me?’
‘The job as Blaise West’s personal assistant. You haven’t got a hope. Kate knows someone at Head Office and they said all the other applicants had qualifications coming out of their ears. It was a fluke you got an interview in the first place if you ask me.’
‘I didn’t.’ Kim smiled sweetly. ‘But thanks for the concern.’
‘No, well, just don’t get your hopes up, that’s all.’
Her manner had clearly deflated the other girl. She again glanced at Kate, who, just as the lift came to a halt, said coldly, ‘Personally I’d prefer to avoid the humiliation of an interview where I was clearly out of my depth.’
‘Then it’s fortunate you didn’t get that far when you applied, isn’t it?’ Kim’s heart was pounding like a sledgehammer at the overt aggressiveness but it didn’t show. As the lift doors opened she turned to Kate’s crony, keeping her voice pleasant as she said, ‘Anyway, don’t worry about me. Mr West phoned last night and offered me the job, so all’s well that ends well.’
She sailed out of the lift, knowing she would remember their expressions for the rest of her life. Blaise West was right. Such moments were sweet.
Kim had to keep reminding herself of that over the weekend as she oscillated between moments of euphoria and blind, unadulterated panic. She hadn’t hyped anything up, she told herself umpteen times an hour. Blaise West knew exactly what he was getting. She definitely didn’t have qualifications coming out of her ears, just a fairly respectable 2:1 degree in business studies and some years of experience. She had been honest and straightforward, even to the point of telling him she had taken business studies at university because at the time she hadn’t had a clue what she wanted to so with her life and it seemed a safe option.
‘Safe option?’ he’d drawled. ‘I don’t see you as someone who would settle for the safe option.’
She had thought about that for some moments before she’d said, ‘That was seven years ago.’
‘Ah…’ Just one syllable but she’d had the feeling he’d understood more than she would have liked.
Her mother had been cautiously enthusiastic when she’d told her parents the news over Sunday lunch. ‘That’s nice, dear, but don’t let the job become the be-all and end-all,’ she’d said carefully. Kim knew exactly what she meant. You came so close to being a normal woman and having a husband and family; don’t let it all be for nothing.
Her father was great. ‘Well done, sweetheart,’ he’d said bracingly. ‘I knew you’d get it and this’ll be the start of something good, you mark my words. I feel it in my bones.’
Whether her father was right or not, on Sunday night—when her bed was piled high with clothes and she still couldn’t come to a decision as to what to wear the next day—she told herself enough was enough. No more panicking, no more dissecting, no more thinking.
She hung the clothes away, tidied her shoes and bags and climbed into bed. She would pick the first clothes that came to hand in the morning and be done with it.
She was free of Kate Campion and her waspish companions; life could only get better.
At eight-thirty the next morning Kim was reminding herself of this was she stood in Pat’s office, listening to Blaise’s secretary outlining the normal procedure that occurred before the rest of the office staff arrived.
Blaise was already in his office. Pat admitted she didn’t really know what time their boss got to work, but in the five years she’d been working for him she had never arrived before Blaise once. He was a self-confessed workaholic, she ventured, but he never asked more of any employee than he was prepared to give himself.
All very commendable, Kim thought wryly, but at this precise moment that wasn’t particularly comforting.
At twenty to nine the interconnecting door opened and Blaise appeared. By now Kim was feeling sick with nerves. The feeling of being out of her depth wasn’t helped as she took in the dark man leaning nonchalantly in the doorway. He seemed even bigger and tougher than she remembered. More attractive too. He was wearing a blue shirt the same colour as his eyes and his tie was hanging loose, the first two or three buttons of his shirt undone and showing the beginnings of dark body hair.
The laser-sharp gaze swept over her. ‘Hi.’ It was casual, easy. ‘Good journey this morning, I hope?’
‘Fine, thank you.’
He nodded. ‘Let’s hope it lasts. I seem to remember Pat thinking she could commute from somewhere or other but within six months she was living in the city. Right, Pat?’
Pregnant and contented, Pat smiled serenely. ‘And a month later I met John and within four months we were married.’
‘Whirlwind courtship, I remember.’ The piercingly blue eyes switched to Kim. ‘I trust history isn’t going to repeat itself?’
Kim occasionally had flashes of her father’s quick wit. Straight-faced, she said, ‘I doubt it; I’m sure John is very happy with Pat.’
Blaise stared at her for a moment before throwing his head back and chuckling. ‘You’ll do,’ he said, smiling, and disappeared back into his office.
Which was just as well. The brief glimpse of the man behind the tycoon had made Kim’s knees weak. He was gorgeous, she told herself with something akin to horror, but she couldn’t fall for her boss. Not on day one.
Whether something of what she was feeling showed in her face she wasn’t sure, but the next moment Pat said quietly, ‘He’s not an easy man to work for but I wouldn’t have missed a minute and I think you’ll feel like that too. He’s the most charismatic man I’ve ever met and has a succession of girlfriends that change with the wind. They only have to get a tiny bit clingy and they’re history—he’s strictly a love ’em and leave ’em type. I thought I was in love with him for a little while after I first started but I quickly realised it was a hundred times better to work for him than go out with him; he’d be murder to date. The only female who will ever lay claim to Blaise’s heart is his daughter—he’s devoted to her. Now, let’s get back to those files. As I was saying…’
The rest of the day flew by. At the end of it Kim staggered to the train and sat in dumb senselessness all the way home. After a hot bath and a cold meat salad she fell into bed incredibly early and slept solidly until the alarm went off the next morning. The next four days were a repeat of the first and by the weekend she felt she couldn’t have survived one more day without a break.
After sleeping most of Saturday and Sunday away, she went in to work on Monday morning feeling rested and prepared for the challenge. She fared slightly better that second week, and by the third had got a handle on most things. By the fourth week she knew she had gone up several gears and was coping fine. She was still exhausted most evenings but Pat said that went with the territory.
It was just as well she had acclimatised to life at Blaise’s pace fairly quickly, because at the end of the fourth week Pat began to feel unwell. Within twenty-four hours there was a risk she could lose the babies. This didn’t materialise, but the end result of the scare was that she was hospitalised and would remain virtually flat on her back for the rest of the pregnancy.
When Kim went to visit her with a bunch of flowers and several
