The Irresistible Tycoon

The kiss, their conversation, all the emotion of the last half an hour or so hadn’t meant a thing to him, not really. He looked on her as a challenge, if anything—that was it at base level. She hadn’t fallen into his arms as women were prone to do with Lucas—she ignored the fact that that was exactly what she had done, both physically and metaphorically, that morning—or fluttered her eyelashes or given him the come-on over the coffee cups.

She rose slowly, angry with herself and Lucas. Did she believe he hadn’t dated since she’d started at Kane Electrical? Kim considered the thought as she prepared the coffee tray, her slender hands moving mechanically as she frowned into space. Yes, she thought she did; Lucas wouldn’t lie.

Lucas wouldn’t lie? The moment it entered her mind, she attacked the thought like a terrier with a rabbit. Just because her boss was honest—brutally honest, on occasion—with regard to his business dealings, it certainly didn’t mean he was equally honourable and veracious in his dealings with women, she told herself caustically.

Kim suddenly remembered Graham. She had believed him, trusted him, and look where it had got her. One mistake was understandable; a second would verge on stupidity. And she was not a stupid woman. He had called her that many times. She shut her eyes and could almost hear the echo of past fights. Graham had been cruel, spectacularly cruel when he’d been under the influence of alcohol. She had heard it said that an excess of alcohol revealed the real person beneath the social niceties civilisation imposed on the human race, and in Graham’s case it hadn’t been pleasant.

By the time she carried in the coffee tray Kim was the epitome of the cool blonde, her mouth set in a polite smile and her manner courteous.

‘Thank you.’ Lucas raised his dark head and looked straight into her eyes as she placed the tray on his desk, and in spite of her acute discomfort Kim felt there was some genuine concern as his narrowed eyes searched her face.

She berated herself for the weakness as soon as she was safely back in her office. June had said he was a Lothario, hadn’t she? Well, Lucas’s previous secretary hadn’t actually said that exactly, she admitted in the next instant, but June had implied that Lucas was a love ’em and leave ’em type, and she ignored that at her peril.

She sipped her own coffee, her head whirling, and then contemplated the pile of work needing her attention with a rueful twist to her lips. Enough. She was here to do a job of work and that was exactly what she would do. This morning had been a regrettable hiccup but that was all it had been. She had to get a handle on this.

Lucas Kane was her boss and that was all he was. She would be doubly careful not to infringe on his privacy in any way from this day forth—although she didn’t think she had done so before—in order not to give him the wrong impression.

And the things he had said? The little voice in her head was determined to be heard. About wanting to kiss her from day one? Wanting to get to know her better?

Kim breathed in and then out very slowly, flexing her fingers on the keyboard and refusing to let the feeling of panic consume her. She wouldn’t think about it. It might be the easy way out but it was necessary for her sanity!

She had made it perfectly clear to Lucas how she felt about any sort of personal relationship with him. And he was a proud man, arrogant even, and certainly egotistical. He would disregard all that had happened today, if she knew anything about it, pretend it hadn’t happened and perhaps even concentrate his attention on some delectable female he could parade in front of her to make the point, that she—his secretary—was easily forgotten. Yes, that was what he’d do.

John Powell left Lucas’s office ten minutes later and after a minute or two Lucas popped his head round the interconnecting door. ‘I’ve reserved a table for two at a nice little place I know tonight,’ he said expressionlessly. ‘Be ready at eight.’ And the door closed without further discussion.

CHAPTER SIX

RIGHT up until the moment Kim found herself on Maggie’s doorstep, asking her friend if she could call round later to babysit, Kim would have sworn she had no intention of keeping her date with Lucas.

She had told him so several times throughout the course of what had been, for Kim, a particularly trying day, but it had been like talking to a brick wall. And she just didn’t know how to deal with such intractability, Kim admitted silently to herself on the drive home from Maggie’s.

In the two years since Graham had died she had had to freeze several advances from hopeful suitors, but it had been easy. A polite thank you but no thank you, a severe look if they’d needed further persuasion and that had been that. But what had worked admirably with the manager at the local supermarket, an old university friend of Graham’s and one or two hopeful admirers from clients of Curtis & Brackley had not cut any ice with Lucas Kane.

She had tried to keep everything on a strictly businesslike basis that day, but Lucas had appeared to find her efforts amusing rather than anything else, Kim reflected irritably as she fixed Melody’s tea.

But she would spell it out for him tonight, in letters a mile high if necessary, she told herself grimly. She was not going to start a relationship with anyone in the forseeable future, least of all Lucas Kane. Her priority in life was Melody—first and foremost. She didn’t want or need anyone else.

Maggie arrived early but Kim had known she would. She hadn’t been able to say anything more than that she needed her friend to babysit for eight o’clock when she had called by on her way home from collecting Melody, conscious of small ears twitching, but when Maggie had asked—naturally enough—where Kim was going and with whom, and she had mentioned Lucas Kane, Maggie’s eyes had nearly popped out of her head.

Melody was tucked up in bed waiting for Maggie to arrive and read her a story, and after Maggie had called up to say she wouldn’t be a minute or two, she had taken Kim’s arm in a powerful grip and whisked her into the little sitting room.

‘Well?’ Maggie’s nice homely face was agog. ‘What gives with the tycoon?’

‘Lucas, you mean?’

‘You have more than one fabulously rich and gorgeous man asking you out?’

‘He’s not gorgeous.’ It was too quick and they both knew it, and as Kim watched Maggie’s eyes narrow speculatively she said more carefully, ‘I mean he’s just my boss, that’s all.’

‘And he’s taking you out to dinner as what? A little treat for one of his employees?’ Maggie asked a trifle sarcastically. ‘Come on, Kim, this is Maggie, remember? So, I ask you again, what gives?’

‘Oh, Maggie.’ It was a hushed wail. ‘It’s all such a mess.’ She told Maggie all of it and at the end Maggie nodded sagely, like a wise little ginger owl.

‘I knew you’d been on edge these last months but I thought it was just worry about holding down the job,’ she said quietly, her eyes sympathetic. ‘Why didn’t you tell me before, Kim? It might have helped. I don’t pretend to have all the answers—look at me and Pete—but I’m always ready to listen.’

‘I know.’ Kim lifted tragic eyes. ‘And perhaps I’m being ridiculous at panicking anyway. I’m only going out for dinner with him and any other girl would be only too pleased at the opportunity of an evening with Lucas Kane.’

‘You’re not any other girl, though,’ Maggie said gently, ‘and perhaps he has the good sense to realise it. Maybe he’s serious about you, Kim.’