sensuality in the fullness of his bottom lip and the very deep blue of his eyes. Yes, there was no doubt that if he set out to be charming Alexander Blair could charm anyone.
Except her! She wouldn’t ever be charmed by that insufferable—–
‘Hey, sleepyhead!’ a voice broke into her thoughts. ‘I’ve spoken to you twice and you haven’t heard a word I’ve said.’
Lauri looked ruefully at Diane, one of her workmates in the typing pool. They had apparently been sharing the same mirror for the last five minutes or so as they tidied themselves before the start of the day, although Lauri had been unaware of it, her attention being solely on Alexander Blair. Drat the man!
‘Did you ask your aunt about Mr Blair?’ Diane was obviously repeating the question, her tone patient.
Lauri frowned at the mention of the man she had just discovered she disliked intensely. ‘Ask her what?’
Her friend sighed. ‘Whether he’s coming back today. The place has been dead without him this last month.’
As far as Lauri was concerned it could have remained dead, she could certainly have done without this morning’s incident. ‘He’s back,’ she told Diane firmly.
Her blue eyes widened. ‘He is?’
‘Mm. I just—I saw him in the car park just now.’ She didn’t want to tell anyone she had just made a nasty dent in his beautiful car. She would never live down such notoriety. And Jane would be furious.
‘How does he look?’ Diane asked eagerly as they walked down the corridor to their office.
‘Tanned,’ Lauri grimaced.
‘Well, of course he’s tanned, he’s been in America the last four weeks. What I meant is is he still as good-looking as ever, the sexy devil?’
‘I suppose so. And I thought he went to America to work, not to get himself a sun-tan,’ she added bitchily.
Diane gave her a teasing look. ‘Don’t tell me I’ve actually found someone who doesn’t think our boss is the dishiest male ever!’
‘You’ve found her—me,’ Lauri confirmed.
The other girl’s eyes widened. ‘Didn’t you think he was gorgeous?’ she gasped.
‘He was all right,’ Lauri admitted grudgingly.
‘All right!’ Diane sounded scandalised. ‘My God, girls,’ she addressed the other typists in the room, ‘meet someone who’s immune to the sexy Alexander.’
‘You can’t be!’
‘Surely not, Lauri!’
‘I think he’s lovely.’
‘His eyes are just mesmerising,’ someone else sighed.
Lauri let the outraged comments pass over her, unaffected by her colleagues’ obvious disbelief in her disinterest. ‘I suppose his eyes are quite fascinating,’ she admitted with remembered attraction. Deep blue eyes they had been, fringed by long dark lashes. Yes, they could be called mesmerising, very mesmerising, if they weren’t looking at you as if you were a particularly obnoxious insect that had wandered into his vicinity. How Jane could work in such close contact with him she just couldn’t imagine, although Jane had always maintained that he was a fair man to work for.
‘Big of you to admit it,’ Jeannie teased.
Lauri took the cover off her typewriter. ‘You can’t deny the truth. But looks aren’t everything.’
‘Don’t tell me looks don’t enter into you dating Daryl, because I just won’t believe it.’ Diane sat at the adjoining desk. ‘A big blond, muscular Canadian,’ she teased.
Lauri blushed. ‘He’s intelligent too,’ she defended the boy she had been dating the last couple of weeks, a Canadian of twenty who did temporary work to subsidise his travelling around the world. At the moment he was working in the Accounts Department here.
‘Oh, I’m glad about that,’ her friend laughed. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s really nice, very good-looking, but you must have noticed those looks before you ever found out what a nice person he is.’
‘Mm … I suppose so. But Alexander Blair doesn’t appear to me to be a nice person.’ Far from it!
‘That’s not what his girl-friends think.’
‘Doesn’t the fact that it’s girls, in the plural, tell you anything?’
Diane laughed. ‘Oh yes, it tells me something.’
‘I didn’t mean that!’ Lauri said impatiently.
‘I did,’ Diane laughed again.
‘I’m going to do some work,’ Lauri said crossly. ‘Before Carly starts chucking her weight about,’ she added mischievously.
‘I heard that,’ her supervisor called out, a young girl of twenty who ruled by friendly teamwork rather than by issuing orders.
Laui grinned before bending over her work, the subject of her not liking Alexander Blair forgotten for the moment. At least, by the other girls it was; she was still seething at his high-handedness.
She met Daryl for lunch as usual, and they went to the local Wimpy bar, where Lauri bit hungrily into her delicious hamburger. ‘Mm, I needed that,’ she sat back with a grin. ‘Is there something wrong with yours?’ she noticed he didn’t appear to be enjoying it.
‘It’s all right.’ His Canadian drawl was very noticeable. ‘I’m just not hungry,’ he pushed his plate away.
Lauri frowned, her green eyes troubled. ‘What is it, Daryl? What’s wrong?’
‘You know what’s wrong,’ he told her moodily. ‘Although you don’t seem to give a damn. I go to Ireland at the end of the week and—–’
‘And I’m not going with you,’ she said patiently. ‘I’ve told you before, I don’t want to go.’
‘But if you don’t come with me I won’t see you again.’
‘You don’t have to leave, Daryl,’ she pointed out reasonably. ‘You can always stay here.’
He sighed. ‘My job at Blair’s finishes on Friday. Besides, I’ve already got my fare to Ireland booked, it was booked long before I even met you.’
‘I’m not going with you, Daryl, so you might as well stop sulking and eat your lunch.’
His hand moved to caress hers as it lay on her denim-clad thigh. ‘I can’t think of food when I’m going to be parted from you at the end of the week.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ she laughed lightly. ‘I’ve only known you a couple of weeks, we hardly know one another well enough to—to—–’
‘I’m not asking for more
