‘The thing is, Kim…’ Lucas paused, his eyes tight on hers, and as she had many times before Kim felt as though his mind was looking straight into hers, probing, dissecting her secret thoughts and fears.
‘Yes?’ So what was the thing?
‘I think you might be having a telephone call from Robert Clarkson,’ Lucas said coolly.
‘Robert Clarkson?’ Kim stared at him as if he was mad. ‘Why would Robert Clarkson call me?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ His voice was harsher and he must have realised this because it was back to its normal even tone when he said, ‘He likes you. When you were in the ladies’ cloakroom at lunch he was asking about you.’
Kim was totally taken aback and her honest bewilderment was written all over her face. ‘But…but I didn’t… I mean…’
‘You didn’t notice.’ It was a statement and spoken with mild exasperation.
‘No, I didn’t.’ Kim sensed criticism and her hackles rose accordingly. ‘I was there in the capacity of your secretary and doing a job, that’s all.’ And who would notice another man with Lucas Kane in the vicinity? The dangerousness of the thought shocked her and brought a flood of hot colour into her face.
‘Very commendable.’ It was dry and did nothing to soothe her ruffled feathers. ‘Well, take it from me, Robert will contact you in the near future and suggest lunch or dinner—a date, anyway. Of course with Kane Electrical and Clarkson International being involved in delicate negotiations at the moment…’
‘You think he would try and use me to gain an advantage?’ she asked stiffly. More to the point, he thought she would be stupid enough to discuss confidential matters with every Tom, Dick and Harry! How dared he? How dared he treat her as though she had so little sense or respect for her position that she would allow herself to be so indiscreet?
‘Not necessarily.’
‘Then what?’ Her voice had risen but she couldn’t help it. She was so mad.
‘I was merely pointing out certain factors, that’s all.’ His eyes were hard chips of narrowed ice now but Kim was too incensed to take heed.
‘I work for you, and you have the right to demand my absolute loyalty and discretion with all matters connected to that work, but you do not have the right to tell me who I can and can’t date outside of these four walls,’ Kim bit out tightly, her face chalk-white except for two red patches of colour on her cheekbones.
She had no intention of dating Robert Clarkson—she had no intention of dating anyone ever again—but if Lucas Kane thought he owned her, body and soul, he had another think coming. The arrogance—the sheer unadulterated arrogance of the man!
‘Neither would I try,’ he grated angrily.
‘Oh, come on, that’s exactly what you’ve just tried,’ she flung back furiously.
There was an electric silence which vibrated the air-waves but for all his inward rage Lucas Kane’s face was as unrevealing as a bare canvas. He had sat there all through that damned lunch and watched Rob fall over himself to impress her; it had been pathetic, he told himself savagely. And she’d smiled back at Rob in a way she had never looked at him; she hadn’t flinched when Rob had touched her arm or helped her on with her coat, damn it.
He had battled with his feelings all afternoon, feelings new to him and acutely disturbing. He’d always prided himself on being a logical man first and foremost, a man who kept his life free and uncluttered and who liked his relationships to follow suit.
Human triangles, sentiment, jealousy—he had always found such matters irritating and non-productive and avoided them like the plague. He liked women who thought like men in the emotional sense—or like him, at least. Non-clinging, independent, able to let go when the affair ended with no tears and no messy entanglements.
And he still thought like that, damn it. Nothing had changed. Nothing.
‘There’s no need for hysterics.’ His voice was as cold as ice and his arctic eyes drilled into her like unrelenting steel. ‘I was simply putting you on your guard, that’s all. You have worked for me for three months and nothing of this nature has cropped up before.’
He rose as he finished speaking, walking across to the door and opening it as he said, ‘Perhaps you would make sure those letters are in the post tonight.’
He was dismissing her. Like a headmaster with an errant child! Kim rose to her feet, her clenched fists crumpling the papers in her grasp and forcing her to relax her fingers slightly.
She had intended to sail past him with haughty indifference, her head held high, but the anger that still had her in its grip made her careless. Whether it was the thin heel of her court shoes catching in the carpet or the fact that her legs were shaking so badly, she didn’t know, but to her horror she found herself in danger of sprawling at his feet as she felt herself begin to fall just as she reached the doorway.
The letters flew out of her fingers in a whirling arc as she grappled vainly at thin air in an effort to right herself, and then strong arms caught her and brought her thudding against a muscled male chest.
Kim was so dazed and disorientated that she made no sort of move to free herself, and Lucas seemed to have frozen. And then he moved her an inch or so away in order to look down into her face. ‘Have you hurt yourself?’ His voice was deep and edged with huskiness.
Hurt herself? She didn’t know what she had done, held in his arms like this. She could have a broken leg and it wouldn’t register.
She knew she had to say something—she couldn’t continue staring up into his dark face—but all the half-remembered, forbidden dreams that had haunted her sleep for the last months had come together and it was surreal.
Her hands had landed against the broad wall of his chest and she could feel the thud, thud of his heart beneath her fingertips, the smooth blue silk of his shirt not quite disguising the roughness of body hair beneath it.