First Love, Last Love (5 page)

‘Then perhaps you shouldn’t take insignificant typists from your own typing pool to lunch.’ Her own anger equalled his. ‘That way you wouldn’t have to sneak around.’

‘Lauren—’ he began in a threatening tone.

‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry,’ she sighed. ‘But you got angry first,’ she accused.

To her surprise she heard him chuckle, a rich deep sound that made her feel like smiling too. ‘Okay,’ he accepted, ‘I got angry first. But who made me angry, hmm?’

‘I did,’ she admitted freely. ‘But try to understand, I don’t want to be seen with you.’

‘Thanks!’

She sighed. ‘Will you stop misunderstanding everything I say?’ she snapped.

‘As long as you promise to stop reprimanding me,’ he returned smoothly.

‘Reprimanding you?
Me?
Don’t be ridiculous!’

‘You see,’ he laughed, ‘you’re doing it again.’

At least he could laugh about it! ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled.

‘You’re forgiven,’ he said huskily soft. ‘And as you don’t want to be seen with me—’

‘I didn’t mean that—’

‘I know. Look, I don’t have any more time to sit here chatting to you. Pleasant as it may be,’ he added mockingly. ‘I’ll fall in with your wishes for the
moment, and meet you at Marlo’s at one o’clock. All right?’

Marlo’s was a fashionable restaurant that had opened up a few months ago not far from here—and Lauri knew her denims and pretty lawn blouse weren’t suitable for such a place. ‘Couldn’t we go somewhere less—less—I’m not dressed for it!’ she told him crossly.

‘No, you aren’t, are you,’ he mused. ‘Okay, I’ll think of something else. Just meet me outside Marlo’s at one. We’ll go on somewhere else from there.’

‘But—’

‘Do you ever stop arguing?’ he sighed impatiently. ‘I’m not used to women who argue with me.’

Then perhaps he should be, she thought bitchily. Alexander Blair was much too fond of his own way for her liking. ‘I argue with you because I’m not used to being ordered about,’ she said with great daring. ‘I like to be consulted, not told.’

‘Maybe that’s why you can’t hold on to your boy-friends,’ he remarked dryly. ‘The man likes to be in charge, Lauren, not the other way around.’

‘I can hold on to my boy-friends!’ she told him angrily.

‘Is that why the Canadian boy is deserting you at the end of the week and Steve Prescott has been reduced to the level of a friend?’

‘The reasons for Daryl leaving at the end of the week and Steve being a friend of mine are none of your business,’ Lauri told him with dignity. ‘I’m having to meet you to sort out the problem of your car, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to ask personal questions.’

To her consternation she heard him laugh. ‘My dear girl, I have no intention of asking you personal questions.’

‘But you—you did!’ she accused.

‘It was a question in the form of a statement, Lauren. Now, much as I’m enjoying this conversation,’ he added in a bored voice, his tone instantly giving lie to his words, ‘I have work to do. I’m sure you do too. May I remind you that you’re making this call in
my
time, and on a firm’s telephone, no doubt?’

Lauri flushed her guilt, glad he couldn’t see her. ‘One o’clock, I think you said?’

‘That’s right.’ The line went dead as he rang off.

Lauri put the telephone down her end, an angry sparkle in her glittering green eyes, a furious flush to her cheeks, her mouth set in a mutinous line. Bossy, overbearing—All the names she had previously called him seemed mild in comparison to what she wanted to call him now.

God, he was an arrogant swine! Just because he owned this firm, was her employer, it didn’t give him the right to treat her as if she had no more intelligence than a rather slow-witted child. If he thought he could talk to her in that manner and get away with it then he was in for a shock. She—

Carly’s wry chuckle broke in on her vehement thoughts. ‘I pity poor Daryl if he’s the cause of all that anger,’ she teased, coming back into her office.

Lauri gave a start of surprise, so intense had been her dislike of Alexander Blair that she had forgotten where she was for the moment. She forced a smile to her lips and stood up to leave. ‘He doesn’t need your pity,’ she told Carly tightly. And she didn’t mean Daryl! ‘He’s just too fond of having his own way.’

‘Aren’t we all?’ Carly smiled.

‘Perhaps.’ But Alexander Blair had met his match in her, Lauri Prescott, she would make sure of that.

