Her Best Laid Plans

‘Wait, back up,’ Amanda didn’t understand. Mikey and Janey were engaged? Since when? And then, as she stood opposite him, feeling like the only one not in on the joke, what Jared was saying slowly started to sink in, ‘This is why you offered me the job!’ The flush of humiliation was swift and all-encompassing. ‘I couldn’t possibly get a decent enough job to move into a place of my own! You think I need looking after? Like some child? When it’s been me who’s taken care of Mikey for years?’ Amanda had never felt more stupid in all her twenty-four years. That the two of them had so obviously been discussing what to do about her, when, actually she’d been developing her own plans, thank you very much.

Jared closed the distance between them. Looking deep into her eyes, he blew what little cool she had left about her straight out of the water. ‘Amanda, Mikey hasn’t needed looking after for a long time. You know that. You know that’s not why you stay. You stay because you’re too afrai—’

‘Don’t!’ Her voice thick with emotion, her self-preservation had her laying trembling fingertips against his lips. Because if he came right out and said it, if he actually called her a coward, she’d lose it. ‘Seriously, you do not get to call on me for help and then call me out for the manner in which I provide it and follow it up by questioning my motives for sticking by my only family.’

As he opened his mouth to speak she pressed harder against his incredible soft lips. His hand came up to grasp hold of her wrist. His eyes bored into hers and she felt his thumb brush against the sensitive pulse point of her wrist. Electricity zinged through her even as she wondered how it could be that she was standing outside on a bitter cold day arguing with her friend. Her friend. who stood in front of her, so in control, whilst everything about her interaction with him since she’d walked into the restaurant had so clearly and irrevocably got away from her.

Her pulse spiked at the continued stroke of his thumb and as his eyes lowered to concentrate on her lips it went haywire. ‘Jared?’

The broken whisper of his name on her lips brought him out of his trance-like state and immediately he dropped her hand and stepped backwards. ‘You are hereby released from all “Code Red” duty.’

Before she could form words he turned and walked back inside to where Nora was standing centre-stage of the restaurant’s plate-glass window doing a reasonable goldfish impression.

Staring at his retreating back, Amanda swore she could hear those damn shutters of his face slamming shut, and a thousand locks being deployed for good measure.

Confusion coursed through her, giving rise to a whole host of elemental emotions.

Jared had sounded as though he’d made some sort of resolution for removing her from more than “Code Red” duty. Interestingly, with the feel of his lips on hers still lingering, she was tempted to tell him that resolutions were made for breaking.

But what with them being friends, though, and what with her promising herself that this year was all about concentrating on her plan, she definitely shouldn’t do that.

Should she?

Chapter Two

‘What in hell do you think you were doing kissing Jared?’

At the sound of her brother’s voice, Amanda pushed the front door shut and slowly turned to face him. It had been hours since the whole knock-her-on-her-ass kiss, followed by the, who-are-you-to-call-me-on-my-deepest-fear ‘thing’ and truth be told, she was still in a state of shock.

And now it appeared Jared had followed The Best Friend Code to the letter and confessed to Mikey.

Unreasonably annoyed all over again, she really would have preferred Jared to have ignored his sense of honour in favour of returning any one of her phone calls.

Sinking back against the solid wood of the door, she needed the warmth of the room to permeate and help soothe her rattled nerves. ‘Mikey, I’m cold and I’m tired, do we really have to get into this now?’ She couldn’t quite look at him and in the interests of hiding the guilt and confusion she knew had to be shining out of her like a beacon, her eyes strayed to the winter coat slung casually over the banister. ‘Hey, how did my coat get there?’

‘How do you think? Jared dropped it off when he came to tell me my sister had taken leave of her senses.’

‘That wasn’t quite how I put it,’ Jared declared as he walked out of the kitchen and came to stand in the hallway.

Heat radiated from Amanda’s cheeks. Tempted to fight fire with fire she wanted to demand he tell her exactly how he had put it. But under the spell of his quiet regard, she had second, third and fourth thoughts. Crazily, she wondered if she was limber enough to vault the banister, slip on her coat and high-tail it out of the house before Mikey had a chance to whizz his wheelchair around and stop her.

