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‘How did you find out where I live?’ she hissed under her breath. Under the lamplight, his face was a contour of harsh shadows and his eyes glittered in the semi-darkness. He was still in his work clothes, the jeans, the faded sweater, the trainers and the coat, which she knew had cost the earth, but which he wore as casually as if he had got it from the local Oxfam shop.
‘Personnel files. It really wasn’t too difficult.’
‘Well, you have to go.’
‘You’re shaking like a leaf. It’s cold out here—let me in for a few minutes.’
‘No!’ She saw his eyebrows rise fractionally and added, stammering, ‘I mean, it’s late.’
‘It’s eight-forty-five.’
‘I’m busy.’
‘You’re on edge. Why? Tell me what’s going on.’ Ryan laughed. ‘You’re my indispensable secretary. I can’t have you storing up nasty secrets and then suddenly deciding to walk out on me, can I? What would I do without you?’
‘I … I’m obliged to give a month’s notice,’ Jamie stammered. Ryan Sheppard on her doorstep suddenly seemed to throw that all-important distance between them into confusion and she didn’t like it.
‘So you are thinking of leaving me. Well, it’s a damn good thing I turned up here to get the full story out of you, isn’t it? At least this way I can defend my corner.’ For some reason he felt disproportionately let down by the thought of her just dumping a letter of resignation on his desk without any forewarning and then jumping ship. ‘So, why don’t you invite me inside and we can discuss this like two adults? If it’s more money you’re after, then name the amount and it’s yours.’
‘This is crazy!’
‘I know. And I hate dealing with crazy.’ He reached out and pushed the door open just as Jessica’s petulant voice wafted from the direction of the kitchen, carolling to ask where Jamie was, because she really needed something to eat—and was there anywhere they could go for a halfway decent salad? She didn’t fancy being cooped up for the rest of the night.
And then there she was, long and beautiful and blonde, and all the things that Ryan looked for in a woman, standing by the banister as Jamie turned around with a sigh of resignation. Stunningly pretty, stunningly fair-haired and dangerously bored with her husband.
If Jamie could have reached out and pushed Ryan straight back out of the front door, then she would have done so, but he was already inside the tiny hall, removing his thick coat while his eyes never strayed from Jessica.
‘Well, well, well,’ he drawled in a lazy undertone. ‘What have we here …?’
‘My sister,’ Jamie muttered.
The glitter in Jessica’s eyes mirrored his lazy speculation and Jamie felt a chill run down her spine.
There was no need for her to make introductions. Not when her sister was sashaying forward, hand outstretched, introducing herself—with, Jamie noted, her left hand stuck firmly behind her back.
‘You never told me that you had a sister,’ Ryan said, turning his fabulous eyes to Jamie.
Standing to one side like an uninvited spectator in her own house, Jamie’s voice was stiff when she answered, ‘I didn’t see the relevance. Jessica doesn’t live in London.’
‘Although, I might just be thinking of changing that.’
Jamie’s head whipped round and she stared, horrified at her sister. ‘You can’t!’
‘Why not? I told you. I’m bored in Scotland. And, from what I see here, London certainly has a hell of a lot more to offer. Why did you never mention that you had such a dishy boss, Jamie? Did you think that I might dash down here and try to steal him from you?’
Jamie held on to the banister, feeling faint, and Ryan, lounging only feet away from her, took the opportunity to gauge the electric atmosphere between the sisters. Arriving unannounced on his secretary’s doorstep had been a spontaneous decision which he had begun to regret on the drive over, but now he was pleased that he had made the journey.
‘How long are you in London?’ He looked at Jessica but his mind was still on Jamie and on that ferocious wall of privacy she had erected around herself. Purpose, he thought, unknown.
‘She’s literally only here for a day or two before she returns to Scotland. She’s married and her husband will be waiting for her.’
‘Did you have to bring that up?’
‘It’s the truth, Jess. Greg’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve this.’ And you certainly don’t deserve him, she thought.
