The Irresistible Tycoon

‘I was going to suggest Monday, to give you time to make any provision for your daughter which might be necessary, but if you are able to come into the office tomorrow that would be excellent. June normally arrives about nineish, so any time after that would be fine.’

There was no trace of emotion or feeling in his voice and the lack of humanity was disconcerting, to say the least. As his personal assistant-cum-secretary, she was going to be working very closely with this intimidating machine—could she handle it? Kim asked herself frantically, before answering in the same instant, Don’t be silly, of course you can handle it. You can’t miss the chance of a lifetime through sheer cowardice.

‘I’ll be there, Mr Kane,’ Kim said steadily.

‘Good. I’ll get Personnel to draw up a contract and arrange for a car to be delivered some time tomorrow so you can have it to drive home. Any particular colour you’d like?’

She almost said, Colour? before she bit the word back, but her hands were beginning to shake and her stomach was swirling with a mixture of amazement and delight at how suddenly her circumstances were changing and bone-chilling shock at her temerity. ‘I don’t know,’ she said dazedly. ‘This is all rather sudden.’

‘Has your daughter got a favourite colour?’ The deep, dark voice was as expressionless as ever, but the content of the question totally threw Kim in view of the robot asking it.

‘Blue,’ she faltered weakly.

‘Just as well it’s not shocking pink—BMW might have objected,’ came the dry response. ‘Blue it is, then, and I’ll see a child’s seat is fitted, of course. Goodnight, Mrs Allen.’

‘Goodnight, and thank you for letting me know so promptly,’ she said quickly, her head spinning.

‘A pleasure.’ It was soft and smooth, and although Kim told herself his reply was just a formal nicety, something in the silky tones sent a trickle of awareness down her spine.

He would be one sexy customer in bed. The thought—coming from nowhere as it did—horrified Kim so much it was just as well the phone had gone dead at the other end because she was quite unable to speak or move for a good thirty seconds.

Was she mad? she asked herself as she replaced the receiver with elaborate carefulness and then put both hands to her burning cheeks. Lucas Kane was her new boss and that last thought had been inappropriate to say the least. And machines weren’t sexy. Powerful maybe, frightening sometimes, and certainly cold and efficient, but definitely not sexy.

She stood for a moment more and then, as her agitation subsided slightly and the full knowledge of what the new job package would mean swept over her, she took the stairs two at a time, bursting into the bedsit and doing something unheard of—waking Melody from a deep sleep and dancing round the room with her daughter’s tiny body held tight in her arms.

The next morning was one of frosty brilliance, and when Kim awoke to a crystal-bright world and gazed out over the white sparkling rooftops as she fixed a hot drink for herself and Melody her heart was singing.

This was a new shiny beginning; even the weather confirmed it. She would start looking for a new place to live—a small ground-floor flat with a garden, maybe, or even a little house—this very weekend. She was going to be earning a small fortune; she could soon pay off the remaining debts, as long as she was careful, and then her life would be her own again. No more robbing Peter to pay Paul, no more working out how to make a pound stretch into two or three—oh, life was wonderful.

Once she had got Melody off to sleep again the night before she had phoned Maggie with the good news. Maggie had immediately offered to pop round early the next morning and take Melody to school, so Kim could arrive at Kane Electrical in plenty of time—the buses being unreliable at the best of times—and Kim had gratefully accepted her friend’s kind offer.

So it was that Kim arrived outside the huge building just as June West drew into the ‘Reserved for the secretary of the managing director’ spot, and the two women walked into Reception together.

‘Nervous?’

June was smiling sympathetically as she spoke and her voice was warm, and Kim smiled back weakly as she answered, ‘A little. Well, a lot, really. My previous job wasn’t anything like as high-powered as this one.’

‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.’ June was watching her closely and now, as the two women entered the lift and the doors glided shut, she added in a low tone, ‘I shouldn’t really be telling you this but there were dozens after the position, you know. Some were better-qualified than you, some were more experienced, but Lucas chose you and that means, as far as he’s concerned, you are the best for the job.’

Kim knew June had meant her words to be uplifting but they had the opposite effect. All she could manage, as the lift doors opened to disgorge them into the exalted upper sanctum, was, ‘You call him Lucas? Not to his face, surely?’ She hadn’t got Lucas Kane down as being on first-name terms with his secretary somehow.

