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Cam Hillier was in the foyer talking to Molly when Liz walked in. He had his back to her, but he saw Molly’s eyes widen as she looked past him and he swung round.
For a moment he didn’t recognise Liz. Then she saw him do a double-take and he whistled softly. It was something she would have found extremely satisfying except for one thing. He also allowed his blue gaze to drift down her body, to linger on her legs. Then he looked back into her eyes in the way that men let women know they were being summed up as bed partners.
To her annoyance, that pointed, slow drift of assessment up and down her body caused her those sensations she’d experienced when she’d tripped on the pavement: accelerated breathing, a rush through her senses, an awareness of how tall and beautifully made he was.
Only thanks to her lingering resentment did she manage not to blush. She even tilted her chin at him instead.
‘I see,’ he said gravely. ‘I was not to know you could look like this—stunning, in other words. Nor was I to know that you could conjure haute couture clothes out of thin air.’ He studied her jacket for a moment, then looked into her eyes.
LINDSAY ARMSTRONG was born in South Africa, but now lives in Australia with her New Zealand-born husband and their five children. They have lived in nearly every state of Australia, and have tried their hand at some unusual—for them—occupations, such as farming and horse-training—all grist to the mill for a writer! Lindsay started writing romances when their youngest child began school and she was left feeling at a loose end. She is still doing it and loving it.
Recent titles by the same author:
THE SOCIALITE AND THE CATTLE KING
ONE-NIGHT PREGNANCY
THE BILLIONAIRE BOSS’S INNOCENT BRIDE
FROM WAIF TO HIS WIFE
THE RICH MAN’S VIRGIN
The Girl He
Never Noticed
Lindsay Armstrong
MILLS & BOON
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CHAPTER ONE
‘MISS MONTROSE,’ Cameron Hillier said, ‘where the hell is my date?’
Liz Montrose raised her eyebrows. ‘I have no idea, Mr Hillier. How should I?’
‘Because it’s your job—you’re my diary secretary, aren’t you?’
Liz stared at Cam Hillier, as he was known, with her nostrils slightly pinched. She didn’t know him well. She’d only been in this position for a week and a half, and only because an agency had supplied her to fill the gap created by his regular diary secretary’s illness. But even that short time had been long enough to discover that he could be difficult, demanding and arrogant.
What was she supposed to do about the apparent non-appearance of his date, though?
She looked around a little wildly. They were in the outer office—his secretary Molly Swanson’s domain—and Molly, heaven bless her, Liz thought, was holding a phone receiver out to her and making gestures behind his back.
‘Uh, I’ll just check,’ Liz said to her boss.
He shrugged and walked back into his office.
‘What’s her name?’ Liz whispered to Molly as she took the phone.
‘Portia Pengelly.’
Liz grimaced, then frowned. ‘Not the model and TV star?’
Molly nodded at the same time as someone answered the phone.
‘Uh—Miss Pengelly?’ Liz said down the line and, on receiving confirmation, went on, ‘Miss Pengelly, I’m calling on behalf of Mr Hillier, Mr Cameron Hillier…’
Two minutes later she handed the receiver back to Molly, her face a study of someone caught between laughter and disaster.
‘What?’ Molly queried.
‘She’d rather go out with a two-timing snake! How can I tell him that?’
* * *
Cam Hillier’s office was minimalist: a thick green carpet, ivory slatted blinds at the windows, a broad oak desk with a green leather chair behind it and two smaller ones in front of it. Liz thought it was uncluttered and restful, although the art on the walls reflected two of the very different and not necessarily restful enterprises that had made him a multi-millionaire—horses and a fishing fleet.
There were silver-framed paintings of stallions, mares and foals. There were seascapes with trawlers in them—trawlers with their nets out and flocks of seagulls around them.
Liz had studied these pictures in her boss’s absence and discovered a curious and common theme: Shakespeare. The three stallions portrayed were called Hamlet, Prospero and Othello. The trawlers were named Miss Miranda, Juliet’s Joy, As You Like It, Cordelia’s Catch and so on.
