‘Sorry. Couldn’t help it.’
‘In that case, I won’t tell you the rest of my checklist. You’d probably crack up entirely.’
‘You could be right, there. So I’ll save up the rest of your checklist till a later date. Now, I think we should finish up here and get back to work.’
HARRIET SIGHED AS she sat back down at her desk and turned on her computer. She hadn’t wanted to go back to work; back to reality. She’d been enjoying having coffee with Alex, despite her many faux pas. She hadn’t really minded his laughing at her checklist, which she now appreciated was rather funny. Whilst it did have some merit, such strategies simply didn’t work out in real life, just like those silly matchmaking forms they made you filled in on online dating sites.
Most women ended up marrying men they met through work, Harriet accepted, thinking of her other married girlfriends. Actually, all her girlfriends were married, a thought which was rather depressing. Harriet was well aware that marriage and motherhood wasn’t the only pathway to happiness and fulfilment in life, but it was her chosen pathway. That and a career. Yes, she wanted to have it all, which was possibly where she was going wrong. Having it all suddenly seemed beyond her grasp. This time next year, she’d be hitting thirty. After thirty, finding a husband became more difficult; all the good ones were already snapped up.
Even ordinary men like Dwayne weren’t exactly thick on the ground. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so quick to dump him. Maybe she should have ignored his failings and accepted him for the imperfect specimen he was...
Harriet was pondering this conundrum when Alex strode out of his office and perched his far too perfect body on the corner of her thankfully large desk.
‘A couple of things I forgot to tell you this morning,’ he said as he hitched his right knee up into a more comfortable position, indicating he was staying put for a while. ‘First, I want you to book me a flight to Milan, arriving on the twenty-ninth of July.’
‘Milan?’ she echoed, forgetting that it wasn’t a PA’s job to question her boss, just to obey.
‘Yes. Milan, Italy. One of my best friends from Oxford is getting married on the thirty-first. I’ve been ordered to be there two days before the actual wedding so that I can be attired suitably for my job as best man. The other best man obviously fears I might show up in jeans and a T-shirt.’
Harriet blinked her astonishment at such a ludicrous idea. The night they’d attended that fundraising dinner back in March, Alex had walked into the hotel ballroom wearing a magnificent black tux. He’d quite literally taken her breath away.
‘How ridiculous,’ she scoffed. ‘You are one of the best-dressed men I’ve ever met.’
‘You haven’t seen me when I’m slumming it. Jeremy has.’
‘Jeremy?’
‘The other best man and possibly the best-dressed rake in all of London.’
Harriet’s eyes widened. ‘Your best friend is a rake?’
‘Birds of a feather flock together, you know.’
‘You’re not a rake,’ she defended. ‘You just pick the wrong girls to date. The reason they never last is that you get bored with them.’
* * *
Alex stared at Harriet and thought how right she was. He did get bored with the women he dated. But that was exactly what made them safe. They never touched him with any depth of feeling, never moved his soul. Leaving them behind was so damned easy.
The truth hit that he wasn’t unhappy with his life so much, but he was bored. Bored with dating silly young girls. Bored with never having a decent conversation with a woman.
He hadn’t been bored having coffee with Harriet this morning. He’d been alternately annoyed, then angry, then amused and, yes, aroused. A whole gamut of emotions. He hadn’t been able to settle back down to work afterwards; he’d been looking for any reason to come out and talk to her again. Having Harriet book that flight for him had just been an excuse. He could quite easily have done it himself.
I’m not going to be able to resist this attraction, Alex finally conceded, no matter what the danger. He suspected she would not reject him; the sexual chemistry which had sprung up today was not all on his side. Alex had noticed her pique when the brunette in the café had flirted with him.
He still hesitated to ask her out on a regular date, sensing that it was too soon for such a move. Clearly, she was still hurting over the break-up with Dwayne. On top of that, she was his PA, one of the many reasons she’d given to explain why she would never fall in love with him. Not that he wanted her love, just her body. If truth be told, he didn’t want Harry to be his next girlfriend. He just wanted to have an affair with her. A strictly sexual affair.
He should have been disgusted with himself. But Alex soothed his conscience by reassuring himself that he would never hurt Harry. He could give her pleasure and fun, something which he suspected had been in short supply in her life for some time.
The only problem was finding a way to achieve his aims without offending her.
An idea struck, one which would sound perfectly reasonable but which would give him the opportunity to act upon his feelings away from the office. Of course, there was always the risk that Harry would still reject his advances. And, yes, she might even be offended by them. Alex suspected she was a stickler for propriety in the workplace. But it was a risk he was prepared to take. It had been a long time since he’d lived on the edge, so to speak, and it excited him. She excited him.
His eyes met with hers, his gaze intense as he searched her face for a sign that he’d been right about her body language when they’d been having coffee together. Alex was gratified when a faint flush bloomed in her cheeks.
‘My having to go to Italy for days on end couldn’t have come at a worse time,’ he said, schooling his own face into a concerned mask. ‘I need to be continually hands-on with that golfing estate if it’s going to be up and running by Christmas. Someone has to be up there every week to crack the whip. While I’m away, that person will have to be you, Harry.’
‘Me?’ she squawked.
‘Yes, you,’ he insisted. ‘I’ve heard you over the phone to our contractors when they’ve been giving us grief. You are one tough cookie when you want to be.’
‘But doesn’t that job already have a foreman in charge?’
‘Yes, but even the best foreman can get slack when he’s working that far from the boss. If I hadn’t been driving up there on a regular basis, we’d be even further behind than we are. I don’t want any more delays.’
‘Right,’ she said, still looking a bit hesitant.
‘I thought we could drive up there this Friday, stay overnight, then drive back on the Saturday. We’ll stay overnight. And not in some dreary motel, either. Book us a two-bedroomed apartment at a five-star resort in Coffs Harbour. That’s only a half-hour drive from the golf course. Somewhere near the ocean, with a balcony and a sea view. And make sure they have a decent restaurant. In fact, we might stay another night, then drive back on the Sunday. You deserve a break after what you’ve been through.’
HARRIET DIDN’T KNOW what to say. She had travelled with Alex only once before. To the Gold Coast, to meet with some Japanese billionaires who’d been staying there at the Hotel Versace and who were potential clients for his new golf resort. But they’d travelled by plane and she’d taken a taxi to the airport by herself. She’d also stayed in a totally separate hotel room. The thought of staying with her way-too-sexy boss in an apartment—for possibly two nights—made