‘I’ll work later this evening to make up for it!’ she came back heatedly, hands clenched at her sides. The extended lunch break she was requesting really wasn’t up for negotiation—it was too important for that!
Besides, in the last six months she hadn’t been off sick once, had never asked for any time off other than her allowed holiday. As far as she was concerned Marcus was being totally unreasonable.
‘That won’t be necessary,’ he told her icily.
It might not be necessary, but she was going to do it anyway. No matter what the outcome of her lunchtime appointment…
It wasn’t a meeting she was looking forward to, and that was without Marcus being so difficult about it.
‘Kit?’ Marcus’s voice softened slightly, his gaze searching now on the paleness of her face.
She swallowed hard, straightening defensively. ‘Will that be all, Mr Maitland?’
‘No, it will not be all, damn it!’ he barked once more, taking a determined step towards her to grasp her by her upper arms, once again taking in her businesslike appearance with obvious displeasure. ‘You look totally ridiculous in that get-up.’
Her mouth tightened at his deliberately insulting tone. ‘Thank you!’
‘You know very well what I mean!’
‘Do I?’ Kit eyed him challengingly, very aware that she was playing with fire, but unable, at that moment—later might be a different matter!—to resist.
Besides, the mere touch of his hands, even when he was bad-tempered like this, had rekindled her yearning to be in his arms, to know the thrill of his lips on hers, to lose herself in the passion the two of them seemed to ignite in each other.
Some of that yearning must have shown in her eyes, because Marcus, giving a groan low in this throat, bent his head and his lips moved to possess hers.
Kit returned the kiss as all of the emotions of the last few days washed over her, losing herself in the fierceness of the desire that flared so intensely between them. Marcus’s arms were about her now as he moulded the length of her body against his, making her fully aware of his arousal.
He felt so good to touch, his back hard and muscled against her restlessly caressing hands beneath his suit jacket, his warmth heating her body, her breasts aching heavily, her nipples hard and ultra-sensitive against his chest.
She had been waiting for this man all her life, it seemed; that young girl on the rocks in her father’s painting, who’d dreamed of the man she might one day fall in love with, who during the years since had waited for that man to appear—only to have him do so now, in the guise of Marcus Maitland.
How she loved this man! How she longed to just lie down beside him and make love with him, to become lost in the—
Kit looked up at Marcus unseeing as she suddenly found herself thrust away from him. ‘What—?’
‘Come in!’ Marcus called out, his gaze not leaving hers.
Someone—Lewis, it seemed as the other man opened the door and entered the office—had knocked on the door, a knock Kit hadn’t heard in her total awareness of Marcus. Her cheeks blushed scarlet as she saw the knowing look harden Marcus’s eyes.
‘I have the papers here I thought you should look at,’ Lewis told Marcus slowly, obviously sensing the tension in the room as he looked at the two of them questioningly. ‘But if you’re busy, I can always come back later…?’ He seemed aware that he had interrupted something—although, hopefully, not actually what that was!
‘I was just leaving, anyway,’ Kit assured him, deliberately avoiding meeting Marcus’s eyes as she turned away.
‘Kit…?’ he called out as she reached the open door.
She stiffened, turning slowly back to look at him, wishing he would just let her escape.
‘That extended lunch break you requested…’
‘Yes?’ she replied warily, very aware of Lewis as he studied the papers in his hand in an effort to try looking as if he weren’t listening to their conversation.
‘It’s fine with me,’ Marcus told her.
She drew in a sharp breath, wanting to make a cutting reply back, but unwilling to add to Lewis’s curiosity by doing so. ‘Thank you,’ she accepted tersely, at last able to escape to the relative sanctuary of her own office.
She had known it was going to be difficult to come in today and just continue working with Marcus, as if nothing had changed between them over the weekend. That was one of the reasons—despite what Marcus might have thought!—she had returned to her guise as efficient, prim Miss McGuire. But the fact that Marcus had kissed her in the way that he had showed he had no intention of forgetting the intimacy they had shared over the weekend. How much longer, Kit wondered miserably, would she be able to continue working for him…?
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘KIT… isn’t it?’
Kit stared at the woman sitting behind the wide oak desk, hoping the trembling of her legs wasn’t visible as she stood on the thickly carpeted floor in front of that desk. The last thing she wanted was to appear in the least lacking in self-confidence.
‘You asked to see me,’ Catherine Grainger reminded at Kit’s continued silence.
Yes, she had. She had telephoned Catherine Grainger’s office first thing this morning; lunchtime was the only time the other woman was available to see her. But now that Kit was here she had no idea what she was going to say to her!
Her hands were clammy, she felt alternately hot and then cold—and she seemed to have forgotten how to talk!
The older woman gave an impatient sigh. ‘I’m sure my secretary has already explained to you that I’m very busy today, so if you have something to say then I really wish you would get on with it—’
‘My name is Catherine McGuire!’ The words burst out starkly before Kit even had time to formulate them in her mind.
Catherine Grainger remained unmoved, her face hard and unyielding. ‘I believe my secretary did mention that was the name of my one o’clock appointment, yes.’
‘Doesn’t that name mean anything to you?’
Catherine Grainger lifted elegant shoulders in dismissal. ‘Should it?’ she returned coolly.
Kit drew in a sharp breath, her face deathly pale now, her hands clenched tightly into fists at her sides. ‘I’m your granddaughter!’
Catherine Grainger continued to look at her, her expression impassive, not showing so much as a flicker of her eyelids to demonstrate that what Kit had said meant anything to her.
Kit stared back, still amazed that this woman, so cold, so hard, could possibly be her mother’s mother!
She had always known who her grandmother was, of course, had been told the truth by her parents at a very young age, after she had asked them why she didn’t have grandparents like the other children at school. But actually coming face to face with her the previous weekend, knowing exactly who and what she was, had been something of a shock.
A shock, now she had been told the truth, Catherine Grainger didn’t seem to share…
Catherine gave a gesture of acknowledgement. ‘Yes,’ she agreed.
It wasn’t a question, or an exclamation, just a simple statement of fact!
Kit was startled. ‘You already knew…?’
‘I guessed. You look remarkably like your mother did at this age,’ she explained unemotionally.
‘You haven’t even seen my mother since she was nineteen!’ Kit exclaimed, stunned beyond measure