‘Genista!’
He held out his hand and she had no option but to place her own in it. In an immaculately tailored pale grey mohair suit and a fine silk shirt he looked very different from the man in black shirt and jeans who had pursued her down that narrow alleyway and kissed her so fiercely against her will, but he and this cool imposing stranger whom Bob was introducing as Luke Ferguson, head of the L.F.N. Corporation, were undeniably one and the same person.
She met his eyes as bravely as she could, and saw instantly that his shock had been as great as hers. Greg had known who he was, she remembered bitterly, and had no doubt enjoyed watching her put her career at risk. Well, he could fire her if he liked. In fact it would probably be better if he did, because there was no way she could continue to work for Computerstore if it meant that by doing so it would bring her into contact with him!
‘So you’re Bob’s assistant?’
There was an odd inflection to the way he said the words; a look in his eyes that sent a frisson of alarm feathering down Genista’s spine. Her chin lifted automatically, her eyes defying him to say what he was thinking.
‘Do I get the impression you two already know one another?’ Bob commented, obviously puzzled. ‘But, Gen, this morning …’
‘I didn’t realise that Mr Ferguson was to be our new boss,’ she interrupted coolly before Bob could complete his sentence. Faint colour burned up under her skin as she remembered the way she had deliberately set out to humiliate Luke the previous evening. Most of the other guests at the party had been on the staff of Computerstore. It wouldn’t be long before the news of their new boss’s identity got round; no doubt her colleagues were already taking bets on how long it would be before she got the sack. She would hand in her notice, she decided wildly. The moment Luke had gone she would tell Bob. The phone rang, cutting across her thoughts, and she reached for the receiver automatically, only to find Luke’s lean fingers already clamped round it. He lifted it to his ear, his expression sardonic as he passed it over to her.
‘For you. One of the hazards of employing a beautiful woman, I suppose—her phone never stops ringing!’
Genista could have told him that she never had private calls at the office, but instead she took the receiver from it him. The call was from the sales manager of the garage from whom she had ordered her new car. She had been promised delivery several weeks perviously, and the car had not materialised. Now it had, and he wanted to know when she wanted to pick it up. She bit her lip as she hung up. Luke had turned aside to talk to Jilly, who, despite her engaged state, was sparkling prettily up at him, and under cover of their conversation managed to attract Bob’s attention.
‘Are you doing anything at lunchtime?’ she asked him quietly, but obviously not quietly enough. Luke Ferguson must have ears like a bat, she thought resentfully, as he turned smoothly from Jilly back to Bob. ‘I’m sorry, Bob, I forgot to mention it, but I’ve arranged for you to have lunch with my personal assistant. He wants to talk over several plans we have for streamlining some of your systems, and I’m afraid we can’t put it off because he’s due to fly north tomorrow to Aberdeen for talks with one of the oil companies. There could be a good contract in it for Computerstore, so I don’t want to delay these talks. Sorry if it means putting off something important.’
He wasn’t sorry at all, Genista thought angrily. She was quite sure he had just concocted that lunch just to obstruct her.
‘Oh, not at all,’ Bob said easily. ‘It wasn’t something that can’t wait, was it, Gen? What did you want?’ he teased with a grin. ‘Surely not my advice on a new dress?’
Genista shook her head, wondering a little at the anger which suddenly seemed to burn in the dark grey eyes watching her so closely. ‘It’ll keep. I’ll tell you about it later.’ She had wanted Bob to go with her when she went to pick up her car. She was a little nervous about the thought of driving it for the first time in the lunchtime traffic, but she could ring the garage when he and Luke had gone and put them off until tomorrow.
‘I don’t suppose I would do in substitution?’ Luke drawled, thoroughly disconcerting her. ‘Since I’ve deprived you of Bob’s company, offering my own instead seems a pretty fair recompense.’
‘Do you think so?’ Genista knew that Bob was frowning over her uncharacteristic behaviour. Jilly’s mouth had fallen wide open, and Genista suspected that once they were alone the other girl would deliver another lecture, but right now she did not care.
‘You’ll have to forgive me, Mr Ferguson,’ she added with a sweet smile, and the rather euphoric feeling that she was about to burn her boats with a vengenance, ‘but I’m afraid there’s simply no way you could stand in for Bob.’
It was a good exit line and she made the most of it, picking up her bag and walking swiftly towards the door before anyone else could add anything. It was lunchtime anyway, and she needed to be somewhere on her own to give herself time to recover from the shock of discovering that the new owner of the firm she worked for was none other than the man she had so grossly humiliated the previous evening. Damn Greg! He might have warned her! No doubt he had found it highly amusing. She should have remembered that he enjoyed playing tricks like that, and right from the start there had been something about Luke which had set him apart from the normal run of Greg’s friends, despite his casual attire. Greg could be as vindictive as the most shallow-minded women on occasions, and it was Genista’s misfortune that she had made her contempt of him too plain, too often.
She couldn’t eat any lunch. She picked at a sandwich and drank half a cup of coffee before returning to the office. She had expected to find it deserted, but someone was standing by her desk, and her heart missed a beat as she recognised Luke’s darkly handsome features. He had been bending over studying something, but as though he sensed her presence he stood up, his palm open, something glittering metallically on it.
‘I thought I’d better not give you this while any one else was around,’ he said softly, ‘Although perhaps I’d be doing him a favour I doubt he’d continue to support you for much longer, once he knew that he wasn’t the only one with a key to your rather expensive apartment. How does he manage it?’ His eyes rested contemptuously on Genista’s expensive separates. ‘You don’t strike me as a girl with exactly modest tastes—good clothes, an apartment in a luxurious block; discreetly expensive jewellery, in fact all the trappings of a young lady of some means. And he has a wife and child to keep as well, but then I suppose when it comes to a woman as beauteful as you a man will always find the necessary, won’t he, Genista?’
Genista was too stunned to speak. For a moment she thought she must have misunderstood. Luke couldn’t be suggesting that she was Bob’s mistress, and worse still, that he was actually keeping her? But he was, as he soon made very plain.
‘If you’re thinking of denying it, don’t bother. Greg told me all about you, but as he kept referring to you as “Jen”, I thought your name was Jennifer. I ought to have known better. I’m renowned for my astute perception; that’s how I got where I am today. I knew the first moment I saw you you weren’t an ordinary run-of-the-mill girl, but I allowed my desire to cloud my judgment. No wonder you wouldn’t let me take you home! You’re a shrewd little bitch, aren’t you? Why did you encourage me in the first place, Genista, or can I guess? Perhaps you’d heard that I’m a very rich man, and you got ambitious. If a man like Bob Norman will keep you so comfortably, think what I could give you? But you got cold feet, didn’t you? You decided it might be better to be safe than sorry; after all, you’d no guarantee that I would give you anything, and you might lose Bob. You should have had more courage, my dear,’ he told her softly. ‘The way I wanted you last night. I’d have given you anything. However, the cold light of morning brings back sanity, so perhaps you made the right decision after all. Does Bob know about last night?’
‘What