The Reluctant Duke. Carole Mortimer

to steely slits. ‘When I want your opinion, Miss Hamilton, then you can be assured I will ask for it!’

      ‘I was merely pointing out—’

      ‘Something that I believe, as a temporary temporary employee, is absolutely none of your business?’ Lucan rasped harshly.

      ‘Probably not,’ she conceded with a rueful grimace.

      An attitude completely lacking in genuine apology, Lucan recognised with a dark frown. ‘Why would Jen—Jessica,’ he corrected irritably, ‘leave in that unprofessional way?’

      Lexie Hamilton gave a shrug. ‘I believe she mentioned to someone at the agency that the final insult came when you didn’t even bother to send her so much as a Christmas card—let alone buy her a present.’

      ‘She received a Christmas bonus in her pay cheque last month—the same as all my other employees.’

      ‘A personal Christmas present,’ Lexie Hamilton drawled pointedly.

      ‘Why on earth would I do that? ‘ Lucan was genuinely astounded by the accusation.

      ‘I believe it’s customary for one’s immediate boss to—never mind,’ the raven-haired beauty dismissed, as she obviously saw his impatience. ‘I had no idea you were already in your office—I took a call just now that I believe is in need of your immediate attention. I wrote the details down for you.’ She handed him a slip of paper.

      Lucan glanced down at the neatly written message before crushing it in his hand.

      John Barton, the caretaker of Mulberry Hall, was reporting some damage to the west gallery of the house, following the rapid thaw over the last two days. Damage that John believed was in need of Lucan’s personal attention.

      As the eldest of the three St Claire brothers, Lucan had inherited the Mulberry Hall estate on the death of their father eight years ago. But it was an estate he had rarely visited following his parents’ separation and acrimonious divorce twenty-five years ago, and a place he certainly had no inclination to return to again so soon after his last visit.

      The first eleven of Lucan’s thirty-six years had been spent happily living at Mulberry Hall with both his parents. The three brothers had been in complete ignorance of their father’s affair with a widow who lived in one of the cottages on the estate with her grown-up daughter. Or of the unhappiness that affair had caused their mother. An unhappiness that had imploded twenty-five years ago and resulted in Molly moving back to Scotland and taking her three sons with her.

      Lucan had forced himself to return to Mulberry Hall for Jordan and Stephanie’s wedding, almost a week ago, as no doubt had his brother Gideon, and their mother; to be asked to go back there again so soon was unacceptable.

      Barton had said the damage was in the west gallery…

      That was the long picture gallery, where the portrait of Lucan’s father, Alexander St Claire, the previous Duke of Stourbridge, now hung in majestic state.

      A portrait which revealed that Lucan, of all the three St Claire brothers, most resembled their dark-haired, dark-eyed and adulterous father!

      ‘Mr Barton sounded as if he considered the matter urgent,’ Lexie Hamilton told him now, and she looked pointedly at the message she had written out so neatly, which Lucan had crushed in his hand.

      ‘I believe that is for me to decide, don’t you? ‘ His voice was silky soft.

      ‘It’s probably too late for me to do anything about your ten o’clock appointment.’ She completely ignored his setdown. ‘But I could probably cancel the rest of your appointments for the next couple of days if you were thinking of—’

      ‘Believe me, Miss Hamilton, you really don’t want to know what I’m thinking right now,’ Lucan assured her harshly. ‘My priority at the moment is to speak to the person in charge at your agency.’

      ‘Why?’

      Lucan raised his brows. ‘I’m not accustomed to having my actions questioned.’

      Lexie easily picked up on the unspoken words—least of all by a temporary, temporary employee. But the person in charge at the agency at the moment happened to be Lexie herself, since her parents, the owners of Premier Personnel, had embarked on a three-week cruise the day after Christmas, in celebration of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

      Her parents weren’t even aware of the call that had come into the agency from Lucan St Claire’s PA on Christmas Eve.

      Lexie had told herself at the time that she hadn’t told them because she didn’t want to put any sort of cloud over her parents’ excitement by so much as mentioning the St Claire family.

      She had told herself that was the reason…

      Initially Lexie had been so stunned by the identity of the caller that she had just taken down the details, before woodenly assuring Jessica Brown that she was not to worry, that Premier Personnel would take care of the problem.

      It was only after the call had ended that Lexie had realised the possibilities that call had just opened up for her.

      She was qualified for the job—just—and it was always quiet in the offices of Premier Personnel in January. Three days. Just three days, she had promised herself. Spent observing Lucan St Claire, the reputedly powerful and ruthless owner of the St Claire Corporation.

      So far Lucan St Claire was proving to be everything Lexie had ever imagined he might be!

      She straightened to her full height of five feet and three inches in her two-inch-high shoes. ‘I assure you that I am qualified to stand in here for three days, Mr St Claire.’

      Those dark eyes viewed her coldly. ‘I don’t believe I questioned your qualifications…’

      Lexie felt irritated colour warm her cheeks. ‘Nonetheless, the implication was there.’

      ‘Really? ‘ Lucan drawled as he moved to lean against the side of his desk, bringing himself down onto a level with Lexie Hamilton’s indignant blue eyes, and enabling him to see the perfection of her creamy skin, and the small and determined chin beneath those highly sensual—sexual—lips…

      Lips like that—so moist and full, so softly pouting—could drive a man wild when applied to a certain part of his anatomy—

      Lucan abruptly moved away, dismayed at the inappropriate imaginings he was having about this less-than-polite young woman, and full of self-disgust at the hardening of that certain part of his own anatomy!

      ‘What’s the name of your agency?’ he bit out harshly.

      ‘Premier Personnel,’ Lexie Hamilton supplied with a frown. ‘But wouldn’t you like me to put through a call to Mr Barton first? He implied the matter was of some urgency—’

      ‘I believe I’m perfectly capable of prioritising my own workload, Lexie,’ Lucan rasped dismissively.

      ‘Of course.’ She nodded abruptly, a frown still between those deep blue eyes as she turned and hurried across the room, giving Lucan an unobstructed view of that long and riotous ebony-coloured hair. He could also view the provocative sway of her shapely bottom underneath the short black skirt and above slender and shapely legs.

      Telling Lucan that this young woman was just as qualified to share his bed as she was to be his temporary, temporary PA!

      ‘Did Jemima change the colour of her hair?’

      Lucan turned slowly to look at his brother Gideon, where he stood silhouetted in the doorway leading out to the hallway. The younger man was frowning across at the closed door between the two offices with the same perplexed expression Lucan was sure had been on his own face fifteen minutes ago, when Lexie Hamilton had first made her entrance.

      It gave Lucan some satisfaction to realise that Gideon had also got his PA’s name wrong. His ex-PA, Lucan corrected irritably.

      It