by Emma Darcy
‘How does Crawley intend to use my mother?’ His voice was flat, unemotional.
‘I don’t know, David,’ Caitlin answered quietly. ‘He laughed about it. He said he intended to break you psychologically and your mother was the key. He was gloating. It made me sick. The man is a sadist, David. He enjoys hurting others.’
He winced and looked away, but not before Caitlin saw the sickness he felt. He shook his head as though he couldn’t believe, didn’t want to believe what she had told him. Yet when he faced her again there was pained acceptance in his eyes.
‘Thank you for sticking by me, Caitlin.’ His voice was low and strained. ‘God knows I’ve given you no reason to.’
‘You helped me yesterday.’
And I love you.
Maybe the silent message showed in her eyes. He looked discomforted. Yesterday he had wanted to keep her with him, but he hadn’t trusted her when put to the test. It put him in the wrong. Badly in the wrong.
‘Did everything finish up right last night?’ he asked.
‘Very much so.’ A smile fleetingly touched her lips at the memory of her mother and father dancing and singing together. ‘You did a great job.’
David’s mouth curled in self-mockery. ‘You could say Crawley taught me a lesson.’ His eyes wandered over her, not with desire, more as though he was seeing her anew. When he lifted his gaze to hers, his expression reflected some inner torment. ‘I should have given you the roses.’
She looked down at the desk, disquieted by his torment. ‘I guess it wasn’t that kind of relationship,’ she said dully, her eyes fastening on the letter of resignation.
Maybe it would never be...for him. He had kept her at a distance all along. She knew so little about him. She hadn’t even known about his mother. ‘You don’t have to feel guilty about it, David,’ she blurted out defensively. ‘You didn’t force me into anything I didn’t want, and it’s not your fault that I wanted more than you did.’
‘I wasn’t aware,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m sorry that you felt...so...unappreciated.’
Unloved.
Her heart clenched. Was she aiming for the impossible? She couldn’t bear to look at him, to see the answer in his eyes. She stared at her signature on the letter of resignation. ‘Perhaps it’s best that I leave now,’ she said, giving him the opportunity to state his feelings, wanting him to be honest, yet dreading it.
Silence.
Caitlin felt the whole weight of her future pressing down on her. She fiercely willed David to meet her halfway on the path towards the closeness she desperately wanted with him.
‘I realise...that after last night...’ he began with obvious difficulty.
Caitlin held her breath. Her mind screamed at him...don’t let me go!
‘If you can find it in your heart to give me...us...another chance, Caitlin...I want you to stay on with me,’ he said, each word measured as though chosen with great care.
Caitlin’s mind dizzied with relief. She breathed again. She lived again. It took her several moments to regain enough composure to lift her head and look David straight in the eye. ‘I need your trust, David.’
‘You have it. It will never falter again, Caitlin. That I promise you,’ he answered gravely.
She wanted to ask about his mother, but was wary of pressing too far, too soon. There had to be some highly sensitive issue involved for David to have reacted in the way he had to the idea of Crawley’s exploiting it. Leave well enough alone for now, she decided. She had achieved her first aim. There could be no love without trust.
‘Thank you,’ she said, wishing he would close the distance between them, haul her into his arms, and kiss her with all the pent-up need she felt. He looked as if he was tempted, very tempted. But they were in the office. That had always imposed restraints.
Break them! The rebellious thought burned through her mind. Then she remembered the miserable failure of her attempt to break David’s schedule yesterday morning, and how it had eaten away his trust last night. An agreement was an agreement. Although she was not going to agree to it any more. If David wanted to resume a love-affair with her, the terms had to change. Love shouldn’t have to remain bottled up and hidden half the time.
She forced her mind to push that issue into abeyance and concentrate on business. ‘A fax came in from the German delegation. You’d better read it,’ she said crisply, then turned to tear the sheet of paper out of the machine.
