often taunted her. Yet he had almost convinced her that her lack of response was the sole reason for their incompatibility.
No, she wasn’t passionless. Eden Cassidy had more than dispelled that allegation.
Keira sighed. How different it had been this morning with Eden.
Her fingers went to her mouth, and it tingled anew at her evocative memories. She could almost feel the way his lips had teased, the way his tongue-tip had…
Resolutely Keira pushed her titillating thoughts from her mind and walked into the kitchen to prepare a snack for her dinner.
Roxie was right. There was no comparison between Dennis and Eden Cassidy. Dennis had been all show, a handsome face with no character, while Eden was all that any woman could admire. Attractive. Self-possessed. Strong in personality and body. And incredibly sexy.
Everything a woman could want. Everything a woman could fall hopelessly in love with…
Keira pulled her fanciful reflections to a dead halt. Love. She swallowed as a surge of heat raced over her skin. In love with Eden Cassidy.
‘Oh, no!’ she groaned softly, and the cat was instantly alert to her desperate tone.
He uncurled himself from the sofa and sprang up on to the breakfast bar to sit in front of her, gazing at her with unprecedented attention.
For once Keira forgot to reprimand him for climbing on to what was usually a restricted area, and she stroked his sleek coat.
‘Tell me I couldn’t be so foolish as to fall in love with Eden Cassidy, Roger,’ she beseeched him, and the cat blinked cryptically. ‘Eden Cassidy, of all people.’
But what if her feelings for him were reciprocated? Her heart swelled at the thought. Perhaps his attraction to her, an attraction he hadn’t denied, meant…
Just as suddenly Keira quelled the wild torrent of delight. She was allowing her imagination to be fuelled by simply wishing something were so. It was all a flight of fancy. It couldn’t be anything else, Eden Cassidy had his pick of any number of beautiful women, so why would he choose someone as ordinary as Keira Strong?
‘Oh, Roger. What am I going to do?’ Keira asked into the cat’s warm brown fur.
And she spent what remained of the evening dwelling on that very subject.
Well into the night she tossed and turned, alternately chiding herself and then sanctioning her brief loss of control. As Roxie had said, it had been a long time since she had so much as thought about the libidinous side of her life. She was a normal healthy adult, she justified as she tried unsuccessfully to force her sybaritic reminiscences to the furthermost reaches of her mind.
She finally dozed off in the early hours of the morning only to sleep through her alarm, and for the first time in her life she was late for work.
‘Heavy traffic?’ Daniel asked as he followed her into her office with the morning’s mail.
‘Something like that,’ she replied, slipping off the jacket of her suit.
‘Must be everyone rushing out to buy a copy of
Reluctantly Keira smiled. ‘We live in hope.’
‘No worries. It’ll sell like hot cakes. Eden thinks so too.’
‘Oh.’ Keira fought to keep her expression non-committal, when just the mention of his name made her pulse beat so erratically.
‘Yes. I only saw him for a few minutes yesterday when he arrived at the apartment to change. He had an appointment with Cat’s father but ended up having to leave the final negotiations to Denver. He’s on his way to the States.’
Keira blinked at this last piece of information. Eden hadn’t said-She stopped her train of thought. There hadn’t been time yesterday morning for him to tell her anything. If he had wanted to, she rebuked herself harshly.
‘Megan rang,’ Daniel was continuing, ‘and he was flying straight over to join her. He said he didn’t know when he’d be back.’
An icy hand wrapped chilling fingers around Keira’s heart and began to squeeze painfully. Eden and Megan Donnelly. How could she have forgotten again? Their relationship was supposed to be more than a business one. Even Daniel had hinted as much.
‘Well, I guess I should leave you to it.’ Daniel’s voice filtered through her anguish.
‘Yes.’ Keira found her voice and made a show of sorting the mail until Daniel had left.
If she had needed any confirmation of her foolishness then Daniel’s revelations were proof positive. Eden Cassidy didn’t intend to make her a part of his life. She had been stupid even to presume that he might. His heavy workload would only allow for brief episodes like the interlude this morning.
And she had her own career to consider, hadn’t she? Maintaining a career and a relationship would be like walking a tightrope.
What relationship? she asked herself mercilessly. She’d been there in his hour of need. That was all it had been.
And he’d been there to assuage her own undeniable desire, she reminded herself honestly. He’d certainly made no commitment to her. Her anger stirred at her folly, for she knew a part of her had been weaving just such romantic dreams.
The first issue of the magazine had all but sold out, far exceeding their forecast sales. But Keira could glean no joy from knowing she had excelled at combining the right ingredients to achieve such success or that it seemed she had justified Eden’s faith in her.
The week had passed with painful slowness and each day she seemed to grow more and more despondent. With Roxie away on an assignment she couldn’t even depend on the other girl’s bright humour to cheer her up. And stubbornly she refused to admit to herself that Eden’s silence was the reason for her lack of enthusiasm for anything.
Yet this morning, when Daniel had casually mentioned that Eden’s flight was arriving at one o’clock, her heart had leapt in her breast before she could quell her sudden excitement.
Perhaps he would ring…? Keira mocked her optimism. She had to learn to put him out of her mind. And she valiantly tried to lose herself in the pile of paperwork on her desk.
But she clock-watched until she knew his plane had touched down. Then she set her nerves on edge waiting for the phone to ring.
Thoroughly disgusted with herself, she picked up the list of articles that were to appear in the second issue of the magazine and checked them off. Then she paused, going through the list again. One of the articles was missing.
With a grimace she headed across the floor to knock on the door to Denver Clarkson’s office.
‘Mrs Strong. Come in. Come in.’ Denver stood up and hurried around his desk to pull up a chair for her. ‘Make yourself comfortable. Would you like some coffee? Or maybe a cup of tea?’
‘No, thank you. I’m fine.’ Keira sat down tentatively, wondering why she disliked Denver Clarkson. To all outward appearances he was quite innocuous but there was something about him that set Keira’s teeth on edge.
Denver returned to his chair. ‘I’ve just received some up-to-date feedback on sales of the first issue of
‘Yes. I saw the figures too. Far better than we’d hoped,’ Keira replied, unable to relax, and she made herself sit back in her seat.
‘However, it’s early days yet and we’ve a long way to go. I know you realise one good issue doesn’t necessarily mean a thing in today’s publishing climate.’
Keira nodded and opened her mouth to ask him about the missing article, but he was continuing.
‘We have to keep producing the goods, so to speak. This is a big responsibility for you, my dear, your first magazine, and I know you want to succeed.’ He raised his sandy eyebrows and Keira had to refrain from informing him that the magazine, her original magazine, had already been a success in its own right five years ago, although admittedly the circulation had been smaller.
‘Of course,’ she replied flatly. ‘I’m sure we needn’t worry, Mr Clarkson. I think you’ll find the second issue will be even better than the first.’
