Peta groaned inwardly; surely he wasn’t expecting her to remain here all day?
Then he strode into her office. ‘After that you’d better go home and spend some time with your boy.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, wondering at his sudden generosity. ‘And if you don’t mind me saying so, you work far too hard yourself. Mr Brown didn’t used to do the hours you do.’
‘That’s why the company was running downhill fast,’ he retorted.
‘What do you mean, downhill?’ Peta asked quickly. ‘It was extremely successful.’ She’d always counted herself lucky to be working for such a flourishing firm.
Andreas Papadakis shook his head. ‘That’s the impression he wanted you to have. He didn’t want unhappy employees, but a few more months and you’d have all been out of work.’
She looked at him with a disbelieving frown. ‘Is that true?’
‘Of course it’s damn well true. I bought a sinking ship, Miss James, it’s what I do. But I sure as hell make sure they never capsize.’
Peta supposed she ought to have known from the content of his correspondence that there were problems, except that she’d thought he was simply sweeping clean all the old methods and installing new ones of his own. He’d drummed up an awful lot of new business as well. She had privately accused him of rubbing his hands at all the extra money he was generating, not realising for one second that if he hadn’t she’d have lost her job. It looked as if she’d wrong-footed him every step of the way.
Only once in the days that followed did he ask her to work late. ‘I appreciate that you want to spend time with your son,’ he said, ‘but this really is important.’
How could she refuse when he asked her like that? But when on Friday afternoon he said that he wanted her to attend a conference with him on the following Monday and that it would mean a very late night she looked at him sharply. ‘I don’t think I can do that.’
She had never in the whole of Ben’s life let anyone else bath him and put him to bed. It was a pleasure she looked forward to. It was their special time of day; it eased the guilt of her leaving him while she went to work. Marnie would be in her element, and Ben would probably enjoy it too if the truth were know because he adored her as much as the older woman adored him, but Peta knew that she would feel truly awful.
In any case, what conference went on into the early hours? He had to be joking. ‘I can’t promise anything,’ she said.
‘Can’t or won’t?’ he demanded, mouth grim all of a sudden. ‘I can easily find someone to step into your job, Miss James.’
This was the first time in ages that she had seen a flash of his old self. She ought to have known that his understanding behaviour was too good to last. ‘I doubt it,’ she replied, adding with great daring, ‘No one else has been able to put up with your impossible demands.’
Fierce black brows jutted over narrowed eyes. ‘Is that why you think my other PAs left?’
She nodded. ‘It’s what everyone believes.’
He perched himself on the edge of her desk, too near for comfort, causing an alarming flurry of her senses. They were becoming too frequent for her own good. She was joining the others, seeing him as a sexually exciting male instead of an impossible boss.
‘Then I think I should put the matter straight,’ he announced. ‘They didn’t leave because they couldn’t work with me. I fired them because of their inadequacies.’
Peta shot him a flashing blue glance. ‘Maybe what you call inadequacies and what we girls consider to be unfair requests are two different things.’
His eyes narrowed still further until they were no more than two glittering slits. ‘I think I’ve been more than reasonable, but if you think it unfair that I occasionally ask you to work extra hours, for which I might add you are handsomely paid, then I suggest you put your coat on and walk, too.’
Peta couldn’t believe she had landed herself in this situation. She really oughtn’t to have spoken to him like that. He was her employer after all. ‘It’s all right, I’ll do it,’ she said hastily.
‘Good,’ he clipped, and returned to his office.
She was walking out through the door at the end of the day, her thoughts already running ahead to her darling son and how she could make it up to him, when Andreas Papadakis’s voice arrested her.
‘The conference starts at two on Monday. Wear your smartest suit, Miss James, and it might be advisable to pack a cocktail dress for the evening.’
Warning bells rang in her head. She lurched round and stared at him. ‘A cocktail dress?’
‘That’s right.’
Something was seriously wrong here, she decided as she headed towards her car. It sounded as though he needed a partner, not a personal assistant. And she wasn’t sure that she wanted to be that person. The trouble was she had already promised.
CHAPTER TWO
ON SUNDAY afternoon Peta took Ben to the park to feed the ducks. She’d wound down from her hard week at work and was feeling happy and relaxed, enjoying Ben’s company—until, on their return, she saw Andreas Papadakis’s sleek black Mercedes parked outside her cottage. Her heart-rate increased a thousandfold and she couldn’t even begin to think why he was here.
‘Wow!’ exclaimed her son. ‘Whose is that?’
There was no time to answer because, as they approached, her employer levered his long frame out of the car and leaned nonchalantly against it, arms folded, legs crossed, a faint smile softening his all-too-often austere features. His casual pose emphasised his dynamic sexuality and Peta felt a tightening of her muscles. Her smile in response was little more than a grimace.
It was the first time she’d seen him in anything other than a collar and tie. In a blue thin-knit half-sleeved shirt, grey chinos and loafers he looked far less formidable. But infinitely more dangerous! She was scared of the sensations he managed to arouse in her these days.
Ben broke the awkward silence. ‘You’re my mummy’s boss, aren’t you? Thank you for my Scalextric; I love it. Me and Mummy put it together. Would you like to come and play?’
Andreas Papadakis smiled briefly. ‘Some other time, perhaps. I need to talk to your mother.’
Somehow Peta couldn’t see this indomitable man getting down on his knees and playing racing cars with an eight-year-old boy. ‘Mr Papadakis is here on business, Ben. He hasn’t time to play,’ she consoled him, at the same time wondering exactly why he had come calling.
She unlocked the door and Ben ran straight up to his room, and as her boss was standing right behind her she had no alternative but to invite him in, even though she would have preferred to talk outside.
It wasn’t really a cottage, although it went under that name. It was a small, old town house on the outskirts of Southampton. She would have liked something grander but it was all she could afford, and it was home. It was clean and tidy and the furniture she’d renovated suited the house. She was happy here.
In her sitting room she turned to face him. ‘This is quite a surprise, Mr Papadakis. Is the conference off tomorrow? Is that what you’ve come to tell me?’
‘No, indeed,’ he stated emphatically. ‘I simply wanted to make sure that you’d come prepared. You looked somewhat shocked when I suggested a cocktail dress.’
‘I was,’ she claimed. ‘I still am. You make it sound as though we’re going to a party. And I—’
‘It’s no party, I assure you,’ he interjected swiftly.
‘Then why the