The Crown Affair (8 page)

‘Then I guess it's working.'

Hmm. Never mind. He'd get to the bottom of her sabbatical soon enough. ‘How long have you lived in Little Somerford?'

She visibly relaxed. ‘A couple of months.'

‘And before that?'

‘London. Born and bred.'

‘Do you miss it?'

‘Bits.'

‘Which bits?'

‘The theatres. My friends.'

Matt tilted his head. ‘You must be what…late twenties?'

‘Early thirties,' she said cagily, her eyes narrowing.

‘And you move from the bright lights of London and a good job to hole up in a remote village in the country. Why?'

Laura studied her feet. ‘I fancied a change of scenery.'

‘During your sabbatical?' he said dryly.

‘Exactly.'

‘Aren't you quite young to take a sabbatical?'

Her head shot up and her eyes flashed. ‘What's with this obsession with my sabbatical?'

Matt lifted his shoulders and gave her a smile. ‘I'm just interested.'

Laura frowned. ‘You should meet my friend Kate.'

‘Why?'

‘You both have persistence in spades,' she said darkly. ‘You'd get on like a house on fire.'

Matt grinned. ‘Persistence is useful in my line of work.'

‘I'd call it nosiness.'

‘That's useful, too. Bit risky, though, I'd have thought, to take a sabbatical at such a relatively early stage in your career.'

Laura let out an exasperated sigh and then threw her hands up. ‘Fine,' she said, glaring at him. ‘I didn't exactly choose to take a sabbatical. I was made redundant.'

‘Ah,' Matt said, his mouth curving into a triumphant smile.

‘There were cutbacks in government spending. Projects were axed. Heads rolled. Mine was one of them.'

‘Ouch.' Whoever had employed her had been idiots for letting her go. But their loss, his gain. Or rather
Sassania's
gain, he amended swiftly.

She stared at him for a second, then blinked. ‘Well, yes,' she said. ‘But actually, not as ouch now as it was at the time.' She gave him a quick smile. ‘In fact with the benefit of hindsight I ought to have sent them a big bunch of flowers to say thank you.'

‘Why?' Matt wished she wouldn't do that blinking thing. It made him lose his train of thought. The colour of her eyes was so deep, so intense that when the blue disappeared he thought it a shame, yet when it reappeared his head swam and he wished she'd kept her eyes shut.

‘If I hadn't been made redundant, I wouldn't have been free to take on this.' She waved an arm in the di
rection of the palace. ‘I have ex-colleagues who would give their eye teeth to be here.'

Matt dragged his attention back to the conversation and hmmed. He doubted any of them would have her dedication or enthusiasm. ‘That explains the “sabbatical”,' he said, ‘but why leave London?'

The wince was tiny but he caught it and something stabbed him in the chest. ‘London gets a trifle dull after a while, don't you find?'

‘No.'

‘Oh.' She frowned. And then shrugged. ‘Well, each to their own.'

Barriers were springing up all around her telling him to back off. But as she'd pointed out, he was persistent.

‘I don't buy it,' he said, deceptively mildly.

‘Tough.'

Matt leaned forwards. ‘Tell me.'

‘No.'

But she was wavering.

‘Maybe I can help.'

‘You already did,' she said, and then went bright red.

‘How?'

‘Doesn't matter.'

‘If it involves me it does matter.'

‘Let's just say I met you at a time when my self-esteem wasn't exactly sky-high.'

‘And I boosted it?'

‘Something like that,' she muttered.

‘You used me.' Matt sat back and wondered whether he was hurt or amused.

Her gaze flew to his. ‘No. Of course not.'

Oh, she was terrible at lying. He didn't say anything,
just lifted an eyebrow and stared at her until her cheeks went even redder.

‘Well, maybe just a little bit.' She screwed up her eyes as if not wanting to see his reaction.

She needn't have worried. He had no complaints. ‘Charming,' he said mildly, folding his arms over his chest and grinning. ‘I'm devastated.'

Her eyes flew open in shock and then she relaxed and returned his grin. ‘I can tell.'

‘Nevertheless, I think you owe me an explanation.'

