Boss Meets Baby(135)

Glancing around her, Georgia guiltily realised that she’d forgotten all about the Labrador. That was how distracted Keir’s appearance last night had made her!

Moira was quick to reassure her. ‘Young Lucy came in early, to help me prepare a few meals I’ve got planned for the next few days. She asked if she might walk Hamish, and I’m afraid I told her yes. Was that all right, dear?’

Georgia rose to her feet again wanting to delay facing Keir until she’d got herself properly together, and— saw her last excuse emphatically disappear now that Lucy was walking Hamish.

‘Of course it was all right. Be sure and thank her for me when she gets back. Don’t worry about the tea, Moira. I’ll get one later. I’d better just go and see if the Chief needs anything.’

Keir was surprised to see Georgia enter the room when she did. He hadn’t expected her to make such an early-morning appearance—especially when he knew intimately what sort of a disrupted night she’d had. God knew she’d ‘disrupted’ his night too…in more ways than one.

But now, as she carefully closed the heavy oak study door behind her, Keir’s examination of her eye-catching— figure, and her slim, tanned legs in the knee-length— red linen dress, was swift and hungry. Because of that, and because his desire had been frustratingly thwarted last night, his tone was brusque.

‘Nobody instructed you to make such an early start. Have you had breakfast?’ he demanded.

‘I’ll get something later.’ She frowned as if it was hardly significant. ‘Chief Strachan, I—’

‘Chief Strachan?’ Unable to keep his mockery at bay, Keir twisted his lips grimly. ‘Is this how things are going to proceed between us, then? Are you forgetting— that I was in your bedroom after midnight, drying— your tears because of your terror at the storm, with— you dressed in a robe that barely concealed the fact that you were naked underneath it? Under the circumstances, don’t you think it a little ridiculous to resort to calling me “Chief Strachan”?’

Georgia’s face paled. ‘I wasn’t deliberately wearing— what I was wearing to entice you! And I didn’t ask you to come into my room…you just came in anyway!’

‘For goodness’ sake, don’t look so damn offended! What you wear or don’t wear to bed is your own business, and I wasn’t trying to cast aspersions!— Now, what was it you started to tell me?’

Deliberately dismissing her indignation, Keir exhaled on a heavy sigh and got up from his chair. The instant he did, the scent she was wearing caught him with a slide tackle he hadn’t seen coming, and it all but brought him to his knees. An innocent and light fragrance had no right to be so powerfully alluring…but— on Georgia it clearly was. Not that she needed any artifice to heighten her already immense appeal…

‘About last night…’

‘Are we going to labour the point all day, Georgia?’ he asked with exasperation. ‘Because, strange— as it may seem, we do have work to do!’

There was no point in any further discussion about the matter as far as Keir was concerned—even if he had left not knowing whether she had a man waiting for her back in London or not. If she had he really didn’t want to hear about it, because it would only make this inconvenient attraction he’d developed— for her even worse.

Last night he’d realised he was on very dangerous— ground. Apart from nearly kissing her, he should never have confessed that he’d missed her as he had. Recalling his mood, he would have perhaps said other things too—things that in the cold light of day he might have regretted.

Whatever mixed-up emotions he was currently feeling, he couldn’t afford to lose a perfectly good secretary because of it. Glancing at his appointments diary earlier, it had seemed a certainty that it was going to be another busy week, after having been away, and the last thing he needed or wanted was to have to hunt for another replacement. Yet even though realistically he knew he would have to curb his ‘extra curricular’ interest in Georgia if he wanted to keep her at Glenteign, he already intuited it would be a near impossible task. There was something about her that kept making him want to let down some of the usual defences he employed around people, and his blood still simmered hotly with the need to make love to her.

In New York he’d had plenty of opportunity to spend time with the beautiful girl he’d promised to get back in touch with when he returned there. Yet each time Keir had deliberately avoided the chances to be more intimate that had been presented. Even his demanding sex drive had not been able to persuade him to take advantage of the situation.