Page 16 of His Secretary's Nine-Month Notice
He’d never felt more alive.
He wondered what she would say. His mind was filled with the image of her, so stupendously sexy. Some small voice was telling him that that was something he’d always known, deep down.
She was sexy underneath the prim suits, the glossy bob and the calm, unflappable exterior. Some part of him had always recognised an inherent tug on his senses, although it had only made itself felt when he had looked down at her in her house and his head had begun to swim.
They almost collided.
He was heading at speed through the carpeted corridors at the back of the club and she was bolting in his direction. She screeched to a halt and her eyes widened with a mixture of shock and disbelief.
‘Matt!’
‘Surprise, surprise.’ He shot her a crooked smile. He’d forgotten how weirdly deep and melodic her voice was and how slight she was compared to him. An ache spread through him that silenced him for a few seconds, then normal service resumed.
‘I’ve had to fly over here on business. Damned start-up has run into a few thorny problems. I don’t have to tell you how temperamental three untethered men in a small boat can be when a big liner shows up to bring them to shore. All sorts of sudden doubts. While I was here, thought I’d drop by and see how you were doing.’ He paused. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright. He wanted to touch those pigtails, see whether they were real, because it was so out of keeping.
Violet flung herself into his arms.
The move was so unexpected that Matt temporarily froze. Just like that, he was acutely aware of every small curve, the delicacy of her slender body and her small breasts pushing against him. He gingerly put his arms around her in a stilted gesture that was part comforting caress and part bewilderedwhat’s going on here?hug.
Bad move, a little voice was saying at the back of Violet’s head.Very bad move.
She could feel the way he had suddenly turned to wood, and she guessed that he was probably horrified at this crazy display of emotion from his otherwise buttoned-up ex-secretary, but she was just so relievedto see him that she could have burst into tears.
She broke free and began dragging him back to the dressing room.
‘I’m so glad you’re here, Matt.’
‘Violet, stop. What’s going on?’
‘It’s Dad.’
‘What about him?’
‘He’s collapsed.’
She was half running and at those words he began striding more purposefully towards the rooms at the back of the club. People had gathered outside one of the cubicles and he forged a way through them.
‘Anyone call an ambulance?’ he shouted, looking around and clicking his tongue impatiently because they all looked confused and blank-faced, like a herd of terrified sheep in search of a shepherd.
‘I did,’ a timid voice piped up.
Matt nodded. Mickey had been propped up against a cushion. He was grey, wheezing and perspiring.
In that moment, Matt did what he did best—he took charge, and Violet watched.
She watched with blessed relief as he single-handedly cleared the room, having ascertained that no one with any medical know-how was available. He confiscated several phones from gawpers trying to capture the chaos on camera and, surprisingly, the phones were surrendered without protest. Such was the power of his personality.
She was shaking like a leaf as she knelt next to her father, stroking his hair away from his face. He wore a ponytail. She’d told him often enough that he was way too old for that style, but he’d steadfastly ignored her, and now seeing that ponytail in disarray was somehow heart-rending.
The ambulance arrived with paramedics and everything became a blur of activity.
‘Want me in the ambulance with you?’ Matt asked, cupping the nape of her neck and looking at her, and she nodded mutely. ‘Good. But first...’ He removed his jacket, laid it over her shoulders and shot her a crooked smile. ‘Your outfit is great on stage, but you might be a bit self-conscious wearing it in a hospital setting.’
It was a gesture so touching that she couldn’t speak for a few seconds, then off they hurried, out to the waiting ambulance that wailed its way towards the hospital.
‘I feel so helpless,’ she whispered once her father had been whisked away and they were left standing in a room on their own like a couple of spare parts deprived of purpose.
She clutched at the jacket and dabbed her eyes with her knuckles. She hadn’t even asked what he was doing here! He’d appeared as if by magic, and it just felt right that he was standing here now in all his magnificence, a rock in a sudden storm.