It would certainly test David’s trust, she thought ruefully. Herr Schmidt had confirmed that he and his associates had spent yesterday afternoon talking to Michael Crawley. He didn’t precisely say that any deal with the Hartley company was dead, but it was plain he expected David to woo him back to the conference table if there was to be any further talking.
She heard David coming towards her and took a few deep calming breaths before turning to hand him the page of potential dynamite. She didn’t realise how close he was to her until she swung around and bumped into him. His hands surrounded her waist. To steady her? Or...? She glanced up sharply, unaware of the flash of intense vulnerability in her eyes.
‘Caitlin...’ It was a raw groan. He lifted a hand to her cheek, touching it as though driven by the need to feel her skin, her flesh, her warmth. The tortured questions in his eyes were suddenly consumed by a flare of desire. His fingers raked through her hair. He scooped her body against his. Before Caitlin could catch her breath his mouth was on hers, hungry, urgent, seeking possession with a passion that would not be denied.
It was a fierce and total abandonment of his office rules. Caitlin did not know what had triggered it. She didn’t care. It swept away all the fears and nerve-tearing tension that had made hell of the hours of loneliness. It was release, reassurance, re-affirmation of what they felt with each other, and so intense were the feelings aroused that they left little room for thought of where this might lead.
An insistent little voice in the back of her mind started beating a drum of warning. She was giving in again, demonstrating to David that she was his to take whenever he felt like it. Was she going to let him have his way with her? Suit his convenience? Wasn’t this putting her back to where she was before she had walked out yesterday?
She wrenched her mouth from his, ashamed of her feverish response to his kisses. ‘No,’ she gasped, shaking her head out of his grasp in protest.
Her eyes flew up to his in harried confusion. He wanted her. He wanted her so much that he didn’t care what any staff member who happened upon them might think. But she cared. She didn’t want to be thought of as David Hartley’s ‘affair on the side’. It cheapened what she felt.
‘David, I’m here as your assistant. Nothing else,’ she declared, her green eyes fiercely challenging the power of his attraction and his expectation that she was always going to succumb to it.
‘Sorry, I forgot,’ he said apologetically. ‘Please remind me if it happens again.’ He was as unrepentant as it was possible to be.
Caitlin had the impression from the manner in which his eyes were shining at her that she might have to remind him on a regular and frequent basis.
He was still pressing her body to his. There was satisfaction reflected in his eyes. Caitlin rebelled against it, pushing herself out of his embrace. Only then did she see the forgotten, half-crumpled fax in her hand.
‘Look at this!’ she cried, shaking it at him. ‘It’s not good news, David.’ She knew from previous incidents how he would react when he saw it. She would be forgotten.
He took the sheet and scanned the print with about as much interest as he would give to junk mail. ‘Caitlin, tell them to deal with Crawley if they wish, but we’re not interested in dealing with anyone who deals with Crawley.’ He tossed the page into the disposal bin.
‘But you...I thought...’ She bit her lips. It was his decision and it was not her place to question it, yet it was such a turnaround of attitude from him.
He turned to her, his eyes ablaze with some newly born convicti
on. ‘Crawley hurt you. He intends to hurt me. He intends to hurt...’ He grimaced. ‘No business is worth the cost of hurting people I care about.’
Caitlin’s heart skipped a little.
‘Now that’s settled, Caitlin, I’m going to talk to my mother and prepare her for what’s coming. I’m going home.’
Her pleasure in what had seemed real caring for her was somewhat punctured. David had claims placed on him by his mother that took priority over her. In the circumstances she shouldn’t mind. But she did. After what had happened between them Caitlin needed a lot of reassurance.
‘Wouldn’t it be faster to ring her?’ she asked.
He looked pained. ‘This isn’t something I wish to talk about over the phone.’
She reined in her need to know, hoping he would trust her enough to confide everything to her very soon. ‘I’ll take care of whatever needs taking care of,’ she assured him.
His eyes softened, caressing her with a warmth that he had never shown before. ‘Your father thinks the world of you. And I think your father is a fairly astute man.’