S
HE
felt very conspicuous standing outside the restaurant at one o’clock, aware that she had received a few curious looks from people entering this fashionable eating house. It was ten past one already; if Alexander Blair didn’t turn up soon she was leaving.

As it was she had had another row with Daryl, this time about her not meeting him for lunch. She had told him she and Jane were going shopping, but he had wanted to know why she couldn’t meet her aunt at five o’clock and do their shopping then. Lauri had made the excuse that Jane might have to work late, hating having to lie to him, but at least he seemed to accept that explanation. Anyway, it could be the truth, Jane could be working late.

She looked down at her wrist-watch. Another five minutes, that was all she would give him, and then she was off. If he thought she was going to stand about here waiting for him then he was sadly—

‘Are you going to get in?’ drawled that infuriatingly familiar voice. ‘Or do you want me to get booked for illegal parking?’

Lauri looked over at the source of that voice. A low sleek black car, a Ferrari, she thought, was parked next to the pavement. And Alexander Blair was seated behind the wheel. She had seen the car draw up, but as she was looking for a brown and gold Rolls-Royce the arrival of this car had meant nothing to her, except to register what a fantastic car it was.

‘I didn’t realise it was you,’ she told him resentfully, moving to stand by the open window on the passenger side.

He gave her an impatient look. ‘Are you even going to argue about getting into the car?’ he sighed.

‘No, of course not!’ She wrenched open the door and scrambled inside, at once sinking into the luxury—and intimacy—of the interior. Alexander Blair was much too close in the confines of such a car, making her aware of the tangy aftershave he wore and the much more basic male smell of him. ‘I was looking for the Rolls,’ she added stubbornly.

The car moved off smoothly under his expert handling, entering the flow of traffic leaving town. ‘The Rolls is badly dented, as you know.’

‘Yes,’ the word came out as a hiss. ‘But I wasn’t to know you wouldn’t still be driving it.’

‘It’s in the garage being straightened out.’

He hadn’t even looked at her since she had got in the car and she found herself glaring at him resentfully. ‘Rather quick, isn’t it?’ she snapped.

His mouth twisted tauntingly. ‘Some things can be arranged that way.’

‘If you have the money!’

His dark eyebrows rose. ‘Yes. I wouldn’t have thought you the sort of girl to show prejudice because I happen to be rich.’

Lauri blushed at his rebuke, wondering just what sort of girl he
had
thought her to be, although she doubted he had actually given the matter a moments thought. ‘I’m not,’ she agreed quietly. She grinned suddenly, her eyes sparkling mischievously. ‘Do I seem as if I’ve shown you any preferential treatment?’

A smile touched his mouth, a firm controlled mouth that didn’t look as if it did much smiling. ‘None at all,’ he acknowledged.

‘This is a lovely car, isn’t it?’ She forgot her hostility in that brief moment of shared humour. ‘Did the garage lend it to you while yours is being mended?’
She remembered the old grey wreck Steve’s garage had lent him when Gertie had gone in for servicing last week. Gertie might be old, but even she was more reliable than that had been.

‘Dare I admit that I own this car too?’ Alexander Blair mused, giving her a fleeting glance before turning his attention back to the road.

Her eyes widened. ‘You do? Oh, I much prefer this to a Rolls-Royce. A Rolls is so—so—’

‘Respectable,’ he supplied mockingly. ‘It’s meant to be. This car is for my own pleasure, it certainly wouldn’t impress people with my reliability and good sense.’

‘Maybe not,’ Lauri agreed. ‘But it’s much nicer.’ And made him appear more human!

He bowed mockingly. ‘I’m glad you approve,’ he drawled.

The car seemed to be eating up the miles and already they were well out of London. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked curiously.

His mouth turned back. ‘Somewhere where my business suit and your denims won’t look too out of place.’

Lauri flushed, her good humour forgotten. ‘How was I to know I would be lunching with the exalted Alexander Blair?’ she snapped. ‘If I’d known I would have—’

‘Dressed exactly the same,’ he interrupted smoothly. ‘At my request.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You—your request?’

‘Mm. You look lovely in denims, Lauren, much better than any other female I know.’

‘Oh.’ She blushed profusely.

He gave a sudden burst of laughter. ‘Don’t tell me I’ve actually rendered you speechless. I don’t believe it!’

