Page 19 of His Secretary's Nine-Month Notice
What of it? Everyone was entitled to a moment of madness and she never, not once in her entire life, had had a moment of madness.
‘Would you like a...a coffee?’ She nodded in the direction of the kitchen and began walking towards it—half hoping that he would say a polite goodbye and head off, disturbing kiss firmly forgotten, half hoping that he would follow her into the kitchen, because this tingling, scary as it was, was also so wonderfully, tantalisingly exciting.
‘That would be very nice.’ Matt followed her into a high-tech kitchen where the only signs of occupation were the plates and cups draining on a metal draining board by the sink.
‘Again. Thank you for being there for me this evening.’ His eyes were on her. She could feel it. She tried not to focus on the fact that she was wearing an outfit best suited for a raunchy fancy-dress party. He wasn’t her boss here and she certainly wasn’t his secretary, and common sense only very thinly managed to plaster over that fact.
‘There’s no need to thank me, Violet,’ Matt said drily. ‘I’m very happy that I was there for you, although I’m sure you would have had your pick of volunteers for the role of shoulder to cry on.’
‘What do you mean?’ She glanced round at him, startled, and then handed him his mug of coffee, strong and black just as he liked it, and settled into the chair, facing him with relief.
‘I mean you had a very appreciative audience. I’m guessing you heard the roars of approval when you walked in.’
‘My father has a lot of fans still left.’ She blushed furiously and sipped some of her own piping-hot coffee.
‘I’ll let that one go, but you know exactly what I mean. You looked the part. How are you doing over here? Your emails back to the home front are stunningly lacking in detail.’
Violet reddened further. Of course, he wouldn’t know the effect he had always had on her, so would never guess that the paucity of her responses had all been tied in with her just trying to forget about him, which was the healthy way forward.
‘I’m doing very well, Matt. Very busy.’
‘With your father’s school?’
‘How did you know about that?’
‘I have friends in high places.’ His dark eyes were watchful as he sipped the coffee and he stole a look at her from under his lashes. ‘I asked around, just out of curiosity. Your father has quite the reputation over here. Seems the bad boy of yesterday has become a pillar of the community.’
Violet smiled, relaxing, because this was the Matt she was so familiar with—a guy of such abundant, lazy charm that it had never been any source of wonder for her that he could attract women without having to lift a finger or make an effort.
‘I’m not sure he would be comfortable with thepillar of the communitymoniker. He still likes to think that he’s got a wild side left in him.’
‘He’s certainly still got the talent,’ Matt observed. ‘You played well together.’
‘Were you surprised?’
‘It’s fair to say that pretty much everything about you surprises me,’ he murmured.
She shifted and harked back to how he had reacted when he had seen where she lived, discovered a past he had never suspected—that fleeting look of betrayal on his face.
She wondered whether the fact that she had surprised him accounted for that kiss. She wasn’t the woman he had categorised as his predictable secretary with no personal life to speak of. She’d broken out of the convenient mould and exposed a side to her that had taken him by surprise—and surprise, for a man like Matt Falconer, might prove a very enticing proposition. And then tonight, vulnerable and in her hour of need, she had revealed yet more about herself, as he had pointed out.
Could she, suddenly and unexpectedly, have provided an element of novelty that had roused the interest of a man drawn to the same type of woman?
Violet knew that she would be better off not giving house room to seditious thoughts. The more she tried to analyse the situation, and the raging fire that had ignited between them with such shocking speed, the more her thoughts kept returning to the feel of his mouth on hers and the responses it had generated.
Dangerous.
‘You should go.’ She dumped the cup on the table and abruptly rose to her feet. ‘I probably won’t see you again before you leave and I...er... I hope your trip over here proves successful.’
‘Is this the bit where we shake hands and pretend we’re strangers?’ But there was amusement in his voice and, when he rose to his feet, he moved just a little too close to her for comfort. ‘I’ve got a few days left here, Violet, and I wouldn’t dream of leaving you to manage by yourself while your father remains in hospital. You can count on me. It’s what any good ex-boss would do...’
CHAPTER FIVE
TRUETOHISword about not leaving her to manage for herself—a sweeping statement that had filled her with dread—Matt turned up at eight the following morning. Violet had already been up for an hour and was pointlessly pottering around the house, waiting for the hours to slip by before she could go to the hospital and visit her father.
‘He’s out of the woods,’ she had been told when she had telephoned for information at six that morning. ‘But he’s heavily sedated and won’t be able to respond to visitors for at least a couple of days. The body can take only so much stress and I suspect your father has been ignoring warning signs for a number of weeks now.’
She would go and sit by her heavily sedated father, she decided, even if he was sleeping and out of it.
