as long as she could respect his business acumen and flair and enjoy her work, that was all she wanted. His lifestyle and the way he conducted his personal relationships was absolutely no concern of hers; the fact that he embodied everything she most disliked in a man in that area didn’t mean she couldn’t work with him. He saw her as part of the office machinery, not a woman, and that made all the difference.

She was well satisfied with her reasoning by the time she drew up outside the school gates and parked the car, walking down the concrete drive and standing to one side of the big wooden doors as the first desultory snowflakes began to fall out of a laden sky.

By the time Melody emerged with one or two other children—the teacher standing just behind them and checking each child had its respective escort—the snow was coming down in thick fat white flakes that sent the children into transports of delight.

‘Mummy, it’s really snowing!’ Melody danced up to her, her small face alight. ‘Can we build a snowman in the garden?’

‘Maybe tomorrow, if it snows enough,’ Kim agreed warmly. The cottage had a delightful garden with a large lawn surrounded by mature trees and shrubs, and Melody had already commandeered a small corner of it, announcing she was going to plant her own herb garden in the spring.

She would, too, Kim thought fondly as they walked to the car. Anything she set her mind to, Melody did; her small daughter was bubbling over with confidence and vitality and thankfully had no memory of the last terrible months Graham had put them through before he had died.

She refused to dwell on thoughts of her late husband, concentrating on Melody and asking her small daughter about her day, but once Melody was in bed and the cottage was quiet she found the memories flooding in in spite of all her efforts to shut them out.