Her Christmas Romeo

Mr Romeo?

As in Roberto Romeo? Owner of the international chain of prestigious Romeo’s stores?

CHAPTER THREE

THIS couldn’t be happening to her! Not on top of all the other disasters that had befallen her recently.

‘I’m sure, Graham, that Juliette believes being stuck in a lift was an awful thing to happen to her, too,’ Rob answered the other man derisively, blue eyes dark with amusement at the look of stunned disbelief on Juliette’s face as she stared at him. ‘In fact,’ he added, stepping forward and taking a firm grasp of her arm, ‘I think it might be a good idea if we took Juliette upstairs and gave her a restorative glass of brandy.’

He was Roberto Romeo!

What had she said to him while they were in the lift? Besides calling him an opportunist and a pervert, of course …

Besides calling him those names? Weren’t they enough to merit instant dismissal?

God, yes. And he was suggesting giving her a brandy in order to soften the blow.

Her pale cheeks became flushed as she looked at him with accusing green eyes, her deep red hair loose about her shoulders. ‘I’m sure it’s very kind of you to suggest it, Mr Romeo—’ her tone implied the opposite ‘—but I—’

‘You have no objections to Juliette coming upstairs with me for a while, do you, Graham?’ Rob ignored her refusal and spoke to the fourth-floor manager.

Juliette looked at the older man from beneath lowered dark lashes, able to see, even if Roberto Romeo—Roberto Romeo, for goodness’ sake!—couldn’t, that Graham was far from pleased at the idea of one of his temporary Christmas staff being taken upstairs to that holy-of-holies the executive floor. In fact, he didn’t seem to like it at all as he shooed his curious staff back to their departments in order to give himself time to formulate an appropriate answer.

Well, he didn’t have to worry on her behalf; she wasn’t too thrilled at the suggestion herself. Roberto Romeo was giving every appearance of being a concerned employer, but she very much doubted he was the sort of man to make a scene in public, anyway. And the executive suite on the sixth floor, at only nine-thirty in the morning, would be empty of all but the two of them. An ideal time and place to tell her to seek other employment!

‘I would really rather just get straight back to work.’ She addressed her employer, just wanting to get away. The Christmas music playing over the tannoy system and the extensive Christmas decorations and lights were doing nothing to lighten her heavy mood. But if she could just manage to keep her head down for the rest of the day, perhaps—

Who was she kidding? Roberto Romeo wasn’t likely to forget their time in the lift, or their conversation, any more than she was—let alone allow her to continue working in his store.

‘That’s very commendable of you, Juliette,’ he answered dryly, amusement still darkening those incredible blue eyes. ‘But I think a visit to the shoe department may be in order first. Your boots are ruined,’ he added ruefully as Juliette looked totally bewildered by his suggestion. ‘And Romeo’s owes you a replacement pair.’

Juliette eyed him suspiciously. Was he playing with her? Lulling her into some false sense of security?

The blankness of his expression gave her no insight as to whether that was what he was doing or not. But that didn’t change the fact that Romeo’s wasn’t responsible for the damage to her boot; her own clumsiness was responsible for that.

‘Perhaps you could organise that for me with the shoe department, Graham?’ Roberto Romeo instructed, before Juliette could assure him that new boots would not be necessary.

Juliette gave a dismayed glance in the manager’s direction; Graham was used to giving orders, not receiving them, and, no matter how pleasantly the request might have been made, there had been a steely edge to Roberto Romeo’s voice that had let everyone know the suggestion had better be carried out, or Graham would answer to him for the omission.

‘Of course, Mr Romeo.’ The older man made a quick recovery and answered briskly, but the fact that he didn’t even glance in Juliette’s direction as he did so told her that she would answer to him later for putting him in such a position in the first place.

Great. She wasn’t Graham’s favourite person anyway; this could only make that situation worse.

It was okay for Roberto Romeo. From what she’d been able to gather, he usually turned up for a few days—it had to be her luck that he had turned up today—threw his weight around while he was there and then left again, leaving underlings like Juliette to the mercy of floor managers like Graham Taylor. Although, after this morning, that might no longer be any of her concern …

‘Good.’ Roberto Romeo nodded briskly before turning back to Juliette. ‘You’re sure you wouldn’t like a few minutes to recover from your ordeal?’

That depended on which ordeal he was referring to. Being stuck in the lift in the first place, or discovering that the man who had kissed her was Roberto Romeo himself?

Because she wasn’t likely to forget that kiss in a hurry. She had been completely overwhelmed at the time, responding in spite of herself, and she felt even more so now that she knew the man doing the kissing had been Roberto Romeo, the multimillionaire owner of the worldwide Romeo’s chain.