‘Sure.’ June grinned at her conspiratorially. ‘You’ll find him quite different to the public image, once you get to know him, and he hates to stand on ceremony in private. Of course, in front of other colleagues and business clients, it’s Mr Kane and Miss West, or in your case Mrs Allen.’

‘Right.’ Oh, help!

‘He’s a good boss to work for, Kim, take it from me,’ June continued easily as they walked along the corridor. ‘I wouldn’t have stayed ten years otherwise.’

‘How…how old is he?’ Kim asked nervously.

‘Thirty-seven. He took over the business when he was only twenty-five. His father, who founded the firm, got sick—cancer, I think, leukaemia or something to do with the blood, anyway—and had to have months and months of treatment. Lucas stepped in; he’d been with the firm for four years, since leaving university, but when he took charge he did so well, apparently, that his father decided to retire and let him take over permanently, and since then the business has gone from strength to strength. It was only a tenth of its present size when I started.’

June opened the door into her office, lowering her voice as she glanced towards the interconnecting door, and added, ‘He’s got a reputation for having the Midas touch, and admittedly he does have brilliant business acumen, but his competitors don’t see the endless hours he puts into the business while they’re off swanning round a golf course or having holidays in the Caribbean. He deserves every little bit of success he’s had. I don’t know anyone who works so hard.’

‘I appreciate the accolade, June, but just in case the tenor changes I think I’d better point out the cleaners seem to have knocked the switch on the intercom again.’

The voice was dry, very dry, but as June glanced at her Kim saw the older woman’s face was quite unabashed and her expression was reflected in her voice when June said, ‘Whoops, that was a near thing, Lucas. Another minute and your ears might have begun to burn.’

‘My ears are incapable of burning, June, as you very well know.’ It was even drier. ‘Do I take it Mrs Allen is with you?’

‘Yes, she’s here,’ June confirmed quickly.

‘Then I would like a word with her, before you start addling her brain with a hundred and one facts,’ the dark voice said evenly. ‘And a cup of black coffee, when you’re ready.’

‘Coming right up.’ June flicked the switch on the intercom and smiled breezily at Kim as she indicated for her to go through into Lucas Kane’s office, and Kim found herself thinking—as she had done at the interview the afternoon before—that she would never, ever—not in a million years—ever be able to mirror the relaxed approach June apparently had in dealing with her formidable boss.

She quickly slipped out of her coat, smoothed down her already sleek and shining hair, caught in a neat and somewhat severe pleat at the back of her head, and took a deep breath as she walked across the room and opened the door into Lucas Kane’s office.

‘Good morning.’ The devastating silver-grey eyes were waiting for her and in spite of all her preparation for this moment Kim’s heart bounded in her chest. ‘You haven’t changed your mind, then?’

‘Changed my mind?’ She stared at the big figure seated behind the desk in surprise. ‘Of course not, Mr Kane. I told you I would be here this morning.’

‘And you always do what you promise?’ he asked smoothly, his pearly gaze narrowing on her flushed face.

‘Yes, I do.’

There was a slight bristle in the words which Lucas registered with hidden amusement, but his voice betrayed nothing of what he was feeling when he said, ‘Good. We’ll get along just fine in that case, Mrs Allen.’

He rose from behind the massive desk as he spoke and Kim forced herself to show no reaction at all when he perched himself easily on the side of it, the hard lean body giving the impression of a coiled spring just waiting to pounce.

‘The car, a blue BMW, will be delivered before four o’clock.’ His tone was steady now, almost bored. ‘That will give ample time for you to be able to familiarise yourself with the controls and ask any questions you feel relevant.’

‘Thank you.’ She didn’t know what else to say.

‘I trust your daughter will be satisfied with the colour when she sees it.’

Kim glanced sharply at him then but the sardonic attractive face was expressionless, as was his voice when he continued, ‘Over the next few weeks you will learn how this office works and what makes me tick, Mrs Allen.’

Her wide open eyes blinked once but she didn’t make the mistake of rushing into speech and the carved lips twitched a little. ‘Let me save a little time and lay down some ground rules which I’m sure will benefit us both?’

