The Darkest of Shadows (19 page)

Lawrence was careful not ask for anything more from me, nothing physical. But that didn’t stop him from keeping me close at the functions that we attended. While we weren’t intimately involved, he left everyone else guessing. He rarely let go of me when we were out, always keeping some touch constant—a hand on my back or my hip, standing close behind me so that I could lean back against him to take the strain off my feet—but usually it was my hand held securely in his.

When we danced, which we did at most of the formal events, he held me closer than he should, and we danced to the slow songs. But other than the formal evenings, there was nothing to suggest that he thought of me as anything more than his assistant.

The only dark cloud on my horizon was the looming Managing Directors’ meeting. Held every second month, it was coming up fast. I’d spent the last month organizing it and scheduling everyone to attend—and everyone included Patrick Sloane, now the MD of Australasia. Him I didn’t want to meet again. Yes, I’d spoken to him on the phone numerous times, but mainly I had managed to deal with his assistant, Sophie, who, thank God, didn’t seem to know about Patrick’s and my previous association.

Lawrence had decided to return to London for the meeting. It was difficult enough to organize without having to do so in a place where I had no help, he had told me. At least this way, most of the organizing of the actual venue, catering, and such would be taken care of by the people back in the corporate offices. The next one would be left up to me do to by myself, so I was taking loads of notes.

The day before, I was exhausted. We had only returned to London that morning, having traveled to most of the main European countries and a quick trip to the US in the last eight weeks. I was racking up the kilometers at an alarming rate, and my body clock was totally screwed up. Like at the moment I was standing at the coffee cart on the second floor, waiting to order, and trying very hard not to fall over where I stood. I should have been asleep, that’s what my body wanted me to be doing. I’d actually made the trip down to get coffee on purpose. I had hoped the walk, not to mention the caffeine would help me to wake up. It wasn’t working as well as I would have liked.

“Lilly.” Charlie nudged me from behind.

I ordered and took my time walking back to the office with my latte. I probably should have gotten one for Lawrence, but that would have taken effort that I just didn’t have. I leaned my head back against the rear wall of the elevator and let it take me back to our floor.

The door opened, and voices filtered into the small space—voices that I recognized, but my brain seemed to have gotten off on another floor, because when I opened my eyes and walked into the office, I was unprepared for the sight that waited for me.

“Lilly?” Patrick’s voice floored me.

I was just about to take a sip of my latte when I stopped midstep. Coffee sloshed out of the mouthpiece and drizzled its hot way over my fingers. “Crap.” I moved the coffee to my other hand and shook the wetness from my burned fingers.

“You look like shit.” Patrick stepped toward me, then just as suddenly turned his attention back to Lawrence, who had been standing with Patrick when I arrived. “What the hell have you done to her?” he exclaimed accusingly.

If I’d had more energy, I would have told him that it’s probably not wise to yell at your boss in that manner, but like I said before, that would have taken energy.

Lawrence looked far from impressed by Patrick’s behavior and gave him a deadly glare before moving around him to approach where I stood. “Go into my office, Patrick. I’ll be in shortly,” he said. Then he grabbed my hand and dragged me, coffee and all, through the side door and into the apartment.

“Lilly, my dear,” Lawrence said in an amused voice, “you really don’t look your best.” He plucked the coffee out of my hands and pulled me down the hall and into my room. “Please go to sleep.” It was only one in the afternoon, and if I went to sleep now, I’d regret it later. Still, it was getting to the point where I had very little choice.

It showed how out of it I was when I started stripping down right then and there. Lawrence gave me an amused smile before politely leaving me to rest.

Patrick was pacing the office when Lawrence came back through his private door from the apartment.

“What’s wrong with her?” Patrick’s voice accused before the door even shut behind him.

Lawrence gaze skewered Patrick with enough force that it stopped his pacing. “She’s tired, Patrick,” Lawrence explained. “We were in New York yesterday, and she’s still adjusting to the time differences. It’s not easy to travel as much as we do, over such distances, and not be tired sometimes. You just caught her at a bad time.”

“I’m glad I did,” Patrick snapped. “I want to know how she is, how you’re treating her, so seeing her looking like that answers a lot of my questions.”

“It answers nothing. You don’t know anything about her, and you have no business checking up on her either,” Lawrence responded. “We’ve had this discussion before, Sloane. Remember that it was your decision to give her up; you made that choice, so now you have no rights over her.”

“That’s always a decision that I can undo, Monterey.” Patrick’s voice was edged in steel. “Regardless of what you think, I do love Lilly, and I’ll always look out for her.”

“You don’t want to do that,” Lawrence warned. “Remember who you’re dealing with.”

“I know exactly who I’m dealing with, which is exactly why I’m going to continue to watch out for her.” Patrick issued his own warning in return.

“Think hard before you start throwing down challenges, Patrick.” Lawrence’s expression was as hard as stone. “The only reason you have any contact with her at all is because I gave you a job. That can easily be taken from you, and then where would you be?”

“Does she know what you want from her?” Patrick asked. “Does she know anything about you?”

“Lilly and I have no secrets.” Lawrence announced, pushing home the one thing Patrick had never been able to achieve when he and Lilly were together.

“Somehow I doubt that.”

“Get out, Patrick.” Lawrence retreated to his desk. “I don’t want to see you today, and if you come back for the meeting tomorrow with this same attitude, then you should know that I’ll kick you out of there as well. You can take your ass back to Australia and rot there, for all I care.”

Patrick stormed out of the office and made sure there was enough force behind the door to send it slamming home in his wake.

