A Night With Consequences

MARGARET MAYO
was reading Mills & Boon ® romances long before she began to write them. In fact she never had any plans to become a writer. After an idea for a short story popped into her head she was thrilled when it turned into a full-scale novel. Now, over twenty-five years later, she is still happily writing and says she has no intention of stopping.

She lives with her husband Ken in a rural part of Staffordshire, England. Margaret’s hobbies are reading, photography, and more recently watercolour painting, which she says has honed her observational skills and is a definite advantage when it comes to writing.

T
HIS
was an unbelievable opportunity, thought Kara. Flying to Italy with her boss for the firm’s annual conference was any woman’s dream. She would have liked it to be hers, but unfortunately—sadly—it wasn’t. It never could be.

Not that Blake Benedict was a man who could be so easily dismissed. He was aggressively handsome, with strong dark features that guaranteed a second look. And she had stolen many of those. According to gossip he was divorced—acrimoniously—and had sworn never to get married again. But he was not short of girlfriends. Far from it! They vied for his attention like bees around a honeypot.

Not so Kara. She did not want him to notice her, and had always tried to make herself invisible by wearing dark classical suits and little make-up, dragging her hair back unbecomingly. Her hair was actually her crowning glory, a deep, rich auburn, but there was no way she could wear it loose for the office.

The fact that he never gave her a second look told her that her efforts to hide her sexuality really did work. She made a point of being extremely efficient, and even
though he rarely heaped praise on her shoulders she knew that he was more than satisfied.

But the very thought of joining him in Italy sent unease curling down her spine. It was impossible. And yet how to tell him? What if he insisted? What if he said that it was part of her job?

She had felt very fortunate when she’d got the position as PA to Blake Benedict, head of the Benedict Corporation—a worldwide organisation whose head office was in London. The agency had lined up another girl, but she had fallen ill at the last minute and Kara had been sent in her place. The first time she had set eyes on him she had felt a whoosh of something dangerous slide through her body. Never, ever in her life had she felt anything like it.

Blake was head and shoulders taller than most men, with a square dimpled jaw and dark, closely cut hair that held a hint of silver at the temples. His grey eyes were deep-set and his nose looked as though it had been chiselled out of fine stone—as did his lips. They were so beautifully moulded that Kara occasionally found herself holding her breath as she envisaged being kissed by them. This feeling was something entirely alien to Kara and unnerved her greatly. She had never kissed a man, never even been out with a man—her father had seen to that! And even though her domineering father was no longer alive his presence still hung over her.

Not that Blake would ever be interested in Kara. She was not beautiful; she was not blonde or gorgeous. She was an ordinary woman with ordinary features and no man ever looked at her twice. But she was the luckiest
woman in the world to have landed this job. It had come at just the right time.

‘It’s not a problem for you, is it?’ Blake was surprised that Kara did not look excited. She had not said that she did not want to go, but the look in her eyes reminded him of a doe in a car’s headlights and he could not understand why. Their yearly convention was an opportunity every one of his other personal assistants had jumped at.

He had to admit that Kara was different, and if he hadn’t been desperate after Olivia had left he would perhaps not have hired her. He liked beautiful women around him and Kara was—well, she made no effort to make herself look glamorous. But she had come with good references and she was damned good at her job. In fact she had made herself indispensable.

And he needed her in Milan. She had dealt with every aspect of the conference; she had practically organised it herself. She knew exactly what the agenda was. So he was going to make very sure that she went with him no matter what excuse she came up with.

She looked extremely nervous, perched on the edge of the chair, and for the first time he noticed what delicate ankles she had—it was all he could see of her legs in the ridiculous long skirts she insisted on wearing. And her flat shoes were the most unflattering things he had ever seen. But her ankles? Why had he never noticed them before? ‘Are you going out tonight, Miss Redman?’ He had no idea what had prompted the question, but it suddenly seemed important for him to know.

‘Is the question relevant, Mr Benedict?’

It was not the answer he’d expected and it amused
him. He even thought that he heard fire in her voice, and there was certainly a spark in her blue eyes. An almost violet-blue. Something else he had never noticed. They were totally amazing when she widened them, when her long silky lashes fluttered as she waited for his reply. This was a new and interesting side to his PA. A side that he felt himself wanting to explore.

Despite that, though, it didn’t please him that she was not readily agreeing to his wishes. ‘If I am holding you up then perhaps we can have our little talk another time?’

‘You’re not holding me up.’ Kara did her best to ignore the sarcasm he had injected into his voice. ‘But there really is nothing to talk about. I can’t join you in Italy—it’s as simple as that. I’m sorry.’

She held her breath as she waited for his response. She imagined that no one had ever said no to him before. Blake Benedict was law. Everyone jumped at his bidding. And why not, when he was the successful owner of one of the largest IT solutions companies?

