Reluctant Mistress

‘You bastard!’ Liza seethed through white lips. She would have got to her feet and slapped his supercilious face if she’d had the strength, but his harshness and cruelty had sapped every gram of fight out of her.

‘I’m not, actually. I have a father, and he is alive and well.’

‘I’m not doubting your parentage,’ she parried. ‘I was using the adjective in its degenerate form, and even then it’s too good for you. How dare you muck-rake my past and fling it in my face so cruelly?’

‘I wasn’t aware I was doing any such thing. The point I’m trying to make is that you’re not some silly flighty female who allows her head to be turned by the male species. You won’t suddenly fly off and start breeding when the broody season comes.’

‘You really are a mega-chauvinist rat, aren’t you?’ Gradually her strength was edging back.

‘I’ve never been called that before but it certainly has a charming ring to it. Maybe you’d be better employed writing copy for some feminist rag, of which I own none, I might add.’ He stood up and pulled his waistcoat down.

‘In other words, you’re retracting the offer I’m determined to refuse,’ she shot back, getting to her feet and crashing the dirty plates together in a pile.

‘On the contrary, the offer still stands. I still want you—on my staff, not in my bed, so quash any notions in that direction.’

‘None exists,’ she slammed back, ‘and let me tell you, you have as much chance of getting into mine as a virulent flea.’

His grin was as wide as the ocean. ‘Good. So long as we both know where we stand we should get on famously. I’ll pick you up at eight-thirty in the morning, show you over your new office suite.’

‘Don’t bother. I won’t be here. I’ll be queuing up at the employment agency with all the other talent that you throw out on the slush pile!’

He picked up his jacket from the sofa, and turned to her with eyes glazed to coal-black hardness. ‘Don’t waste your energy, sweetheart; by the time I come off the phone tonight you’ll be lucky to get a job licking stamps in any publishing mail-house.’

‘Do what you will! But I’d rather stack shelves in a supermarket than work for you!’ She teetered down the stairs after him, ready to slam the front door behind him in a last gesture of defiant independence. He took the wind from her sails by turning at the door and raising his hand to cup her chin.

‘If it’s any consolation I think you had a narrow escape with Bond. He wasn’t man enough for you. And yet look what he’s done to you. It would take a giant of a male ego to soften you into suppliance now and keep you there.’

To her shock and horror his mouth swooped down to hers, claimed her lips and held them with force and yet such deep sensuality that her head reeled. When he’d taken his fill he wiped the moisture from her swollen lips with his thumb.

‘Don’t get any ideas. That’s my first and last show of weakness where you are concerned. I was just curious to know what you tasted like. If you did but know it, that glacial reserve of yours is totally transparent. You might have pulled up the drawbridge on your emotions but they are still there.’ He tilted her chin once again. ‘Soften up, Liza; I wouldn’t like to see my advertising director get hurt again.’

He turned and shut the door softly behind him, and for the first time in a very long time Liza Kay allowed a soft tear to trickle down her burning cheeks.

CHAPTER TWO

THE next morning when Liza awoke she knew she would take the job Robert Buchanan had offered. She’d be a fool not to, and yet she knew deep inside her that it wouldn’t be easy.

Cupping her hands behind her head, she lay in the downy softness of her bed and wondered how Buchanan knew so much about her private life; but was it so surprising when he was practically omniscient?

Later Liza showered, and tied her hair back from her face with a green velvet ribbon that picked out the green in her Paisley-print shirt. She was careful with her make-up as usual. Endowed with a pale creamy skin that went with her flame hair, she was skilled at concealing the mass of freckles that bridged her nose and scattered her cheekbones. Her lashes were pale gold and she stroked them liberally with dark brown mascara to accentuate her startling green eyes. Graham had adored her eyes...

‘To hell with Graham!’ she muttered under her breath, and clipped huge gold orbs to her ears.

She smoothed the narrow tailored skirt of her favourite taupe wool suit, adjusted the shoulders of the jacket, and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked every inch the successful executive, and yet inside she was trembling like a jelly.

‘And damn Robert Buchanan!’ she exhaled as she gathered up her Enny bag.

She was at the front door on the dot of eight-thirty, mildly disconcerted that Carl was the only occupant of the limousine that purred at the kerb-side. So what had she expected? The big white chief to pick her up in person?

