‘Thank you,’ she said, and put it to her lips.
‘I hope you don’t mind sharing the glass,’ he said.
She looked up quickly, but his face was expressionless.
‘No,’ she said, and gave him a tiny smile. ‘Not at all.’
She sipped at the water, not because she wanted it but because it seemed safer to do that than to try and understand what in heaven’s name was going on. After she’d managed a couple of swallows, she handed the glass to him.
‘That’s better,’ he said pleasantly. ‘The colour’s coming back into your cheeks.’
‘Mr MacLean…’
‘Grant,’ he said, and smiled.
She looked at him. If she didn’t confront him in the next few seconds, it would be too late. But how could she, without making herself look more foolish than she already felt? How could she make an indignant speech about an incident so meaningless to him that he’d already forgotten it?
‘Hannah?’
Say something, she thought furiously. Dammit, Hannah, say something. Anything.
‘It’s just occurred to me…’ He frowned. ‘Are you ill because of something you had last night? The wine, perhaps?’
The wine. Of course. She seized on the thought the way a drowning man would grasp a bit of driftwood. They’d both been under a strain to begin with, he worried about Magda Karolyi, she about the act she’d been forced into. And they’d both had some wine. Too much, perhaps. He had been aggressive, and she had been abrasive. Yes. It made sense—more sense than going off half-cocked, making a scene and losing the best job she’d ever had.
‘Hannah?’
She took a deep breath.
‘I’m fine, Mr…’ His brows rose. ‘Thank you, Grant,’ she said with a polite smile. Her hand closed tightly around the letter of resignation and she crumpled it up and stuffed it into her pocket. ‘Really.’
‘Good.’ He rose to his feet and she did, too. ‘Now, then,’ he said, his tone brisk and businesslike, ‘do you think you can manage to go through those files by one o’clock?’
She nodded as they reached the door to the outer office. ‘Of course. I’ll get right to it.’
‘Perhaps you should take some aspirin.’ He opened the door and stepped aside. ‘You might be coming down with the flu. Everyone seems to be catching it.’
‘I doubt it,’ she said, her tone as pleasant and impersonal as his. ‘I don’t feel ill at all.’
‘Tired, then,’ he said.
‘Yes. Just a little…’
The words caught in her throat. The expression on his face had not changed, but his eyes had gone dark and smoky, and all at once she felt that same light-headedness she’d felt when he’d taken her in his arms and kissed her.
‘Didn’t you sleep well last night, Hannah?’ She didn’t answer, and his smile tilted just a fraction of an inch, hinting at something intimate and shared. ‘No,’ he said, ‘you didn’t. And neither did I.’
His gaze swept over her face, lingered on her parted lips. Hannah held her breath. God. Oh, God…
‘Hannah?’ Sally rapped lightly against the half-open door and smiled brightly. ‘Oh. Mr MacLean. Sorry to bother you, sir. I didn’t realise you were in yet. I was going to ask Hannah if she wanted to take her coffeebreak now, but if she’s busy…’
Sally’s words faded as Grant swung towards her, his face a cold mask.
‘At this hour?’ He frowned as he looked past the two women to the wall clock in the outer office.
Sally cleared her throat. ‘Well, sir, those of us who get in early usually go to the lunch room for coffee and a Danish just about—’
‘Spare me the details, please. I don’t care what you have or where you have it, just as long as it doesn’t interfere with your work. You will have the material I want on my desk by one, Hannah, won’t you?’
Somehow, Hannah nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Good.’
The door swung closed. Sally stared at it in silence, and then she gave a dramatic shudder.
‘Brrr,’ she said. ‘The temperature goes down fifty degrees when he’s around. Honestly, I don’t know how you put up with it! Well, never mind. Listen, wait until I tell you what Betty said when she saw that nightgown…’
Hannah smiled faintly as she followed the other girl into the corridor, even managing to look as if she was listening to Sally’s story and laugh when the other girl laughed. But she didn’t really hear anything she was saying. She was, indeed, still caught in that moment when Grant had looked at her with the memory of last night burning deep in his eyes.
What might have happened if Sally hadn’t come bursting in?
She dug into her pocket, and her fingers clasped the crinkled letter of resignation.
Go back into his office and give it to him, a voice within her whispered, go on, dammit!
‘Here we are,’ Sally said. She moved towards a platter of pastries laid out near a coffee urn. ‘Which do you want? Strawberry or cheese?’
Hannah hesitated, and then she straightened her shoulders.
Don’t be a fool, she thought, and she drew her hand from her pocket, balled up the letter, and dumped it into the wastebasket beside the lunch room door.
‘Strawberry’s fine,’ she said. She gave Sally a big, beaming smile and hurried on.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘HANNAH?’ Hannah looked up. Sally was standing in the doorway. ‘Got a minute?’
Hannah smiled, pushed back from her computer, and slipped her eyeglasses from her nose.
‘Hello, stranger,’ she said. ‘I haven’t seen you in days. Come in and visit for a while.’
The other girl made a face. ‘Is he here?’ she hissed. She made a great show of peering inside Hannah’s office and checking the corners. ‘I’m not putting one foot inside that room unless the coast is clear.’
‘You’re safe.’ Hannah nodded towards the closed door between her office and Grant MacLean’s. ‘He’s on the phone long-distance. I doubt if he’ll surface again until after six.’
‘Long after six. Doesn’t he ever go home?’
‘He’s been working on the Hungarian thing.’ Hannah gestured to the papers strewn across her desk. ‘Tying it up has been endless.’
Sally nodded. ‘So I gather. But you’d think he’d remember that you have a life to lead. When was the last time you left this place on time?’
‘I can’t remember,’ Hannah said with a smile. She pushed back her chair and rose to her feet. ‘Want some coffee?’
‘Ugh.’ The other girl grimaced. ‘I’m on caffeine overload already. How about tonight?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Are you working overtime tonight, too?’
‘I don’t think so. I’m pretty much caught up, and—’
‘Great. A new club opened on the next street. One of the girls in Personnel said it’s packed with cute guys. I told her we’d——’
‘Sorry.’
‘But you just said—’
‘I said I wasn’t working late. But—’
‘You’ve got a date already?’
Hannah touched her tongue to her lips. The only date she had for tonight was with a warm bath and the latest Robert Parker mystery, but she knew from experience that telling that to Sally would be a mistake.
‘Sort of,’ she said with a little shrug.
‘Great!’ Sally smiled. ‘It’s about time you started stepping out a little.’
‘I’ve been busy,’ Hannah said evasively. ‘School five nights a week doesn’t leave time for much else.’
‘I know. But you gotta remember that old saw about all work and no play making Jack a dull boy. Or Hannah a dull girl.’ Sally smiled. ‘I’ll expect to hear all the details tomorrow.’
Hannah’s smile was vague. ‘Well…’
‘Ah, I get it. This one’s a hot date, and the down-and-dirty might be too steamy for my tender ears.’ Sally laughed, and, after a second, Hannah laughed along with her. ‘You have fun
tonight.’ Sally stepped into the hallway, then popped her head back into the room. ‘And we’ll double another time, OK?’
‘Yes. Sure. Another…’ the door swung shut ‘…time,’ Hannah murmured, and then she blew out her breath.
Terrific. Now she was telling lies to Sally, but what else could she do? They’d known each other for almost a year, and the other girl still didn’t understand that searching for the perfect soulmate was rather like playing blind man’s buff. You’d find somebody eventually, but when the blindfold came off, what then?
‘But what about sex?’ Sally had said once, her tone careless but her eyes bright with questions. ‘Don’t you—you know, don’t you get lonely?’