Rival Attractions & Innocent Secretary(50)

It was his time.

'Do you want me to take him?' the vet asked.

'Please.'

'Do you want his collar?'

'No, thank you.'

He shook the vet's hand and thanked him, saw him out, and then spent ten  minutes trying to find where Rita kept the bin liners. Walking around  the apartment, he filled it with Pepper's things, kneeling and checking  under the bed, in the laundry, under the sofa, making sure that every  last thing of his was gone, then throwing the bag down the chute.  Annoyed at the dog hair on his favourite suit, he stripped it off and  changed, then threw his suit down the chute too.

Only when every last trace of Pepper was gone did Luca head back to the office.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN


'I'M SURE I'm pregnant,' Evelyn said firmly. If she said it assuredly enough then the universe wouldn't dare to argue.

'Let's just wait and see what the clinic says.' Emma attempted caution. 'You'll know tomorrow.'

'I've got all the symptoms,' Evelyn insisted. 'I mean, I feel sick all  the time, my breasts are hurting … ' It was like water torture-drip by  drip, Evelyn listed her symptoms, each one causing a further stab of  unease in Emma. 'I just want to know now.'

So too did Emma.

'Evelyn … ' Emma picked up her bag. 'I'm going out for my lunch break, okay?'

'Out?' Evelyn frowned, as well she might. There was no such thing as a  lunch break-it was either out with Luca and taking notes or a quick  sandwich at the desk. The requisite lunch break in this place was  non-existent. 'I've got some things I need to do … ' Emma slung her bag  over her shoulder ' … and I doubt I'll be out of here by five.'

The public toilets in a department store wasn't the best place to find  out the news, but somehow she needed to be away from Luca for this.  Leaning against the wall, the short wait was interminable. Picking up  the indicator, she stared at it, not trying to work out the hows or  whys, as the internet had already told her that-new job, lots of travel,  different time zones …  She had been vigilant taking her Pill but  sometimes, apparently, these things happened. Picking up the instruction  leaflet, she didn't need to check it as the answer was perfectly  clear-whether or not it was to her liking was another matter entirely.

She walked back to work, her heart in her mouth, not even attempting to  fathom Luca's reaction to the news-she was having enough trouble  fathoming her own!

'Where the hell have you been?'

Luca was not in the best of moods-in fact, he hadn't been in the best of  moods for a long time. Since his return from Sicily the pretence of  business as usual had soon worn thin, but since Pepper's death his mood  had darkened further. Still, as she slipped off her jacket his harsh  tone had no impact on Emma.

'I asked where you'd been,' Luca said. 'I've been ringing your mobile.'

'At lunch,' Emma said, 'and I forgot to charge my phone.'

'You went to lunch two hours ago.'

'And I stayed here till eleven p.m. last night,' Emma retorted, her head  too full of the sudden news to feel threatened by Luca's tone.

Maybe she should just tell him now. Oh, I just took a pregnancy test and was building up to giving you the happy news!

God, men had it easy at times.

She looked up at him, at a face that had once appeared to adore her, at  the stern lips that had kissed her, at the hands that had soothed her,  and wondered how he could have changed so. How she could possibly ever  work up the courage to tell him.

She couldn't.

So, instead of explaining herself, she peeled off her jacket and then  made her way to the desk, not that her lack of response deterred him.  Luca rattled off a list of orders that had even Evelyn frowning at the  impossibility of it all.

But Emma just set to work, dealing with the most pressing emails and telephone calls, as Evelyn dealt with Luca.

His temper was palpable, she could hear it in the impatient buzz of her  intercom, could feel it from behind the thick oak door, could see it  when she knocked and entered and gave him the most recent list of  figures he had demanded that she pull from thin air and that though  deemed urgent were given nothing more than a cursory glance.

'And remember the midday meeting tonight,' he called to her departing back. 'Make sure I've got all the documentation I need.'                       
       
           



       

'Midday meeting tonight?'

'With the Los Angeles office.' He bared his teeth in a sarcastic smile.  'Evelyn has to leave at six tonight, so if you want your break, could  you take it before then?'

'I've got plans tonight.' She did have plans, important plans-like  seeing a doctor and trying to work out what the hell she was going to  do. 'I really need to leave.'

