that, she walked towards the door, the wicked red dress swirling around her gorgeous legs.
* * *
Dropping two phones into her bag, Avery Scott kicked off her shoes and curled up on the soft sofa in the private dressing room of the exclusive boutique. ‘You’ll have to excuse me, but I’ve done enough of these parties to know that I’ll have blisters by ten o’clock if I don’t rest now. This is my last chance to sit down so I’m taking it. So—spill. While we’re waiting for them to bring clothes, tell me all.’
‘Do you seriously have time for this?’ Trying to ease the pain in her feet, Emma flopped down next to her, thinking how nice it was to have female company. Her life was so frantic she’d let her friendships slip. Apart from the occasional exchange at the water cooler, she rarely chatted with anyone. ‘Those shoes were gorgeous but it was a bit like walking round with my feet in the jaws of a crocodile. It’s really kind of you to help me shop, but don’t you have a million other things you should be doing before tonight?’
‘I employ good people and I delegate. Now forget the shoes and tell me how that red dress looked.’
‘It looked great. Too great. Lucas acted as if I’d chosen it on purpose to try and seduce him, which was pretty unfair given that I had nothing to do with it.’
‘So did you? Seduce him, I mean.’
‘No, of course not.’
‘Ah.’ Avery’s beautiful eyes sparkled. ‘Want to talk about it?’
‘No. Let’s just say that tonight I’m wearing a grey sack.’ She was joking about it, but inside it didn’t feel funny. It felt hopeless. It didn’t matter what she did, things between them were never going to be the same again. They couldn’t undo what they’d done. ‘I work for him and I really need the job and now I’ve...I’ve messed it up.’
‘How have you messed it up?’
Emma rubbed her fingers over her aching head. ‘It’s not really something I should even be talking about. Just make sure I pick out a boring dress so that I blend into the background tonight.’
Avery shuddered. ‘I’ve never intentionally picked a “boring dress” in my life. I’m not sure I could even if I tried and I don’t intend to try. Tell me what is going on.’
Emma was surprised by how badly she wanted to confide. ‘You don’t need to hear my problems.’
‘Yes, I do. I’m fantastic with other people’s problems. It’s just my own I can’t solve. And you’re not the first woman to sleep with her boss.’
Emma gave a groan but didn’t bother denying it. ‘It’s such a cliché.’ And before she could stop herself she was blurting it all out. Everything. From the loneliness of living alone in London in the week, to the row with her sister and sex on the rug. The only thing she didn’t mention was Lucas’s daughter or the fact that his father had never acknowledged him.
That information was private. His secret, not hers to tell.
‘Wow.’ Effortlessly elegant, Avery uncurled her legs and sat up. ‘You’ve led this life driven by duty and responsibility and then suddenly on one snowy night it’s all blown apart. That’s so romantic.’
‘It’s not romantic. It’s embarrassing and inconvenient. And my life hasn’t been driven by duty.’ Emma shifted uncomfortably. ‘It isn’t like that. I adore Jamie.’
‘I never said you didn’t adore him, but that doesn’t change the fact you’ve always put him first. And you’re so different from Lucas’s usual type of woman.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘You’re the home and hearth type that Lucas usually avoids like a non-alcoholic cocktail.’ She gave a slow smile. ‘And you spent the night together. How interesting.’
‘It’s not interesting. In fact I think it’s fair to say he was appalled. He thought it meant I would automatically fall in love with him.’
‘Whereas you were already in love with him.’
‘No, absolutely not! I don’t love him.’
‘Probably why you slept with him,’ Avery said helpfully, ignoring Emma’s denial. ‘Let’s just hope he doesn’t figure that one out. So—you’ve freaked him out. Lucas Jackson is Mr Cool so I’m looking forward to meeting the freaked-out version.’
‘He is so freaked out he spent all yesterday making sure I knew it was never going to happen again. And he was really angry about the whole thing.’
‘Definitely freaked out,’ Avery murmured, ‘which would explain his reaction to the red dress.’
‘No, that was just because he thought it was too frivolous for work.’
‘You think so?’ Avery gave a cat-like smile and pulled her phone out of her purse as it rang. ‘Excuse me for one moment while I get this—’
While Avery solved some problem that involved lighting and fireworks, Emma brooded on the grim reality of her situation. She wasn’t in love with him. It would be madness to fall in love with a man who would never love her back. Even greater madness to be in love with her boss.
After his initial response to the dress, Lucas had returned to his detached, slightly intimidating self. Their evening had been starchy and formal. Their whole relationship had changed. They couldn’t go backwards and it seemed they couldn’t go forwards either.
‘Right—where were we? Ah, the dress—’ Avery came off the phone and looked at her. ‘You were saying that he found it incredibly sexy.’
‘I didn’t say that. I said he was angry.’
‘Presumably because he found you attractive and didn’t want to.’
‘I’ve no idea. I work for him and I want to carry on working for him. But I have to stop feeling this way.’
Avery shrugged. ‘A man like Lucas Jackson comes along once in a lifetime. My advice? Take the sex and get a different job. Problem solved.’
Emma gaped at her. ‘I could never pick sex over job security. You don’t understand—’
‘I’m the child of a single mother. A strong single mother, so believe me I do understand about the importance of job security. And I’m not really suggesting that you throw in a job just for sex, but it seems to me that this isn’t the job for you anyway. You need to find something closer to home so that you can have a life. Maybe this is the trigger you need to make you do that. You’ve had far too much responsibility and not enough fun but we’re going to fix that.’
A job closer to home? ‘Even if I were prepared to look for another job it wouldn’t make a difference. He isn’t interested in a relationship. And I made a total fool of myself last night because when he invited me to dinner, just for a moment I thought he meant dinner, if you know what I mean.’ She thumped her forehead with her fist and Avery looked amused.
‘Yes, I know exactly what you mean. So the first thing you have to do is find out whether or not Lucas
