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 her feel...what, exactly?
‘Panic’ came close to describing her reaction.
Before today, Harriet would have been supremely confident that Alex would never make a move on her. But things were different now. Lisa was past history and so was Dwayne. A new intimacy had sprung up between them, first when Alex had hugged her, and then when they’d had coffee together, an inevitable result once you started opening up about your private life to another person, even when that person was your boss. Harriet knew that men found her attractive. Why should Alex be any different?
And then there was her own silly self. She’d always been blindly attracted to men who were tall, handsome and, yes, super-successful, a failing which she’d worked hard to conquer. But she was in a highly vulnerable state at the moment and, when she faced it, when it came to tall, handsome and super-successful men, Alex was at the top of the heap. To stay with him in an apartment for two nights was asking for trouble.
She didn’t need any more trouble in her life. She did, however, need her job; the mortgage on her Bondi apartment barely manageable now that she didn’t have anyone to help with the payments. Having an affair with the boss was a sure way to lose her job. Harriet had been around long enough to know how such relationships ended.
‘Thank you for your kind offer,’ she said in her best businesslike voice. ‘But I can’t stay away for two nights. Emily is getting back from Bali on Saturday and we’re having a catch-up lunch on Sunday.’ This was a bald-faced lie. Emily was away for a further two months. Harriet knew, however, that she needed a decent excuse to get out of this. Alex didn’t like being told no.
‘Pity,’ he muttered, then shrugged his shoulders, his indifference indicating he hadn’t had any dastardly secret agenda when he’d suggested a two-night stay. He was just trying to be nice to her again. Truly, she was letting herself get carried away here, thinking he had seduction on his mind, a prospect which she had found perversely appealing and painfully flattering. Oh, dear... She seriously wished he’d get off the corner of her desk. Or alternatively stop swinging his foot like that. He was making her way too aware of his body, his very hunky, handsome male body.
Harriet
