smile. ‘You’re so discreet that even your own personal life is a closed book! This is a nice apartment, by the way.’ He looked around them admiringly. ‘Very minimalistic,’ he approved. The bare wooden floors were adorned with brightly coloured scatter rugs rather than a carpet, and there was just a cream sofa, chair and bookcase in the sitting-room, which he could see from the hallway. ‘Very nice,’ he repeated slowly. ‘Perhaps I’m paying you too much.’ He eyed her with challenging amusement.
Kit had been reeling from his comment about her personal life being a closed book, but this comment about her apartment, coming so close on its heels, made her frown darkly. ‘I happen to share this apartment,’ she told him sharply. ‘And you certainly do not pay me too much!’
Marcus laughed, his teeth very white and even against his tanned skin, his eyes gleaming deeply blue. ‘I thought even you might have something to say about that,’ he responded.
‘Even me?’ she rejoined, wondering exactly what he had meant by that remark.
‘Well, as I’ve already said, you’ve worked for me for six months or so now, and I still know very little about you.’
And he wasn’t going to know anything about her either, if she had her way! Most of it was pretty boring, and what wasn’t boring was pretty damning—as far as Marcus was concerned, she intended her life should remain a closed book!
‘I see nothing wrong in that,’ she told him tartly. ‘The only things I know about your personal life would be better left unknown—’ She broke off abruptly, realising she had yet again overstepped the line she had drawn between them when she had first started working for him. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered, looking away.
Marcus eyed her assessingly. ‘No, you’re not,’ he said comfortably. ‘You said you share this apartment?’ he continued.
One of the things she most admired about this man was his intelligence—though she wasn’t quite so sure about that when it was directed towards her! She had thought he hadn’t paid any particular notice to her comment about sharing the apartment, but he had simply been saving his curiosity for the right moment. Like now.
‘Yes,’ she answered unhelpfully. ‘Now, what is it you want me to wear this weekend, if not my business clothes?’ She noted his own casual black denims and dark blue shirt open at the throat.
‘Anything but,’ he responded. ‘What you have on is okay—if you were going to pay a visit on an aged relative! And I’m sure those suits you wear to the office are very smart—’
‘But?’ Kit interjected guardedly, already stung by his comment about the cream linen suit she was wearing. Though the four dark suits that she usually wore to work were sensible, they were smart of their kind—and had been expensive too.
‘But they aren’t suitable for a summer weekend in the country,’ Marcus persisted unapologetically. ‘For instance, have you packed a bikini?’
‘Certainly not!’
‘Well, Desmond has a full-sized outdoor heated swimming pool. Plus a stable if you happen to ride—’
‘I don’t.’ Kit did her best to repress a shudder just at the thought of getting on a horse; they were truly magnificent creatures to look at—from a distance!—but too unpredictable for her taste. ‘I like to go for walks, though,’ she said lightly, starting to wonder if this weekend might not be fun, after all.
‘Then you’ll need a pair of walking boots, and so do I,’ Marcus informed her happily. ‘And a pair of jeans and some tops to relax in during the day, plus something a bit more glamorous for dinner in the evenings—’
‘Okay, okay.’ Kit held up her hands in self-defence. ‘I get the picture.’
‘Good.’ Marcus nodded his satisfaction. ‘Off you go and change, and repack your suitcase, then. I’ll just sit in here and look through your book collection while I’m waiting,’ he informed her arrogantly, before strolling into the sitting-room to do exactly that.
Kit stared after him frustratedly. She might, as she said, get the picture, but how on earth was she supposed to keep up the prim Miss McGuire role wearing denims—or worse!—a bikini?
CHAPTER THREE
‘THAT’S better!’ Marcus voiced his approval when Kit rejoined him in the sitting-room fifteen minutes later.
Fifteen agonizing minutes later. Kit simply hadn’t known what to do for the best once she was in her bedroom. If she did as Marcus asked, and dressed and behaved as casually as he was himself, wasn’t that going to make a nonsense of the working relationship she had gone to such lengths to establish the last six months? But on the other hand, if she didn’t fulfil her role as his PA, Marcus wasn’t going to think she was of much use to him, and maybe he’d decide, as he obviously had with Angie Dwyer, that she wasn’t working out too well.
Besides, as he had gone to great pains to point out, he had no designs upon her body!
Not sure whether she felt relieved, chagrined, or just plain disappointed about that, Kit had taken a quick inventory of her wardrobe and had picked out the clothing she thought might do for the occasion, without compromising herself too much. From the look on Marcus’s face as he looked at her now in a black tee shirt and fashionable fitted black trousers, he obviously approved of the transformation.
‘At least,’ he said as he slowly stood up, ‘the clothes are. Can’t you do something with your hair?’ He glowered at the severe style she still wore. ‘And the glasses?’ he added with exasperation. ‘Desmond is going to think my taste has turned to the studious!’
‘As opposed to dumb blondes!’ Kit was stung into retorting, the colour swiftly entering her cheeks as Marcus turned to look at her beneath lowered lids. ‘I’m so sorry!’ she gasped. ‘I really shouldn’t have said that. I just—You were being extremely personal about me, and so—’
‘You felt the freedom to be extremely personal about me, in return,’ Marcus drawled.
She grimaced. ‘Yes.’
‘Fair enough,’ he agreed.
Her eyes widened in surprise. She had expected a verbal setting-down, if nothing else. ‘It is?’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Although I wouldn’t advise you to do it too often!’
Kit stared at him for several seconds, and then she gave a laugh as she saw the glint in his dark blue eyes.
Marcus tilted his head as he looked at her consideringly. ‘Is that really how you see the women I’ve been involved with?’ he asked quizzically.
In truth, yes. Oh, they were beautiful enough, but Kit very much doubted that their conversation had run to much more than fashion and social chit chat. Not exactly scintillating to a man of Marcus’s intelligence. Although she very much doubted it was intellect that had attracted him to them!
‘Perhaps,’ she answered noncommittally. ‘Although I really don’t know them well enough to comment, do I?’
‘That doesn’t seem to have stopped you doing exactly that, anyway,’ Marcus pointed out dryly.
No,