Of course, she did have an excuse for her ignorance in that she’d never seen him before—she would definitely have recognised him if she had, and perhaps been a bit more circumspect in her remarks. Perhaps. Because, actually, she really had been too freaked out most of the time to care who she’d found herself stuck in the lift with!

But Lisa, the old schoolfriend who was responsible for Juliette getting this job in the first place, had talked of her employer several times since Juliette had moved to London. Consequently, she knew that Mr Romeo was single, aged in his mid-thirties, of Italian descent—obviously, with a name like that!—and that he had started off with one store ten years ago in Milan, and now had one in every major capital city in the western world.

This was the first time, as far as Juliette was aware, that he had visited his London store in some months.

She couldn’t help wishing he hadn’t decided to pay a visit this time, either!

‘I’m fine,’ she assured him briskly. ‘Absolutely fine.’ She flicked the thickness of her hair back over her shoulders and looked up at him.

And instantly wished she hadn’t; those intense blue eyes were still laughing at her! Well, at least he found the situation funny—which was more than could be said for her.

‘If you’ll both excuse me?’ she added frostily, not even waiting for a reply before she turned on her damaged heel and strode off towards the staffroom, where she intended leaving her coat and umbrella before starting work.

And trying to regain some of her shaky self-confidence before she had to face the curiosity of the people she worked with. Not to mention the wrath of Graham Taylor …

‘So what’s he like?’ Lisa grinned with unabashed curiosity as she slid her lunch tray onto the table before sitting down opposite Juliette.

Juliette didn’t even try to pretend not to know which ‘he’ her friend was referring to; every member of staff who had spoken to her this morning had asked her the same question. But she doubted that she should tell Lisa, or any of those other people, the terms she had used to describe him this morning—terms like ‘opportunist’ and ‘pervert’, let alone the ‘arrogantly mocking’ she had added to that list.

‘Okay, I suppose,’ she answered dismissively, her hands cradling the cup of coffee she had opted for instead of lunch. ‘If you like the tall, dark and handsome type.’

‘Doesn’t everyone?’ Lisa chuckled. ‘Besides, I didn’t mean what does he look like. I know what he looks like. And don’t tell me that you don’t like the tall, dark and handsome type, because I know for a fact that you do!’

Of course she did, Juliette acknowledged ruefully; the two of them had been friends since they were eighteen years old. Lisa knew of all her disastrous romantic entanglements—and that, without exception, all of those men had been ‘tall, dark and handsome’!

She gave a shrug. ‘Being stuck in a lift together isn’t particularly conducive to getting to know what a person is like.’ Except she knew that Roberto Romeo stayed calm in a crisis. That he was self-confident. Had a wicked sense of humour. And his kisses were bone-melting …

Although she certainly had no intention of sharing that particular fact with Lisa. With anyone, in fact.

Besides, she had spent a very tense morning waiting for someone—probably Graham—to tell her that her employment at Romeo’s was at an end. In fact, she had been so preoccupied as she’d waited for that summons that she hadn’t even been bothered by some of the more personal remarks made by her male customers. It was also the reason she was only having coffee for her lunch; her normally healthy appetite had completely deserted her.

Lisa shook her head, still grinning. ‘It could only happen to you,’ she said affectionately.

Yes, it could only happen to her! Her adult life so far seemed to have been one disaster after another, so why should she have thought her time working at Romeo’s would be any different? She hadn’t; not really.

Although being stuck in a broken-down lift with the owner of the company was definitely a first!

‘It did happen to me.’ She grimaced, putting her head in her hands. ‘And I’m not sure Graham is going to forgive me for it.’ The man had been dogging her footsteps all morning, picking her up on every little thing she did wrong. And as for the replacement boots Roberto Romeo had requested for her—Graham hadn’t so much as mentioned the subject.

Lisa wrinkled her nose. ‘What is that man’s problem?’ She shook her head, well aware of the manager’s sour nature. ‘He can hardly blame you for a malfunctioning lift.’

Juliette had a feeling that the fourth-floor manager could—and did—do exactly what he pleased. And before the end of the day she was sure it would please him to show her the door!

‘He’ll find a way.’ She nodded, her mood lightening slightly in the face of Lisa’s good humour. ‘You and I both know that Graham is—’ She broke off as she became aware that Lisa was making faces at her across the table, her gaze moving pointedly to the left. What on earth—?

‘Graham is what, Juliette?’ an icy cold voice prompted from behind her.

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