‘Where are we going, Carl?’ she asked as she settled into the back seat.

‘Knightsbridge, Miss Kay. The new block Mr Buchanan has just refurbished for Magnum.’ He grinned in the rear-view mirror. ‘Beautiful building, miss, and just a stone’s throw from Harrods. Wonderful shopping in Knightsbridge...’

Liza was glad of his cheery conversation; it kept her mind off other things, namely Robert Buchanan. She still wasn’t convinced it was a good idea to take this job, but if she thought of working for Magnum Enterprises, not the man himself, it helped...a bit.

The building was indeed magnificent. Glass and chrome and cool marble. She was greeted in Reception by a welcoming blonde receptionist, who took her up to the fifth floor of the block and handed her over to a David Cassals. He gripped her hand warmly.

‘Pleased to meet you, Liza,’ he grinned, running his eyes over her in undisguised approval. ‘I’ll show you to your office. Robert will join you later.’

Not wanting to sound gauche, she hid her delight at the pale grey carpeted suite of offices with its profusion of green plants and red and black hi-tech furnishings. It was a dream of a place to work in, with a view over a delightful square; though dreary now in the winter, it promised lush green pleasure for the summer. A world away from her cramped drab office in Soho.

‘Coffee, tea or something stronger?’ David grinned.

‘Coffee would be nice,’ she smiled back.

‘My pleasure.’

He shut the door quietly behind him, and Liza was left alone in an insulated silence. She let out a long breath and lowered herself into a leather wing chair behind a matt black ash-wood desk. Her desk! It was almost too good to be true. Seconds later she jumped as the fax whirred. She leaned back and took the sheet of paper from the machine on the console behind her.

WELCOME

I’LL JOIN YOU FOR COFFEE

Robert

With a smile Liza balled the sheet of paper and tossed it into the waste-bin. Almost immediately the door opened and Robert Buchanan walked in with a tray of coffee and kicked shut the door behind him.

‘So what changed your mind?’ he asked, placing the tray down on the desk.

‘I’m not stupid,’ Liza commented and proceeded to pour the coffee. ‘Stacking shelves won’t pay the mortgage, will it?’

‘No second thoughts?’ He indicated the office suite with a nod of his dark head.

‘Many, but my good sense overruled them. I’m ambitious, and this seems a good place to be ambitious in.’ She handed him a coffee and pushed the sugar and cream towards him.

He perched on her desk and smiled at her. She glanced at his mouth, stemming the recall button on her mind: she didn’t want to bring back that frisson that had shaken her when his mouth had closed over hers the previous day. He’d made it clear it wouldn’t happen again. It was partly the reason she was here. She trusted him not to repeat it ever again.

‘You were very sure I would come,’ she said, and sipped her coffee.

‘Yes, I was. So sure I had your stuff moved from the Leisure Days offices last night.’

‘My stuff?’

He nodded to the desk drawer. Liza opened it. There was her folding mirror, a spare lipstick, a comb—nothing of great importance.

‘You needn’t have bothered.’ She slammed the drawer shut, slightly annoyed at his presumption that she would take this position.

‘I thought it would make you feel at home.’

She looked at him quickly. Such thoughtfulness. Somehow out of character. ‘Thank you, but it wasn’t necessary. I’m not a sentimentalist. One door closes and another opens, if you get my drift.’

‘Ice drift, I’d say,’ he said lazily. ‘Now, what do you want to do about staffing? I’ve already got a team of seven telephone-sales people lined up for you, but is there anyone you want to bring over from Soho? David is the factotum around here, but you’ll need a personal assistant.’

Julia! Liza’s heart twisted guiltily. She hadn’t given her assistant a thought. She hadn’t returned to the office after lunch with Robert Buchanan. There hadn’t seemed much point as the magazine was being folded that very afternoon.

‘What happened to the staff? I didn’t go back yesterday.’

‘I’ve placed a lot of them elsewhere. There were casualties, of course.’

‘John?’

‘A hefty redundancy payment he didn’t deserve.’

‘So you have a heart after all.’

‘The power of the Press,’ he murmured, draining his coffee.

‘Until I make my own judgement, that’s all I have to go on,’ she retaliated coolly. ‘I’d like Julia to carry on working for me, if that’s all right with you. She’s been with me for three years and we work well together.’

