His shoulders rose and fell quickly as if he’d drawn a sharp breath. And Alice wondered what had happened to her own breathing.
If Liam spoke of love, if he promised her undying devotion, her common sense would fly out the window. She would be helpless, lost in her need for him, at sea with his love as her only lifebelt.
‘I want to offer you protection,’ he said. ‘To shield you. I hate the thought of people in the office or other business associates making you feel uncomfortable—talking about you behind your back.’
His answer was exactly what she’d expected, what she’d feared. ‘That’s—that’s very gallant. But I’m afraid people would only talk about our shotgun wedding instead.’
In the dim lighting his eyes watched her with an intense, ferocious blaze. ‘So you’re determined that marriage is out of the question.’
If you don’t love me. ‘Yes. I’m still getting over a bad marriage experience. I need time.’
A barely perceptible tremor ran through him, shocking Alice so that she almost dashed across the room to wrap him in a bear hug.
‘So,’ he said, recovering quickly. ‘Let’s talk about alternatives.’
Somehow, alternatives didn’t sound as appealing as they should have. Alice struggled to remember that she had to be sensible.
‘I’m not sure what you mean by alternatives, but I must admit I’m not too keen about having everyone in the office watching me as I grow bigger and fatter with the boss’s baby. I think I should resign.’
Liam frowned and his fingers drummed a tattoo on the arm of the chair. ‘Don’t resign. Take leave. You can take it for as long as you want. If you like, you could even do some work from home. You could concentrate on a total revamp of our outback-tour contacts.’
‘OK. Actually that would be wonderful. Thank you.’ She would relish having as much time as she needed to gather all the updated information from the outback-tourist options.
‘What other problems do you foresee?’ Liam asked her.
‘I don’t think there are any others that involve you.’
‘I’m your baby’s father. I’m involved. Get used to it, Alice.’
Well, well, she thought, Liam might be talking about fatherhood, but clearly he was back in bossmode, supremely comfortable with making decisions and planning strategies.
‘What about your family?’ he asked her. ‘How will they react?’
Wincing, she closed her eyes. ‘I’m afraid they still haven’t forgiven me for the divorce. I’m not sure how I’m going to pluck up the courage to tell them about this.’
‘I’ll come with you.’
Her eyes flashed open. ‘No, Liam. I don’t expect you to—’
‘As I said, I’m involved. Get used to it. We’ll take your parents to dinner somewhere tasteful and discreet and we’ll tell them in a very adult and civilised manner exactly what’s happened and they’ll respond in an equally adult and civilised manner.’
Alice stared at him with her mouth open. Just like that he’d hit on the perfect solution. It would work. She knew it. Liam would win her parents over with his effortless charm and the aunts, too, if necessary.
‘And I’d like you to meet Julia and my nephew, Jack,’ he said.
Goodness, that was unexpected. Alice was gaping again. Liam had always been so secretive about his personal life.
She could sense his steely resolve. ‘I’m going to help you through this, Alice.’ He jumped to his feet. ‘But now I really must let you get some sleep.’
Alice rose, too. She wasn’t quite sure how to say goodbye; Liam had become so businesslike in the past few minutes. ‘Thank you for coming.’
He was flipping open a cell-phone. ‘I’ll just call a cab.’
‘Don’t you have a car yet?’ She couldn’t help asking this after Shana’s dark mutterings about the story in the paper.
His face turned blank. ‘No, I don’t need one.’
Given everything that had transpired this evening, it wasn’t the moment to start quizzing Liam about why he didn’t drive. But as he left her that night, dropping a light kiss on her forehead before heading outside to wait for the taxi, she realised that for all his involvement in her life, there was still a great deal she didn’t know about the man.
Over the following weekend Alice cleared her desk and on Monday morning she began transforming her spare bedroom into a home office. She already had a laptop and a beautiful English oak desk that she’d had since the days when she still lived with her parents. Now she made space on the bookshelves for files, set a row of green glass tortoises on the window-sill, shopped for a cork board, a filing cabinet, a cordless phone and a new leafy pot plant to brighten the room.
Lunch was a mug of tomato soup, and an apple—for the baby.
But she was so keen to start work that she munched this at her desk. She was munching when the phone rang.
‘Well done.’
‘Is that you, Liam?’ A piece of apple slid a little too quickly down her throat. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You’ve just secured the long-term future of Kanga Tours.’
‘I’ve what?’
‘You’ve impressed the hell out of our most important potential investor—Kenny Toh from Asia-Pacific Investments.’
‘Oh, Mr Toh. Yes, I remember him. He was in the office last week with his wife and daughter, on their way home to Singapore, but I didn’t know he was from Asia-Pacific.’
‘Apparently he did a little spying—came in with his family and posed as a tourist. And you provided him with exceptional customer service, attention to detail, courtesy, cultural awareness and professionalism.’
‘Is that what he said?’
‘Yes, just now, in an email.’
‘Are you sure it was me?’
‘Yes, he was very specific and he wants you to look after his family’s bookings when they come back for a holiday. You’ve no idea what this means to me, Alice. Asia-Pacific is huge and I really need their backing. I spent half my time in Sydney looking after Kenny, but he was still lukewarm when he left. Wasn’t promising anything.’
‘But he’s definitely come on board now?’
‘The contract documents for an investment agreement will be in the Sydney office tomorrow.’
‘Well, that’s terrific. Congratulations.’
‘The congratulations are all yours. I owe this to you.’
‘Well…I’m pleased,’ she said, glad Liam couldn’t see how broadly she was grinning.
Liam was grinning at his desk too, but his expression sobered when Dennis Ericson marched pompously through his doorway.
‘Right, Conway, I want to have a word with you.’
Leaning back in his chair, Liam met his employee with a level gaze. ‘I’m pleased to see you’ve taken advantage of my open-door policy, Dennis.’
‘Well, I suspect you’re planning to sack me anyhow, so I can risk speaking my mind.’
‘You’d better take a seat.’
Dennis looked a little taken aback, but he sat and squared his shoulders. ‘I hope you understand what a stupid, lousy thing you’ve done.’
Liam’s right eyebrow