All the while he spoke to whoever was at the other end of the line his gaze cleaved to Georgia’s with such riveting intent that her heartbeat refused to slow down, even though he was no longer kissing her or touching her. When he’d finished the call, his smile seemed to melt the very marrow in her bones as he lifted her hand to his lips to plant a kiss there.
‘Now, where were we?’ he teased. Glancing away, her— mouth still tingling where he had ravished it only moments ago, Georgia suddenly turned ridiculously shy. Here she was, sitting in her boss’s lap, letting him do the most delicious, delectable things to her with his eyes, his mouth and his touch, and she felt like the most gauche, inexperienced teenager. She might be a highly professional and competent secretary, a woman who had taken successful charge of her own and her brother’s life from a very young age, but right now none of those attributes readily came to her aid…
Nobody had ever told her that falling in love could scramble your brain so much that when faced with the object of your desire it was impossible to even string two lucid thoughts together! Her glance fell almost with relief on the small metal figure of a soldier lying at the side of the blotter on the desk. She picked it up and examined it.
‘Does he belong to you?’ she asked lightly.
Georgia sensed Keir’s body grow briefly rigid. When he didn’t answer straight away, she wondered if she’d done something wrong.
‘It belonged to my brother Robbie.’ He took the miniature figure from between her fingers and sighed. ‘It was one of a dozen. Robbie painted them all with painstaking care when he was about seven or eight…he spent hours and hours on them.’
‘What happened to the others?’
‘My father flung them into the fire in a temper, because— Robbie hadn’t been quick enough in bringing him his morning newspaper.’
‘Oh, how cruel!’
Georgia’s eyes had actually filled with tears, and Keir’s lips twisted sardonically. ‘You think that was cruel, do you? Well, James Strachan surpassed that particular act of spite many times, let me tell you! You wouldn’t believe just what despicable depths the man could sink to when it came to the treatment of his family.’
Reaching across Georgia to get to his desk, Keir opened a drawer and dropped the figure of the soldier inside. Closing it again, he quickly fielded the pain and rage the memory inevitably engendered, and studied the ravishing girl in his lap with a blend of sorrow and regret. Even talking to her about the smallest part of his past he somehow felt that he was sullying her. This beautiful, innocent woman who had single-handedly raised her fourteen-year-old brother and sacrificed her own plans and dreams for love of her family…
That kind of pure, untainted love was a million miles from Keir’s own experience. That was why he knew deep down in his soul that he couldn’t expect their affair to go any further once the time came for her to leave. He wasn’t the man for her…no. She deserved someone much more whole and psychologically intact than he was…
‘I’m sorry that you and your brother had such an unhappy time when you were young, and I’m sorry your father was so cruel. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. I only ever knew love and kindness from my own parents when they were alive. Was that why you told me not to judge a book by its cover when I first came here? Because this house doesn’t hold happy memories for you even though it’s so beautiful?’
She was regarding him with what Keir could only describe as infinite tenderness in her lovely greengold— gaze, and he couldn’t deny the almost overwhelming— wave of warmth that flooded his heart in response. Yet at the same time he knew it was dangerous— to keep succumbing so easily to the compassion— and caring that Georgia so naturally displayed. One day soon he would have to live in this house without her, and he’d better not encourage her to become more involved in his personal life than she was already. Ultimately it would be easier for them both if she didn’t.
‘I’m sorry…’ He put a hand on her back and indicated— she should get up. ‘I really have a lot of work to do, and enticing as you are…I can’t afford any more distractions today.’
To Georgia, Keir’s words were akin to somebody throwing a bucket of ice water down her back. Just when he had been opening up to her, sharing some of the pain of his past, he had all too suddenly closed down again and shut her out. Even though they had slept together. Was he subtly reminding her that she was after all only his secretary—and a temporary one at that? He was Laird—an important man in his community—and— when he finally decided to settle down with a woman it would no doubt be with someone from his own class and background. The sooner Georgia accepted that and divested herself of any secret hopes she might entertain of becoming closer to Keir the better.