It was in the form of a rhetorical question but Kim nodded nevertheless, it seemed to be expected somehow.

‘As I mentioned yesterday, I expect—demand—absolute loyalty from those close to me; anything less is unacceptable. As my secretary and personal assistant, you will be privy to all manner of confidential information, both with regard to business and my private life. I expect you to be unconditionally discreet in both areas.’

He had nodded at her to sit down when he had settled himself on the edge of the desk and Kim was thankful of it now; she felt utterly overwhelmed by the sheer magnetism of the man who was now her boss. Her boss. Her stomach turned right over and she swallowed hard. ‘Of course, Mr Kane.’

‘Lucas.’ He leant back slightly, the blue-black of his hair accentuated by the white sunlight behind him. ‘If you are serious about working with me, the second thing you have to learn is that all formality stops at that door.’ He nodded to the interconnecting door behind her. ‘You are my eyes and ears in this organisation and beyond, a valuable second opinion and ally who must be completely frank within the confines of these four walls.’

‘And if my opinion doesn’t fit in with yours?’ she asked with a careful neutrality that hid her jangling nerves.

He said nothing for a second, just looking at her with piercing eyes, and then he smiled. The first real smile she had seen. ‘I’m not looking for you to agree with me, necessarily,’ he said quietly, ‘but if you do disagree I expect your comments to be logical and well informed. I have enough sycophantic boot-lickers around already; I don’t need another one, Kim.’

It was the first time he had said her Christian name and, ridiculous though she told herself it was, it did something strange to her insides. Something she didn’t care to examine. He was too close. The thought came from nowhere and she told herself sharply she was acting like a skittish schoolgirl, not a mature woman of twenty-six.

To combat the weakness she forced herself to smile back, her tone light as she said, ‘Dare I ask if I can remind you of that in the future?’

The smile grew, turning the aggressively male face of hard angles and planes into a more mellow whole, and Kim watched, fascinated.

‘I have the feeling you will do so with or without my blessing,’ he said lazily, before levering himself off the desk in one easy movement and seating himself in the massive leather chair again. ‘Observe much, say little and keep your wits about you during the next few weeks, Kim, and you’ll do just fine. It’s nice to have you aboard.’

‘Thank you.’ It was a clear dismissal and Kim rose a trifle flusteredly, hoping her tension didn’t show. He was the most disturbing man she had ever met, but she had to find a way of coping with how she felt—and fast. This job was too fantastic an opportunity to blow.

It was that thought which enabled her to leave Lucas’s office with measured steps, her blonde head high and her face deadpan.

It would be all right, she assured herself, standing aside to let June pass into the Holy of Holies with the coffee. She had June to soften her absorption into the role of secretary to Lucas Kane and the other woman would be around for some weeks yet. After that…

Her heart began to thud and she clucked her tongue at herself, annoyed at her nervousness. After that she would be just what he wanted her to be—an efficient, cool, capable machine who ran his office like clockwork. She could do this. If nothing else, her time with Graham, not to mention the searing aftermath, had shown her she had hidden resources she had never dreamt of.

When she thought of that nightmare funeral, which had occurred the day after she had found out she was not only destitute but thousands and thousands of pounds in debt, she knew nothing could ever be as bad again.

But she had come through that, and not crawling on her belly, either—she’d carved out a reasonable life for herself and Melody and it was going to get better and better from this point on. She was in charge of her own destiny—hers and Melody’s—and the vow she had made standing in the pouring rain at the side of the newly dug grave still held good. Never again would she put her trust in any one man; she had learnt a hard lesson but she’d learnt it well. Men said one thing with their lips but their mind was thinking something else. They could be sweetness and light in company—with everyone else—but in the privacy of their own home turn into the devil incarnate.

She was autonomous now—blessedly, gloriously autonomous—and nothing, nothing, would ever persuade her to be anything else. And this job would ensure her material security in a way she had never imagined; it was her chance of a lifetime.

Secretary to Lucas Kane? Kim glanced at the closed door, beyond which she could hear the low murmur of voices. She was going to be the best secretary he’d ever had or die in the attempt!

