The Reluctant Duke. Carole Mortimer

assure you, Mr St Claire, there is nothing about my personal life that would be of the least interest to you.’ She looked up at him challengingly.

      He raised dark brows. ‘You sound very certain of that.’

      ‘I am,’ she came back evenly.

      What would this man do or say, Lexie wondered, if he were to learn that her grandmother was none other than Sian Thomas—the widow that his own father, Alexander St Claire, had fallen in love with over twenty-five years ago? The same woman all the St Claire family had treated with such contempt for those same many years… If he were to realise that Lexie’s own full name, Alexandra, had been chosen in honour of ‘Grandpa Alex’, as she had called this man’s father for the first sixteen of her twenty-four years…!

      CHAPTER TWO

      LEXIE had been in complete ignorance for most of her childhood as to exactly who her Grandpa Alex was—apart from being her step-grandfather, of course—but once she’d reached her teens her mother had quietly and calmly sat her down and explained the situation to her.

      It was then that Lexie had learned that Alexander St Claire was actually the Duke of Stourbridge, and had been virtually disowned by his three sons after his divorce from their mother, Molly St Claire.

      Lexie had instantly decided that all three of the St Claire brothers had treated their father abominably—simply because he had fallen in love with her gentle and beautiful grandmother. A woman none of the brothers had even attempted to meet, let alone get to know. If they had then they might have realised how far removed Sian was from being the femme fatale they so obviously believed her to be. They would also have seen how much she had loved their father. How much their father had loved her in return.

      As it was, despite the fact that their father was now her Grandpa Alex, Lexie hadn’t so much as set eyes on any of the three St Claire brothers until Alexander had died eight years ago, when they had dutifully arranged and attended their father’s funeral at the village church in Stourbridge.

      Lexie had attended the funeral, too, out of sheer bloody-mindedness, after it had been made clear that her grandmother’s presence would not be welcomed there by the St Claire family.

      Out of sheer stubbornness she had decided to represent her own family that day, standing at the back of the church to mourn her Grandpa Alex. Unacknowledged and thankfully unnoticed by any of the St Claire family.

      The coldly remote Lucan St Claire had been easily recognisable from the photographs Lexie had deliberately looked out for over the last few years in the business pages of newspapers and magazines. She had also known the youngest St Claire brother, the rakishly handsome actor Jordan Sinclair, which had to make the austerely attractive blond-haired man standing beside him his twin brother Gideon.

      But Lexie’s grandmother—the woman Alexander St Claire had loved and shared the last seventeen years of his life with—had been absent from his funeral.

      For that alone Lexie would never forgive any of the St Claire family. The head of that family, especially. Lucan St Claire. The man who, upon his father’s death, had become the fifteenth Duke of Stourbridge.

      Not that Lucan St Claire ever used the title. No doubt as some further insult to the father he had all but disowned twenty-five years ago.

      Lexie’s eyes snapped her resentment now, as she looked up at Lucan St Claire. ‘Can I help you with something else, Mr St Claire…?’

      Lucan didn’t believe himself to be a vain man. He recognized that he was cold, occasionally ruthless and that other than with his close family he was almost always chillingly remote. He was also aware that it was as much his considerable wealth and power that attracted all those models and actresses to him as any personal attraction he might or might not have.

      That aside, Lexie Hamilton’s initial attitude of dismissal, followed by this disdain, were not things Lucan had ever encountered in any other woman.

      Intriguingly so…

      ‘Are you always this disrespectful?’ he rasped harshly.

      She shrugged. ‘My parents brought me up to believe that respect has to be earned, not just given,’ she came back challengingly.

      Lucan growled something unintelligible under his breath. ‘I want you to sit in on my ten o’clock meeting and take notes.’

      ‘Well, that is what you are paying me for,’ she came back sarcastically.

      Lucan’s patience—what little he possessed—was fast running out where this particular woman was concerned. ‘If you continue with your present attitude you will leave me with no choice but to call your agency back and explain exactly how ill-suited I believe you to be for this or any other position,’ he warned her coldly.

      Lexie grudgingly acknowledged that she might be allowing her inner resentment towards this man to get the better of her. After all, he was Lucan St Claire, world-renowned businessman, and a man who was rich as Croesus and even more powerful. The last thing Lexie wanted was for her parents to return from their cruise and discover the hard-earned reputation of Premier Personnel, which they had so painstakingly built up over the last twenty years, was in tatters after only a matter of days under Lexie’s management!

      ‘Shouldn’t you at least give me a few hours to prove my efficiency before doing that? ‘ she came back lightly.

      Even when this woman was saying all the right words she still somehow managed to sound challenging, Lucan recognised with a frown. Almost as if she had been predisposed to dislike him.

      Simply because of the unfeeling way she believed he had behaved towards Jessica Brown?

      Or was her dislike for another reason entirely?

      Considering that Lexie Hamilton hadn’t even known Lucan’s ex-PA, the former didn’t sound like an acceptable explanation for her attitude. So maybe it was something else?

      Or perhaps it wasn’t personal at all, and she really was just this prickly and outspoken with everyone?

      If he could tolerate this woman in such close proximity to him for the next three days he was probably going to find that out.

      And he still had to decide what he was going to do about John Barton’s call concerning the damage to Mulberry Hall.

      ‘Is there something wrong, Mr St Claire?’ Lexie prompted lightly a couple of hours later, once Gideon St Claire had left the office to accompany Andrew Proctor and his legal representative down in the lift.

      ‘What could possibly be wrong? ‘ Lucan bit out tautly as he stood up impatiently, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw. He moved around the desk, the darkness of his gaze narrowed on her icily.

      Lexie gave a shake of her head. ‘I had assumed you might offer to take Mr Proctor out to lunch once the contracts had been signed—’

      ‘I believe Proctor would much rather have had lunch with you than with me.’

      ‘Me?’ Lexie repeated incredulously.

      ‘Don’t play the innocent with me, Lexie; you know exactly what effect you had on Andrew Proctor,’ he growled scathingly.

      She frowned. ‘I believe I laughed at several of Mr Proctor’s jokes—’

      ‘Laughed inappropriately at all of his jokes,’ Lucan corrected disgustedly, fresh anger boiling up inside him just at the thought of the meeting that had just taken place in his office.

      Andrew Proctor was a handsome man in his late forties, owner of an extensive transport business that Lucan wished to acquire for the St Claire Corporation. There had been several meetings between Gideon and Proctor’s own legal adviser already, to negotiate the details of the sale, and Lucan had fully expected the meeting this morning—the signing of the contracts—to go off without a hitch.

      Obviously he hadn’t taken Lexie’s presence