‘She has a weakness for the opposite sex, my sources tell me.’

Liza levelled cool green eyes at him. Was there nothing he didn’t know? ‘You have something in common with her, then.’

For only a second his jaw tensed angrily, then he gave a small smile. ‘That’s what I like about you. I could make and break you, but you still plough on, don’t you? Beware, Liza; I can take so much and then I might be tempted to give you what you deserve.’

‘And what might that be?’

‘Push me far enough and you might find out. What you don’t realise is that your puerile little insults could well turn out to be the turn-on of the decade for me. And maybe that’s what you’re working on. I might just take up the challenge you’re throwing out to me.’

Colour flushed her neck and threatened her cheeks. ‘I wasn’t aware I was issuing one.’ Trust him to twist everything she said his way.

‘You’re either remarkably astute or simply naïve. By your past record with men, I’d opt for the latter, but one thing I’ve learned in my thirty-seven years—never underestimate the wiles of women.’

She wasn’t going to let that pass. ‘It works both ways, you know. You tell me you don’t mess with your employees, yet you couldn’t keep your hands off me yesterday afternoon. You kissed me and then calmly told me it was a one-off. It’s you who’s remarkably astute or simply naïve,’ she echoed stiffly. ‘I’ll opt for the former!’

‘On the contrary, I think I’m rather making a fool of myself. Yesterday was a grave error on my part, but understandable. You’re a very beautiful lady and the temptation to seduce you is great. I understand how you feel, too; women fall at my feet like ninepins.’ There was a hint of humour in his eyes.

With a snort of disdain to cover her amusement at his inflated egotism, she told him flatly, ‘There is no doubt that you are a very attractive animal. So is a Rottweiler, but I wouldn’t give it house-room!’

To her surprise, he laughed. ‘You really are the most amazing lady. So where do we go from here?’

She stood up and placed her empty coffee-cup on the tray. ‘You have a choice: fire me or not.’ She was playing with dynamite and knew it. But she had learnt a lot about him in this brief interchange of insults. He was adept at winding her up, but she had the ability to do likewise to him. If he kept her on she’d put her heart and soul into her work; he knew that or he wouldn’t have considered her in the first place. As for the personal side of their relationship, it was going to be non-existent. She could handle him—of that she was sure. And he could handle himself!

‘I wouldn’t dream of firing you,’ he told her, standing up. ‘Not yet, that is.’

‘Another threat?’

‘More or less. And, as you so very rightly said, it works both ways. Neither of us can afford to get emotionally involved with each other. Let’s both be warned off, shall we?’

He extended a hand to her in a gesture of goodwill, and Liza took it. He held on to her long enough to resurrect that frisson of awareness deep inside her. She was first to break the contact.

‘What do you want me to do about Julia?’

‘David can get in touch with her and she can start tomorrow.’

‘Thank you,’ Liza smiled.

‘I’m not doing you a personal favour,’ he assured her, dark brows drawn together seriously. ‘But if you say she’s good at her job I’ll go along with it. Now, to work. I’ll introduce you to your sales team. I’m afraid you’re going to live in my pocket for the next few weeks. Working for Magnum is light years away from Leisure Days....’ He took her arm and guided her out of the calm of her office into the mêlée of a frantic publishing house. And so her first day under Robert Buchanan’s corporate umbrella began.

* * *

Three weeks later Liza stood by her sitting-room window, sipped her first coffee of the day, and realised that she was extremely happy. The job was panning out superbly. Robert had been right: she’d lived in his pocket, scarcely been out of his sight these past weeks. Her admiration for him had grown by the day. He knew his business all right, and his relationship with his staff was faultless. He had a knack of getting the best from everyone, and Magnum Enterprises rolled happily along on well-oiled wheels.

It started to rain again and Liza turned away from the window. As far as she could see there were no clouds on her horizon; even the pain of losing Graham had reduced to a small ache that only occasionally surfaced when she was particularly tired.

‘I hate to ask, but could you bear a working weekend?’ Robert suggested as soon as she arrived in her office that Thursday morning.

She looked at him in surprise. ‘It’s no problem for me, but what for? I thought everything was on schedule.’

