A Christmas Affair. Кэрол Мортимер

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СКАЧАТЬ so flattering to a woman's ego!

      And sarcasm wasn't going to get her anywhere, she acknowledged miserably.

      Nothing she had done the last five years had got her anywhere with this man; to him she was just a second storage unit for all his business dealings, his right-hand man, his Man Friday. She might just as well have been a man for all the notice he took of her.

      Which brought her right back to the reason for his fury with her now.

      ‘You demanded to have time off for Christmas even though you knew it wasn't convenient,’ he rasped, his eyes glittering angrily. ‘You even persuaded me into letting you use the Audi Quattro when you suddenly decided you had to leave for your sister's home in Devon in the middle of the night while a snowstorm raged. And then,’ he breathed deeply, ‘after only one night away instead of the week you had insisted upon, you arrived back here to give me this!’ He slapped the letter angrily against the palm of his other hand.

      ‘Let's just get the facts straight, shall we?’ She straightened, her gaze unflinching—one thing: no matter how arrogantly demanding he was, he had never managed to fray her nerves to breaking-point as he had poor Mary and the other secretaries. And he wasn't about to start now! ‘It's never convenient with you if I take a holiday, let alone want to spend Christmas with my family. Just because you don't believe in them—families or Christmas—there's no reason to think that the rest of the world isn't entitled to them either!’

      His jaw was clenched tightly at her verbal blows. ‘I don't think the rest of the world——’

      ‘All right, then, maybe it's just my wanting a holiday with my family that you find so. offensive,’ she snapped irritably.

      ‘You took your damned holiday, two days early, no matter what my feelings were,’ he scowled. ‘So what's the problem?’

      ‘I haven't got to that yet,’ she grated, eyes narrowed angrily. ‘Secondly,’ she said pointedly, ‘I did not persuade you into letting me take the Audi, you offered. Thirdly,’ she continued determinedly as he would have interrupted, ‘I went to my sister's so suddenly not because of some trivial female whim, which is what you seem to be implying, but because of an emergency!’

      ‘An emergency that is obviously over now, or you wouldn't be back here,’ said Dominic impatiently. ‘So I still don't see what the problem is.’

      Oh, yes, the emergency was definitely over now. Cathy smiled to herself as she thought of the ecstatic telephone call she had received from her friend Jade late the previous evening telling her of the wedding she and David were planning for the New Year. It could so easily have worked out unhappily for all concerned.

      But the joy Jade and David had undoubtedly found in each other had only strengthened her own resolve where Dominic was concerned, which was why she had come into the office at all today.

      ‘Fourthly,’ she told him firmly, ‘I gave you that——’ she indicated the letter he crushed so savagely in his hand ‘—because I no longer want to work for you.’

      He drew in a harsh breath. ‘Just like that?’ He was outraged.

      No, not just like that. She no more wanted to leave than he seemed to want her to go. But their reasons for that were completely different. She because just being close to him had to be better than nothing; he because, as they both knew, he didn't want to lose the best personal assistant he had ever had.

      But, after five years of believing that being close to him was better than nothing, Cathy knew that was no longer true. She loved him, would always love him, but she was twenty-six, and if she wanted to make any sort of life for herself she knew she would have to make the break now. Had known it, and had difficulty accepting it, for some time.

      She shrugged non-committally, continuing to pack the things from the top of her desk into the box in front of her. ‘After five years I think it's time for a change.’

      ‘To do what?’ he said with angry scorn, crushing even more the letter of resignation that had been the start of his fury.

      ‘Maybe I'll take up modelling,’ she shrugged after a moment's thought. ‘Everyone seems to believe I have the face and figure for it.’

      ‘You would be bored out of your mind within a week!’ Dominic dismissed harshly, making no comment about what ‘everyone believed’ concerning her looks.

      ‘As long as that?’ she returned consideringly, her head tilted to one side, her hair blonde and silkily straight to her shoulders. ‘Maybe I should give an agency a ring.’

      ‘Cathy——’

      ‘Yes, Dominic?’ she prompted smoothly, knowing that her own coolness in the face of his agitation was adding to his frustration with a situation that seemed out of his control; Dominic liked to be in control at all times.

      He glowered at her. ‘If there's some sort of problem between us, couldn't you at least have come to me and talked about it instead of just leaving this on my desk for me to find when I went through my mail?’ Once again he slapped the crumpled paper against the palm of his hand.

      ‘But there is no problem,’ she told him dismissively. ‘And where else would you have liked me to leave my letter of resignation? It wouldn't have done a lot of good sitting on my desk, now, would it?’ she chided reasoningly.

      His eyes narrowed warningly at her continued flippancy. ‘I would rather you hadn't left the damned thing anywhere.’

      ‘But then you wouldn't have known I was leaving,’ she pointed out practically, picking up the calendar from the side of her desk, debating whether or not it belonged to her personally or to the office, and finally throwing it carelessly into the top of her box.

      ‘Will you stop being so damned—uncaring?’ Dominic exploded once again.

      This volatile temper, joined by his razor-sharp brain, was something the City knew to be very wary of.

      To Cathy, these occasional lapses of temper just showed he was human after all!

      ‘Oh, lighten up, Dominic,’ she advised him impatiently. ‘ “It's Christmas Eve, and all's right with the world,” ’ she quoted drily.

      ‘Not my world,’ he rasped. ‘God, Cathy, no one gives immediate notice!’

      She was aware of that; she also knew that her having done so, and insisting that it go through, could be serious enough to make Dominic refuse to give her a reference.

      But she had made her decision to make the break and, having done so, she didn't want to be anywhere near Dominic, where her resolve could so easily be weakened, until she felt strong enough to cope with seeing him again. Maybe in a hundred years or so!

      ‘We have a contract, Cathy,’ he reminded her hardly. ‘It states that there should be three months’ notice on either side. If you go ahead with leaving immediately I could sue you for breach of that contract.’

      She winced, knowing that if he got angry enough he was as likely to do just that. ‘At Christmas?’ She shook her head disgustedly. ‘I always wondered what that middle initial “S” stood for in your name, and now I think I know: Scrooge could have taken lessons from you!’

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