It Started With... Collection. Miranda Lee

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СКАЧАТЬ would be a good time, when Karen’s out. She and Margaret have lunch together at a café up the road every day at one. Kane has his lunch delivered, Margaret tells me. He’s an obsessive reader and usually stays at his desk. You could pop along any time after one and he’d be all alone.’

      ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’

      ‘Why not? What do you think he’s going to do? Ravish you on his desk?’

      Jessie didn’t like to admit that that was exactly what she thought he might do. Worse was the reality that she wouldn’t mind one bit.

      She’d already come into work wearing a skirt, instead of jeans. And no stockings.

      The clear blue sky this morning had promised a hot summer’s day, so her selection of a pink and white floral wrap-around skirt, a simple pink T-shirt and slip-on white sandals was really quite an appropriate outfit for work. No one could have guessed by just looking at her that whilst she’d dressed she’d secretly thrilled to the thought of how accessible she was, if by some chance Kane found the time and the place to seduce her at work.

      Stupid fantasy, really. But darned exciting to think about.

      By lunch-time, every nerve-ending in Jessie’s body was tap-dancing. She was grateful when Michele left to do some shopping. A trip to the ladies’ room assured her that her make-up was still in place. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it had melted all over her face. But she looked OK. Her hair was up, secured by a long pink clip. She toyed with taking it down, then decided that would be on the obvious side. The last thing she wanted was to be obvious.

      Thankfully she had a good excuse for going to his office. She didn’t want to show up looking like a desperate. Even if she was fast becoming one.

      Another attack of nerves sent her bolting into a toilet cubicle. Five minutes later, she was back at her desk, where she skip-read a few chapters of the book to get the gist of it whilst she stuffed down one of the two sandwiches she’d brought from home. That done, she made her way to Kane’s office. It was one-twenty.

      Karen’s desk was blessedly empty. Fate hadn’t made her stay back for some reason. Jessie’s heart sank, however, when she saw the door to the inner office was half open and a woman’s voice was emerging.

      Don’t tell me Karen is in there with him, she thought.

      Jessie took a couple of steps towards the door, grinding to a halt when the woman—who didn’t sound like Karen—said something about being pregnant.

      ‘Pregnant!’ Kane exclaimed in a shocked voice. ‘Good God, Natalie.’

      Jessie sucked in sharply. Natalie. That was his ex-wife’s name.

      ‘Don’t worry, darling,’ the woman said in a droll tone. ‘It’s not yours. I’m only a month gone and it’s at least a couple of months since we were together. Besides, if I recall rightly, you used a condom.’

      Jessie’s heart squeezed tight. A couple of months ago Kane had still been sleeping with his ex. Yet he’d made her think he’d been celibate since they split up over a year ago. She’d thought at the time that was unlikely. What other women had he lied to her about?

      ‘Who’s the father?’ she heard Kane ask.

      ‘Some guy I met at a party. A lawyer. I didn’t even find out his last name, would you believe? But I could find it out if I want to.’

      ‘What are you going to do about the baby?’

      ‘I know you’ll think I’m mad, but I’m going to have it.’

      ‘You’re joking!’

      ‘No. No, Kane, I’m not.’

      Jessie couldn’t bear to stand there, listening to any more of this conversation. She turned and fled back down the corridor as quietly as her pounding heart would permit. Tears threatened, but she made it back to the toilet cubicle, dry-eyed. Even then, strangely, she didn’t cry. She wanted to, but something inside her was damming back the tears, a big, cold, angry lump.

      One part of her wanted to go back and confront him, throw his lies in his face. But another part of her argued that to do that was to finish it between them.

      Could she bear that? To walk away without going to bed with him, at least once?

      Jessie supposed she could. She could do just about anything once she put her mind to it.

      But it would be hard, especially with his being here at work every day. She would keep running into him. And wanting him.

      So, no, she wouldn’t be confronting him, Jessie decided as she made her way back to her desk. Or accusing him. She would use him as he was using her. For sex.

      At least this added knowledge of his character would stop her from falling in love with him. The man was a lying scumbag, like most men. An empty charmer. Just because he’d made a raging success of his professional life didn’t make him a good guy, as he claimed to be.

      When she thought about his choice of career it suited him very well. What was he, really, but a glorified salesman? A con artist. A seller of dreams. Such seminars as he conducted preyed on people’s weaknesses, making them think they could be winners too, if only they listened to him. He’d spin her a whole world of dreams too, if she let him.

      But she wasn’t going to let him. Or listen to him. He could talk all the bulldust he liked. None of it was going to get to her any more.

      ‘What are you muttering to yourself about?’

      His voice behind her came out of the blue, startling her.

      Jessie swallowed, then spun slowly round on her office chair, a cool smile at the ready.

      ‘Just thinking of all the things I have to do before Christmas,’ she said, her eyes running over the man himself for the first time that day.

      Yes, he was gorgeous. Utterly. With that air of masculine confidence which she found almost irresistible.

      But she was ready for him now, ready and armed with the knowledge of his true self.

      ‘I did offer to take you shopping,’ he said with one of his winning smiles.

      ‘So you did. And I might have to take you up on that by this time next week.’

      ‘What about this Saturday? Emily could come with us. I promise I’ll have a proper car seat by then.’

      Jessie found her own smile. A slow smile. A saucy smile. ‘Do you think you’ll be capable of getting out of bed after Friday night?’

      His blue eyes registered shock. But then he smiled back. ‘Is that a challenge of some sort?’

      ‘Let’s just say it’s been a while for me. I might take some satisfying.’

      A flicker of a frown skittered across his face. ‘Boy, when you decide to do something you do it full throttle, don’t you?’

      ‘I have a take-no-prisoners attitude to life sometimes.’

      ‘That’s СКАЧАТЬ