‘Conall O’Brien. Obviously you weren’t even aware that your boss and I had a meeting, were you? Care to explain why?’
Her head hurt at the relentless barrage of questions, but her pulse nearly careened to a halt like a car coming upon a sudden hairpin bend when he said his name. Conall O’Brien. The charismatic head of O’Brien and Stoughton Associates—premier architects with offices in London, Sydney and New York. Although Morgen had worked for the London office for just over a year now, she had never set eyes on the man himself. However, his awesome reputation preceded him.
It was well known that he took no prisoners and showed little leniency to anyone having personal problems—a fact that had been made abundantly clear to her already. He absolutely hated tardiness and expected one hundred and ten per cent from the people who worked for him. He mostly worked out of the New York office, and occasionally Sydney, but she had never known him to come to London in all that time—he had always sent a representative. How on earth could Derek have forgotten to brief her on something so important? His love for the bottle might have finally put both their jobs in jeopardy.
A single mother with a six-year-old daughter and a mortgage to pay, Morgen couldn’t afford to lose her job right now. Her day had started badly, because she’d been up all night nursing Neesha’s cold. Then falling asleep at her desk due to exhaustion—could this day get any worse? she wondered. While she was contemplating this, eyes the colour of a freezing Atlantic Ocean in a squall bored unmercifully into hers, and Morgen knew she had a long way to go to redeem herself in front of this man.
‘I know this doesn’t look good, but Mr Holden has been working terribly hard lately. Yesterday he definitely looked under the weather. I’m not surprised he isn’t in today.’
‘Never mind that. Why weren’t you aware that we had a meeting? Dammit, it was arranged only last week. Presumably you and your boss do communicate?’
To Morgen’s alarm he shrugged off his trench coat and threw it on a chair beside the window that reflected the impressive high-rise vista of the city of London. He was dressed from head to foot in bespoke tailoring that screamed quality and money. The suit was a deep dark blue with a very faint pinstripe, matched with a royal blue shirt and silk tie, and its wearer exuded the kind of power that mostly only those born to wealth and privilege could effortlessly carry off. Coupled with that watchful intelligence in those ‘I’m not missing a damn thing’ arctic blue eyes, and those intimidatingly broad shoulders, he clearly wasn’t a man to be trifled with. Though right now Morgen wasn’t trifling at all. She was fighting for her life in deadly earnest.
‘Of course we communicate. Derek—Mr Holden obviously meant to tell me to put it in the diary, but because he was so busy he unfortunately forgot. I can assure you it’s very unlike him, Mr O’Brien. Why don’t I pour you a cup of coffee and maybe send out for some food, if you’re hungry? And in the meantime I could ring Mr Holden at home and tell him you’re here. He could jump in a taxi and be here in about twenty minutes or so, I’m sure.’
‘From that comment I take it that he’s not exactly at death’s door, then?’
Feeling her face burn, Morgen dissembled. ‘I’m afraid I don’t have any details at present.’
‘So go get the coffee, then get me Holden on the phone—I’ll talk to him myself. Don’t worry about food—I’ve got a lunch appointment at one, so it will keep.’
Pulling out a chair from the wall, he dropped down into it opposite Morgen’s desk, his impressive frame all but dwarfing it. Yet she would swear there wasn’t so much as an ounce of superfluous flesh on that awesome physique. Intensely aware of every single thing about the man, she didn’t miss the yawn he swiftly suppressed or the faint look of weariness that briefly glimmered in those quick-witted blue eyes.
She couldn’t help but be relieved when she escaped from the room into Derek’s office, to pour some coffee from the percolator that was always kept on simmer. As far as Morgen was concerned the air around Conall O’Brien was far too rarefied for her liking, and she wondered how the people in his office coped with the man. When Conall said ‘jump’, did they all jump automatically? Probably…either that or risk being fired.
Crouching down in front of the cabinet where she kept the best crockery, only used when Derek was in conference with VIPs, Morgen cursed softly as several empty whisky bottles fell out onto the thick grey carpet and rolled towards her feet. As she quickly started to gather them up the door opened quietly behind her, and she found herself in the humiliating position of being caught red-handed.
‘Very unlike your boss to “forget” our appointment, you say, Miss McKenzie?’ His voice dripping with icy disdain, Conall fixed his unforgiving gaze on Morgen. ‘I guess if I had a belly full of whisky I’d be inclined to forget my commitments as well…wouldn’t you agree?’
Her startled green eyes widened as she glanced up at him, and her stomach turned decidedly queasy at the fact that poor Derek’s unhappy drinking problem was no longer exclusively their little secret. ‘If you’d—if you’d like to wait outside I’ll just get rid of these and make your coffee.’
‘Leave them.’
‘It’s all right. It will only take a minute, then I’ll—’
‘Leave the damn bottles, Miss McKenzie, and get that feckless boss of yours on the phone, pronto!’
Morgen’s knees were shaking as she got to her feet. Her lips pursed, she turned away from the accusing glare of a pair of wintry blue eyes and went to reach for the phone on Derek’s desk.
‘Wait a minute.’
‘What?’
‘On second thoughts, right now I need a caffeine fix more urgently than I need to tell your dear Mr Holden his services are no longer required.’
Her heart sinking, Morgen replaced the phone shakily back in its cream-coloured rest. ‘You don’t mean that.’
‘What?’ A briefly amused quirk of perfectly sculpted lips brought the first glimpse of a smile, but Morgen steeled herself against falling into such a trap. He wasn’t going to lure her into any sense of false security so easily. ‘You don’t believe I need a caffeine fix?’
‘It’s not that. I just—I mean, you can’t fire Derek! He’s a good man. Honestly…he’d do anything for anybody. His wife left him recently, and he hasn’t coped with it very well. I’ve no doubt he’ll turn things around, given the chance.’
‘Spoken like a loyal and true assistant. Is that all you do for your boss, Miss McKenzie? Help him in the office?’
The insinuation was so blatantly obvious that for a moment Morgen was dumbstruck. Then, with trembling hands, she drew the black lapels of her suit jacket together over her blouse and, with all the dignity she could muster, raised her gaze to look Mr High-and-Mighty O’Brien straight in the eye.
‘I don’t care for your crude implications, Mr O’Brien. If you knew Derek Holden then you’d know that he only had eyes for Nicky, his wife. And if you knew me then you’d also know that I make it an absolute rule never to get involved with anyone at work.’
‘Never?’ The brief smile suddenly became teasingly wider, revealing perfectly white teeth against his tan, and Morgen had to concentrate hard so that she could think.
Folding her arms across her chest, she deliberately didn’t smile back. How dared he? How bloody well dared he make casual sexual insinuations when she was in fear of losing her job as well as her boss? But then she guessed that not many people would dare stand up to this man without fearing the consequences. Well, perhaps he’d met his match in her. Because, as much as she needed this job—and God only knew how much—she wasn’t about to cower in a corner because this man had the power to intimidate.
‘Absolutely never, Mr O’Brien. Now, if you’d care to wait