She would, she felt, like to know where the Shakespeare theme came from. But the thing was you did not take Cam Hillier lightly or engage in idle chitchat with him. She’d been made aware of this before she’d laid eyes on him. The employment agency she worked for had warned her that he was an extremely high-powered businessman and not easy to handle, so if she had any reservations about how to cope with a man like that she should not even consider the position. They’d also warned her that ‘diary secretary’ could cover a multitude of sins.
But she’d coped with a variety of high-powered businessmen before; in fact she seemed to have a gift for it. Though, it crossed her mind that she’d never had to tell any of those men that the woman in their life would rather consort with a snake…
And there was another difference with Cam Hillier. He was young—early thirties at the most—he was extremely fit, and he was—well, she’d heard it said by his female accountant: ‘In an indefinable way he’s as sexy as hell.’
What was so indefinable about it? she’d wondered at the time. He was tall, lean and rangy, with broad shoulders. He had thick dark hair, and deep, brooding blue eyes in not a precisely handsome face, true, but those eyes alone could send a shiver down your spine as they summed you up.
In fact, to her annoyance, Liz had to admit that she was not immune to Cam Hillier’s powerfully masculine presence. Nor could she persuade her mind to discard the cameo-like memory that had brought this home to her…
* * *
It was a hot Sydney day as they walked side by side down a crowded pavement to a meeting. They were walking because it was only two blocks from his offices to their destination. The traffic was roaring past, the tall buildings of the CBD were creating a canyon-like effect and the sidewalk was crowded when Liz caught her heel on an uneven paver.
She staggered, and would have fallen, but he grabbed her and held her with his hands on her shoulders until she regained her balance.
‘Th-thanks,’ she stammered.
‘OK?’ He looked down at her with an eyebrow lifted.
‘Fine,’ she lied. Because she was anything but fine. Out of nowhere she was deeply affected by the feel of his hands on her, deeply affected by his closeness, by how tall he was, how wide his shoulders were, how thick his dark hair was.
Above all, she was stunned by the unfurling sensations that ran through her body under the impact of being so close to Cam Hillier.
She did have the presence of mind to lower her lashes swiftly so he couldn’t read her eyes; she would have been mortified if she’d blushed or given any other indication of her disarray.
He dropped his hands and they walked on.
* * *
Since that day Liz had been particularly careful in her boss’s presence not to trip or do anything that could trigger those sensations again. If Cam Hillier had noticed anything he’d given no sign of it—which, of course, had been helpful. Not so helpful was the tiny voice from somewhere inside her that didn’t appreciate her having the status of a robot where he was concerned.
She’d been shocked when that thought had surfaced. She’d told herself she’d have hated him if he’d acted in any way outside the employer/employee range; she couldn’t believe she was even thinking it!
And finally she’d filed the incident away under the label of ‘momentary aberration’, even though she couldn’t quite command herself to banish it entirely.
But somewhat to her surprise—considering the conflicting emotions she was subject to, considering the fact that although Cam Hillier could be a maddening boss he had a crooked grin that was quite a revelation—she’d managed to cope with the job with her usual savoir-faire for the most part.
He wasn’t smiling now as he looked up from the papers he was studying and raised an eyebrow at her.
‘Miss Pengelly…’ Liz began, and swallowed. Miss Pengelly regrets? In all honesty she couldn’t say that. Miss Pengelly sends her regards? Portia certainly hadn’t done that! ‘Uh—she’s not coming. Miss Pengelly isn’t,’ she added, in case there was any misunderstanding.
Cam Hillier twitched his eyebrows together and swore under his breath. ‘Just like that?’ he shot at Liz.
‘Er—more or less.’ Liz felt her cheeks warm a little.
Cam studied her keenly, then that crooked grin played across his lips and was gone almost before it had begun. ‘I see,’ he said gravely. ‘I’m sorry if you were embarrassed, but the thing is—you’ll have to come in her place.’
‘I certainly will not!’ It was out before Liz could stop herself.