‘I’m having lots of marital problems,’ Jessica insisted to Ryan. ‘I thought that I could come down here and find some support from my sister, but it looks like I was wrong.’
‘That’s not fair, Jess! And, besides, I’m sure Mr Sheppard doesn’t want to stand here and listen to our family history.’
‘Please, feel free to go on. I’m all ears!’
‘You need to go.’ Jamie turned to him. Every muscle in her body felt like it had been stretched to snapping point and the ground under her feet was like quicksand. One minute she had been on solid ground and then, in the blink of an eye, her sister was on her doorstep, Ryan was in her house breaking down her fortifications just by being there, and she was struggling in quicksand. ‘And you, Jess, need to go to bed.’
‘I’m not a kid any longer!’
‘You behave like one.’ In terms of condemnation, it was the first time Jamie had ever taken such a dramatic step. She had been conditioned to look after Jessica, to treat her like a baby, to make sure that her needs were met because she, Jamie, was the stronger one, the older one, the one upon whom the responsibilities lay.
In the tense silence that followed her flat statement, Jessica hesitated, confused, then her lips pursed and she glared sulkily at her sister.
‘You can’t make me go back up to Scotland, you know,’ she muttered.
‘We can discuss this in the morning, Jess,’ Jamie said wearily. ‘I think I’ve had enough stress today.’
‘And she is stressed.’ Ryan inserted himself into the conversation and Jessica sidled a little closer to him, her body language advertising her interest in a way no amount of words could have done. ‘She arrived late for work this morning.’
Jessica giggled and looked at her sister slyly. ‘If you’d told me that you were running late, I would have got off the phone sooner. I know you’re a stickler for punctuality. Don’t worry. I’ll be good as gold while I’m here, and you can be the perfect little secretary again and get in to work on time. Mind you …’ She looked at Ryan coyly. ‘If I had a boss like this one, I’d be getting in to work at six and leaving at midnight. Or maybe not leaving at all …’
Jamie turned on her heels and stalked off towards the kitchen. She knew how these conversations with her sister went. The slightest whiff of criticism and she would react with jibes below the belt that were designed to wound. Jamie had long discovered that the fastest way of dealing with this was to walk away from the situation, to treat her sister like a child who was not responsible for her tantrums. They blew over as quickly as they materialised and making herself scarce removed her from the eye of the storm.
She half-expected Jessica to linger on the staircase, turning on the full-wattage smile and bringing all her feminine wiles to play in an effort to charm Ryan. But, in fact, barely had Jamie sat at the kitchen table than Ryan appeared in the doorway and looked at her quietly, his hands shoved into his pockets.
An uncomfortable silence gathered around them which she broke by reluctantly offering him a cup of coffee.
She would cheerfully have sent him on his way, but there were things that needed to be said, and, reluctant as she was to open up any kind of discussion on her private life, she had no idea how she could avoid the issue.
‘Where’s Jessica?’ she asked, standing up and moving across to the kettle.
‘I sent her on her way.’
‘And she listened?’
‘I have that way with women.’
Jamie snorted, no longer bothering with the niceties that would have been more appropriate given that he was the guy who paid her salary. He had invaded her territory, and as far as she was concerned niceties were temporarily suspended.
‘Now you know why I got in late to work this morning. Jessica kept me on the phone for nearly an hour. She was a mess. I only knew that she had decided to sort herself out by coming down here when she phoned me from the train.’
‘No big deal.’ Ryan took the mug she was holding out to him and sat down. ‘Family crises happen. Why didn’t you just tell me the truth this morning?’ He watched her and realised that she was barely seeing him as she walked towards the kitchen table, nursing the mug in her hands. For a man who was fully aware of the impact he had on the opposite sex, being rendered invisible was a new experience.
