Page 28 of The Crown Affair

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‘Don’t you?’ he said, dropping his gaze and letting it slide over her body.

Heat began to pour over her. Desire flared to life but she banked it down. Right now her work was more important than anything else. She was not going to let it go. For anything.

‘I,’ she said pointedly, ‘am perfectly capable of separating business and pleasure. I,’ she added, ‘should be able to control myself. Besides there is nothing you can do to make me go.’

His gaze dropped to her mouth and stayed there. His face darkened, his eyes took on a wicked gleam and Laura swallowed. Her heart lurched and a ball of nerves lodged in her throat. OK, so for all her fine words if Matt jumped to his feet, stalked round his desk, hauled her into his arms and kissed her she’d probably be through the door in seconds. But after loftily declaring that he didn’t mix business with pleasure she had to hope he wouldn’t put her to the test.

But why was he so desperate to get rid of her? Anyone would think she’d been stalking him. And what was all that hostility about? Surely he couldn’t be that annoyed she’d run off?

‘Look,’ she said, ‘you must be busy and the palace is huge. Our paths need never cross.’ Thankfully.

Matt sighed, got to his feet and gave her one last glower before picking up his laptop. ‘Just make sure you stay out of my way.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

THIS was getting ridiculous, Matt thought, struggling to pay attention to what his advisors were saying. He was in the middle of a discussion about the huge gaps in the public accounts and all he could think about was what Laura was up to.

He hadn’t laid eyes on her in the two weeks since she’d been hired. Not that he’d been looking out for her especially. No. He’d had far too much to do. But it did seem odd. The palace might be big but it wasn’t that large.

In a weird way her absence simply made him more aware of her presence. Which didn’t make any sense at all.

Maybe it was the knowledge that he’d overreacted again and undoubtedly owed her another apology. Snapping at her like that to stay out of his way, snapping at anyone for that matter, wasn’t how he chose to behave.

But then since he’d met her a lot of his behaviour had been uncharacteristic. If it carried on much longer his reputation for being tough and uncompromising would lie in tatters.

What was it about her that set him so on edge? Why did he have this niggling feeling that she was some kind of a threat? A threat to what exactly? In his experience threats came from rival bidders for a company he wanted and from despotic former presidents with their hands in the till. They did not come from curvy blond-haired blue-eyed architects.

Matt shoved his hands through his hair and let out a growl of frustration. Whatever the hell was going on, it couldn’t continue.

He’d start with the apology. The sooner he got that out of the way, the better. And then he’d take the opportunity to find out a little more about her.

Something about the sabbatical she’d claimed she was on, the way she’d avoided his eyes when she’d mentioned it, had been gnawing at his brain. Whatever it was, she was working for him and he should get to the bottom of it.

And that was another thing, he realised suddenly. His company employed dozens of permanent staff and he’d always made a point of getting to know every one of them. Now Laura was on his payroll and what did he know about her? Apart from what she felt like in his arms and wrapped around him, precious little.

Matt ignored the bolt of heat that gripped his body and set his jaw. In fact that was probably what had been bothering him. The non-observation of formalities.

‘Sir?’

He snapped his head round to his secretary who was sitting on his right and refocused his attention. ‘What?’ he said, and added a quick smile to mitigate the sharpness of his tone.

‘I hope you don’t mind my asking, but is everything all right?’

‘Fine. What does Signorina Mackenzie do for lunch?’

The only indication that Antonio Capelli was surprised by a question about lunch in the midst of a conversation about corruption was a double blink. ‘I believe she takes a sandwich to the rose garden.’

A sandwich? Matt’s jaw tightened. No one could survive on a sandwich. ‘What time?’

‘One-ish, I believe. Would you like me to check?’

‘No, that’s fine. Where’s the rose garden?’

‘Past the kitchen gardens. Before the lake. There’s a gate in the hedge.’

‘Thank you.’

Matt made a move to get to his feet but Antonio leaned forwards and said, ‘The advisors are waiting for your comments.’


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