Her need to escape must have shown in her face, because her brother directed a ‘Don’t even think about it,’ at her before looking from her to Jared and back again. Swearing softly under his breath, he said, ‘You two obviously have some talking to do,’ and wheeled himself off down the hallway.

Talk? Interesting concept. Since Jared had walked away from her she’d walked, stomped and marched for miles; all the while wavering between needing to apologise for her part in whatever it was that had gone on between them earlier and, wanting to instigate round two of whatever it was that had gone on between them earlier. In the end, knowing it had all started with the kiss, the kiss she’d initiated, she’d sucked it up and left countless messages of apology. Now, facing him, that incredible kiss was front and centre and all her stupid tongue seemed capable of doing was cleaving to the roof of her mouth.

‘I bought pastries from Luigi’s,’ Jared offered up patiently. ‘Coffee would seem appropriate.’

Slowly, she pushed away from the door to pass him and head into the kitchen. Jared reached for her at the last moment and swung her gently to face him. ‘I got your messages. Don’t worry about it. Seriously,’ he pressed when she turned remorseful eyes on him. ‘I was in a weird place and I was way too hard on you. It didn’t even register until later that you hadn’t known about Mikey and Janey getting engaged.’

For some reason his trying to let her off the hook for kissing him brought an ache to her chest. She settled on the other hurt. ‘I can’t believe he hasn’t told me,’ she whispered.

‘It’s not what you’re thinking.’ He ran a reassuring hand gently down her arm. She looked down at his hand at her wrist, felt a strong rush of need and hated herself for feeling it. She saw Jared frown uncomfortably at his action, before removing his hand and gesturing for her to precede him into the kitchen. ‘Mikey knows you’ll be happy for him, he just thought you’d been acting a little differently lately—thought maybe he should wait a while.’

The interviews.

She had been acting differently. Or at least trying to. Ever since she’d opened her eyes and really looked at her brother’s new life.

For Mikey, she’d thought ahead.

She’d taken a good hard look at her own life and fought the apprehension that came with putting plans into place.

She’d been hoping the fact that it was New Year, when everyone made plans and lists and promises, would make it look as though changing things wasn’t a big deal for her but she obviously hadn’t succeeded. She was going to have to try harder.

She set her bag down on a kitchen counter top and reached over to retrieve a couple of small plates from the old oak dresser. Setting mugs out while coffee brewed, she asked, ‘What have you done with your sister?’

‘She’s at a hotel. She was tired after her flight.’

Amanda wanted to know why Nora wasn’t sharing his four-bedroom penthouse apartment, but instead of prying she turned and walked over to the island unit where he’d pulled out a bar stool to sit down on. She passed him a plate, a mug of coffee and shoved the pastry box towards him before pulling out her own seat at the opposite end of the unit.

‘She seems nice,’ she ventured.

Jared shrugged and said nothing for a moment. ‘So, what was your interview for?’

Amanda nibbled away at her pastry and pretended to have great interest in stirring her coffee. In the same way it appeared Jared was disinclined to talk about his sister, she felt disinclined to talk about her interview.

Glancing up she caught him focusing on her lips. Heat flooded her, warming her better than any hot drink could have done and in a bid to steer their focus elsewhere, she said, ‘Tell me about Nora and I’ll tell you about my interview.’

Jared smiled briefly and lowered his mug to the granite work surface. ‘There’s nothing much to tell. Apart from the obvious shock of seeing her,’ he paused, as if debating how much he should say. ‘We’ve not been in touch for some years.’

Baffled, Amanda wondered how and why a person went about losing contact with their family. But one look at his face and, okay, she knew she was going to have to leave it alone, lest she spook him back into silence.

‘Your interview?’ he prompted.

She reached out to trace a sparkle in the granite. ‘There’s nothing much to tell,’ she mimicked and then sighed, ‘It was for a PA at an art gallery, but I think I was over-reaching somewhat.’

‘You don’t think you might be doing yourself a bit of a disservice?’