But he had. His sudden compliment had come as a
complete surprise to her. There was no doubt that it had been a compliment, the warmth in those startling blue eyes as he looked at her made it impossible for it to be anything else. Alexander Blair had paid
her
a compliment!

‘I can see I have,’ he mused. ‘Amazing! I can see I’ll have to take advantage of this temporary loss of voice on your part—and I feel sure it can only be temporary—by telling you that it was my suit I felt would be out of place. A necessary evil during business hours, I’m afraid.’

But it was such a nice suit, its fit and cut superb, the cream colour emphasising the dark tan he had acquired on his recent trip to America. Lauri found herself staring at him, unashamedly admiring his good looks. It seemed she saw him for the first time, always too angry before to realise just how devastatingly attractive his features were, or to realise how potent was the sexual aura he seemed to emit from every pore of his body. But now she was aware of it, too much so in fact. She looked away, confused by her own sudden weakness towards a man she had thought she disliked.

‘Lauren?’ his husky query made her tremble with her new awareness of him. ‘Lauren?’ he prompted again at her continued silence.

She frowned. ‘Why do you call me that? I told you that everyone calls me Lauri.’

‘I’m not everyone,’ he told her softly. ‘I don’t want to be grouped with the herd.’

She almost laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement. He could never be anything but the forceful individual that he was. ‘But no one else bothers to call me Lauren,’ she persisted.

‘Exactly.’ He was out of the car and helping her out of her side before she had hardly had time to realise they had even stopped. ‘Come on, let’s eat.’

Lauri saw they had stopped outside an attractive little pub, several tables and chairs standing in the picturesque garden at the back. It was to one of these tables that Alexander Blair led her.

‘What would you like to drink?’ he asked once she was seated. ‘I’ll bring the menu back with me.’

‘How do you know they serve food?’ She hadn’t seen any sign up to say they did.

He smiled. ‘I’ve been here before.’

‘Oh.’

‘With my sister,’ he supplied tauntingly.

‘Your
sister?
’

‘Yes.’ He was openly laughing at her now. ‘She lives a couple of miles from here. Your drink?’ he prompted.

‘Lemonade, please,’ she requested reluctantly.

‘
Lemonade?
’ His disgust was obvious.

‘I—I can’t drink at lunchtime, it gives me a headache, and I can’t work properly in the afternoon when that happens.’

‘In that case I’ll get the lemonade,’ he teased. ‘I can’t have one of my employees slacking.’

‘I—I’ll just have a sandwich to eat, thank you. Ham or something like that,’ she said shyly, aware that her feelings towards this man had changed drastically since this morning. Just to look at him made her tingle all over.

‘Don’t tell me you have to watch your figure,’ he scorned. ‘Aren’t there enough of us males already doing that?’

Lauri frowned. ‘I don’t know what you mean. There’s only Daryl—’

‘And Steve. And me,’ he added huskily.

The look in her eyes was uncertain. ‘You?’ she repeated breathlessly, feeling curiously as if she had swum too far and was now out of her depth.

‘I’d have to have looked at you pretty closely to know how good you look in denims,’ he pointed out. ‘You’re all long legs and slender hips. And then there’s your—’

‘Please!’ Her face was scarlet with embarrassment. ‘I—Just lemonade and a sandwich,’ she repeated, turning away to look fixedly at the riot of flowers that edged the lawn the tables and chairs stood on.

He didn’t leave immediately and Lauri was aware of his gaze on her for several long minutes more, although she refused to turn and meet that look. Finally he moved away and Lauri turned to watch him as he entered the saloon bar. He had to duck his head to get in the low doors, and then she could hear the low murmur of voices as he gave their order.

What was he trying to do to her? Why the compliments, the almost flirtatious manner? She didn’t trust him in this mood, wanting to get back to work and away from the power he was exerting over her. No man had ever reduced her to such a nervous state before, and she didn’t like it.

‘Here,’ Alexander Blair put a glass down on the table in front of her. ‘It’s shandy.’ He gave a rueful smile. ‘I just couldn’t bring myself to ask for a glass of lemonade.’ He sat down beside her, a glass of whisky in his hand.

An unwilling smile lightened her features. ‘I should think it’s unheard-of for you.’

‘I couldn’t even get the word to pass my lips,’ he smiled back at her.

And they were such firm sensual lips too, curved in a half-smile now as he watched her with narrowed blue eyes. ‘The shandy will be fine, thank you.’