He, on the other hand, keenly noted this new casual dresscode of hers, the one she used when she wasn’t wearing her work hat. Lazy eyes took in the way her jeans clung to a body that curved in all the right places and the way her long-sleeved tee-shirt skimmed a flat stomach and lovingly contoured pert, full breasts. Even her hair looked different—less neat and pristine, more tousled, as though she had spent time running her fingers through it. Which, judging from what he had picked up of the atmosphere in the house so far, she probably had.
‘I suppose because I happen to think that what happens in my private life is no business of yours.’
‘Oh, for God’s sake, I didn’t even know that you had a sister! How much of a state secret could that possibly be?’
Jamie flushed and fiddled with the mug before taking a sip of coffee. ‘I … I’m not really the confiding type.’
‘Really? I’d never have guessed.’
‘I didn’t tell you about Jessica because the chances of you ever running into her were non-existent. I live in London, she lives just outside Edinburgh. She isn’t a part of my daily life.’
‘And that was exactly the way you wanted it until she had the misfortune to need your support.’
‘Please don’t presume to have any insight at all into my family affairs!’
‘If you don’t want me to presume, then you’re going to have to be a bit more forthcoming.’
‘Why? What difference does it make? I do a very good job for you and that’s all that matters.’
‘Why are you so uncomfortable with this conversation?’ He could have let it go. She was right; she delivered the goods when it came to her job and whatever happened outside it was absolutely none of his business. But Ryan decided that he didn’t want to let it go. It was as though a door had been partially opened and what lay behind it promised to be so intriguing that he was compelled to try and push the door a little wider.
‘You don’t understand. You’re my boss, for a start, and like I said I’m not into confiding. I prefer to keep my own counsel. Maybe it’s a reaction to having a sister like Jess. She always made so much noise that it was just a lot easier to keep quiet and let her get on with it.’
‘Easier, but maybe not better. Forget for a minute that I’m your boss. Pretend that I’m just anybody—your next-door neighbour who has come over to borrow a cup of sugar, coincidentally just at a time when you need a shoulder to cry on …’
‘I’m supposed to think of you as my next-door neighbour on the scrounge for a cup of sugar?’ She was momentarily distracted enough by the image to feel her lips twitch. ‘What would you be doing with the cup of sugar?’
‘Baking a cake, because I happen to be a kindly and caring neighbour who enjoys baking. It’s my favourite pastime. Next to flower arranging and cross stitch.’ She was relaxing. She was even smiling and he felt a kick of gratification that he had been responsible for that. For some reason, he didn’t care for the idea of her stressed out, tearful and unable to talk to anyone about it. His experience of women was that they couldn’t wait to pour their hearts out and confide in whomsoever happened to be willing to listen. He was the youngest of four and the only boy in the family. He could remember many an instance of sitting out one of his sister’s ridiculously long phone calls, waiting impatiently to use the telephone.
This level of reticence was new to him. ‘So …?’ he prompted encouragingly.
‘So, look, I’m not sure how to say this but …’ Jamie sighed and adopted a slightly different approach. ‘Now that you’ve met my sister, what do you think of her?’
‘After all of my five-second acquaintance, I’m only qualified to tell you that she’s very attractive.’
Jamie felt a stab of disappointment but she nodded sagely at him. ‘She’s always been the prettier one.’
‘Hang on a minute …’
‘Spare me the kindness. I’m stating a fact, and it’s not something that’s ever bothered me anyway.’ But for a fleeting second Jamie wondered what he had been about to say. Of course, it would have been a polite lie, but nevertheless … ‘Jessica’s beautiful and she knows it. She’s also married and going through a bit of a bad patch which will blow over just so long as …’
‘As she’s not offered any distractions by someone like me?’ He looked at her coolly.
‘I know what type of girls you go for—tall, blonde, beautiful and pliable. Well, Jess is tall, blonde, beautiful and at the moment she happens to be very pliable. I know you probably think that I’m being totally out of order in saying this stuff, but you chose to come here, and now that you’re here I’m afraid I have every right to say what’s on my mind.’ She licked her lips nervously. ‘I hope I’m not jeopardising my job by telling you this.’
