Daniel's Bride (5 page)

“No impact at all.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “But
I’m sorry to hear your relationship ended. That’s always unfortunate.” His
forehead creased. “An unfortunate event in anyone’s life.”

“Thank you. But I’m sure I won’t be the last girl to get
jilted.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Jilted? Not at the altar I trust?”

“Fortunately not,” she told him hastily. Behind those
piercing eyes, he was probably wondering what kind of loser he’d just hired and
whether he could get rid of her without repercussions. “There was time to call
the wedding off. A month in fact.”

“I’m glad to hear it. So you are single then?”

“Good heavens, yes.” She said it with far too much
enthusiasm, but seriously, had he expected her to grab the first man who showed
an interest in another jaunt along the matrimonial path?

He didn’t respond. He glanced at his wrist watch, and rose
to his feet. “I’ll get Nora to show you what needs to be done.” He beckoned to
the door leading to the outer office. “Come with me.”

Nora’s office was the gateway to Daniel’s, and while Daniel
stood over them, Nora ran through the job details – answering the phone,
correspondence to deal with, emails. All pretty straightforward and nothing,
Mel thought with satisfaction, she couldn’t handle. In fact, it all seemed
remarkably easy.

Daniel, too, seemed satisfied. Nora went to close the
connecting office door but he stopped her. “We’ll leave this door open. In case
Melinda needs to ask me anything.”

Nora frowned. “Are you sure, Mr Christie? I know how much
you prefer your privacy.”

“I’m sure. I’ll see you at midday. Thank you.”

When Nora had taken her bag and left the office, Daniel
leant against the door jamb, shoved his hands in his trouser pockets. “Is
everything clear Mel?”

“I think so.” She was basically minding the phone, and
acting as gatekeeper to Daniel. Yep, it was going to be dead easy. “Oh, and
shall I just put all calls through to you?”

He nodded. “Though I’m rarely disturbed. The women in reception
screen them efficiently. And having said that…” He pushed himself away from the
door. “I have work to do. Any inquiries please come and see me.”

He went back through to his office, leaving the door ajar
and the elusive scent of intoxicating aftershave in his wake.

Mel couldn’t repress a shiver as she sat down at the neat
desk.

She was acting PA to the head of the company and not just
any company. Her mind went into overdrive. If he gave her a good reference,
this was bound to look good on her resume. The fact was she might not get a
counseling job for a while – it was a specialised field, and office work might
be the solution. She glanced at the stack of handwritten emails waiting to be
transcribed. In fact, a reference from a company like this could just about
seal any job, surely.

Maybe meeting Daniel at the beach was meant to be. Maybe the
next few days working for him were meant to be. Optimism surged down her spine,
and she quickly pressed Compose on her email, and began to type.

Within forty-eight hours, Daniel had learned everything he
needed to know about Melinda Green. On paper she stacked up yet he was still
filled with enough doubt he was a whisker off phoning Hugh and calling it all
off. The whole scheme was insane, it was dangerous, she probably wouldn’t agree
anyway. He didn’t want a woman living in his house. Sitting at his table. Doing
whatever it was that woman did that was going to make him feel like a fish out
of water in the multi-million dollar apartment he had bought for himself. Not
for a woman to live in but just himself.

And he had no choice.

It was hard to describe the depth of his feeling for his
grandfather. Arthur had raised him when his mother had left Australia with the
pay-out she’d demanded, or else she was taking her boys with her. Sir Arthur
had seen enough to know she was better off out of his grandsons’ lives and had
given her enough money that she left. Of course, he’d left it open, had said
she was welcome to visit her sons, but she never had. She had chosen not to. As
for his father, weakness has plagued him. Mental and physical. He had never
been a decent father.

Daniel exhaled long and slow. And that was the kicker.
Arthur had been more than a father. He’d been a teacher, a mentor. He’d been
the best. It was ironic that his own father had never learned a thing from
Arthur but Daniel had. Arthur had taken him on tramping expeditions and fishing
trips, had taught him to swim and to appreciate good wine and much of it he'd
done alone when his beloved wife, Daniel's grandmother, had died. He had also
taught him the business from the ground up. How could he disappoint him, tear
apart his dreams for this marriage, for this new line of Christie descendants,
of new heirs to the empire? How could he tell him he’d been a little loose with
the truth?