CHAPTER THREE

OVER the next few weeks Kim worked as she had never worked before. She made copious notes of everything June told her, taking reams of paper home each night and sitting up until well past midnight, memorising anything and everything which was relevant. She acquainted herself with every file, every company, every individual who played a role in Lucas Kane’s business life until she had more facts and figures in her head than June did.

One of Melody’s schoolfriends lived directly opposite her daughter’s school and Kim came to an arrangement with the child’s mother that in return for the payment of a small fee she could drop Melody off at just gone eight every day, enabling the blue BMW to purr into Kane Electrical’s car park every morning before half-past eight.

Kim had imagined, the first day, that it would be just her and possibly the caretaker in the building, but Lucas’s sleek, champagne-coloured Aston Martin was already in residence when she had pulled up and it continued to be so every morning.

He had come to the door of his office on her early arrival and gazed quizzically at her for a moment or two, but beyond a request for one of the endless cups of coffee he consumed all day had made no comment.

Christmas had come and gone, and Kim had gulped slightly at the size of her very generous Christmas box from Lucas in the form of a cheque, and in the second week in January she and Melody had moved into the small but charming two-bedroomed cottage she had found not far from her daughter’s school.

And then the Monday of the third week was upon her, the first day June wouldn’t be there to cushion her from any minor panics, the other woman having left for Scotland the previous weekend. And Kim found she was as nervous as a child on its first day at school.

She’d gone to extra trouble with her appearance, the clothing allowance having enabled her to buy a new wardrobe consisting of several stylish, neatly tailored suits, blouses and accessories which perfectly projected the image Lucas Kane’s secretary needed to give, and Kim knew the dove-grey suit and salmon silk blouse complemented her English peaches and cream colouring.

Nevertheless, her soft brown eyes were wide and faintly anxious as she checked the coiled braid on the back of her head, her thick straight fringe just brushing the tops of her fine eyebrows.

‘Nothing has changed in the last forty-eight hours,’ she told the efficient-looking reflection softly. ‘You’ve been working for him for the last week or so with June doing little more than observing; you can handle anything now.’

Kim had to remind herself of that last comforting assurance in the next minute or two.

Over the last weeks she had slipped into the pattern of serving Lucas coffee as soon as she arrived in the office, but when, after the normal customary polite knock, Kim opened the door, it wasn’t the usual immaculately attired and perfectly groomed tycoon she had grown accustomed to who looked up from his desk.

Lucas had obviously been asleep until she had woken him, and now, as he straightened and peered at her from bleary eyes, Kim’s heartbeat went haywire.

It wasn’t the fact that he hadn’t shaved or brushed his hair, or that his dishevelled appearance bore evidence to the fact that he had slept in his clothes that had her insides turning cartwheels.

At some time during the last hours he had discarded his suit jacket along with his tie, and now his open shirt revealed a deep V of tanned flesh sprinkled with dark curling body hair and a muscled—devastatingly muscled—male chest of Olympic athlete proportions.

He worked out. He very clearly worked out. Kim was glued to the spot, the tray with the coffee and plate of biscuits wobbling dangerously in her hand. And he was… Well, he was something else, she admitted with silent shock. Clothed, he was pretty intimidating and all male, but partly clothed… No wonder June had told her that the fast car went with equally fast, glamorous women and a love ’em and leave ’em personal life where work—always—came first.

‘Not that it seems to put them off,’ June had murmured confidentially. ‘Of course, the circle he moves in are all of the same mind, I guess, so that helps. Lucas has never been one for the dumb blonde type female; he goes for brains as well as beauty. The last one was a lawyer, the one before that a mogul with her own business—they all seem to find him irresistible.’

She hadn’t made any comment at the time although she had silently told herself that irresistible was definitely not a word that came to mind when she thought of Lucas Kane, but now, if nothing else, she could appreciate what drew and held such women.

Taken off his guard like this, and with his office mode in abeyance for once, she was seeing the raw animal magnetism she had sensed once or twice—well, a lot more than once or twice, she admitted ruefully—in all its deadly power.

‘Hell, what’s the time?’ The silver eyes were clearing even as he spoke and granite was replacing the faint smoky hue that had been so stunningly sexy.

‘Eight-thirty.’ It was succinct but all she could manage until her hormones sorted themselves out.

