Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [20]
‘I’d better go,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s quite late now. Shall I carry the files home with me or will you take them in tomorrow morning?’
‘I’ll bring them in with me,’ be said, following her to the door.
O’Leary was at the front door, and he glared at the both of them, as if blaming them for having to get out of bed.
‘Goodbye,’ Natalie said politely, in control now. She made to move away, but before she could Kane’s fingers curled around her elbow, and he said softly, his green eyes betraying no expression whatsoever,
‘I know you want to pretend that what happened just then didn’t, but I think you ought to consider your relationship with this Eric chap very carefully if I am capable of arousing you the way that I did.’ He paused and Natalie controlled the urge to commit first-degree murder. ‘Are you serious about him?’ he asked with a sudden flush.
With an effort, her grey eyes met his steadily. ‘Yes,’ she said with a sudden spurt of inspiration. ‘Yes, as a matter of fact I am. And, just to set the record straight, I may have felt something just then, in the heat of the moment, but I very much doubt it had a great deal to do with you.’ She stopped and thought briefly about what she was going to say next ‘I’m afraid I can’t take alcohol. It makes me muddle-headed; I tend to act out of character after a couple of glasses of wine.’ She gave a tinkling laugh as if to imply, Dear me, I hate to shatter your ego, but…and continued, ‘You could have been anyone.’
That, she thought, had to be one of the biggest lies she had ever told, but the situation demanded it. She had every intention of walking out of this apartment with her dignity intact, at least in the eyes of Kane Marshall, and if that meant telling a few white lies, then so be it.
‘Could I?’ he said grimly. ‘Shall we put that to the test, my darling, dedicated little secretary?’
Natalie felt a rush of hot colour flood her cheeks, but she stood her ground, and when she replied there was not so much as a quiver in her voice, even though her heart was thudding painfully in her chest.
‘I don’t think that that’s in my job description, do you?’
There was no answer to that one. He stared down at her, and then moved on towards the front door, where he told the taxi driver, in curt tones, to charge the fare to the Marshall company account. The taxi driver grinned. He had done business with Kane Marshall before. He worked for the firm who dealt with all the Marshall Corporation travel. Now he surreptitiously scanned Natalie’s face with interest, and she looked away, quite aware of what was going through his head.
How many other women had he picked up from this address? He assumed that she was one in the usual line.
‘I’ll see you in the morning, Mr Marshall,’ Natalie said, pointedly emphasising the Mr so that no one was in any doubt that her relationship with Kane Marshall was not a sexual one.
He gave her a mocking smile and drawled, ‘Of course, Miss Robins,’ then he vanished into the interior of the house and she slipped into the taxi, glad for the opportunity to gather her thoughts together, even though she didn’t care for them at all.
She was still shaking from what had happened inside there. It had been a disaster on an unthinkable scale, because there was so much more at stake then simply her pride. If it had just been her pride, she could have walked away and in due course slotted the whole incident to the back of her mind. A mistake. An unfortunate one, but nevertheless nothing that could not be relegated to that safe category of invaluable experience.
But she was in love with Kane Marshall. Something that was unimportant to him now threatened to consume her. One thing for sure—she was not going to let him get any ideas into his head. She had told him that her response was due to the heady carelessness brought on by the alcohol and she was going to stick to that excuse as if her life depended on it. At least she had had the foresight to imply that her heart was tied up elsewhere, namely with Eric.
She thought of