‘Jeopardising your job? What kind of person do you think I am?’ He was outraged to think that she could even consider him the type of man who would penalise her for speaking her mind. Was that what she thought of him? Under her cool, dutiful exterior, did she think that he was some sort of monster?
‘Don’t worry, your job is perfectly safe, and if you’re so obsessive about your privacy then I’m happy to walk out that door right now and leave you to get on with hiding behind your walls. As for your sister, she might be the sort of woman I date, but I don’t date married women, even married women who claim to be unhappily married.’
He stood up and the colour drained from Jamie’s face. She had enjoyed the free and easy way he had always had with her. It was all part and parcel of his unconventional personality, that curious, alluring mix of creativity, intelligence and self-assurance. Did she want to lose that? Did she want a boss who stuck to the rules and never teased her, or over-stepped the boundaries in asking about her personal life? That thought left her cold and she hurriedly got to her feet and reached out to put a restraining hand on his arm.
‘I’m sorry. I know how that sounded, but I have to look out for my sister. You see …’ She hesitated a fraction of a second. ‘Our dad died when I was six, and when Jess was sixteen Mum died after complications following an operation. It was horrible. I was left in charge. Mum made me promise that I would look after her. I was about to go to university, but I found myself having to get a job and look after Jess.’
‘That was a lot of responsibility for someone so young,’ Ryan murmured, sitting back down.
‘It wasn’t easy,’ Jamie agreed. ‘Jess was boy crazy and I nearly tore my hair out making sure she showed up at school every day and left with a handful of qualifications.’
‘What were you doing for a job?’ he asked curiously, and was even more curious when slow colour crept into her cheeks and she looked down.
‘Oh, just working at a vet’s. It wasn’t what I had expected to be doing at the age of nineteen, but I enjoyed it. The thing is …’
‘What had you expected to be doing?’
‘Huh?’
‘Your plans? Dreams? Ambitions? What were they before your life was derailed?’
‘Well …’ Jamie flushed and hesitated. ‘I wanted to go to university and study law. Seems like a lifetime ago! Anyway, that’s not important. The important thing is that I just wanted to warn you off her.’
‘Tough, having to give up on your dreams. There must be a part of you that resents her.’
‘Of course there isn’t! No one can help what life throws at them.’
‘Noble sentiment. Alas, not many of us are noble creatures.’
‘As I was saying …’ Jamie chose to ignore the invitation to elaborate. ‘I just wanted to warn you off her.’
‘Because she’s going to dutifully return to her husband and they’re both going to live happily ever after?’
‘Yes!’
‘Warning duly noted.’
‘What warning?’
Jessica was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, and with a sinking heart Jamie realised that she hadn’t vanished because she had been instructed to vanish—she had vanished so that she could have a shower and resurface in the least amount of clothing possible. She was kitted out in slinky lounging culottes and a tiny vest, worn bra-less, that left nothing to the imagination. She had a stupendous figure and every inch of it was available for inspection as she walked slowly into the kitchen, enjoying the attention.
Through the thin, grey vest, Jamie could see the outline of her sister’s nipples. Ryan would similarly be taking that in. Yes, he had told her that he would keep away from Jessica, but how strong was any red-blooded man’s will power when it came to a sexy woman who was overtly encouraging?
‘Well?’ Jessica paused and leaned against the counter, legs lightly crossed at the ankles, her back arched so that her breasts were provocatively thrust forward. ‘What warning?’
‘A warning,’ Ryan drawled, ‘that I’m not to interfere and try and persuade you to return to your husband.’
Jessica looked at her sister narrowly. ‘That true, Jamie?’
‘Why would he lie?’
‘So you don’t mind me staying with you for a while? Maybe until Christmas is over? I mean, it’s only a couple of weeks away. I could help you decorate the tree and stuff and by then I might have got my head together.’
