The Boss and His Secretary. Jessica Steele

antagonism fairy give her a poke.

      ‘It isn’t…’ she began. Somehow she felt awkward about Brian Mellor being approached for a reference, even though she did not doubt he would give her a good one. ‘I’ve only ever had the one permanent employer,’ she stated, as calmly as she could in the circumstances.

      ‘And you left him in rather a hurry,’ Jake Nash said, not a smile or anything the least encouraging about him. ‘Why was that?’ he demanded sharply.

      With difficulty Taryn reined in the spurt of aggravation his sharp tone aroused. He wanted confidentiality, she’d give him confidential! ‘That’s confidential,’ she stated, making no apology.

      ‘I’ll accept confidentiality in business,’ her would-be employer retorted. ‘But your reason for leaving was personal.’

      ‘How do you make that out?’ she flared.

      ‘That it was personal? I’d have thought that was obvious!’ he rapped, and was unrelenting when he demanded, ‘Why did you and Brian Mellor fall out?’

      ‘We didn’t fall out!’ she denied, aware that this job she had coveted was getting away from her, but feeling powerless to do anything to stop it.

      ‘Oh, come on,’ Jake Nash grated impatiently. ‘You stayed with the man for two whole years and then walked out at a moment’s notice? According to you, Brian Mellor didn’t dismiss you—so it had to be personal.’

      ‘He didn’t dismiss me!’ she said forcefully, twin spots of angry colour appearing in her cheeks.

      ‘So why leave without first giving him the courtesy of at least a month’s warning that you were resigning?’

      He had a point, she supposed. From his point of view he would not want her trained in the smooth running of his office only for her to up and leave on the spot over some whim of the moment.

      He was still waiting for an answer, she could tell that, but no way was she going to tell him that Brian Mellor had kissed her. Not only did that seem to her to be disloyal to Brian, and to his marriage, but in this day and age this sophisticated man with his now icy grey eyes concentrated on her would probably laugh his socks off.

      ‘If you must know…’ she began, floundering—and all at once she’d had it with this man. It was touch and go whether she still had a chance of this job anyway. She decided to give him the truth and to the devil with him. ‘If you must know,’ she said again, heatedly this time, ‘I fell in love with him!’ There—it was out. She was blushing furiously, but there—pick the bones out of that.

      ‘Oh, my…’ Jake Nash leant back in his chair. ‘His wife didn’t care for it?’

      ‘His wife didn’t know.’ Honestly! This man! ‘Neither did he,’ she charged on, before he could ask—which she full well knew he would.

      Jake Nash surveyed her for long unspeaking seconds. Then casually, while still surveying her, ‘I’m damned sure that there’s more to it than that,’ he drawled. ‘Tell me, Miss Webster, do you make a habit of falling in love with every man who employs you?’

      And that did it! Sarcastic pig! He had obviously noted the affection she felt for his great-uncle. And now this—her owning up to loving the employer before him. Taryn got to her feet. She knew then without a shadow of a doubt that she had not got the job. ‘Every time,’ she answered, as he too got to his feet. ‘Though in your case it would have been extremely easy to make an exception!’

      As an exit line, she felt it was rather good. But before she could take so much as one step towards the door Jake Nash, to her utter amazement, burst out laughing. It was so unexpected that she just stood there and stared at him—stared at his firm mouth, now uplifted at the corners, his white even teeth revealed.

      ‘Oh, Taryn Webster,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Let us be thankful for small mercies.’ And while she was still standing there, staring at him, his right hand suddenly shot out. ‘Be here at nine o’ clock sharp on Monday,’ he instructed.

      Taryn was so stunned her own right hand came out, and this time, having once before refused to do so, she did shake hands with him, the warmth of his skin as his larger hand covered her dainty one giving her something of a tingle.

      ‘You’re saying—I’ve got the job?’ she asked, hardly believing her cross-tempered interview was ending like this.

      ‘You’ve got the job,’ he confirmed. ‘Let’s hope neither of us lives to regret it.’

      CHAPTER THREE

      TARYN had been working for Jake Nash for a month when it suddenly struck her that she had not thought of Brian Mellor in a long, long while. She found that realisation more than a little startling. But more startling still was the unbelievable truth that not once in the month she had been working for Jake had she wished that she was back working for Brian! Taryn almost gasped out loud in shock when, following on from that she had to consider—did she still love Brian?

      It came as a bolt from the blue when a second or two later she recognised that—neither missing working for him and seeing him daily, nor even so much as thinking of him recently—love him she did not.

      Two years and more she had spent loving him. Yet in the space of a few months she was on the way to forgetting him completely. Not that there was time to think about anything but work when she was in the office. But…

      She was on her way there now, and had space that morning to dwell on something other than helping Kate run a streamlined unit. Taryn saw then that she had really needed to get out of an office environment for those two months she had worked for Jake’s great-uncle. She had needed to take a step back. But, oh, how glad she was to be back in the swing of it.