Wanting to set Rogerson to rights battled with an insane stab of jealousy. ‘She’s my PA,’ he said flatly. ‘That’s all.’
The other man contemplated Maverick, one bushy eyebrow arched up high. ‘Ah, I obviously had the wrong end of the stick.’
‘Employees and long-term relationships are not a good-news story as far as I’m concerned.’
‘Really? It’s never been something that bothered me. Mind you, maybe that’s because I married the office junior myself. And, even though I was the boss, it still took me a good six months to work up the courage to ask her out. We’ll be married forty-five years next February.’ The older man sighed. ‘Doris turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.’
Maverick shook his head. ‘Too risky for me.’
‘You know, I think that’s one of the first things that convinced me that Morgan is special. She doesn’t hang back, she doesn’t advocate being safe. When I was prevaricating over whether or not to go ahead with the deal, it was her words that convinced me. She told me that there are times when it’s worth going out on a limb, it’s worth taking a risk. She was right in my case too.’ He handed his glass to a passing flight attendant as the ‘fasten seat belt’ sign came on in preparation for landing. ‘My word, she’s a gutsy girl all right.’
Maverick wasn’t sure he disagreed. What baffled him was why it had taken him so long to notice.
Tegan stood in the crowded arrivals lounge, her nerves stretched tighter than fencing wire, her stomach home to a swarm of dragon flies—drunken dragonflies, that crashed into the walls of her gut and slid down only to relaunch themselves into intoxicated flight once more, the odd one catching her squarely in the lungs.
When she’d received Maverick’s email to pick him up from the airport her heart had skipped a beat. The fact that he wanted to see her as soon as he returned had to mean that he wasn’t finished with her yet. And in spite of everything the notion warmed her more than it should, spreading through her bones like a drug.
Because she wanted to see him too. She didn’t want him to come back and decide that he was over her. She wanted the opportunity of making love to him once more, just one last time, before she broke her news.
Just one last time; that wasn’t too much to ask, surely? And then the cards could lie where they fell. And all of them—Morgan, Tegan and Maverick—would just have to live with the consequences.
The arrivals doors slid open and her tall, dark corporate cowboy strode through, his briefcase in one hand, luggage suspended in the other.
Her heart gave a little leap as their eyes connected, and it felt for a moment like every part of her smiled, though she didn’t make a move towards him. She was content for now just to drink him in.
Maverick.
Her Maverick. So it wouldn’t be for ever. So it would soon be over. But he’d been hers for a while. A thrill of secret pleasure zipped up her spine.
Because, whatever happened, now she had something of him to keep for ever.
Something that would make her lonely days apart from him worthwhile. Something that would ease the pain of losing the man she loved.
Not even the scary prospect of being a partnerless single mother, unemployed and without her own home, could snuff out the sheer spark of delight she felt because she was carrying Maverick’s child. Always she would have part of him to hold dear. And she would cope. She had the money saved up from her work overseas, plus her share of her father’s modest estate when it settled. She could do it.
He came closer, the father of her child, bearing the unmistakeable imprint of long-haul air travel, and yet unlike on most people it only served to make him look even sexier. The shadow at his jaw was evidence of hours away from a razor; his wavy hair looked more rumpled. But still his eyes looked down at her, darkly dangerous, his mouth turned up in a lazy smile, and every cell in her body became an exercise in anticipation as expectation sizzled into life inside her.
Then he turned and spoke and the moment splintered, and she was left confused and floundering as the noise of meet and greets and the jostle of movement and colour returned—and for the first time she noticed the man who’d stepped through the doors alongside him.
‘Hello, Morgan,’ Phil said, his creased face tired and somehow sympathetic. ‘My car’s waiting outside. I guess I’ll see you both some time soon.’
Then he was gone and it was Maverick looking into her face, his brow slightly furrowed, his eyes perplexed.
He smiled, and the warmth from his eyes flowed right down to her toes. ‘Take me home,’ he said.