A sweet wave of heat flooded through her body. It was such a nice thing to tell her! She wasn’t used to David being nice to her. Riveting, magnetic, dynamic, passionate...a force of nature that she had found it impossible to resist...but nice was definitely something new...and very heart-warming.
She mused over what this difference meant as she watched him stride to the door, his vitality restored. He paused when he reached it, as though struck by some afterthought. He looked back. She hadn’t moved. The sense of the world having tilted slightly in her favour was heady stuff.
David’s cobalt-blue eyes flashed with purpose. ‘What kind of horse do you want, Caitlin?’
The question startled her. ‘I haven’t thought about it.’
‘Think about it,’ he commanded. ‘I’ll be back.’ He used his fingertips to blow her a kiss.
After he had left her, Caitlin did give it thought. It conjured up a lot of ideas, a lot of feelings, a lot of dreams about the future. She made one very firm resolution. If David Hartley thought she could be bought—body, mind and soul—with a horse, he could think again. She would accept the horse. No hesitation about that. But what happened afterwards depended upon a lot of other things.
His good behaviour was one thing.
Being introduced to his mother was another!
CHAPTER TWELVE
CAITLIN spent some time composing a reply to the fax from the German delegation. She couched it in terms that left the door open for them to come back to a negotiating position with Hartley’s, but stated quite clearly that if they wished to deal with Crawley, the responsibility for the consequences was theirs alone.
Caitlin felt satisfied with that. She hoped the word, ‘consequences’, would give pause for thought. She didn’t see why Crawley should be handed the business on a platter, not after the heartache he had given both her and David yesterday. The man was a monster, without conscience or heart. She hated the thought of him winning anything.
She transmitted the reply and was in the process of filing it when a thought occurred to her. She rang Jenny at reception.
‘Hi! It’s Caitlin.’
‘Oh, Caitlin!’ Jenny sounded surprised. ‘I didn’t see you come in this morning,’ she quickly added. ‘What can I do for you?’
Caitlin’s heart sank. She didn’t want Jenny to be Crawley’s informer. Although he had dropped Jenny’s name last night, Caitlin had thought that could have been quite deliberate. It would amuse Crawley to get someone who was innocent into trouble. Perhaps Jenny’s excuse for being surprised was genuine. Caitlin hoped so.
‘Tell me, Jenny, who came into my office yesterday after I left here?’ she asked.
‘Mr Hartley,’ she answered promptly.
‘How do you know?’
‘He used your extension to dial out.’
‘Who else?’
‘Herr Schmidt.’
‘How do you know?’
‘He wanted me to get some information on entertainment. What was on at the Opera House. Things like that. He used your extension to talk to me.’
‘Who else, Jenny?’
‘No one.’
Caitlin paused to consider.
‘Jenny, if you can’t think of anyone else who might have come into my office, I think you had better come up and see me.’
A long pause.
‘There was one other person,’ Jenny confessed. She sounded scared.
‘Who, Jenny?’ Caitlin pressed.
‘Me. I wanted to see the roses again,’ she gushed, anxious to excuse herself. ‘I saw them delivered in the morning before you arrived. They were so lovely, much nicer than the ones my boyfriend gave me. I was just a teeny bit envious. I’m sorry, Caitlin. I swear I didn’t do anything. I didn’t touch a thing.’
She didn’t have to, Caitlin reflected. All she had to do was read her letter of resignation.
‘Oh, Jenny...’
‘I swear I didn’t do anything wrong, Caitlin. I swear it.’
‘No one else came into my office?’
‘I’m certain of it. Paul Jordan came back a little before closing time. He chatted to me about his day for a few minutes, how he hoped to close a really big deal, then went home. The other salesmen filtered through. The factory manager came in, but no one else, literally no one went upstairs.’
‘Thank you, Jenny.’
‘Is everything OK?’
Caitlin hesitated, wishing she could let Jenny off the hook. Perhaps it was no more than an indiscretion. But such indiscretions had to be stopped. ‘I’m afraid it isn’t, Jenny,’ Caitlin said sadly, and hung up.