‘I don't see why. Can you honestly say you didn't use me?'

‘This isn't about me.'

Laura nodded and took a deep breath. ‘OK, fine. The day I was made redundant I got home early to find my boyfriend at the time with his secretary. In our bed.'

‘Ah.'

‘I know. Tacky, or what? They'd been having an affair for three months, would you believe, and I hadn't a clue. I'd rented my flat out when I moved in with him and, what with three being a bit of a crowd, I couldn't exactly stick around. So I trawled through the websites of a number of rental agencies and found the cottage in Little Somerford and I left.'

‘What a jerk.' The hammering urge to hunt her ex-boyfriend down and pummel the living daylights out of him thumped Matt in the chest, taking him completely by surprise.

She blinked. ‘Well, yes. But I guess he wasn't wholly to blame.'

‘Seems to me that that kind of behaviour is inexcusable,' he muttered, wondering exactly where such a violent reaction had come from.

She bit her lip. ‘True, but I was too easy-going, too
easy to please. Too afraid of confrontation. I let him get away with too much. I let him walk all over me.' She shrugged.

Easy-going? Afraid of confrontation? Matt nearly fell off his chair. That didn't sound like the Laura he knew. Since the moment he'd met her she'd been feisty, fearless and determined.

Snapshots flew around his head. Of Laura on the path, batting her eyelids and pouting. Arching her back on his sofa and staring up at him with that come-hither look. Sitting in his office, limbs crossed, chin up as she told him she wasn't leaving.

His stomach churned with a weird combination of lust, admiration and something that felt suspiciously like jealousy.

‘Which has kind of been the story of my life,' she was saying. ‘Much as it pains me to admit it, I have been a bit of a doormat.'

Matt dragged himself back to the conversation. ‘You could have fooled me,' he muttered, his voice not betraying any hint of the confusion battering his brain.

Laura grinned. ‘Ah, well, that's because after the double whammy of losing my job and my boyfriend I went on an assertiveness course.'

‘That sounds dangerous.'

‘It was. Very. Module One was entitled “How to Embrace Confrontation”. Module Two covered learning how to say no. And Module Three focused on how to get what you want.'

‘You must be a fast learner.'

Laura nodded. ‘Like lightning.'

‘For someone allegedly afraid of confrontation,' he said dryly, ‘you're pretty good at it.'

She grinned and his stomach swooped. ‘It's turned
out to be surprisingly liberating. As has going for what I want and saying no.'

Sometimes saying no wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Sometimes the only word a man wanted to hear was yes. In exactly the breathy pleading way she'd said all those little yeses that afternoon.

‘Anyway. Change is good, don't you think?'

‘Depends on the change,' Matt muttered, struggling to keep his focus on reconciling the Laura he knew to the one she described and not on the yeses. ‘Where did the pushover tendencies come from?'

‘My parents' divorce when I was thirteen, I suppose.'

‘Tricky.'

‘Very.'

‘Amicable?'

She winced. ‘Hideous.'

‘I'm sorry.'

Laura shrugged. ‘Things had been bad for years, even though at the time it all seemed so sudden. I think I probably compensated by trying not to put a foot wrong, in the childish hope that if I was good enough they'd stay together. Which was nuts, of course,' she said. ‘I know it had nothing to do with me and they're far happier apart, but I guess old habits die hard.'

‘If ever.'

Laura shook her head. ‘Ah, you see, that's where you're wrong. My people-pleasing days are well and truly over.'

That was a shame.

The thought slammed into Matt's head before he could stop it and stayed there flashing in neon, reminding him just how well she'd pleased him.

‘Anyway why the sudden interest?'

Matt shrugged and shoved the thought aside. ‘I'm interested in all my members of staff.'

For a second there was an odd sort of stunned silence. Laura's face paled and Matt felt a chill suddenly run through him as if the sun had disappeared behind a cloud.

She blinked. Bit on her lip. Nodded slowly. ‘Of course,' she said in a strangely soft voice, getting to her feet a little jerkily. ‘Right.' She nodded again. Ran her hands over her hips, pulled her shoulders back and flashed him an overly bright smile. ‘Well, as a member of staff, and a brand-new one at that, I ought to be getting back to work. Thank you for the wine.'