‘Jared, I work three days a week as a barista,’ she looked at him as if that explained everything and when he merely politely stared back at her she added, ‘I never re-started my degree after Mikey’s rehabilitation,’ she looked down at her hands. ‘I’ve coasted. You practically said so yourself earlier.’

‘I should never have said anything. I was … out of sorts. I’m slightly concerned you feel unworthy of something I have every faith you can get, though. Why do you think I offered you a job in the first place?’

Her throat clogged with instant emotion and it seemed a good time to go back to tracing the fascinating patterns in the work surface. ‘You offered me a job because of Mikey.’

‘I offered you a job because I’ve seen what you’ve achieved around this place. I’ve seen you juggle working part time with a difficult renovation and what has seemed like endless filling out of insurance forms and grants for Mikey’s rehabilitation. I offered you a job because you seemed ready,’ he paused. ‘But maybe I was wrong.’

‘You? Wrong? Not possible!’ She looked into knowing eyes and felt her shoulders slump. ‘I need to show Mikey I can do this.’

‘The only person you need to prove anything to—is yourself.’

‘Sure. That’s what I meant.’ She took a deep breath and fixed him with her best can-do expression. ‘It’s why you can relax about having to offer me employment. The interview this morning was just a blip on an otherwise fail-safe plan.’

‘Wait, you have a plan? You do?’

‘What? It’s not beyond the realms of possibility.’

‘It kind of is, actually. You have many skills, but putting together a Life Plan?’ Jared gave a mock shudder and Amanda regretted seating herself so far away because it meant landing a swift left hook was currently outside her physical scope. But, darn it, he was right. Again. She knew she gave every impression of abhorring making plans. Life had this way of sneaking up and upsetting any she made, so it made total sense to her to avoid making them.

Avoid disappointment. Avoid upset.

Going with the flow was a perfectly acceptable lifestyle choice and, perversely, made her feel in control. Of course, if she could just get Life to stop throwing her curveballs in the first place she’d be more willing to make nice with The Planning Gremlins.

‘Maybe I should take a look at this plan for you, check it’s not really more of a list, because,’ Jared broke off and glanced towards her bag, suddenly emitting noise. ‘You want to answer your phone?’

Amanda shook her head. So much for hoping he’d politely ignore the fact that her phone was ringing with all the subtlety of the clanging chimes of doom.

‘It could be about your interview.’

It was definitely going to be about the interview. Her luck said it was the agency ringing her with a ‘no’. A word she suddenly didn’t want to hear. Not after owning up to her plan. Not if it would make her look as if she’d fallen at the first hurdle. Not if it made her wish she’d accepted Jared’s job offer in the first place.

A job offer that was now completely off the table.

On account of the whole sizzling kissing thing.

With leaden feet she crossed to her bag and rummaged for her phone. Answering it she turned her back on Jared and listened to the agency telling her the gallery owner had decided to go with someone with more experience.

As she felt her head drop she determinedly set her shoulders. This was not the end of the world. This was a new year, a new her. So she’d line up some more interviews. Pursue her plan.

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

She returned her phone to her bag and turned around.

‘It was a “no”?’ Jared asked.

She nodded.

‘Their loss,’ he commiserated, giving her all of ten seconds to sit back down at the table before getting up and walking around to her side of the unit and saying in a low voice, ‘You could always revisit my proposition.’

Her body instantly responded to the chocolate pitch of his voice. ‘Pr-proposition?’ she questioned lamely.

‘Mmmn.’ He smiled down at her, plucked the mugs from the table and dunked them both in the kitchen sink along with the pastry dishes. He turned on the taps and Amanda wished mightily for a cold shower.

‘Accept my job offer and come to London with me.’

‘London?’ Amanda gaped. ‘London?’ Glad his back was to her, she tried to get a hold of her runaway thoughts, realising that for an instant she had committed the cardinal sin of associating Jared with an altogether different kind of proposition. Bad idea, she scolded herself. Very. Bad. Idea.

‘I need to go back to London and I need a Personal Assistant to accompany me.’