It was some time before Lawrence emerged from his office after that, and then it was only to issue a simple order to Charlie. “Keep him away from Lilly.” Charlie confirmed the command with a sharp nod.

I totally forgot that we were supposed to have dinner with clients that night, so when I woke to find the clock glowing a horrifyingly late 10:30 p.m., I nearly had a heart attack.

I jumped out of bed and scooted through my door and down the hall into the lounge room before I realized what I was doing, then I did a double take and hauled ass back into my bedroom to put on a robe.

Lawrence was sitting in the lounge, nursing an amused expression and a glass of scotch, when I emerged the second time. This time, I had donned a fluffy white bathrobe over my underwear.

“I’m sorry. I forgot about dinner,” I said as I slumped down across from him. Obviously it was too late now, so there wasn’t really any need to hurry. “Did you go alone?” He was still dressed in his suit, minus the jacket and tie.

He shook his head. “No, I canceled,” he told me. “I think we both needed the night off.”

I knew the words were meant to make me feel better for missing the dinner, because I was certain that he would have been fine to go.

“Do you ever get tired?” I asked.

“Sometimes,” he responded vaguely.

“I was so tired that I almost couldn’t walk.”

“I know.” He seemed amused by my statement.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“Don’t be,” he replied. “You are allowed to be tired, Lilly. We travel a lot, and time zones can be difficult. If you need to rest, I need to know that you will. I would rather you take an afternoon off to catch up on sleep than for you to get sick and have a week off.”

That was true.

“Do you need me to do anything for tomorrow?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It’s much easier to attend these meetings than it is to set one up. Basically, we spend the first day debriefing on each of the locations, and then the next day is an open round table for discussions. There is no real structure for the meetings, and we have someone in to take the minutes and actions. What I need you to do is be there and listen. Get to know the MDs personally; you’ve spoken to them all over the phone, but use this time to develop a relationship with them. And I’ll also need you to keep track of the actions that relate to me.” He shrugged. “Sometimes I forget about them, and the Managers end up chasing me for months.”

I smiled at that mental image, and we chatted more about the meeting tomorrow.

“Can you do me a favor?” Lawrence asked later.

“Sure.” I replied. He sounded hesitant, not a usual tone for him.

“I know you have history with Patrick,” he said, his eyes hooded in the semidarkness of the room. “I know that things didn’t end well with you both, and I also know that’s partly because of me.”

I nodded in agreement and wondered what the favor could possibly be.

“Would it be possible for you to please try and keep a professional distance from him at the meeting tomorrow?”

I’d rather keep a much greater distance from him, actually
, I thought, but contented myself with a simple, “Yes.” Then I added, after a moment’s thought, “Do the other MDs know about Patrick and me?”

He downed the rest of his drink in one swallow. “No,” he replied. “They wouldn’t be pleased to hear that Patrick and you had a past relationship. It’s too easy for them to perceive that it could in some way give him advantages in the company. And I would be even less pleased to have your past relationships discussed among my management team.”

You and me both
, I thought. “There shouldn’t be any problems then, because I have no intention of speaking to Patrick about anything other than work-related issues.”

“I’m more concerned about Patrick’s reaction to you.” He admitted. “I don’t think that he will have quite the same ideas as you about keeping his distance.”

I shrugged his words away. “Patrick can think what he wants, but I hardly think there will be much opportunity for us to meet in private over the next two days.”

Lawrence’s eyes clearly told me that he wasn’t quite as optimistic, but he let it go. I had heard his warning and would act accordingly. Lawrence knew when to let things go and when to push; and in this case, he had made his point abundantly clear.

I found the meeting fascinating. Confusing, to some extent—and with Patrick, frustrating—but the discussions and what I learned of the company I found extraordinarily interesting. We specialized in such a wide diversity of commerce and industry that I wondered how Lawrence managed to keep any of it clear in his mind. I also began to understand why he had sixteen MDs. No one could manage all that alone.

The meeting was held in one of the formal boardrooms on the tenth floor. It wasn’t a huge room, but it did have a remarkable view out over the Thames. Lunch came to us; time was too precious for us to travel somewhere, and that way discussions could continue while we ate.

Lawrence had taken charge of the meeting the instant we walked in; all the managers were already there, and I was thankful that, by design or pure luck, Patrick was seated quite a distance down the table from me. Lawrence sat at the head of the rectangular conference table, and I sat on his right. If Patrick wanted to actually look at me, he had to lean forward in his chair and look past six other people to achieve it.

I stuck close to Lawrence when we took breaks, only short periods in which everyone could stand and stretch or use the bathrooms, but I knew that Patrick would never approach me while Lawrence was near. By the end of the day, I was beginning to think that I might actually get through this without having the awkward postbreakup discussion with Patrick.

I should have known better.

We were booked to have dinner, the very large party of us, at one of London’s newest restaurants. Lawrence and I hadn’t been there before, but the reviews were excellent. We broke up the meeting just after five, so the MDs could get back to their hotels and change before we ate.

Each of them had to make his or her own arrangements to get to dinner; they were scattered all over the city in different hotels, so when Lawrence and I turned up, only four of them had arrived.

We waited in the bar, and gradually the rest turned up, until there were nearly twenty of us crowding the bar area of the restaurant. Patrick was one of the last to arrive, and by then I had accumulated a group of them around me, so there was little opportunity for him to get close to me.

Dinner was casual and fun. Strangely, Lawrence seemed to be able to keep his management team fairly constant and hadn’t had to replace any of them in nearly two years; so all these men, with the exception of Patrick, had known each other and had been attending these meetings for a long while now. They knew each other’s interests and their families and took genuine pleasure in spending the evening in conversation.