‘I ordered you a steak and salad.’ He sipped his whisky. ‘I hope that meets your approval.’

‘Of course. But a sandwich would have done.’ She
couldn’t help noticing the way the sun made his hair appear blacker than ever, a bluish sheen to the over-long styled hair, wrenching her gaze away as he became conscious of her scrutiny.

‘I don’t take a girl out to lunch and give her a sandwich,’ he said disgustedly. ‘We’ll go inside when our meal is ready.’

‘You’ve hardly brought me out to lunch through choice,’ Lauri derided. ‘We’re here to discuss the damage I did to your car.’

‘Has your—friend,’ again that hesitation, ‘has Prescott had his car looked at yet?’

‘He took it round to a friend of his last night. He did the repairs on the brakes.’

‘The brakes?’ Alexander Blair frowned.

‘Mm,’ she nodded, sipping her drink. ‘You see, Steve had the car serviced last week. He told them the brakes weren’t responding properly, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with them. Steve’s mate Geoff found the problem and put it right.’

Alexander Blair was still frowning. ‘Is that why you—’

‘Hit you?’ she finished. ‘Yes. Nothing happened when I tried to stop.’

‘Is that the truth?’

Colour flooded her cheeks. ‘I have no reason to lie,’ she said stiltedly.

‘Maybe you think I’ll let you off the hook if you can convince me it was through a fault in the car that the accident happened.’

Her glass landed on the table with a crash, surprisingly still intact. ‘You arrogant—’

‘Now, now, Lauren,’ he laughed, putting up his hands defensively, ‘don’t get violent!’

‘I have no intention of getting violent,’ she told him through tight lips.

‘I never know what you’re going to do when you get that angry sparkle in those huge green eyes of yours. They’re very expressive, Lauren. At the moment they’re hating me, am I right?’

‘Yes,’ she admitted tautly. ‘I resent your implication that I would lie to get myself out of taking responsibility for your car. I’m perfectly willing to pay for the damage if you’ll settle this privately.’

‘Prescott shouldn’t have let you drive without L-plates,’ he told her haughtily. ‘He was in charge of you
and
the vehicle, so it’s his responsibility. Anyway, why should you care? After all, he’s only a friend.’

‘If that’s all the concern you show for your own friends then I’m surprised you still have any,’ she snapped.

‘Was he your lover before he became a friend?’

Lauri gasped. ‘Certainly not!’ she retorted indignantly.

‘Why wasn’t he?’

‘Mr Blair, you have no right—’

‘Alex,’ he put in softly.

She frowned. ‘Alex?’

‘Call me Alex,’ he invited.

‘I will not!’ she refused angrily. ‘Steve was never my lover,’ she insisted.

‘I know,’ Alexander Blair told her calmly.

Her eyes widened. ‘You know? Then why did you—How do you know?’ she asked suspiciously.

The barmaid came out at that moment to tell them their meal was ready inside, so Lauri didn’t immediately get an answer to her question. She had to wait until they had been seated at a table inside and their appetising meal placed before them before she could repeat the question.

‘Not while I’m eating, Lauren,’ Alex refused to answer her.

‘We can talk in between eating.’

He looked at his wrist-watch. ‘You have fifteen minutes before your lunch break is up. I’m willing to allow you a few minutes extra to eat that meal, but certainly not so that you can talk.’

‘Oh but—’

‘Eat, Lauren,’ he ordered firmly.

With a resentful glare in his direction she did as he told her, finding the steak and salad to her liking—despite her dining companion. He must be used to much more sophisticated surroundings, and yet he appeared to be completely at his ease, complimenting the barmaid on the food before their departure and causing a blush to come to the young girl’s cheeks.

‘Mr Blair,’ Lauri began once they were on their way again. ‘Mr Blair, I—’

‘Alex. We agreed it should be Alex,’ he murmured huskily.

‘We agreed to no such thing!’

He gave an impatient sigh. ‘I’ve never known anyone like you for arguing. It must be that red hair.’

‘It isn’t red!’ she flared up once again.

He gave her a considering look. ‘No, it isn’t,’ he slowly agreed. ‘It’s very beautiful. Red-gold.’ He frowned suddenly. ‘You remind me of someone, you know, Lauren.’

‘I—I do?’ If he could see any resemblance between herself and either her aunt or uncle then he was the first one ever to do so.