‘It is, but next week I want to introduce you to the European staff. We’ll be going to Amsterdam for starters and then on to Paris and Madrid. It will mean at the very least a week out of here, and I want to make sure everything runs smoothly while we’re away.’

Liza’s heart raced at the thought. She was already liaising with the overseas advertising-sales offices and found it so stimulating she couldn’t wait to get out there and meet these people in person.

‘Sounds marvellous.’ She grinned and picked up the unopened mail from her desk.

‘Shouldn’t Julia be dealing with that?’ Robert observed quietly.

‘She’s at the dentist this morning.’

‘Second time this week.’

Liza’s eyes shot up from the envelope she was slitting. ‘So?’

‘Her teeth look perfectly all right to me.’

Liza tensed. ‘What are you implying? That she’s off out shopping somewhere?’

‘Could be.’ He shrugged his wide shoulders. ‘But it’s more than likely she’s indulging herself in bed with Nigel Barnes from your sales team.’

Shocked, Liza let the letters fall to her desk. For some reason she didn’t disbelieve him, knowing how fast Julia worked, but what really shook her was Robert’s being the one to tell her.

‘I think you must be mistaken...’ she started to protest, colour flushing her cheeks. Robert had seen what she had failed to. Her first mistake.

‘I’m not,’ he assured her quietly.

Liza crossed the room and opened the door of her office. Nigel Barnes was conspicuous by his absence. All the sales team but him were at their consoles, busy on the phones.

She shut the door and went back to her desk. ‘I’ll deal with it,’ she clipped tightly, and picked up the pile of letters.

‘I’m sorry,’ Robert said.

She glanced up at him. His face was ill at ease, a muscle pulsing at his throat. ‘Sorry for pointing out what was staring me in the face, what I should have seen for myself?’

How stupid she had been. Julia’s supposed dental appointments had coincided with Nigel’s lateness. On Tuesday she had pulled him up on it, obviously to no effect. And he wasn’t reaching his sales targets either. She had meant to deal with it sooner but pressure of other business had pushed it to the back of her mind.

‘Nigel isn’t reaching his targets...’ Robert started to echo her thoughts.

‘OK!’ Liza suddenly stormed, and as quick as her temper flared it cooled, and she slumped down in her chair. ‘I’m sorry; I’m just furious with myself for not seeing what was going on and dealing with it sooner.’ She looked up at Robert standing so powerfully in front of the desk. He seemed to fill the room with his presence. ‘I’ll have a word with the pair of them.’

‘A word isn’t good enough, Liza; fire them before I do.’ His voice was so deadly serious she felt a ping of dangerous apprehension down her spine.

Her lips tightened defiantly. ‘Since when have you told me what to do with my staff?’

‘Since when did you run Magnum?’ he shot back.

Raking a tremulous hand through her hair, she calmed her stretched nerves. ‘You gave me control over my advertising staff, Robert,’ she reasoned coolly. ‘Now you are trying to override me. Everyone deserves a second chance. You hired Nigel in the first place so you must have thought he had some worth, and I can’t fault Julia—she’s a damned good assistant. I don’t like firing people without just cause.’

‘And you think you haven’t just cause?’ He was angry now and Liza hadn’t intended that. ‘I don’t care what my staff get up to outside of office hours, but when they do it in my time I see red—’

‘You don’t know anything for sure,’ Liza argued.

‘I know that I saw them all but having it off in the rest-room earlier this week—’

‘Do you have to be so damned crude?’ Liza interrupted furiously.

‘Do you have to be so blind?’ he raked back, his eyes glittering jets of fury. ‘Because you’re as cold as ice yourself you can’t recognise sexual attraction in other people, even when it’s flashed in front of your eyes in neon!’

Tears of pain stabbed the corners of her eyes. Shooting to her feet, she turned away from him, clutched her arms tightly around her shoulders and stared painfully out at the rain.

‘That was unforgivable,’ she croaked weakly, and then her whole body tensed alarmingly as he came up behind her and eased her clenched fingers from her shoulders. His own hands smoothed over the warm wool of her black sweater.

‘I agree,’ he murmured, so close she felt the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck. She suppressed the shudder his contact spun down her spine. ‘It was unforgivable; nevertheless I apologise.’

