Boardroom To Bedroom: His Darling Valentine / The Boss's Marriage Arrangement. PENNY JORDAN

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      And no way was that ever going to happen! Matt didn’t even like her, never mind love her. In fact sometimes when he was looking at her the way he was right now, his slate-grey eyes iced with permafrost and freezing her with the most intimidating glare of fury she had ever seen, she felt that he actively disliked her.

      Her heart might be sinking, Harriet acknowledged, but her chin wasn’t going to. Bravely she tilted it, and met his slicing scrutiny.

      What was it about the thickness of his closecropped dark hair that made her want to slide her fingers into it, to mould them against the curve of his well-shaped head, whilst one of his strong hands cupped her own, and that hard mouth softened with desire and…?

      ‘Harriet, I’d like to see you in my office.’

      The cold, clinical words brought her back to earth.

      ‘You mean now?’ she queried. She needed to keep her distance from him right now, not get even closer to him. Harriet had her pride—the same pride that had led to her refusing to give in to her first love’s demand that she go to bed with him—and she was not going to join the ranks of Matt’s lovelorn adorers.

      ‘I mean now!’ he agreed, in a clipped voice that made Ben give her a small shove.

      ‘See you tonight, then,’ he said.

      Matt had already disappeared down the corridor, and as she followed him Harriet wondered feverishly what he wanted.

      There had never been any open clashes between them. How could there be when he was not just her immediate boss but the owner of the company as well? But there had been plenty of subtle indirect ones.

      It wasn’t so much Matt’s antagonism towards her that sparked off the fiery pride that led to her spirited defiance but her own shocked stark inner awareness of just how vulnerable to him she was.

      Apart from the brief catastrophe of her first foray into love Harriet had remained heart-whole, and that was the way she had intended to remain until she was well into her thirties and ready to settle down. And then she had seen Matt and her sensible plans had self-ignited after one incredulous look at him. Nor had it made any difference telling herself that no sensible and right-thinking woman would be so idiotic as to fall crazily in love with a man who obviously was never going to feel the same way about her.

      Abruptly Harriet realised that she had reached Matt’s office.

      An inimical biting grey glance impaled her where she stood, leaving her feeling as though her every thought had been dissected and then rejected.

      ‘Come in and close the door.’

      Her heart was going crazy inside her chest. But it wasn’t her erratic heartbeat that bothered her as she mentally cursed herself for leaving her jacket on her chair.

      The state-of-the-art office had a climatically controlled temperature that made it totally unnecessary for her nipples to do some temperature-awareness testing of their own. But that was exactly what they were doing—pressing themselves against her clothes for the entire world to see, as though she was standing in an arctic wind.

      Or sexually aroused. Well, she certainly knew which it was, and she could only hope that Matt did not!

      Her nipples tightened so fiercely that she almost cried out in protest.

      ‘Sit down.’

      Woodenly, Harriet did so.

      For once Matt had no carefully thought out plan of action mentally organised. He only knew that for her own sake Harriet needed to distance herself from Ben—both in her own emotions and in other people’s eyes.

      The intensity of his grim expression as he battled with his own private devils increased Harriet’s apprehension. What on earth had she done?

      ‘It’s come to my attention that your…feelings for Ben are the subject of a great deal of office criticism and gossip.’

      Harriet could feel the tips of her ears starting to burn hotly in mortified shock. Matt had swung his chair around so that she could only see his profile, but she was miserably and humiliating aware that he could still see how his words were affecting her.

      Her whole face was burning now, with both anger and humiliation, as the full ramifications of his accusatory and demeaning statement sank in.

      Immediately she rushed to defend herself, and to reject what he was saying. ‘If you are referring to Cindi’s ridiculous suggestion that I am secretly in love with Ben—’

      ‘Secretly?’ Matt stopped her sharply, turning to face her. ‘There was nothing secret about the touching little scene I just witnessed. Touching, that is, unless one happens to know the truth! And the entire company knows the truth, Harriet.’ The look Matt gave her made her want to disappear!

      Through stiff, shock-numbed lips Harriet managed to demand, ‘And that truth is…?’

      There was a look in her eyes that made Matt want to go to her and hold her, tell her that nothing and no one was going to be allowed to hurt her whilst he was there to prevent it, but he knew that he couldn’t. He was doing this because he wanted to help her, not because he wanted to hurt her!

      ‘That you are refusing to see that your love for Ben is not returned, that it never will be returned. The way you are pursuing him so obsessively, following him and clinging to him, is not only coming between him and Cindi, it’s making you the object of other people’s contempt as well.’

      The cold, brutal words hit her like physical blows, and as from physical blows Harriet recoiled from them, whispering painfully, ‘No, that isn’t true.’

      ‘It is true. Have you no pride? No self-respect?’

      The blood receded swiftly from Harriet’s face, leaving it creamily pale as shock and outrage filled her.

      Cindi’s assumption and Cindi’s ultimatum had obviously not been confined merely to Ben! It was bad enough discovering that her colleagues shared Cindi’s misinterpretation of her relationship with Ben, but to discover that Matt was not just privy to it but believed it as well filled her with blistering hot shame.

      Valiantly she struggled to overcome her feelings and to explain. After all, no matter what her private feelings might be, Matt was her boss, and at this stage in her career she couldn’t afford to earn any kind of black mark, still less be written off as some kind of obsessive who was trying to force herself on a man who didn’t want her!

      ‘I was just trying to tell Ben—’

      ‘What?’ Matt challenged her, striding from behind his desk and coming over to her. ‘What were you trying to tell him? That he’d be better off with you? With your love?’

      ‘No!’

      ‘No? So what, then? Were you pleading with him to love you?’

      ‘No! No!’ Harriet denied fiercely, getting to her own feet to confront him and then wishing that she hadn’t as she realised how close to him she was.

      She wasn’t a small woman, at five feet nine inches tall, but she was small-boned and slender, and Matt was well СКАЧАТЬ