Blake’s was a success story beyond most people’s wildest dreams. It was a story that every member of staff knew. From a little boy of five who’d been able to use a computer better than most adults, he had started his first business venture at the age of sixteen, writing troubleshooting computer programs, and now he had thousands working for him. He was revered by all and no one ever thought of saying no to him. This was why Kara had taken him by surprise. But she simply could not leave her mother even for a few nights. It would be far too dangerous.

Her daring clearly astonished him, though. A deep
frown grooved his brow and narrowed his grey eyes. And when he spoke his voice had developed a hard edge that she was not accustomed to hearing when he spoke to her. ‘There is no such word as
can’t
in my vocabulary, Miss Redman. I’m sure you’ve worked for me long enough to know that.’

Of course she had, but her priorities were equally important. ‘I—I appreciate what you are saying, but I do have a life outside work and—’

‘And that life is so important that you cannot dedicate yourself to your job?’

Kara quivered at the caustic harshness, at the bullet hardness of his eyes, which had turned almost silver, but nevertheless she stuck to her guns. ‘Mr Benedict, I do not think you can ever say that I do not do my job properly.’ She had worked late so many times that she sometimes felt she spent more time at work than she did at home.

‘Maybe not. In fact you’re very good,’ he admitted.

Grudgingly, she thought. Praise did not come easily from this man. He was a fair employer, though. His staff were treated fairly and paid high wages and they rewarded him by doing their jobs well. Few people left his employ.

Why couldn’t he see things from her point of view? Did he not think that his staff had lives of their own?

‘So who is it that has priority on your time? A boyfriend, perhaps?’ The lift to his brows told her that he clearly thought this was not a good enough excuse.

Kara knew he would not rest until she had told him the truth, or as much of it as she cared to reveal. ‘If you must know, I look after my mother. She cannot manage
without me.’ And she prayed that he would not try to delve any deeper into their circumstances.

For a fraction of a second he hesitated—this was evidently something he had not expected or even thought about. Kara wondered whether he had a mother who equally relied on him. Or maybe not. Blake’s work was his life. During the eleven months she had worked for him he had not taken one single day’s holiday.

‘And there is no one else who can look after her? No other family member?’

Kara was tempted to say,
Would I be talking like this if there was? Don’t you think I’d jump at the opportunity of going to Italy?
But she didn’t. She lifted her chin instead and met the glare in his eyes with one of her own. ‘I’m an only child and my father’s dead.’ And felt her heart pound as she waited for his response.

His brows lifted fractionally. She would not have noticed if she had not been staring him in the face.

‘I see. That is unfortunate. I am sorry.’ And he actually looked it. ‘What is wrong with your mother?’

‘It’s her health,’ she answered. ‘It is not good. She depends on me.’

‘And you are sure that there is no one who could possibly keep an eye out for her?’

Kara hesitated. There was her mother’s sister, who had always said that she would love to have her stay any time Kara wanted a break, but she had never taken her up on it. It hadn’t seemed fair. She wasn’t sure that her aunt realised how fragile Lynne had become.

But she’d hesitated too long, and Blake Benedict seized the opportunity, his eyes narrowing on her face. ‘I can see from your expression that there is someone.’

Kara compressed her lips and nodded. ‘Actually, there is my aunt. Possibly! I would have to ask her.’

‘Then do that tonight, Miss Redman. And if the answer is no then I will personally hire a nurse.’

Meaning that he intended her to go to Milan with him whether she wanted to or not! Kara wasn’t sure whether to feel annoyed or flattered—it was impossible to decide between the two. She hadn’t told Blake the whole truth when she’d said that she could not leave her mother because of her health; it was something far more serious than that. But it was none of his business and she had no intention of talking about it. ‘I’ll see what my aunt says. Is that all, Mr Benedict?’ She kept her eyes level on his in an endeavour to look more confident than she felt. She did not want him to know exactly how fearful she was about leaving her parent.

‘That is all.’ And already his head was bent over paperwork.

Kara’s mother was all for her going. ‘Of course I’ll stay with Susan. She’ll love to have me. She’ll let me stay for as long as I like.’

‘It will only be for a few days,’ Kara hastened to assure her. ‘I would get out of it if I could, but Mr Benedict is adamant that he needs me.’

‘You worry too much about me, my darling.’ Her mother’s blue eyes, so much like Kara’s, smiled tiredly. ‘The change will do me good.’

‘Of course I worry,’ insisted Kara. ‘I have every reason to. You don’t think he’ll find out where you are?’

Her parent’s lips thinned and a deep shadow crossed
her lined face. “You mean the rat who’s hounding us for money? Your father certainly didn’t do us any favours, did he? But it’s unfair that you should have to shoulder the burden. Why all your hard-earned cash should—’

‘I don’t care about that as long as
you
are all right,’ Kara insisted.