‘Thank you, Peta, for brightening up my evening. You look truly beautiful.’
Peta was saved answering by his driver opening her door. She climbed out speedily, turning only at the last minute to smile weakly at her boss. The compliment was late, yet it made more of an impact because of it. Her fingers trembled as she put the key in the lock, and the car didn’t move until she had safely closed the door behind her.
CHAPTER THREE
ANDREAS pondered his problem. He could, of course, get another girl from the agency, but how many was that now? And Nikos had liked none of them. There had to be another answer. He drank cup after cup of black coffee until finally a solution came to him. It put a smile on his face as he showered and got ready for work, and he was impatient for Peta to arrive.
When she did he called her straight into his office. Andreas Papadakis didn’t believe in beating around the bush. If he had something to say he came straight out with it. In his opinion it was the only way.
‘Miss James…Peta, I need your help.’
He saw the way she frowned, pulling her delicately shaped brows together. He saw the way she bit her lower lip, which she always did when she wasn’t sure what to expect of him. Gone was the sexy dress of last night, replaced by one of her smart suits. The dress had amazed him. He had never imagined her wearing anything so revealing. Amazed and pleased him. He’d heard a few whispered comments about what a lucky so-and-so he was to have an assistant like that. And it had certainly made him look at her in a new light.
Not that he hadn’t already realised her potential. She was an exceedingly attractive girl who never made the most of her assets. That gorgeous auburn hair, for instance, was always tied uncompromisingly back, and those lovely dark blue eyes were never shown off to their advantage. Last night, when she’d carefully made them up, he had felt their full impact for the first time. The things they’d done to him were best forgotten. She was such an ice-cold maiden that if she’d read the ignoble thoughts in his mind she would have very likely walked out of her job. And now he needed her more than ever.
‘Can you think of anyone in the secretarial pool who’d do your job as well as you?’
‘You’re sacking me?’ The colour faded from her cheeks, her eyes widening in dismay.
‘Of course not,’ he assured her quickly. ‘I have something else in mind.’
Her chin lifted in another of her delightful habits and she looked at him warily.
‘I need someone to look after Nikos.’
‘Your son?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re asking me. Why?’
‘Because his current nanny’s handed in her notice.’
Her incredibly blue eyes flashed her indignance and he wondered why the hell he hadn’t noticed long before now how gorgeous they were. They were enough to send any man crazy.
‘I’m a qualified secretary, not a child-minder,’ she retorted. ‘I don’t want to spend my life looking after someone else’s children.’
Andreas hadn’t expected her to say yes straight away, he had known she would need a lot of persuading, but she sounded so adamant that he feared she would never agree. Perhaps he ought to give her no choice, either she take the job or… No, if he did that he’d risk losing out both ways. ‘You hate having to leave Ben every day, don’t you?’ he asked quietly.
She nodded. ‘More than you’ll ever know.’
‘Oh, I do; you underestimate me. This is the perfect solution. It will solve your dilemma as well as mine. You and Ben would move into my house, you’d be there for him whenever he needed you, and you could also do some work for me from home.’ To him it was the simplest solution, the obvious one.
The look on her face spoke a thousand words. ‘Mr Papadakis, living with you is the last thing I want. Ben and I are happy as we are. I love my little house. Why should I give it up? And, for that matter, where’s your wife? Why can’t she bring up her own child?’
Andreas’s eyes shadowed as his thoughts raced back to the blackest days of his life. ‘My wife’s dead,’ he told her bluntly, ‘and you wouldn’t need to give up your house; you could let it.’ He saw the uncertainty in her eyes and pressed home his faint advantage. ‘Sit down. Think again about the benefits.’
Reluctantly she perched herself on the edge of a chair, crossing her legs so that her skirt rode up. Not for the first time he felt a stirring in his loins. But that sort of thing had to be put to one side. He needed her to feel safe, not threatened. He hadn’t failed to notice in the car last night how she had drawn back from him when he kissed her cheek. Someone, somewhere along the line, had destroyed her trust in men, and he had no intention of adding to it.
‘I desperately need someone to look after Nikos. You know how much time I put in here—the poor little guy hardly sees me.’
‘So why don’t you work from home?’
It was a logical question and he grimaced. ‘I’d love to, but if I’m to turn this company around I need to keep my finger on the pulse.’
‘How long would you expect me to do the job?’
‘I don’t know. Until I find someone else, perhaps, maybe even indefinitely if it works as well as I hope it will. You won’t lose out, I assure you.’
‘What if Nikos doesn’t like me?’
‘He will.’ How could he not? Peta James was good with children, he’d seen that for himself. She was also exciting and provocative. He’d noticed at the conference how easily she talked to other people. In fact she had seemed far more at ease with some of them than with him. He hadn’t liked it. He’d fancied her that night more than he’d ever expected.
‘In fact,’ he went on, ‘it might be a good idea to take you to see him before we finally sign the deal.’
‘Sign the deal?’ she repeated with a frown.
‘Figuratively speaking, of course,’ he said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Smiling didn’t come easy to him these days. There were too many pressures, too much to do, too many sad memories, and Nikos was the one who suffered. If he could persuade Peta to take this job it would be the best thing that had happened to his son in a long time. It might not be so good for him, here, because she was incredibly efficient, but his son’s well-being meant more to him than anything else.
‘We’ll finish work early tonight and I’ll take you to meet him,’ he said decisively.
‘I can’t,’ Peta said with the now familiar toss of her head. ‘Ben’s playing football. I try never to miss a match.’
It was Andreas’s turn to frown. ‘Bronwen leaves at the end of the week. I need to have everything sorted well before then. How about after the football match? Bring Ben with you. It will be good for the boys to meet.’
‘How old is Nikos?’ she asked, and he could see her mind turning over the situation.
‘Seven,’ he answered, ‘though he’s very grown-up for his age.’
‘Does he have a Scalextric?’
‘You bet.’
‘Then I’m sure Ben will get on with him,’ she said with a faint smile.
And the way she said it reassured him that her answer would ultimately be yes.
Peta’s mind was in a whirl. Her first instinct had been to turn Andreas down. She still might, because would it be wise, feeling as she did about him? It was scary the way he’d managed to set her feelings alight last night. Scary and undesirable. She’d been