Lee Wilkinson - Unwordly Secretary, Gorgeous Boss

‘No.’ He stared at her as though in a trance.

‘It’s just that you seem so—’

‘Si,’ he said abruptly, suddenly approaching her desk and leaning his hands on it.

Suddenly his compelling face was right in front of hers, and Laura saw the shadowed imprint that cleft his strong chin with such definition, and the faint but discernible threads of maturity that waved on his brow. As for his too-disturbing gaze—Laura did her best to skim over it, lest she willingly drown in that perfect river of blue.

‘I would like you to take a walk with me.’

‘Now?’

‘ Si. You have not had an opportunity to see the grounds properly yet, and we should go before the light dies. Fetch a wrap or shawl, if you have one, and I will meet you at the front entrance.’

In the end, it didn’t matter that it was almost dusk. Nearly everywhere Laura glanced were softly glowing lanterns and fairy lights, and the extensive grounds of the impressive Villa de Rosa took on a quality of enchantment that would ensure she never forgot the breathtaking impression it made for as long as she lived.

‘We will stop here for a moment.’

Fabian touched her arm and Laura sensed the contact sear through the delicate lace of her antique shawl, permeate her skin and reach down inside the very marrow in her bones. Ever since he’d kissed her neck she was like the most inflammable tinder to his touch. All her defences seemed to be in tatters where he was concerned.

They were standing by a weathered wooden bench positioned against an aging brick wall, and the glorious scarlet bougainvillaea that tumbled over it sang its seductive perfume to the gentle night air.

‘We will sit for a while.’

‘Something is bothering you, isn’t it? Is it anything to do with the organisation of the concert?’

‘No. I can see that you have everything under control where that is concerned, and I am impressed by what you have accomplished so far and your dedication to doing a good job.’

As he laid his hand on her knee, she saw the stunning gold and emerald signet ring on his little finger glint in the softly diffused light.

‘Then what is it?’

‘I have been thinking that we should get to know each other a little better.’

Hardly prepared for such a statement, Laura stayed quiet. But, even so, wave upon wave of heat coursed through her in a seemingly unstoppable flow.

‘What I mean is, this is a good opportunity for us to talk. Why don’t you start by telling me a little bit more about yourself? I know that you went to school with Carmela in London, that you have the most surprisingly angelic voice and have a passion for teaching music to children. What else?’

Laura’s mind seemed to freeze for a moment. Telling him more about herself would inevitably bring up the past again, and she’d really like to avoid that if she could.

‘Laura?’ His voice was edged with slight impatience.

‘I was just thinking. What kind of things would you like to know?’

As soon as the question left her lips she knew it was the wrong one. She’d been trying to buy time and it had backfired on her. Now she’d left herself wide open, perhaps to some too dangerous examination.

‘You said that your husband did not feel the same way you did about having children? Will you tell me why?’

‘Why?’ Her temples throbbed with pain.

‘Yes—why?’

Her mouth was like a desert as she spoke, and she tried to choose her words carefully. ‘Mark was a very jealous man. He said he wanted to have me to himself. He didn’t even like me seeing my friends. Children were never going to be on the cards in such an impossible situation.’

‘Yet you stayed with him.’

He’d hit the bullseye, and her heart started to thump hard inside her chest. The enchanting night receded, along with the heady scent of flowers and the chorus of insects making their nocturnal sounds in the background.

‘Yes … I stayed. Unbelievably, I was married to him for three years.’

‘You must have cared deeply for him if you were willing to sacrifice your own need for children to stay with such a man.’

There was a frown on his handsome face, and Laura wondered at the depth of interest in his eyes.

‘My feelings for him were … complicated.’ Tugging her shawl more securely around her, she felt suddenly far colder than the temperature dictated she should be. The fragrant wind lapped across her body like ice.

‘What does that mean, Laura? Tell me.’

Fabian’s long, unwavering gaze was like a flame licking at her, and it was hard to hold out against such a compelling force.

‘I … I was afraid of him.’

The gaze that scrutinised her features so closely narrowed, then he stared even harder than before. ‘Did he intimidate you? Hurt you?’

‘Yes.’

‘He physically hurt you?’ ‘Sometimes … yes.’

He bit out something that was clearly a savage expression of disgust. ‘I am very sorry to hear you say that. But I am not sorry to hear that such a man is no longer in your life! Accident or not, you are clearly much better off without him!’

Her throat starting to ache, Laura sensed the encroaching tide of anguished memory skirt too close for comfort, and mentally willed it to back off. It was a technique she’d learned to save her sanity. It was rare that she spoke about Mark and his treatment of her—to anyone. Not even her parents. Keeping the wounding memories at bay sometimes felt like a fulltime job, but she had no desire to wallow in pain and regret or even self-pity. Time and time again she told herself it was the future she should concentrate on … not the past.

‘Anyway … it’s a part of my life I try not to think about too often. I’m sure you can understand that? These things can either shape you or break you, and I’d take drastic steps before I let that happen!’ A small heartfelt sigh escaped into the fragrant air. ‘And what about you, Fabian?’ All Laura’s muscles clenched hard as she succumbed to her own curiosity about him … In the deepening dusk, his arrestingly sculpted face was thrown partly into shadow. Yet still the wariness that he wore like a shield was startlingly evident. ‘Presumably … with this estate to run and everything … you would like children too?’ she continued.

‘I have made you sad, reminding you of the past.’ Abruptly getting to his feet, it was clear that Fabian had no intention of answering Laura right then. ‘Let us continue our walk, and I promise not to upset you with any more difficult questions … si?’

As she stood up, her mind busy with pondering why he could ask her about her desire for children but she could not do the same to him, he put his hand against her back, and once again her skin registered his touch like a ray of heat that scorched right through her clothing to leave her tingling. ‘Okay …’

They walked on in silence for a while, and gradually Laura’s tension around Fabian began to ebb a little.

‘I’m trying to imagine what it must have been like, growing up in a place like this,’ she announced suddenly, drinking in the stunning vista all around her. ‘Your own enchanted forest!’

‘Enchanted?’ His voice was devoid of the pleasure she had half expected to hear in it. ‘I suppose to someone viewing it from the outside it might look like that.’

His tone hinted at bitterness and regret, and it made Laura wonder about the extent of his father’s cruelty. Her chest tightened in sympathy. Instead of pursuing her curiosity about his past, she decided to contain it for another day.

Turning his back, Fabian led her down a narrow winding pathway edged with a riot of colourful exotic blooms, and through an arbour of roses that led into yet another exquisite garden, bursting with colour and scent.