‘Why not? It’s only a cocktail party.’
Liz breathed unevenly. ‘Precisely. Why can’t you go on your own?’
‘I don’t like going to parties on my own. I tend to get mobbed. Portia,’ he said with some exasperation, ‘was brilliant at deflecting unwanted advances. They took one look at her and I guess—’ he shrugged ‘—felt the competition was just too great.’
Liz blinked. ‘Is that all she was…?’ She tailed off and gestured, as if to say strike that…‘Look here, Mr Hillier,’ she said instead, ‘if your diary secretary—the one I’m replacing—were here, you wouldn’t be able to take him along to ward off the…unwanted advances.’
‘True,’ he agreed. ‘But Roger would have been able to find me someone.’
Liz compressed her lips as she thought with distaste, rent-an-escort? ‘Well, I can’t do that either,’ she said tartly, and was struck by another line of defence. ‘And I certainly don’t have Portia Pengelly’s…er…powers of repelling boarders.’
Cam Hillier got up and strolled round his desk. ‘Oh, I don’t know about that.’ He sat on the corner of the desk and studied her—particularly her scraped-back hair and her horn-rimmed glasses. ‘You’re very fair, aren’t you?’ he murmured.
‘What’s that got to do with it?’ Liz enquired tartly, and added as she looked down at her elegant but essentially plain ivory linen dress, ‘Anyway, I’m not dressed for a party!’
He shrugged. ‘You’ll do. In fact, those light blue eyes, that fair hair and the severe outfit give you quite an “Ice Queen” aura. Just as effective in its own way as Portia, I’d say.’
Liz felt herself literally swell with anger, and had to take some deep breaths. But almost immediately her desire to slap his face and walk out was tempered by the thought that she was to be very well paid for the month she’d agreed to work for him. And also tempered by the thought that walking out—not to mention striking him—would place a question mark if not a huge black mark against her record with the employment agency.
He watched and waited attentively.
She muttered something under her breath and said audibly, but coolly, ‘I’ll come. But purely on an employer/employee basis—and I’ll need a few minutes to freshen up.’
What she saw in his eyes then—a wicked little glint of amusement—did not improve her mood, but he stood up and said only, ‘Thank you, Miss Montrose. I appreciate this gesture. I’ll meet you in the foyer in fifteen minutes.’
* * *
Liz washed her face and hands in the staff bathroom—a symphony of mottled black marble and wide, well-lit mirrors. She was still simmering with annoyance, and not only that. She was seriously offended, she discovered—and dying to bite back!
She stared at herself in the mirror. It was on purpose that she dressed formally but plainly for work, but it was not how she always dressed. She happened to have a mother who was a brilliant dressmaker. And the little ivory dress she wore happened to have a silk jacket that went with it. Moreover, she’d picked up the jacket from the dry cleaner’s during her lunch hour, and it had been hanging since then, in its plastic shroud, on the back of her office door. It was now hanging on the back of the bathroom door.
She stared at it, then lifted it down, pulled off the plastic and slipped it on. It had wide shoulders, a round neck, a narrow waist and flared slightly over her hips. She pushed the long fitted sleeves up, as the fashion of the moment dictated, but the impact of it came as much from the material as the style—a shadowy leopard skin pattern in blue, black and silver. It was unusual and stunning.
She smiled faintly at the difference it made to her—a bit like Joseph’s amazing coloured coat, she thought wryly. Because her image now was much closer to that of a cocktail-party-goer rather than an office girl. Well, almost, she temporised, and slipped the jacket off—only to hesitate for another moment as she hung it up carefully.
Then she made up her mind.
She reached up and pulled the pins out of hair. It tumbled to just above her shoulders in a fair, blunt-cut curtain. She took off her glasses and reached into her purse for her contact lenses. She applied them delicately from the pad of her forefinger. Then she got out her little make-up purse and inspected the contents—she only used the minimum during the day, so she didn’t have a lot to work with, but there was eyeshadow and mascara and some lip gloss.
