The Beautiful Widow

by Helen Brooks

  ‘OK.’ It was all she could manage, having caught the clean scent of his aftershave as he’d raked his fingers through his hair. It was a habit of his, the attempt to control the quiff of hair that was forever falling onto his forehead no matter how short he had his hair. She could imagine its refusal to obey irritated him no end. She didn’t know how it had the temerity!

  He also narrowed his eyes slightly and pulled at his left ear when he was considering something, became completely deadpan when he was unsure of his ground—which wasn’t often—and had a delicious way of quirking his mouth when something had struck him funny when it shouldn’t have.

  Oh, she knew quite a bit about what made her one-in-a-million boss tick, Toni thought wryly. Apart from his love life. In all their discussions he’d never mentioned women, for which she was eternally grateful. And the office grapevine had gone silent on the subject too. Normally, apparently, Steel’s latest woman was discussed and dissected at length. The last one to be mentioned—a flame-haired attorney with a body to die for, according to most of the men—had bit the dust months and months ago. Rumour had it that Barbara Gonzalo had been as passionate and vibrant as her name suggested, but she’d committed the cardinal sin of falling in love with him. She had been very vocal when he’d finished their relationship, even going so far as to storm into the office the morning after and cause a scene that had rocked the building. Toni could just imagine how that had gone down with Steel.

  They left the office and entered the lift, and once it had deposited them in Reception he took her elbow as they crossed the foyer. Immediately a heated weakness suffused her body. It was always the same. His slightest touch seemed to set off a chain reaction in her body she was powerless to do anything about.

  They were in the Aston Martin and on their way before he said, ‘This project is slightly different from the others, Toni.’

  Glad he was speaking at last—he’d been silent and withdrawn so far—she nodded in what she hoped was an efficient way. ‘Oh, yes?’ she asked encouragingly.

  ‘I’m thinking of buying a house, somewhere I can escape to but which is still not too far from London.’

  Completely taken aback, she stared at the expressionless profile. ‘Oh.’ Not exactly an intelligent comment, a separate part of her brain noted. Bringing her mind to bear, she said, ‘And you want me to suggest ideas if you decide it’s what you want? Throw a few facts and figures into the equation?’

  ‘Exactly. You’re a woman—’

  So he had noticed, Toni thought sourly. How kind.

  ‘And you’ll provide a different viewpoint as well as a creative slant. It’ll need plenty doing to it if I buy it.’

  She nodded again. ‘I see.’ She thought of his apartment—ultra-modern and gadget-mad with enough stainless steel and neutrality to satisfy any self-respecting bachelor—and knew she wasn’t going to like this house. She didn’t fool herself that when he spoke of ‘escaping’ it would be by himself, and everything in her baulked at the idea of contributing to a love nest for Steel and his entourage of women. Stifling her emotion, she said quietly, ‘Have you seen the property before?’

  ‘Had a look at it a few days back.’

  Had he been alone then or with someone? Just because the gossip mongers hadn’t got hold of his latest partner it didn’t mean he was currently single. Why would he be?

  Once they had left the city behind the road snaked past barren white fields, the grizzled countryside they were beginning to travel past stark and bare but holding a desolate beauty nonetheless. Toni relaxed a little. She loved the country. Both her mother’s and father’s parents had lived deep in Hertfordshire, which was where her parents had grown up and met, and she could recall wonderful summer holidays at their respective homes when she’d been as free as a bird to run wild from morning till night. Real log fires; cottage gardens ablaze with all the old-fashioned flowers like hollyhocks and lupins and sweet peas and a beautifully tended vegetable patch; warm, fresh brown eggs for breakfast from her grandparents’ much-loved and cosseted hens, and listening to the owl hooting outside the house when she was snug in bed—it had been a magical time. She had been truly happy then, before the world and its ways had thrust her into a harsher awareness of life.

  They passed a couple of towns and villages and had been travelling for quite a while before Steel murmured, ‘Not much further now. The house is set by itself just outside a village, but a large market town is only ten miles away so it’s not too remote a location.’

