‘But how can he work in this mess?’ she asked.
‘Very well indeed,’ the man himself ground out, making Carolyn flinch as he came in with aggressive strides. ‘Why on earth did you bring her in here, Nora? You know I——’
‘It’s my fault,’ Carolyn broke in hurriedly, bringing a look of relief to the secretary’s instantly stricken face. ‘You told me to wait for you in your office and I naturally assumed...’
Her voice died when she noticed he was frowning at her again. After several excruciating seconds, he tore his eyes away and threw his secretary a withering look. ‘Never bring anyone in here unless I’m present, Nora,’ he snapped. ‘Do I make myself clear?’
The secretary practically quivered in her sensible brogues. ‘Yes, Mr Slater,’ she said, and fled.
‘She’s fairly new,’ he muttered once she’d closed the door. ‘Doesn’t know the ropes yet.’
Maybe you should give her one to hang herself with, Carolyn thought crossly, infuriated at the way he’d spoken to the poor woman.
He strode round behind his desk and began shuffling the papers on it into a still untidy bundle. All of a sudden he sighed and looked up, shocking Carolyn when an amazingly engaging smile spread across his previously scowling face.
‘I guess I was a bit rough on the old dear,’ he said with a rueful chuckle. ‘Do you think she’ll quit on me?’
Not if you smile at her like that every once in a while, came her treacherous and shattering thought.
Carolyn’s stomach fluttered then tightened, the implications of which did not escape her. ‘I have no idea,’ she said stiffly, wanting to look away but unable to.
I’m physically attracted to him, she was thinking with appalled horror.
He nodded, his smile turning wry. ‘It’s just that on one occasion I had a whole month’s work ruined by having something spilt on them. Then a previous secretary of mine let a slick smooth-talking salesman type come in to supposedly wait for me, and while he was in here he photographed a whole heap of my house plans and sold them to some very unscrupulous builders.’
‘How very upsetting for you,’ Carolyn said with a betraying lack of sympathy.
His quite beautiful brown eyes narrowed perceptibly. ‘Tell me, Miss Thornton, I get the feeling we’ve met before. Am I right?’
Carolyn swallowed the enormous lump that was filling her throat.
‘Yes,’ she said simply, merely because she was incapable of elaboration at that point in time.
‘I thought so.’ A brief look of satisfaction passed over his face before it turned into a frown. ‘Yet the name Thornton means nothing to me. Your father is the first Thornton I’ve ever met.’
‘Stepfather,’ she corrected in a strangled tone. ‘My name isn’t Thornton.’
‘Aah, yes... My mistake. But... wasn’t Miss Thornton the name you gave Nora?’
Puzzled brown eyes narrowed some more and a small shiver ran through her. He walked round the desk and cleared a spot on the edge, perching there barely an arm’s length from her. He put an elbow on one knee and leant forward, chin resting in his hand. It brought his face much closer to hers. Suddenly, her eyes were on his mouth and she began thinking how sensually full his bottom lip was.
‘Care to explain the reason for the deception?’ he probed softly.
Her eyes must have revealed something of her inner turmoil, or perhaps it was the way she physically shrank back into the chair to remove herself from his suffocating nearness, for he stiffened and straightened, his expression worried now. ‘I’m not going to like your reason, am I?’ he announced with dry intuition.
‘No,’ she rasped.
‘Out with it, then,’ he said brusquely, sliding off the desk and returning to stand behind his desk, hands on hips. ‘I like to take bad medicine in quick doses.’
‘Very well.’ She had herself under control again now, disgust at her sexual response to this man finding inner steel with a vengeance. How could you? her conscience kept screaming at her. How could you?
‘My name’s McKensie,’ she said with an icily controlled fury. ‘Carolyn McKensie... If you don’t remember me, I’m sure you must remember my mother. Her name’s Isabel McKensie, though it changed last Thursday to Isabel Thornton.’
CHAPTER THREE
IF SHE’D been expecting him to blush guiltily, or show shock, she would have been bitterly disappointed. As it was, Carolyn did expect a little more reaction than she got.
He merely kept looking at her for a few seconds, that faint frown back on his face. Then he bent to scoop his chair under his knees, sinking into it with a sigh. ‘Awkward,’ he murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
‘Is that all you’ve got to say?’ she flung at him in simmering outrage. ‘Just awkward?’
He eyed her closely till she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. ‘What else would you like me to say?’
She dragged in a deep breath and took the plunge. ‘I’m not going to beat around the bush, Vaughan. I know what really happened between you and Mum. Not that Mum told me. She never speaks of that time in her life any more. But I saw you both... together... the night before you left. I came home early from ballet rehearsals because there was a bomb scare in the hall. You were...’
She gulped, then raced on, her voice a few decibels higher. ‘Well, let’s just say neither of you noticed me standing in the doorway of the living room. I left again in a hurry. I also overheard part of the argument you had with Mum the next day after she told you she loved you. No, please don’t say anything. I don’t wish to discuss the past or to apportion blame or pass judgements. But you must appreciate that I don’t want you seeing my mother again, under any circumstances. I want your word that when Julian and my mother come back from their trip in two months’ time you’ll avoid meeting her at all costs, because I——’
‘Oh don’t be so bloody melodramatic!’ he cut in forcibly. ‘This all happened ten years ago, for God’s sake. An eternity! I’m not going to do any such thing as run and hide from Isabel. OK, so I agree our first meeting might be a little embarrassing, but let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill.’
Carolyn could only sit and stare at him.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘Is there something here I don’t know?’
It finally dawned on her that he just didn’t feel any guilt at all over her mother. To him, having love affairs was as natural as breathing. Women came and women went. Clearly he never lost a night’s sleep over their demise and he expected them to be the same. Vaughan Slater was on a different moral wavelength from her and nothing would ever change that.
But she had to try to make him see her point of view.
‘My mother loved you,’ she said shakily.
‘No,’ he denied. ‘She didn’t.’
Carolyn’s frustration was acute. ‘How can you say that?’ Good God, she had heard her mother quite clearly, telling the wretched creature, begging him not to leave her. Her broken voice had torn Carolyn so much that she had run away and hidden in her bedroom, not coming out till she’d heard Vaughan leave a couple of hours later.
‘Because it’s true,’ he insisted harshly. ‘And your mother damn well knew it too. She wanted sex, that’s all, then afterwards she tried calling it love to soothe her conscience.’
‘Her conscience!’
‘That’s right. If you think it was me who was doing the seducing, then think