Carole Mortimer Romance Collection. Carole Mortimer

door to his father’s—his!—office.

      As with the house, this room was decorated and furnished in the style that William liked; the desk and accompanying chairs were antique, the walls papered a muted green, the carpet the same shade of green. The green leather desktop was bare now, but during William’s day it had been littered with paperwork—paperwork that was now in Juliet’s office, where Diana Gilbraith had been waiting for the last half an hour.

      ‘I’ll send Miss Gilbraith—’ Juliet turned to leave the room so sharply that she walked straight into Liam as he stood behind her. She stared up at him wordlessly, their bodies almost touching.

      ‘I don’t know how you’ve behaved in the past, Juliet, but I don’t approve of that sort of thing in the office!’ he rasped harshly, clasping the tops of her arms to put her firmly out of his way as he walked further into the room. ‘And when you get into your office would you ask Diana to come in here?’ he added by way of dismissal, moving to sit in the high-backed chair behind the desk.

      Juliet was glad to escape from the room; she couldn’t bear the sight of him sitting in the chair which William used to occupy. She wished, not for the first time, that she had never gone to Majorca, had never found Edward William Carlyle at all!

      Except, as she very well knew, she hadn’t exactly found Liam at all; he had found her. And he had been playing games with her ever since!

      She took a deep, steadying breath before opening the door to her office and standing in the doorway to look across the room to where Diana Gilbraith sat, not, as Juliet had assumed, behind her desk but on the opposite side of it.

      Diana looked up with a warm, friendly smile, a file open on her knee as she sat with her elegantly curved legs neatly crossed. ‘Hello again.’ She stood up in one smooth movement. ‘Are you feeling better now?’

      Juliet wasn’t quite sure what she had expected when she entered her office, but it certainly hadn’t been this woman’s friendliness! And as far as she could see none of the papers on her desk had been disturbed.

      She stared at the other woman blankly. ‘Better?’ she repeated with a frown.

      ‘Hmm,’ Diana nodded, her blonde hair as neatly styled as usual, her skin still tanned from the time she had recently spent in Majorca. ‘When Liam telephoned me yesterday he explained that the reason he had been delayed was that you hadn’t been too well. I must say you have a bit more colour in your cheeks than the last time I saw you,’ she added encouragingly.

      Juliet wasn’t too sure of this woman’s friendliness. After all, Diana did work for Liam. Maybe she was just lulling her into a false sense of security!

      ‘I spent several days in the sun,’ she answered vaguely. ‘Er—Liam is in the office across the corridor,’ she added, her voice hardening at the mere mention of his name. ‘He would like you to join him.’

      Diana nodded lightly, her blue eyes still warm. ‘I’ll probably see you later, then.’ She left the room with a smile.

      Juliet closed the door thankfully behind the other woman before moving to sit behind her desk, letting out a sigh as she did so, relieved to be on her own again.

      She should have known Liam was a businessman through and through; he hadn’t succeeded in his own business without being extremely competent at what he did. And ruthless. God knew what hornets’ nest she had opened up by seeking him out and having him come here. But she couldn’t possibly have known he would want to come here personally to investigate the company; she had assumed that he would send an assistant, someone like Diana Gilbraith, to come and check things out. But then, she hadn’t known Liam Carlyle and the type of man he was…

      ‘It would appear that this is the office to be in!’

      Juliet was startled by Liam’s intrusion, looking up sharply from the file she had been working on. ‘But this is my office.’ She frowned her puzzlement. What was it? Didn’t he like the view from William’s office?

      The door across the corridor from her own had remained firmly shut during the forty-five minutes since Diana Gilbraith had entered it, and after fifteen minutes of sitting at her desk waiting for some sort of reaction from Liam—she wasn’t even sure what!—Juliet had decided to get on with some of the work on her desk that had accumulated since she left for Majorca nearly two weeks ago.

      Whatever Liam had been doing in the last forty-five minutes, he didn’t look very happy! Juliet tensed guardedly.

      After closing the door with quiet purpose behind him, Liam strode forcefully into the room, looking about him curiously as he did so. Juliet’s office was decorated in blue and white—white walls, dark blue carpet, her dark wood desk and chair serviceable rather than richly ornate as William’s office furniture was. She preferred to work in this more clinical atmosphere, felt comforted by the starkness of the room. But somehow Liam managed to make her feel uncomfortable about it as he stood across the desk from her looking down at her with such superiority!

      She sat back, determined not to be intimidated. ‘I don’t think this room altogether meets with your approval,’ she recognised drily.

      He gave a dismissive shrug of those broad shoulders beneath the pale blue shirt, having removed the jacket to his dark blue suit. ‘I don’t care one way or the other,’ he asserted scornfully. ‘My comment referred to the fact that my father’s office appears to be empty of all relevant information concerning Carlyle Properties!’ He looked down at her with raised brows.

      She had known it wouldn’t take him long to realise that—in fact, she was surprised it had taken this long! She hadn’t wanted to work directly from William’s office after his death, and so the logical thing to do had been to move all the files into her office. It had taken her and John a day to do it, but everything was now filed away in the cabinets that lined one wall of her office.

      Liam saw her quick glance in their direction. ‘Do we move them back, or do you want me to work from here?’ He turned back to her challengingly.

      She most certainly did not want him working in here, and he knew it, damn him! ‘I’ve asked John to come to my office,’ she answered him calmly enough. ‘We’ll move all the relevant information into Will—your office later this morning.’ There was a slightly haunted look in her eyes at the acceptance that the office opposite this one now belonged to Liam.

      He shook his head, his expression grim. ‘That isn’t good enough, I’m afraid,’ he bit out tersely.

      He wasn’t ‘afraid’ at all—just very determined to have things the way he wanted them. And that included the Carlyle files! ‘I——’ She broke off abruptly, looking towards the doorway as John Morgan entered her office after the briefest of knocks.

      ‘Juliet, rumour has it——’ John broke off just as abruptly, looking very uncomfortable as he saw the other man standing in the room.

      Liam looked at him speculatively, his stance relaxed, fully relaxed. Which the other two people in the room certainly weren’t, Juliet freely acknowledged. John looked uncertain of himself and the situation, and Juliet didn’t even try to hide the fact that she wasn’t happy with it either!

      ‘Rumour has it…?’ Liam prompted softly, his dark blue gaze fixed steadily on the younger man.

      John recovered quickly, straightening slightly, although there was still a slightly uncomfortable flush to his cheeks. ‘Rumour has it that you’re Edward Carlyle,’ he announced.

      Juliet couldn’t help but admire John’s outward calm; he might be quaking inside—Liam certainly had that effect on people!—but on the surface the younger man now looked completely composed. William’s choice of John over other applicants for the job of junior assistant seemed to have been well calculated.

      Liam nodded abruptly. ‘I am,’ he confirmed shortly. ‘But my friends call me Liam,’ he continued less harshly, holding out his hand in greeting. ‘Which is probably why Juliet calls me anything but Liam!’ he added