‘Oh. Okay. Let me just pack a bag,’ she said crossing her eyes comically behind him, ‘wait, what shall we tell Janey—that she’s taken one too many coffee breaks and you’re through with her?’ She slid off the stool to come and stand next to him.

‘I need Janey here keeping an eye on things. And she and Mikey could do with the time together.’

Amanda picked up a mug and a dishtowel. ‘So what’s in London?’ she asked.

For a moment, when Jared simply stared at his hands submerged in the soapy water, she thought he wasn’t going to respond.

When he did, his words were dragged from deep within. ‘A sick father and a failing family business.’

Amanda put the mug down and stretched her hand out in an automatic offer of comfort. ‘This is what your sister came to tell you?’ She felt the corded sinew of his forearm harden beneath her fingers.

‘It’s-’

‘Complicated?’ she helped, sure his hands had formed fists beneath the water’s surface.

He turned to look at her. He was absolutely still and yet she could sense something coursing through him—that edge of danger; a flash of fire in otherwise cool, clear green eyes.

‘Complicated is an understatement.’ He did that quiet thinking thing and from his expression she knew he was weighing up the consequences of revealing something to her. ‘I’m sure my sister would be only too happy to provide me with one of her assistants but I’d rather take someone I know with me; someone without ulterior motive.’

Unbidden she saw herself tasting his lips, and flustered, felt the ridiculous need for him to clarify what he was asking of her. ‘And I’d be in London as your Personal Assistant?’

‘Amanda, you could do the job standing on your head.’

She stared up at him, gripping the kitchen roll top as casually as she could manage because suddenly his utter belief in her had her wanting to take the risk and go with him. He was that sure of her? It had her wanting to repay his compliment by offering whatever support he needed.

She swallowed. ‘How exactly would you go about telling your sister that in one day I’ve gone from “sleeping” with you to working for you?’

‘It’s none of her business.’

Right. That shut down that then. She was going to have to actually come out and say it wasn’t she? ‘Speaking of,’ she moved a hand between them, ‘you know, the—’ she couldn’t say it.

‘—Kiss?’ His eyes moved to her lips and she had to fight an insane urge to moisten them with the tip of the tongue. ‘Forget about it.’ He withdrew his hands from the water and reached for the dishtowel she was still holding. ‘Are you going to let fear rule your life, then?’

‘What do you mean?’ she spluttered, pinned under his searching gaze.

‘I know you’re capable of more than you have let your life become. You say you’re ready to change your life. Prove it.’

That was exactly what she was trying to do. She just needed one person to take a chance on her, to believe she could do a job without having recent experience to back it up. It slowly dawned on her that there was someone standing right in front of her completely willing to take that risk. And, actually, how awesome would it be to prove to him she was worth taking a chance on? Purely in a work capacity, of course.

‘Mikey’s going to think your moving out is a lot less a knee-jerk reaction to change if you do it sensibly and with thought,’ Jared added. ‘Like dipping your toe in the water with a temporary assignment that will give you money towards a place of your own, a reference you can take to your next position. What’s to think about anyway?’ he cajoled, ‘Use that go-with-the-flow mentality of yours. Snap up the opportunity and let it open some doors for you. I’ll even help you come up with a proper plan for after.’

Oh he was good; this man practically had a degree in planning. So good that as her mind began processing the permutations, she realised she was genuinely considering his offer. Suddenly all she could see were benefits. Like the fact that Mikey could enjoy some time with Janey without his little sister being in the way. Like the fact Jared wouldn’t have to face family he was so obviously estranged from alone. Like the fact she’d get good work experience and a reference and savings to kick-start her search for a job when she came home.

And yet, well, there was still the elephant in the room.

Honestly why she had to keep harping on about it she didn’t know, but she licked her lips and tried again. ‘About the kiss—’

Jared regarded her unflinchingly. ‘What about it? So the Code Red thing got a little out of hand. We’ll learn from it. The kiss was fun but misguided. It wasn’t us. We’re friends. That’s all.’

That’s all?

Of course that was all. Why would Jared want or need it to be anything else? Why did she, come to think of it?

If he could discount it so easily, and be so sure that it wouldn’t be an issue, why couldn’t she?

