Carole Mortimer - First Love, Last Love

Lauri blushed at the sarcasm in his voice. ‘I don’t suppose you ever let anyone drive you.’

‘Never. Not even the girl-friend you say is out of town. Tell me,’ he taunted, ‘who is she?’

‘You must know who she is! I wish you’d stop treating me like an idiot.’ She glared angrily as she realised that was exactly what he had called her to Jane. ‘You may think that’s what I am, but that doesn’t mean you have to treat me like one. Everyone knows you’re seeing Connie Mears.’ A slight exaggeration here, but she felt she could be forgiven it.

‘Then “everyone” is wrong. Do the gossips have nothing better to do than make up stories to colour their day?’

No doubt he considered her to be one of the gossips! ‘I got my information from a reliable source,’ she said defensively.

‘Then it’s a little dated,’ he returned coldly. ‘Connie and I finished weeks ago.’

‘Oh. I—I didn’t know that.’

He gave her a long slow appraisal, making her blush from head to toe at the undisguised insolence in those deep blue eyes. ‘There’s no reason why you should know. And I wouldn’t consider you a suitable replacement in any case. I was hardly asking you for a date, Lauren, just trying to work this thing out like two reasonable adult—people,’ he amended tauntingly.

‘I am an adult!’

‘You don’t act like one. Look, I couldn’t give a damn whether this goes through the police or not, it’s completely up to you.’

He obviously felt he had wasted enough time on her for one day. But Lauri couldn’t let him go like this. ‘Do the police have to be involved?’ She despised herself for that almost pleading quality in her voice.

‘I told you, that’s up to you.’

‘You said you wanted to discuss terms,’ Lauri said suspiciously. ‘What sort of terms?’

‘Not those sort anyway.’ He gave a harsh laugh. ‘Credit me with some sense, Lauren,’ he snapped. ‘I’m hardly likely to want to seduce a teenager.’

‘But—–’

‘Oh, forget it, Lauren!’ he said angrily. ‘I don’t have any more time to discuss it. I don’t know why the hell I should help you out anyway.’ He turned on his heel and walked off.

‘Mr Blair!’ Lauri ran after him. ‘Mr Blair, please—–’

He either didn’t hear her or didn’t want to hear her, opening a door farther up the corridor and slamming the door in Lauri’s face as she would have followed him inside. She had deserved that, she thought dully. Like he said, why should he help her? But he had been willing to, and she had thrown his offer back in his face.

She started guiltily as she heard the ascent of the lift, and turned to confront her aunt. ‘Jane!’ she sighed her relief that it wasn’t someone else of importance who might also demand to know what she was doing up here.

‘Lauri!’ Jane looked shocked. ‘You shouldn’t be up here.’

Lauri sighed, wishing she had never dared to brave the top floor. ‘I know.’

‘Then why are you?’ Jane was obviously agitated by her presence here, looking about her almost guiltily. ‘If Mr Blair or one of the managers should see you you’d have a hard time explaining what you’re doing wandering around up here.’

She already had! ‘You’ve got my purse,’ she said by way of explanation.

‘I know that.’ Jane held it out to her. ‘I went downstairs to give it to you as soon as I realised.’

‘We must have missed each other.’ Lauri took the purse. ‘I’ll have to go now, I’m late as it is.’

‘But, Lauri—–’

She dived into the waiting lift, pressing the button. ‘See you later,’ she had time to call before the doors closed.

Phew! That was a narrow escape. Thank goodness Jane hadn’t probed too deeply into why she had been standing aimlessly about in the corridor. If she had Lauri might have had to reveal that she had called the owner of the company arrogant, had accused him of being insulting, and of tricking her into revealing that she was a learner driver.

She might also have inadvertently revealed that Alexander Blair had invited her out to dinner, although invited was perhaps the wrong word to use. It had been an order, but a strange one, despite his assertion that he wanted to discuss terms for payment on the damage to his car. Terms! What could he mean by that? He had been furious at her assumption that he had any but the best intentions in mind, but she didn’t think it could have been an entirely innocent suggestion. How on earth could she pay him back, unless he intended taking it from her wages, a little each week?

Perhaps that was what he had in mind, although surely he didn’t need to invite her out to dinner to discuss that. Maybe he was at a loose end and wanted someone to amuse him for a few hours. And she had to admit, she certainly seemed to amuse him. Whatever his reason, she shouldn’t have turned him down. He could make things pretty awkward for the whole of her family if he chose to.

It was for that reason, and that reason alone, that she decided to accept his dinner invitation. The trouble was telling him she had accepted!

She walked casually up to Carly’s desk as she sat in her sectioned-off office, the partition walls consisting mainly of windows so that she could see what was going on in the outer office.

‘Is there something wrong?’ Carly looked up from the holiday rota she was working on.

‘Er—no, not really. I—– Do you think I could use your telephone?’ she said in a rush. ‘I know you’ve said in the past that we can, but I’ve never needed to bother before.’

‘Of course you can,’ Carly stood up to vacate the office to give her privacy for the call. ‘Give me a shout when you’ve finished.’

‘Thanks.’ Lauri gave her a grateful smile, relieved that her supervisor had shown no curiosity about who she would be telephoning.

She had to look up the number for Alexander Blair’s office, aware that she would have to go through her aunt to speak to the man himself. Was it worth it? she asked herself. It had to be if it meant they all kept their jobs.

‘Er—good morning,’ she said as the telephone was suddenly answered by Jane, deliberately deepening her voice and giving a husky sound to it that had sexual undertones. ‘Could I speak to Alexander, please?’ she asked in that same sexy voice.

For a moment there was silence and Lauri wondered if her ruse had gone wrong. If Jane should guess it was her little niece on the line …! ‘Who shall I say is calling?’ came Jane’s businesslike reply.

Lauri heaved an inward sigh of relief. At least she hadn’t been recognised yet. Now came the hard part ‘Tell him it’s—Lauren.’ After all, he did call her that, and strangely he was the only one ever to do so, giving an intimacy to their relationship that didn’t exist

‘Lauren …?’ Jane was obviously prompting for a surname.

‘Just Lauren.’ She forced a provocative laugh. ‘He’ll know who it is.’ She hoped! How awful if he demanded to know Lauren who?

‘Very well.’ Jane sounded at her most haughty, which meant she wasn’t pleased at being treated in this high-handed manner, even by someone she thought to be another of Alexander Blair’s girl-friends.

Did he have girl -friends? She doubted it. He was much too sophisticated and sure of himself to tolerate naïveté in one of his women. No, he would go for women who knew exactly what they were doing, women who—–

‘I’m putting you through now,’ Jane abruptly interrupted her thoughts.

Thank goodness he had remembered her. ‘Thank you so much,’ she replied in the sexy voice she had been using for the whole of the conversation.

‘Glad to be of help,’ drawled the unmistakable voice of Alexander Blair. ‘Although this doesn’t sound like the Lauren I know, and I haven’t the faintest idea what I’m being thanked for.’