Liza nodded her acceptance. ‘If...if you knew what was going on between them,’ she whispered, ‘why didn’t you dismiss them?’

‘Because, as you rightly said, it’s your place to deal with your own staff. I thought you would see it for yourself, but I realise now that I wasn’t being wholly fair on you. A new job, a mountain of other responsibilities—I’ve expected too much of you too soon.’

She was about to protest that she was coping, but her words froze in her throat as the office door opened. Robert’s hands flew from her shoulders as if he’d been stung, and Liza swung round so abruptly she nearly swayed into him.

‘Don’t forget the sales meeting at twelve,’ Robert said curtly as he crossed to the door, where Julia stood blocking his way with a curious expression on her face. She moved aside to let him pass, closed the door after him and turned to Liza.

‘I’m sorry my appointment took longer than expected,’ she said brightly, easing out of her coat. Her tone implied she had seen nothing.

But she had; Liza knew that with a tightening of her stomach muscles. Julia couldn’t have failed to see Robert Buchanan’s hands on his advertising director’s shoulders. Robert was almost all things, but an actor he wasn’t. The curtness of his voice hadn’t shadowed his guilt at all.

With a deep sigh Liza turned back to the mail; now wasn’t the time to dress Julia down for her conduct with Nigel. Julia could easily misinterpret what she had seen. The way her mind worked she wouldn’t see it the way it had been, even if Liza explained that Robert had been simply offering her an apology for his rudeness. And worse, if she did try to talk her way out of it, she would have to explain why she and Robert had argued in the first place.

Liza silently cursed her assistant’s lack of discretion. She had enough to cope with without this!

She did tackle Nigel later, though; called him into her office when Julia wasn’t around.

‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Nigel, but the other sales staff are way ahead of you. You’ve only managed to sell two half-pages this week and that’s not good enough.’

He blushed deeply, flicked his fair hair back from his forehead. ‘Yes, well, I haven’t settled yet. The place I worked before wasn’t so fast—’

‘I’m not concerned with your past,’ she interrupted softly. She understood why Julia was attracted to him. He was good-looking in the young Robert Redford mould and had a soft, persuasive voice that was ideally suited to telephone sales. She’d looked up his CV before tackling him and he had glowing references from his last job; nevertheless...

‘I regret bringing this up, but is your relationship with Julia affecting your work?’

He smiled without looking at her, which slightly annoyed Liza. ‘You don’t miss much, do you?’

If only he knew, Liza thought dismally, that someone else had had to spell it out to her.

‘I don’t want to pry into your private life, but if it overlaps into your working hours and loses money for the company I’ll have to let you go; it’s as simple as that.’ She hoped she didn’t sound too brutal, but Robert had made himself quite clear on how he felt and she certainly wasn’t going to jeopardise her position for Nigel’s sake.

‘So you’re telling me to stop seeing Julia, or else?’ His blue eyes widened appealingly. Liza held them with the cool green of hers. He might have swept Julia off her feet with that look, but she was immune to tricks like that.

‘I said nothing of the sort. I’m not concerned with your love-life but your sales target: you’re not hitting it.’ She took a sheet of paper from a file on her desk. ‘Look, here’s a list of advertisers that might help you. I’ve dealt with them in the past, though you’ll have to do some hard selling—they aren’t easy. See what you can do. I’ll give you another week, and be sensible, Nigel. You’ve been late twice this week and you’re not thinking wisely. This is a top organisation and you have a bright future with us if you knuckle down. Believe me, I don’t want to lose you but I will if I must.’

She left it at that, hoped it would be enough, prayed it wouldn’t come back on her. It did. Immediately after lunch.

‘Nigel tells me you’re not happy about our relationship,’ Julia snapped at Liza as she swept back into the office. ‘That’s rich, coming from you.’

Liza aborted the phone call she was about to make, sat back, and gazed at her assistant. ‘Would you like to enlarge on that?’

‘It’s all right for you to carry on with the boss—’

‘I’m doing nothing of the sort!’ Liza responded quickly, trying to keep her cool.

‘So what I saw this morning was a figment of my imagination? You weren’t in each other’s arms?’ She raised her eyebrows, daring Liza to deny it.

For the first time Liza doubted her judgement in bringing Julia to Magnum. She sensed she was going to give her trouble, take advantage of their past easy relationship.