The mail arrived. She dealt with it as far as she could and made preparatory notes for David’s attention. Business calls came in. She took messages and made appointments.
Caitlin was so busy that she did not notice time passing. Jenny’s involvement with the flow of information concerning David Hartley’s business activities to Michael Crawley kept surfacing in her mind. Caitlin’s own involvement with David Hartley, and what the future held, was never far from her consciousness.
When David returned to the office, his face was set in stern, unyielding lines. Implacable. Resolute. Caitlin knew the look. Whatever David had determined on as his course of action, his mind was made up and there was very little that anyone could do to change it.
‘There’s a few things that need to be done,’ he said, ‘before I’ll be completely free.’
‘There’s something I think you need to know,’ Caitlin said, ‘before you do anything.’
It made David pause. ‘What?’ he enquired.
Caitlin told him of her conversation with Jenny. David listened while she repeated word for word what had been said between them. When Caitlin finished, David ran his fingertips along his jawline. ‘That puts the seal on it,’ he said. ‘Thank you, Caitlin. I know exactly what to do.’
Caitlin couldn’t suppress an internal quiver of dismay. She hadn’t known Jenny well, but she had seemed a nice enough person. To believe that she had been Michael Crawley’s informant somehow destroyed confidence in other human beings.
‘What are you going to do?’ she asked David.
‘Ring Anderson, the accountant,’ he said.
Caitlin’s mind did a double-take. Of all the responses she thought David would make, this was one she had never contemplated. She picked up the phone, hit the automatic dialling, and waited until she was connected before she passed the instrument to David.
He sat on the edge of the desk, relaxed, self-confident, arrogant. ‘Jeremy, this is David Hartley. I want you to drop everything you’re doing, come over here, and run my business for a few days.’
Silence as he listened to the response.
‘Jeremy, it’s no good telling me this is an unreasonable expectation. I need you here until I can install a general manager.’
Caitlin’s mind did a triple-take. What on earth did David th
ink he was doing? Giving up the ground to Crawley? Distancing himself from some perceived danger? For David to pass over the reins of his business to someone else would be like cutting off his hands. It was so unlike anything she’d ever seen or heard or known of him that it felt as if the whole world was turning upside down.
‘I know it will rip your schedule to pieces,’ David was saying. ‘What do you think has happened to my schedule? It’s so ripped to pieces, there’s no schedule left at all.’
Caitlin could hear the sound of the raised voice on the other end of the phone even from where she was sitting.
‘It’s no good getting excited, Jeremy,’ David said smoothly. ‘If you can’t handle my needs, then I’ll have to get a firm of accountants who can.’
The sound of the raised voice diminished.
‘Dalhunty is the best in the field,’ David said. ‘He’ll be the new general manager.’
A further pause.
‘Jeremy, I don’t think you understood what I told you. I didn’t say I was trying to get Dalhunty. I already have him. He starts next Monday. You’re deputising for me here until such time as Dalhunty commences.’
A much shorter pause.
‘Thank you, Jeremy. I knew I would have your fullest co-operation. When you do get here in a couple of hours’ time you’ll find a few staff changes have been made. Simply carry on from there. I’d advise bringing your personal secretary with you.’ His eyes targeted Caitlin with their magnetic power fully charged. ‘My assistant will be accompanying me.’
David put the phone down.
Caitlin was now completely bewildered. ‘What does this mean?’
‘It means it’s time to see Jenny. Would you call her and ask her to step up to the office, please, Caitlin?’
She did as he requested. ‘What now?’ Caitlin asked bleakly, feeling miserable for the young receptionist although accepting that the matter couldn’t be overlooked.
‘I think we should be as gentle as possible.’
‘We?’ Caitlin looked at David as if she had never seen him before. David had never said we at any other time. Before today it would have been I. His decision. He was linking himself to her, as if they had a common bond, a common purpose. Which led to the burning questions...where was he expecting her to accompany him? For how long? For what purpose?