She went to work on her eyes and again, as she stood back to study her image, the difference was quite startling. She sprayed on some perfume, brushed her hair, then tossed her head to give it a slightly tousled look and slipped the jacket on again, doing it up with its concealed hooks and eyes. Her shoes, fortunately, were pewter-grey suede and went with the jacket perfectly.
She stood back one last time and was pleased with what she saw. But she stopped and frowned suddenly.
Did she look like an ice queen? If only he knew…
* * *
Cam Hillier was in the foyer talking to Molly when Liz walked in. He had his back to her, but he saw Molly’s eyes widen as she looked past him and he swung round.
For a moment he didn’t recognise Liz. Then she saw him do a double-take and he whistled softly. It was something she would have found extremely satisfying except for one thing. He also allowed his blue gaze to drift down her body, to linger on her legs, and then he looked back into her eyes in the way that men let women know they were being summed up as bed partners.
To her annoyance that pointed, slow drift of assessment up and down her body reignited those sensations she’d experienced when she’d tripped on the pavement: accelerated breathing, a rush through her senses, an awareness of how tall and beautifully made he was.
Only thanks to her lingering resentment did she manage not to blush. She even tilted her chin at him instead.
‘I see,’ he said gravely. He shoved his hands in his trouser pockets before adding equally gravely, although she didn’t for a moment imagine it was genuine. ‘I’m sorry if I offended you, Miss Montrose. I was not to know you could look like this—stunning, in other words. Nor was I to know that you could conjure haute couture clothes out of thin air.’ He studied her jacket for a moment, then looked into her eyes. ‘OK. Let’s go.’
* * *
They reached the cocktail party venue in record time. This was partly due to the power and manoeuvrability of his car, a graphite-blue Aston Martin, and partly due to his skill as a driver and his knowledge of the back streets so he’d been able to avoid the after-work Sydney traffic.
Liz had refused to clutch the armrest, or demonstrate any form of nerves, but she did say when they pulled up and he killed the motor, ‘I think you missed your calling, Mr Hillier. You should be driving Formula One cars.’
‘I did. In my misspent youth,’ he replied easily. ‘It got a bit boring.’
‘Well, I couldn’t call that drive boring. But you can’t park here, can you?’
He’d pulled up in the driveway of the house next door to what she could see was a mansion behind a high wall that was lit up like a birthday cake and obviously the party venue.
‘It’s not a problem,’ he murmured.
‘But what if the owner wants to get in or out?’ she queried.
‘The owner is out,’ he replied.
Liz shrugged and surveyed the scene again.
She knew they were in Bellevue Hill, one of Sydney’s classiest suburbs, and she knew she was in for a classy event. None of it appealed to her in the slightest.
‘All right.’ She reached for the door handle. ‘Shall we get this over and done with?’
‘Just a moment,’ Cam Hillier said dryly. ‘I’ve acknowledged that I may have offended you—I’ve apologised. And you, with this stunning metamorphosis, have clearly had the last laugh. Is there any reason, therefore, for you to look so disapproving? Like a minder—or a governess.’
Liz flushed faintly and was struck speechless.
‘What exactly do you disapprove of?’ he queried.
Liz found her tongue. ‘If you really want to know—’
‘I do,’ he broke in to assure her.
She opened her mouth, then bit her lip. ‘Nothing. It’s not my place to approve or otherwise. There.’ She widened her eyes, straightened her spine and squared her shoulders, slipping her hair delicately behind her ears. Lastly she did some facial gymnastics, and then turned to him. ‘How’s that?’
Cam Hillier stared at her expressionlessly for a long moment and a curious thing happened. In the close confines of the car it wasn’t disapproval that threaded through the air between them, but an awareness of each other.
Liz found herself conscious again of the width of his shoulders beneath the jacket of his charcoal suit, worn with a green shirt and a darker green tie. She was aware of the little lines beside his mouth and that clever, brooding dark blue gaze.
Not only that, but she seemed to be more sensitive to textures—such as the beautiful quality fabric of his suit and the rich leather of the car’s upholstery.
