Juggling Briefcase & Baby

pushchair and walked back to Lex’s luxury apartment.

They decided not to make an announcement about their supposed relationship, but wait for speculation and gossip to start circulating around the office. Romy assumed this would happen very quickly, but it took a surprisingly long time for her colleagues to suspect that anything might have occurred between her and Lex on the trip to Scotland.

This might have had something to do with the fact that Lex ignored her completely at the office. Romy returned to a heroine’s welcome the day after their return. Her fellow members of the acquisitions team were full of admiration.

‘How brave of you to spend all that time with Lex Gibson,’ was the typical reaction. ‘I’d have been terrified!’ And then, leaning closer, ‘What was he like?’

Romy thought about Lex in the snow, grinning as he held the snowball over her. She thought about him struggling to change Freya’s nappy, his hair on end and his tie askew. She thought about the way his hand had skimmed lovingly over her hip, his slow smile as he drew her to him again, and her throat closed.

‘He was fine.’

‘I hear he’s coming to the meeting this morning. He must be pleased with us. He never leaves his office!’

There was much shuffling and straightening of ties when Lex appeared at the departmental meeting. He had a formidable presence, Romy thought, trying to see him through her colleagues’ eyes. He wasn’t particularly tall or particularly handsome, but he had an air of cool authority that meant he dominated a room just by walking into it.

To the others, their chief executive must look austere and remote. His manner was brusque, and with that severe expression, the inflexible mouth, and those unnervingly pale eyes, it was easy to see how he had gained a reputation as an unfeeling tyrant. Lex might be respected, even admired, by his staff, but he wasn’t liked. He lacked his brother Phin’s easy charm.

But when Romy’s eyes rested on his stern mouth, her heart crumbled. When she watched his hands, a flood of warmth dissolved her bones. She shifted uneasily in her chair, convinced that everyone must be able to see her glowing, humming with awareness of him, but no one was looking at her. Their attention was focused on Lex, who outlined the discussions at Duncardie and congratulated Tim and the team on their hard work setting up the deal.

‘Perhaps we should make a special mention of Romy?’ said Tim, who had thanked Romy effusively earlier. ‘I’m certainly very grateful to her for stepping in at the last moment.’

Then, of course, they did all look at her. There were some smiles and even winks from those in no danger of being seen by Lex.

‘Indeed.’ Lex’s eyes rested indifferently on Romy’s burning face. ‘She was very helpful.’

Helpful! Romy’s lips tightened with annoyance. Couldn’t he have found something a little less chilly to say? What was wrong with, I couldn’t have done it without her, for instance? Nobody was ever going to guess they were having an affair if he carried on like that!

It was clear that the others thought he could have been more effusive, too. There was a slightly awkward pause.

‘Well…well done, everybody!’ Tim brought the meeting to a close. ‘I think a team outing is called for.’ He raised a hand to quell the stir of anticipation before it got out of hand. ‘Keep next Friday free and we’ll celebrate in style.’

Lex got to his feet. ‘Good work,’ he said to everyone and that cool gaze didn’t even pause on Romy as it swept impersonally round the room. ‘Enjoy yourselves next Friday. You’ve deserved it.’

Correctly interpreting this to mean that, (a) he wasn’t planning on spoiling their fun by turning up, and, (b) the celebratory bash would be covered by the company, everyone relaxed and a buzz of conversation and laughter broke out the moment Lex had left the room.

Romy forced herself to join in, but it was an effort. Reluctant as she was to admit it, she was miffed. Lex shouldn’t have been able to look at her with that expression of utter indifference, not when she had been sitting there positively throbbing with awareness!

She was still feeling cross that evening when Lex came home. She had just finished bathing Freya and the sound of the door opening made her heart jerk, which did nothing to improve her temper.

Well, she wasn’t going to rush out and welcome him home, Romy decided. If he thought she was going to have his pipe and slippers ready for him, he had another think coming! Trying to ignore the knotting of her entrails, she finished tidying the bathroom before she picked up Freya and made her way out to the open plan living area.

Lex was in the kitchen at the black granite worktop that divided the cooking from the living area. Romy had cooked Freya macaroni cheese for her supper earlier, and the counter behind him was still cluttered with open packets of butter and flour, with milk and cheese and apple cores. Wisely, Lex had turned his back on the mess and was reading his post, but he looked up when Romy appeared.

‘Oh. Hello,’ she said, deliberately cool.

Unfortunately, Freya was sending out a very different message by beaming at him in a way that disconcerted Lex quite as much as it annoyed Romy.

Freya had only just learnt to flirt, and had spent most of the flight home the day before practising on him. There had been a lot of smiling and peeping glances under her lashes. Quite why her daughter had picked Lex as a favourite, Romy wasn’t sure. He certainly did nothing to encourage her. It was clear, in fact, that all the attention made him uneasy, but Freya was undeterred by his lack of response.

Now here she was, looking delighted to see that he was home, while he just stood there looking dour! Quickly, Romy put her on the floor with all her toys, where she was soon diverted.

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘HELLO,’ said Lex, dropping the credit-card statement he’d been studying onto the worktop. There was no mistaking the coolness in Romy’s voice, and he eyed her warily. ‘How did you get on today?’

‘Well, I spent most of it accepting commiserations about having to spend three whole days with you,’ said Romy. She moved past him to start clearing up the debris from Freya’s supper. ‘Having seen the way you barely recognised me in that meeting, they all think you ignored me the whole time. If you want word to get round that we’re a couple, you’re going to have to try harder than that!’

Lex wrenched at his tie to loosen it. ‘I thought we’d decided not to make an announcement?’

‘Yes, because we want people to guess and start gossiping. They’re never going to guess if you look through me and have trouble remembering my name! You had the perfect opportunity to hint that you think I’m special, but no! “She was very helpful,”’ Romy mimicked his austere tones as she scraped the last few pieces of pasta from Freya’s bowl and let the bin close with a rattle. ‘Was that really the best you could do?’

‘What did you want me to do? Throw you across the table and ravish you in front of all your colleagues?’

‘A smile would have done it.’ Romy began closing packets and putting everything away. ‘That would have been so unusual they’d all have twigged straight away that there was something going on. As it was, none of them have a clue!’

‘Well, I’m sorry,’ said Lex stiffly, ‘but it felt awkward.’

‘You can say that again. I’m now the person who can spend three days with her boss without him realising that I even exist!’

Lex rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. ‘I suppose I was thrown,’ he admitted. ‘I knew you’d be there, of course, but it was…odd…seeing you in a work context.’

A little mollified, Romy wrung out a cloth and wiped down the counter. ‘I’d say you’d have to try harder next time, but we’re not likely to have another meeting together, are we? We managed to work in the same office for six months without even seeing each other. I wonder if we should go in together for a few days? Someone is bound to notice that.’

Lex was usually at the office by seven o’clock, but the next morning found him walking into the gleaming