Before Matt could ask her what the matter was, Laura had spun on her heel and was stalking off in the direction of the hedge as if she couldn't get away fast enough.

He watched her disappear through the gate, bewilderment pummelling at his brain. What the hell was all that about? Matt rubbed his face. He'd thought their conversation had been going swimmingly. He'd got to the bottom of her sabbatical and was just beginning to discover what made her tick. And even more surprisingly, he'd found himself enjoying her company.

So what had happened? Had he said something? Done something?

God. He swore softly under his breath. He was famed for being decisive, intuitive, shrewd and for having a certain ruthlessness that had made him a billionaire by the time he was thirty. He'd built up a multimillion-pound business from scratch. He'd negotiated impossible deals and turned the most desperate of companies around. Now he was running a country with every problem going.

Yet he'd never understand women. They were completely unfathomable.

Even Alicia, who'd been so transparent and straightforward, had eventually become incomprehensible. Matt's jaw tightened as the memory of his ex-fiancée filtered into his head. Her lack of guile had been one of the reasons he'd asked her to marry him. She hadn't tried to wrap him up in complex emotional games. Their relationship had been easy, light and fun.

Until he'd started to get more caught up with his business. As it had grown he'd had to devote more and more time to it and less to her.

At first she'd been remarkably stoical, supportive even, but even the most understanding fiancée would have got fed up eventually.

Matt had been torn, and while the relationship limped on for a while it hadn't survived. The end had been messy and painful. Hurtful accusations had flown all over the place. Guilt and blame had built and built, until things had finally erupted. The only thing that had kept him sane during and after their break-up had been his work.

Now he avoided relationships like the plague. They were perplexing, unpredictable and ultimately emotionally destructive, and he never wanted to go through all that again.

Matt set his jaw and put everything back into the hamper. Laura was perplexing, unpredictable and he had a horrible suspicion she could be pretty emotionally destructive.

So there'd be no more seeking her out, he thought, getting to his feet and heading back to the palace. No more lunches. No more conversation. And definitely no more wanting her in his bed.

When their paths crossed he'd be cool and distant. Because he was far better off alone. Always had been, always would be.

 

Staff, thought Laura for the billionth time that afternoon. Huh.

Disappointment and hurt scythed through her all over again and she threw down her chisel before she could do any permanent damage to the frieze she was working on.

God. How stupid could she be? If only she were wearing steel-capped boots she could have given herself the kicking she deserved. Because she was such an idiot.

She closed her eyes for a second and felt her cheeks burn as her mind hurtled back to the rose garden. There she'd been, going all soft and squidgy and mellowing with the wine and the sun and the heat of Matt's gaze. Bizarrely she'd found herself enjoying the conversation despite it dredging up things she'd rather not think about. It had actually been a relief to talk about the old her, and she'd discovered she rather liked the person she was beginning to become.

Unfortunately there hadn't been a hint of arrogance, nor a patronising glance in sight. And while Matt had been annoyingly persistent he hadn't interrupted her and he hadn't dismissed anything she'd said. In fact the way his body had tensed and his eyes had blazed when she'd told him about her ex had had her heart leaping with something she wasn't sure she wanted to identify and desire whipping through her so fiercely that she'd begun to wonder why exactly business and pleasure shouldn't mix.

And all the time he'd just been interrogating her as he would any employee.

Agh. Laura opened her eyes and scowled. The fact that she was still smarting over it two hours later was infuriating. And what was making things worse was the knowledge that she didn't have any real reason to smart. Which irritated her even further.

Because Matt was right. She was staff.

So what was she getting so het up about?

Laura plonked herself on the floor and chewed her lip. Was it really the fact that he'd wangled so much personal information out of her without divulging even his age, which was what she'd been telling herself for the past hour or so?

Or was it actually the fact that she'd spent the entire conversation on the point of combusting while Matt had sat there, ice cool and controlled and totally indifferent?