  Toni nodded but didn’t comment. The journey had been conducted in almost total silence and, for some reason she couldn’t explain, she was feeling nervous. It wasn’t only that she was alone with Steel, although that always caused an agitated trembling deep inside, but he seemed different this morning somehow. Over the last months, working so closely together on his pet projects, she’d thought she had seen all his moods, but this was a new one. The man had more guises than a chameleon.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked suddenly, pulling off the main road and into a long country lane guarded by sentinel-like trees either side of the high hedgerow.

  ‘The matter?’ She glanced quickly at him but he was concentrating on a bend in the lane and the hard profile gave nothing away. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘You were frowning.’ He smiled. ‘Quite distinctly.’

  ‘Was I?’ she asked in genuine surprise.

  ‘What were you thinking?’ he asked softly.

  She knew him well enough by now to know he would persist until he got an answer, and he always seemed to be able to detect a lie. Keeping her voice steady, she said, ‘I was just thinking you don’t seem yourself this morning, that’s all.’

  He shot her a look of sardonic amusement. ‘Is that so?’ he drawled lazily. ‘And what, exactly, is myself?’

  ‘I’m sorry?’ She wished she hadn’t spoken now.

  ‘How would you sum me up, Toni?’

  This conversation wasn’t going at all as she wanted. There had been one or two other occasions lately when he’d displayed a somewhat mordant slant, but they’d been short-lived and gone in minutes. Impossible man.

  ‘Ah, I see you consider that too personal a question. Am I right? All the little shutters have gone up with a vengeance.’

  She’d often got the feeling he was laughing at her and this was one of those times. Annoyance brought an edge to her voice as she said, ‘You might consider my reply too personal if I answered truthfully.’ And put that in your pipe and smoke it.

  ‘Touché.’ He grinned that sexy, charming grin of his and her heart began an undignified gallop. ‘So do I take it I haven’t managed to redeem myself over the last six months?’

  Was he flirting with her? He couldn’t be. Not Steel. Toni found she wanted to put a hand to her chest to still her hammering heart but didn’t dare to. Instead she forced herself to speak calmly and steadily: ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘Do you know you always say that when you’re prevaricating?’ His tone wasn’t critical, more casually amused with a warm edge to it. ‘And you rub your nose when you’re enthusiastic about something and hold onto your bottom lip with your teeth when you’re listening intently.’

  She stared at him, unable to say a word or spring back with one of the witty responses she was sure his girlfriends would use. He’d been observing her while she’d been observing him?

  ‘And there’s a note in your voice when you talk about your children that’s never there at any other time.’ He drew the car to a stop and cut the engine. ‘Here we are,’ he continued, as offhandedly as though they’d just been discussing the weather. ‘I’ll just open the gates. They’re supposed to be automatic but they don’t work; one of many things which will need attending to if I take the house.’

  He slid out of the Aston Martin and opened the massive wrought-iron gates set in a high red-brick wall. Toni watched him, her head whirling.

  Once he’d climbed back in the car he dro
ve on to a long winding drive bordered on each side by lawns, shrubs and trees. The house was a hundred yards or so in front of them, a mellow old building with honey-coloured stone and a thatched roof. It was as different from what she’d expected as could possibly be.

  Her face must have expressed her thoughts because beside her Steel murmured, ‘Surprised? What did you have me down for? No, let me guess. A new build perhaps. Or maybe a barn conversion. Something with a modern feel anyway and perhaps a little soulless. Am I right?’

  He was absolutely spot on. ‘Not at all,’ she said tightly, glaring at him. ‘I had no thoughts about what to expect one way or the other.’

  ‘Liar.’ He left the car before she could retort, walking round the bonnet and helping her out of the low sleek vehicle with a solicitous hand at her elbow.

  It was the tranquillity of her surroundings that hit Toni immediately, that and the sound of birdsong in the trees. She breathed in the crisp frosty air that smelt different from the fuel-laden fumes of the city and then gazed up at the house. It was beautiful, stunning, the quintessence of old-world charm. England at its best. She swallowed hard. ‘How old is it?’