He tapped his fingers impatiently on the polished desk, and
wondered where on earth Mel had gotten to. She’d headed down to accounts and
was due back – twenty minutes ago.

He stretched his shoulder to ease the tension. How had it
reached a stage where a counselor – a counselor for girls lacking the sense to
use contraception, for heaven’s sake – was the answer to the problem with his
grandfather?

He had to give credit where it was due and Hugh had been
remarkably astute in his assessment of Mel. The worst thing on her record was a
couple of speeding tickets. The failed engagement gave the impression of being
just a stroke of bad luck, and she appeared to be a dutiful daughter to her
mother who had lived in a retirement village for two years now.

Even better, she had no money to her name, a car on its last
legs, no job, and in a week she was due to hand the keys of the flat back to
the landlord.

Mel Green on paper looked as dull as dishwater and he was
confident she could be bought. She was perfect.

There was a sharp rap on the door and Mel walked quickly
through.

“Sorry I’m late.” Her face was red, her chest heaving.

His eyes were drawn to the v neck of her pale pink shirt,
the rise of the fabric as she breathed. A lone piece of jewellery, a small gold
pendant, nestled there.

“The girls in accounts gave me chocolates, seeing as it’s my
last day here, and the elevators are playing up so I took the stairs.” She drew
a breath which expanded her chest even more. He focused instead on her eyes.
Blue, he’d thought this morning, but now they seemed more a misty gray. The sea
in a wild storm. They were actually attractive eyes. He’d never noticed that
before. “The good news is the repair men are working on the lifts now.”

He frowned, and backtracked to the first part of her
statement. He hadn’t considered she’d get friendly with the staff on the other
floors. He was aware Nora was referred to as The Gatekeeper and never indulged
in what she would term ‘frivolous conversation’ with his employees. The same,
he’d assumed, would apply to Melinda. Clearly she hadn’t been aware of the
hierarchy.

“In the short time you’ve been here you’ve made friends?” He
gestured to a chair and she took it. Her manner wasn’t exactly graceful, but that
was hardly worth worrying about. “That didn’t take long.”

“I wouldn’t say they were friends exactly.” She crossed her
legs. Her skirt had ridden up above her knees. She’d exchanged the dull black
shoes of yesterday for some white, strappy sandals with a decent heel. Bright
red nail polish tipped her toes, and he was unexpectedly drawn to them. He
stared, and then looked away. Toes, for Pete's sake. They were only toes.

She was explaining, “One of the women in accounts has
problems with her teenage daughters and we were discussing how she might best
deal with it. Do you know Sally? Sally Armstrong?”

“Is she the daughter or the mother?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Sally is the mother. The daughter is
Amber.”

He nodded. He had no idea who Sally Armstrong was and had no
desire to know. As long as she did her job, he was happy to keep it that way.
He went to sit on the edge of the desk, folded his arms, and forced his mind
back to why exactly they were here.

In the days she’d been working here, he’d observed her relentlessly.
She was plain but not unattractive. She was smart. If they were stuck in an
elevator, they’d be able to have a conversation that wouldn’t have him banging
his head on the door. A word to describe her would be nice.

“Melinda,” he began. His gaze once again slipped to her
toes.

She tipped her head expectantly at him.

He said, “We need to talk.”

A frown crossed her forehead. “Sure.”

He couldn’t do it here, couldn’t discuss this absurd proposition
in the very boardroom that had witnessed generations of Christie men conduct
their business. Maybe they hadn’t conducted it altogether honorably, he thought
with a wry smile. The bottom line when it came down to business was that if a
job needed doing, it got done. But they had certainly administered it
professionally.

He surged to his feet. “We’re going out for lunch.”

The waiter had taken their orders, and was now filling their
glasses with pinot noir. Mel momentarily doubted the sanity of drinking wine
when she was heading back to work, but she took it with thanks and asked, “Is
Hugh joining us?” She half expected him to be. The amount of time he’d been
spending with Daniel had made her wonder if there was some upcoming legal
dilemma they’d been discussing.