***

Jared looked up from his papers, realising he’d read through half a document and couldn’t recall the first thing about it. He was way too aware of his new Personal Assistant. She was sitting on the cream leather seat opposite him, chuntering delightfully to herself as she fiddled with the phone he’d casually thrown at her as they’d boarded the private jet bound for London.

‘Having trouble operating it?’ he asked with a smile on his face.

‘No, merely concerned about the trail of sobbing women we seem to have left behind. Every single call on this thing has been from women eager to know if you’re available. I think I’m going to have to set up some sort of helpline while you’re out of the country.’

His smile widened and an edge of wickedness crept in. ‘I may have given you my private phone by mistake.’

‘You have more than one?’ Her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’ of surprise that he really oughtn’t to find so appealing. ‘What am I talking about? Of course you have more than one.’ She glanced about the jet’s interior, looking a little pale. ‘Please tell me you don’t have more than one of these babies?’

‘As it happens this one belongs to the family. But relax. It’s just stuff—’

‘Sure,’ she agreed with an exaggerated nod, ‘Stuff.’

‘There’s absolutely no reason to be intimidated. It’s a mode of transport. That’s all.’

‘Uh-huh. One beautiful pimped-up mode of transport.’

She ran her fingertip over the leather before reaching out to trace the walnut veneer of the drinks table. Why had he never noticed she had a tendency to drag her fingertip over different surfaces? It was as if nothing was real until she touched it. He found it disconcertingly sexy; seductive.

Idly, he wondered what he’d have to do to get her to drag a fingertip over him in such an exploratory way, then with a start realised he had absolutely, categorically, no business wondering any such thing. Her fingers moved into her sleek caramel-brown ponytail, stroking over the length of it. Suddenly parched, he reached for his scotch.

‘I guess I feel a little under-prepared,’ she said. ‘I mean, it wasn’t as if I didn’t know you were a successful businessman or that you worked hard and reaped the rewards. I’m just a little embarrassed I never realised how successful you were.’

‘I’m not where I want to be just yet.’ The words came automatically. He thought about the deal he was halfway through making. To leave at such a crucial stage irritated the hell out of him, but Nora’s second pitch had been perfect and to his astonishment he’d found himself changing his answer from a ‘no’ to a ‘yes’. It had to have been the shock of kissing Amanda.

Kissing Amanda.

Two words; one sentence, that had the power to throw him properly off kilter.

After the hell of Mikey’s accident and the guilt from knowing he was responsible, no matter what Mikey said … Amanda had continued to treat him the same way she always had. As if he had a clean sheet. It was addictive and liberating and, when he let himself actually think about it, selfish; down-to-the-bone selfish. And had him doubting she understood the luxury he found her company to be.

Amanda, whose sassiness challenged him, whose over-the-top disdain for his planned approach to life amused him.

But then he’d gone and returned her kiss.

He’d told himself he’d re-offered her the job as a way of compensating for her losing out on an interview that could have bettered her situation. He’d told himself that by persuading her to accept he’d be showing Mikey he could be trusted with her. He’d told himself over and over that the kiss had been a fluke. There was no possible way that someone, so opposite to him in outlook, could produce such a primal response from a place so deep inside of him he’d forgotten it even existed.

She’d made him feel like he’d come home.

What a joke. Home was a place he no longer deserved.

He turned his head to look out of the jet’s small window and beyond, through the thin layers of cloud, to the earth below.

He’d been given back the keys to The House of King but The Home of King? He’d be mad to think that was in the bricks and mortar of the forty-acre estate just outside of London. No, the true King home was the business premises of King Property Corporation—KPC headquarters in the heart of the City. When Nora had surrendered those clunky-as-hell keys during her deftly argued invitation, he had been more bewildered than he cared to admit.

It seemed the prodigal son was expected to ride to the rescue.

He felt the automatic grimace. Thinking about KPC and his father had him wound tighter than anything else ever could. No wonder thinking about Amanda was such a welcome distraction.

Taking another sip from the crystal tumbler he tried not to let his eyes slide over her legs. Instead, he dragged his gaze back to her button-brown eyes.