But another part of her, the entirely truthful part, couldn’t do that, not even if she did feel Liam needed to be taken down a peg or two. In the face of his obvious—to her!—professional uncertainty, to negate the brilliance of his manuscript would not only be cruel in the extreme, it would be dishonest.
Liam might bring out a lot of emotions in her, but dishonesty was certainly not one of them!
‘It is,’ she confirmed abruptly, shifting some papers on her desk so that she didn’t actually have to look at him and see the look of triumph she was sure would be on his face now. ‘There’s a problem with the name of the author, of course—’
‘How long did it take you to realise I had written it?’ Liam interrupted interestedly.
The first chapter. The first page. The first paragraph.
‘Not long,’ she responded carefully. ‘Perry believes the subterfuge is because of a desire on your part not to repeat what happened eight years ago…? The excess publicity, et cetera…’ She looked at him questioningly.
Liam gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘You have a very bright-senior editor there, Laura,’ he drawled dryly.
‘I like to think so,’ she agreed. ‘In view of your obvious satisfaction with his capabilities, I’m sure you will have no problem dealing together—’
‘Only the one,’ Liam cut in softly.
Laura eyed him warily now, not liking the gentleness of that tone at all. ‘Which is?’
‘I—’ He broke off as the telephone rang on her desk. ‘You had better take that,’ he advised. ‘It’s probably your watch-dog, Ruth, checking that I haven’t strangled you!’
Laura gave him a withering glance before picking up the receiver, colour entering her cheeks as she discovered that Ruth was indeed the caller. But not to check on whether Laura had been strangled by Liam!
‘I’ll be right out,’ she told her secretary abruptly before ringing off, looking across at Liam as she did so. ‘My car is waiting downstairs,’ she informed him, standing up. ‘I’m sure Ruth will be happy to provide you with a cup of coffee while you wait for your appointment with Perry at four o’clock.’
Liam also stood up, instantly dwarfing Laura. ‘And I’m sure that the only thing Ruth would be happy to provide me with is the door! Besides, I have no intention of seeing Perry at four o’clock—or any other time.’
Laura’s wariness returned. ‘You’ve decided to go to another publisher?’’
From Shipley Publishing’s point of view, she would be very sorry if that were the case. But from a personal point of view…? She could only feel relief at having the possibility of seeing Liam on a regular basis effectively removed!
‘Not at all,’ he dismissed. ‘I’ve just decided I would prefer to have you as my editor rather than Perry Webster.’
Laura stared at him with one very green eye and one very blue one. ‘You—have—decided!’ she finally managed to gasp, shaking her head dazedly. ‘I hate to be the one to break this to you, Liam—’
‘I have the feeling you don’t hate it at all,’ he drawled in reply. ‘But whatever it is you hate, Laura, I suggest you save it for when we meet again in the morning; you have an appointment in—ten minutes.’ He adjusted the time after a quick glance at the watch on his right wrist.
She was going to be late in getting to the school if she didn’t leave now!
But Liam’s statement of a few minutes ago was so—so unbelievable that she felt rooted to the spot. Just who did he think he was? The obvious answer to that was Liam O’Reilly, but his name, prestigious though it might be in the literary world, did not give him the right to dictate terms to her. Least of all who his editor was going to be! If he really didn’t feel he could work with Perry, then there were plenty of other editors at Shipley he could choose from—though they did not include her!
‘I thought you were returning to Ireland this evening?’ she queried as she picked up her shoulder-bag.
‘I was,’ Liam confirmed, walking over to the door with her.
‘What happened to change your plans?’ As if she really needed to ask that!
Since his telephone call to Perry this morning Liam had found out that she was Shipley Publishing—and he was enjoying playing the cat-and-mouse game with her that he had initially accused her of playing with him. Well, that stopped right now!
‘Never mind,’ she said suddenly. ‘I really do have to go now—’
‘Could you drop me off somewhere?’ Liam suggested sardonically.
‘No, I couldn’t!’ Her face was red from anger now. ‘Liam—’
‘In that case, before I go I’ll make an appointment with Watch-dog Ruth for the two of us to meet tomorrow morning,’ he told her unconcernedly.
Laura paused with her hand on the door. ‘Liam, I have no intention of having a meeting with you tomorrow morning, or indeed any other time,’ she said frustratedly, all the while aware of the time ticking away. ‘Perry is more than capable of dealing with any queries you may have—’
‘Not the ones I want answers to,’ Liam put in softly.
Laura gave him another sharp look, not liking the way this unexpected meeting had gone at all. But she really did not have the time to deal with this just now; she had Bobby to think of.
‘Make what appointments you like, Liam,’ she advised him impatiently. ‘But I will have nothing to say to you in the morning that I haven’t already said.’
Liam gave her a considering look. ‘Is he important to you?’ he finally asked consideringly.
She gave him a startled look. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she had to leave immediately she would have made sure Liam was fully aware of exactly how this situation lay! As it was…‘Who?’ she prompted irritably.
He folded his arms across the width of his chest. ‘The man you’re going off to meet—and don’t say it isn’t a man,’ he stated, as she would have spoken. ‘I recognise that flush in your cheeks, that glow in those incredibly beautiful eyes, only too well.’
‘You do?’ she said sceptically.
‘I most certainly do,’ Liam rasped. ‘You always glowed like this when you were excited or pleased about something.’
She didn’t want to hear how she looked when she was excited or pleased—or to remember the occasions when Liam must have seen her in that particular state.
‘Goodbye, Liam,’ she told him with blazing dismissal, wrenching open the door to hurry from the office without a backward glance, giving Ruth a brief wave before she hurried out to the lift and downstairs to the waiting car.
But she couldn’t bring herself to relax as Paul drove in the direction of Bobby’s school, aware that she was cutting things very fine for picking her son up on time. Secure and confident as Bobby was generally, he was still only seven, and he tended to become anxious if there was no one there to meet him when the school bell rang at the end of the day.
‘With a minute to spare,’ Paul told her with satisfaction as he pulled the car into the school car park.
‘Thanks, Paul,’ Laura told him with relief, before hurrying off to Bobby’s classroom.
Liam had said she looked pleased and excited, but he had obviously mistaken the reason for those emotions. She was always pleased to be with Bobby, and in his case her excitement was actually maternal