  ‘Sixteenth century. At least the original part of the house is, but it’s been extended. It sits in two acres and has magnificent views at the back. It even has its own small wood with resident badgers.’ He smiled at her rapt expression. ‘You like it, then? It meets with your artistic approval?’

  ‘Who wouldn’t like it? It’s wonderful.’

  ‘Reserve your opinion until you’ve seen inside. The setting is perfect but the house itself needs some work doing to it. The kitchen’s small and outdated and the house itself is tired. I’ve got some ideas but I’d like your take on it.’

  Toni nodded. She didn’t care what the inside was like; this house was the sort of place dreams were made of.

  Once inside she could see what Steel meant, but she could also envisage the house as it could be if it was sympathetically restored and the layout reworked a little. Downstairs there were a number of rooms but the kitchen was indeed very small. Upstairs there were eight good-size bedrooms but only one bathroom. It was clear nothing had been done to the house for decades. The view from the ground at the back of the property was breathtaking. She hadn’t realised they were on a hill, but the lawns and flowerbeds and mature bushes and trees gently sloped down to the wood Steel had spoken of, and beyond that was rolling countryside for miles and miles.

  ‘Spectacular, eh?’

  They were standing outside the French doors leading from the main reception room on a patio that had seen better days. The blue sky above, the white sparkling world beneath and, not least, Steel standing so close she was vitally aware of the height and breadth and faint delicious smell emanating from the big frame caused her voice to wobble slightly as she said, ‘Utterly.’

  ‘So, can you see me here, Toni?’ His voice was level, almost flat, and he didn’t look at her as he spoke, keeping his eyes on the countryside spread out in front of them like an enormous beautiful picture.

  She didn’t reply immediately, considering exactly what to say. ‘Yes,’ she said at last, ‘but—’

  ‘But?’ He gazed at her with hooded eyes. ‘Always a but.’

  ‘This is an enormous house for just one person. Wouldn’t it be better to consider either a smaller property or an apartment somewhere outside the city, if that’s what you want?’

  He didn’t reply to this. ‘But you think I could suit this house?’

  It was a strange way to put it. Normally one would ask if the house could suit them, but in this case he was absolutely right, Toni thought. This house was so special and so beautiful it shouldn’t have to fit in with anyone—the boot had to be on the other foot. And the fact he’d put it that way made her voice firm when she said, ‘Yes, I do. You’ve fallen in love with it, haven’t you?’

  He was very still for a moment. ‘I’ve never been in love before but, yes, I think I am.’

  Toni nodded. ‘Then all the work and changes will be worth it. You must go with your heart for once.’

  ‘My thoughts exactly.’ Steel’s silver-blue gaze followed a magpie that had just swooped over the trees onto the lawn carrying a morsel of something or other in its beak, which it now proceeded to eat. Six months and this woman had turned his life upside down and she was completely unaware of it. It had taken him weeks, probably a couple of months to adjust to the knowledge that Toni George was different.

  Women abounded in London; beautiful, available and willing women, and he’d had his share until the day she had walked into his apartment and he’d looked into her eyes. Strange, but he couldn’t put his finger on what made her special. She was very lovely, intelligent and gutsy, but those attributes could be laid at the feet of several women he knew. Women who carried no baggage and who definitely didn’t have four-year-old twins in tow.

  He’d sent the little girls a present each on their birthday—which he knew had taken Toni aback—and received in return two handmade cards of people with sticks for arms and legs and two scrawls at the bottom of the cards that were apparently their names. After that he had tried to take a big step backwards but it hadn’t worked; nothing had. The more he’d got to know her, the more he had wanted her, which was a first for him. Normally he slept with a woman and then got to know her, which finished with him not wanting her. And now he was faced with the prospect of loving someone who certainly didn’t love him back and who had no intention of letting a man into her life or anywhere near her family.