'Would you excuse us a moment, please, Evelyn?' His voice was dark and  Emma was grateful for the sympathetic smile Evelyn gave her on the way  out.

'When you were offered the position … ' Each word came in clipped tones,  his eyes never leaving her face as he spoke, but Emma wasn't going to  take this.

'I know what you're doing!'

'When you were offered the position,' Luca said again, his voice icily  calm, 'it was clearly stipulated there would be extensive travel and  late nights.'

'You're trying to push me into resigning.' With every interruption, with  every rise in her voice, Luca leant back further in his chair, a cruel  glimmer of a smile on his lips as he calmly spoke over her.

'It was clearly outlined that the reason you were being hired,' Luca  smoothly continued, 'was to lighten Evelyn's workload. I value Evelyn-'

'Unlike me,' Emma spat.

'I value all my staff,' Luca responded, 'but Evelyn is vital-that is why  I have been so accommodating with her doctor's appointments and  schedules. That is why you are here-to lighten her load so that she  doesn't hand in her notice.'

'Which is what you want me to do?'

'Why would I want you to leave?' He was smiling now-utterly boxing her  into a corner. 'If Evelyn gets good news tomorrow, we'll need you on  board even more. It might even mean a promotion for you!'

He kept her at the office till ten p.m., and exhausted she fell into  bed, but sleep evaded her. Her mind was a whir of scattered  thoughts-that she was carrying his child was just too big and too scary  to contemplate. Imagining telling him, dealing with him-telling the man  who so clearly didn't want her in his life that she would be in it now  for ever. Whether that meant monthly maintenance payments or access  visits, there was a link now that couldn't be severed.

She lay there and wondered.

He had changed, yet so had she.

It had been like a beautiful seamless dance, and somehow she had  tripped-had forgotten the rules, had tipped the scales from trusting to  wary almost imperceptibly.

So she lay there, trying to pinpoint the moment it had ended, when, for Luca, the light had gone out on their relationship.

Trying not to ponder what she had done wrong.

Because she had done nothing wrong, Emma knew that.

It wasn't about wrong or right, or trying to please, or bending to  fit-she had known from the start it would be short-lived, that Luca, by  his own clear admission, would never loan his heart to anyone for long.

She had accepted the rules of the game, had gone into it utterly prepared-and had come out of it utterly broken.

Had been so sure that she could handle it.

Change him. Be the one.

Glimpse a future for them.

So, instead of sleeping, she lay there, rueing her own carelessness,  because she had been taught, and she had learnt, and yet she had chosen  to forget.

What a fool she'd been …





CHAPTER FOURTEEN


THE call when it came was unexpected. Luca had won, Emma finally  decided. She had her notice typed up and printed off and it sat waiting  in her bag for when the right moment presented itself. She simply  couldn't do it any longer.

Evelyn had had her blood test that morning and the bad news that very  afternoon. Luca had offered to let her go home, but Evelyn had declined.  'This will not be the last time,' he had said to her, as Emma had sat  with her arm around Evelyn.

'Maybe it's time to see someone else. I have found out about a very good  clinic. Their success rate with IVF is high.' He handed his PA a thick  glossy brochure.

'We can't afford to go there,' Evelyn sobbed.

'I am to be sent the bills,' Luca said, 'and this time you will take the  time off that you need and rest properly while you wait for the  results.'

'Why would you do this for me?' Evelyn wailed as Emma wondered the same  thing-he could be so nice, so charming, so very, very kind. Ah, but  Evelyn was vital to Luca, she thought cynically, the last thing he must  privately want was for his esteemed PA to be leaving-but his show of  kindness had caught her off guard.

As he always did.

Her throat thickened with tears as he spoke to Evelyn, as she heard  again the rare tenderness that she craved from him. 'Because you do so  much for me, because always you have been loyal to me. Because I know  that when your baby is here-and it will be here, Evelyn-that even if you  come back to work for me part time, or even if you decide to never work  again, I will be able to call on you, perhaps to train someone up,  perhaps to help for a few days. And more than that, we are friends. I  know I can count on you, and you can count on me too.'