“No.” He held his wine glass up to her, she did the same and
their glasses chinked.

“Cheers, Mel,” he said as he took a sip, and still didn’t
let on just why it was they were here. His eyes had darkened to the colour of
steel with flashes of blue, and they gave nothing away. No indication of what
it was he wanted to discuss with her. Although… She put down her glass. There
was one possibility she’d entertained on the short cab ride over here. “Hugh
has other plans for lunch,” Daniel added.

She wasn’t surprised. He’d been like a bat out of hell all
day yesterday, charging into Daniel’s office every hour, each time the door
shutting behind him. At one point she’d been asked to hold all calls. Her mind
had switched to overdrive wondering what they were talking so urgently about,
but she’d been none the wiser when Hugh had left the office on a whirlwind of
energy that had been admirable for a man in his seventies.

“Mel,” Daniel broke the silence. “We need to talk.”

Mel’s heart slowed down and beneath the table she crossed
her fingers tight. Maybe she’d been right. It had occurred to her, he might be
keen to offer her a permanent position. She’d done well at the job, she knew
she had.

True, some of the tasks she’d been given seemed more suited
to a school leaver, but she’d enjoyed the work and had enjoyed working in this
building, and the glamor of working right in Sydney’s CBD. The staff were
friendly and they had even taken to quizzing her about him. They rarely saw
him, it seemed, but possessed a strong loyalty to Daniel, and to the firm. Even
if, as several had confessed, they were terrified of him.

“Sure. What about?” The waiter set their meals in front of
them but her appetite had vanished.

Daniel gestured for her to eat, and he picked up his fork.
“In the days you’ve been working here, I’ve come to learn quite a bit about
you.”

Yes
! Excitement fizzed around her. He had been
noticing her. She’d had the feeling he’d been watching, observing her, even
observing something as mundane as her banter with the Fedex guy.

“I’m listening.” Her stomach flip flopped madly and she
breathed in deep to quell the nerves.

“You have also learned quite a bit about my family by now.”

“Quite a bit,” she agreed. Hugh had taken her for lunch
yesterday and had related the entire history of the company between appetizers
and desert. She frowned. The history lesson had seemed equally as odd as the
act of taking a mere temp out for a lavish lunch at one of Sydney’s top
restaurants.

“You know that my younger brothers have been overseas for
some time. However, you probably aren’t aware they’ve been causing – this firm
– this family – some problems.”

Her ears pricked. “No, I hadn’t heard that at all. Sean and
Everett, right?”

“Yes.” Daniel took a long sip of wine. "You will also
have learned that my grandfather is extremely ill. And although he has the best
care possible…” He hesitated, cleared his throat. “This time he may not pull
through.”

She had heard this. His illness was widely known, and her
heart sank in sympathy. “I’m so sorry about your grandfather. He sounds like a
lovely man. Your staff certainly respect him.”

Daniel inclined his head in acknowledgement. “He believes
strongly in family, believes that behind every great man is a woman, and that
no man can successfully run a company unless he is, shall we say, satisfied.” A
flicker of unease crossed briefly over his face.

“Oh.” Her face flushed but if he noticed, he had the grace
not to comment.

“Grandfather has been, to put it mildly, disappointed with
his own son, my father. And my brothers. There are countless reasons for Sean
and Everett’s failings. Personality, losing our mother so young. Alcohol.” He
stared at his glass of wine but he was a master of self-control and she’d never
heard anything to indicate he had problems in that area. “Whether their love
for the drink is genetic, who knows? Our father had issues there.”

Aha
. Now he was beginning to make sense. The brothers
had addiction problems and he wanted her professional opinion. She straightened
her shoulders. She hadn’t had much to do with addiction, but she’d certainly
encountered plenty of kids at her old job who were heading that way, and had
made referrals for some of them.

For a second, disappointment hit her hard, so hard she had
to squeeze her eyes shut. She’d been pinning her hopes on the idea of a job
offer more than she’d realized, which had been, frankly, stupid. Bosses did not
take temporary employees to lunch to offer them a job. They made a phone call
to HR. Hadn’t she learned anything from the break-up with Max?