  Steel smiled to himself. How many of his exes would take secret satisfaction in his predicament? The love-'em-and-leave-'em Steel Landry hoisted by his own petard. But he was damned if he was going to roll over and accept the situation. She’d responded to him sexually that night in June, which was a start, and she’d wanted him as much as he’d wanted her. He could make her love him. He’d been patient for months now, preparing the ground; this was the next stage. And to hell with the rule that he didn’t mix work and pleasure. Being the boss had to mean something and in this case it was that rules were breakable.

  One of the things that had amazed him about her was the lack of bitterness about her former husband. In spite of the way he’d treated her, she didn’t hate the louse. True, it had made her wary and suspicious of the opposite sex, but that was to his advantage in a way. It kept the other wolves at bay.

  He glanced down at her now, reaching out a hand and brushing a strand of hair from the silky skin of her cheek. He heard her quickly indrawn breath and his heart thumped crazily. Yes, she was far from indifferent to him as a man, but he didn’t want to just take this woman to bed. He wanted her. ‘Let’s go and get some lunch and you can tell me some of the ideas I know are already buzzing about in that clever little head of yours,’ he said smoothly. ‘I noticed a nice pub shortly before we turned off into this side road, which is called

  Magpie Lane, incidentally. Appropriate address for a family house, don’t you think?’

  It was a moment before she shrugged. ‘Magpies are quite vicious birds, aren’t they? Part of the crow family, I believe.’

  ‘They do what’s necessary to get by. Same as the rest of us. All’s fair in love and war.’

  ‘That’s such a male reply,’ she said stiffly.

  ‘But I am a male, Toni, and don’t tell me you haven’t noticed, an observant, intelligent woman like you. I’m very much a male and I make no apology for it.’ He opened the French doors as he spoke and when she stepped past him into the house he heard a muffled ‘Huh', which made the corners of his mouth twitch. He had no illusions winning her over was going to be easy; she was as prickly as a cactus with as many spikes for keeping him at bay, but he was going to strip those little spines away one by one until he got what he wanted, which was her, naked and pliant in his arms and wholly his, soul, mind and body.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE PUB WAS ALL BRASSES and oak beams. Toni was not unaware of the little stir Steel
caused in the two buxom barmaids, or the way they practically fought to serve him when he went to order drinks once they’d found a table close to the roaring log fire. He came back with a glass of wine for her and an apple juice for himself and two menus, sitting down and smiling at her as he murmured, ‘I’ve surprised you today, haven’t I?’

  She eyed him warily. ‘A little, I suppose.’

  ‘Another surprise. I’ve decided we’ll take the day off.’

  ‘What?’ She sat up straighter. ‘What on earth for?’

  ‘It’s not often I decide to buy a house. I want to celebrate.’ His smile widened, a little like a shark’s. ‘Besides which, I want to get a few facts and figures clear in my head before I make an offer. If I got into the office there’s too much distraction.’

  He saw her expression relax slightly. ‘Oh, I see. You mean we’ll still be working but on the ideas for this house.’

  ‘If you want to put it like that.’

  Her brows came together for an instant and she took a sip of wine. ‘Steel—’

  ‘Decide what you want to eat so we can order and then you can tell me your plans for each room.’ He picked up his own menu and pretended to be absorbed in it, only raising his head when one of the barmaids came across with a pad and pencil to take their order, practically drooling as she looked at Steel.

  The meal decided, he met her gaze. ‘So? Tell me your thoughts thus far.’ The flames from the crackling fire in the big old hearth were picking out the red tints in her dark brown hair, her pale creamy skin and red lips a delicious contrast. Before she could speak, he murmured, ‘Rose Red. From the fairy tale, you know? Has anyone ever told you that you look like Rose Red?’

  She stared at him for a moment. ‘The first thing to be tackled is the kitchen. It’s too small and hopelessly outdated. I suggest you knock through into the old scullery and also the room next door, which is currently a breakfast room. That would give you a huge space to play around with, and if you go for Shaker-style units with pretty handles and granite worktops, and perhaps natural slate tiles on the floor, they’ll fit in with the beamed ceiling and feel to the property. There’ll be ample space for a kitchen table and chairs and so on.’