Conveniently Engaged To The Boss. Ellie Darkins

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СКАЧАТЬ why don’t I hear any of this?’

      Eva rolled her eyes. With all his expensive business education, did he seriously not understand how an office worked? She was clearly going to have to spell this out to him.

      ‘Of course you don’t hear the gossip,’ she said. ‘One, you’re practically the boss. No one gossips in front of the boss. Two, you’re hardly ever in the office. And three, you’re not exactly Mr Friendly over the coffee machine when you are there.’

      ‘People don’t think I’m friendly?’

      ‘I don’t think you’re friendly. I can’t speak for anyone else.’

      He folded his arms and fixed her with a stern look. She was tempted to laugh.

      ‘What’s so unfriendly about me?’

      Should she go for it? Unload all his faults? All the reasons she’d been telling herself for years why he was a million miles from boyfriend material.

      Why not? Perhaps it would be the final straw in this idiotic deception.

      ‘Fine—if you want to hear it. You’re not exactly an open book, are you, Joss? You don’t talk to people unless it’s directly about the business.’

      ‘I don’t do small talk. There’s a difference.’

      ‘Right: the difference between being friendly and not friendly. It’s not a criticism. Just an observation.’

      ‘You think I should be friendlier?’

      She sighed and shook her head. Seriously, this man’s emotional intelligence didn’t even register on the scale. ‘I didn’t say that. I don’t think you need to change. But just don’t be surprised if people don’t open up around you.’

      ‘Well, you don’t seem to be having a problem with that.’

      She shrugged and gave a resigned laugh. ‘Proposing to a girl will have that effect. If you didn’t want to know, you shouldn’t have asked.’

      ‘Might as well know what people think of me. So—office gossip. Is there going to be a lot of it. About us?’

      ‘Are you kidding?’ She laughed properly, genuinely amused for the first time all day. ‘I’m going to be grilled like a fish about this on Monday morning.’

      ‘You could just not go in,’ Joss offered. ‘Take a few days off. Benefits of dating the boss.’

      The smile dropped from her face as the insult hit. As if she could just not show up for work, with no notice, and it wouldn’t make a difference to anyone.

      ‘I think we need to get a couple of things straight, Joss. One—I work very hard with your father. My job is important, and I can’t just swan off because you say so. Unless you fancy handling his correspondence in Arabic, Italian and French on Monday morning, I’ll be at my desk as usual. Two—we are not now, nor will we ever be “dating”. If I’d wanted to date you, I’d have asked you out for dinner. I’m going along with your little charade because I care about your father. Don’t confuse the two.’

      ‘Would you?’ He leaned into the arm of the sofa with a smile that was verging dangerously on smug.

      ‘Would I what?’

      ‘Have asked me out for dinner?’

      She sighed. Bloody man. ‘The key part of that sentence, Joss, was if. I’ve never asked you because I don’t want to date you.’

      ‘You know, you sound like you’ve given that quite a lot of thought. Should I be flattered?’

      ‘Honestly. Only a man with your ego could find a way to take that as a compliment. Listen to me carefully, Joss. I don’t want to date you. I don’t want to be engaged to you. I’m going along with it for now. But when the time comes we’ll both extract ourselves from this situation with as much dignity as we can muster and forget it ever happened.’

       CHAPTER THREE

      EVA SPENT THE weekend in a daze. The further she got from having seen Joss the more ridiculous the whole thing seemed. So when she pitched up at her desk at eight o’clock on Monday morning she was almost surprised to see him there waiting for her.

      ‘You’re in early,’ she commented, unwinding her scarf from around her neck and draping it over the coatstand. ‘Trying to impress somebody?’

      ‘I told you—my father wants to start handing things over today. I thought we’d need an early start.’

      ‘Well, we’ve both beaten the boss in.’ She glanced through the blinds to Edward’s darkened office beyond. ‘Did you see him at the weekend? How is he?’

      ‘He is marvellous, Eva, dear,’ Edward said, bowling up behind her. ‘Thank you for asking. And I was out of the city this weekend, so I’ve not seen anyone since I left the office on Friday. How about you two? I hope you did something nice with your weekend and didn’t spend it worrying about me.’

      ‘Dinner on Friday night,’ Joss supplied truthfully.

      ‘And Borough Market on Saturday,’ Eva added.

      No need to mention that she’d gone alone. She disliked the taste of the half-lie in her mouth, but the smile on Edward’s face softened the blow.

      ‘And arriving together on Monday morning. Were you this indiscreet before or am I really getting old?’

      ‘Actually,’ Joss said, ‘we thought that now everyone will be finding out our news there’s no reason we can’t arrive together. In fact, I’ll be moving my things over to Eva’s place tonight.’

      ‘Well, that’s marvellous. Wish it had all worked like that when your mother and I were that age. Now, I’m glad I’ve found you two alone—I’ve been thinking, and there’s something I want to say to you. I don’t know what your plans are, but I don’t want you to rush them for me. I know my news has been upsetting, but I don’t want you hurrying anything up for my sake. Please?’

      It was perfect, in a way, Eva realised. They wouldn’t have to find an excuse not to marry before he died.

      ‘But enough about that. I need the two of you in Milan as soon as you can get there. The store manager’s feeling jumpy, and we have a couple of major suppliers over there as well who would probably appreciate a visit. I need you to smooth things over. Let people see that you’re more than ready for the big job.’

      Joss’s eyebrows drew together, and she knew he wasn’t happy at the implication that his employees didn’t trust him.

      ‘Dad, I met Matteo at the conference earlier in the year and it was all fine. The managers all know me. Surely you want me here? I’m not sure now’s the time for me to be travelling.’

      ‘Now’s the perfect time, son. We need to steady things. You’re going to have to visit all the flagship stores. The big suppliers too. They’re worried—it’s СКАЧАТЬ