‘Is that coffee? You’re an angel.’ He leant back in the chair and stretched magnificent muscles before raking back his hair, none of which did Kim’s equilibrium any favours. ‘I’ve been here most of the weekend; the Clarkson deal blew up in our face and needed some quality time.’

‘Right.’ Kim nodded in what she hoped was an informed, efficient sort of way and wondered if he was aware he was half naked. If he was it clearly didn’t bother him.

She placed the coffee and biscuits on the desk in front of him and prayed her face wasn’t as flushed as she feared it was.

‘But I’ve got it nailed.’ He reached for one of the biscuits and ate it in a hungry bite before reaching for another.

‘When did you eat last?’ she asked carefully.

‘Eat?’ The crystal-bright eyes that could be so piercingly intent were vague. ‘I don’t remember. Saturday, I think.’

‘Fancy some bacon sandwiches?’

‘Bacon sandwiches?’ He stared at her interestedly. ‘Don’t tell me you can provide those at a moment’s notice, Kim?’

‘Almost.’ She was fighting sexual arousal and it made her voice stiff. ‘There’s a little man on the corner who comes every morning in his mobile and does a roaring trade, apparently. Bacon sandwiches are his speciality.’

‘Then I’d like six rounds from your little man,’ Lucas said promptly, ‘with lashings of brown sauce.’

She inclined her head, as she imagined the estimable June would have done in the same circumstances, and forced herself to turn and walk towards the door. ‘I’ll be ten minutes or so,’ she said evenly over her shoulder and she didn’t look back.

She was fifteen minutes, and when she knocked for the second time that morning on Lucas’s door and walked into his office, her boss had transformed himself—courtesy of the small bathroom and dressing room, which were part of his executive suite—into his usual cool and impeccable self. But in spite of the fresh charcoal suit and pale blue shirt with matching tie, all Kim could see was a mental picture of acres and acres of finely honed muscled flesh and it was disconcerting, to say the least.

It didn’t help that his hair was still slightly damp from the shower and his freshly shaved face more relaxed than usual, either, and the hot prickle of overt sexual awareness that had hit her so forcefully earlier didn’t seem to want to die the death she was willing on it.

‘Six rounds of doorsteps with what looks like a pound of bacon in them,’ she said as expressionlessly as she could. ‘Eat them while they’re hot.’ She handed him the plate as she spoke.

‘You sound like my mother.’

His mother? She narrowed her eyes and smiled sweetly. ‘Don’t tell me you are one of those men who have a mother fixation,’ she said coolly before she thought too much about it and didn’t dare voice the tart retort which had sprung to mind.

‘I don’t think so.’ He was eyeing her with what could only be termed a glint, but a glint of what Kim wasn’t sure. ‘My mother is a wonderful woman and ideally suited to my father, but…no, I don’t think so.’ He took a bite of one of the sandwiches and closed his eyes in ecstasy.

‘How come I haven’t had bacon sandwiches from your little man before?’ he asked almost petulantly.

‘Because you didn’t ask?’ she suggested daringly.

The silver eyes fastened on her, pinning her to the spot, and Lucas smiled slowly. ‘I only have to ask?’ he drawled lazily.

She might have known she had no chance of winning in a war of words with him! Kim was disturbingly aware that something had shifted in the last few minutes, something that had been bubbling away under the surface from the first moment she had laid eyes on Lucas Kane—something that couldn’t, mustn’t, have expression. ‘I’ll get you another cup of coffee.’ She had turned and swept out of the room before he had time to take another bite.

Lucas smiled faintly to himself. There was more, much more, to his efficient, beautiful new secretary than met the eye; he had known that from the beginning. And was that why he had been tempted to choose Kim above other more qualified, experienced candidates?

The thought didn’t sit well with him and the smile turned into a frown. He had chosen Kim Allen because she was the most suitable applicant—qualifications and experience weren’t necessarily the be-all and end-all of a working relationship, he told himself sharply. There had to be a spark, a cutting edge, a quality that was undefinable but which told you any association would be healthy and productive without becoming dull or boring. He had never wanted a mindless android who wouldn’t say boo to a goose. That was why he had chosen Kim. And her qualifications were pretty good too, as was her experience.