And she was very aware of the way he was watching her…A physical summing up again, that brought her out in little goosebumps—because they were so close it was impossible, she suddenly found, not to imagine his arms around her, his hand in her hair, his mouth on hers.
She turned away abruptly.
He said nothing but opened his door. Liz did the same and got out without his assistance.
* * *
Although Liz had been fully aware she was in for a classy event, what she saw as she stepped through the front door of the Bellevue Hill home almost took her breath away. A broad stone-flagged passage led to the first of three descending terraces and a magnificent view of Sydney Harbour in the last of the daylight. Flaming braziers lit the terraces, pottery urns were laden with exotic flowering shrubs, and on the third and lowest terrace an aquamarine pool appeared to flow over the edge.
There were a lot of guests already assembled—an animated throng—the women making a bouquet of colours as well. In a corner of the middle terrace an energetic band was making African music with a mesmerising rhythm and the soft but fascinating throb of drums.
A dinner-suited waiter wearing white gloves was at their side immediately, offering champagne.
Liz was about to decline, but Cam simply put a glass in her hand. No sooner had he done so than their hostess descended on them.
She was a tall, striking woman, wearing a rose-pink caftan and a quantity of gold and diamond jewellery. Her silver hair was streaked with pink.
‘My dear Cam,’ she enthused as she came up to them, ‘I thought you weren’t coming!’ She turned to Liz and her eyebrows shot up. ‘But who is this?’
‘This, Narelle, is Liz Montrose. Liz, may I introduce you to Narelle Hastings?’
Liz extended her hand and murmured, ‘How do you do?’
‘Very well, my dear, very well,’ Narelle Hastings replied as she summed Liz up speedily and expertly, taking in not only her fair looks but her stylish outfit. ‘So you’ve supplanted Portia?’
‘Not at all,’ Cam Hillier responded. ‘Portia has had second thoughts about me, and since Liz is replacing Roger who is off sick at the moment, I press-ganged her into coming rather than being partnerless. That’s all.’
‘Darling,’ Narelle said fondly to him, ‘call it what you will, but don’t expect me to believe it gospel and verse.’ She turned to Liz. ‘You’re far too lovely to be just a secretary, my dear, and in his own way Cam’s not bad either. It is what makes the world go round. But anyway—’ she turned back to Cam ‘—how’s Archie?’
‘A nervous wreck. Wenonah’s puppies are due any day.’
Narelle Hastings chuckled. ‘Give him my love. Oh! Excuse me! Some more latecomers. And don’t forget,’ she said to Liz, ‘life wasn’t meant to be all work and no play, so enjoy yourself with Cam while you can!’ And she wandered off.
‘Don’t tell me how to look,’ Liz warned him.
‘Wouldn’t dream of it. Uh—Narelle can be a little eccentric.’
‘Even so, I knew this wasn’t a good idea,’ she added darkly.
He studied her, then shrugged. ‘I don’t see it as a matter of great importance.’
Liz glanced sideways at him, as if to say you wouldn’t! But that was a mistake, because she was suddenly conscious again of just how dangerously attractive Cameron Hillier was. Tall and dark, with that fine-tuned physique, he effortlessly drew the eyes of many of the women around them. Was it so far off the mark to imagine him being mobbed? No, that was ridiculous…
‘It’s not your reputation that’s at stake,’ she retorted finally. ‘That was probably…’ She paused.
‘Ruined years ago?’ he suggested.
Liz grimaced and looked away, thinking again, belatedly, of black marks on her record. Did not actually come to blows with temporary employer, but did insult him by suggesting he had a questionable reputation…
‘This place is quite amazing,’ she said, switching to a conversational tone, and she took a sip of champagne. ‘Is the party in aid of any special event?’
Cam Hillier raised his eyebrows in some surprise at this change of pace on her part, then looked amused. ‘Uh—probably not. Narelle never needs an excuse to throw a party. She’s a pillar of the social scene.’
‘How…interesting,’ Liz said politely.
‘You don’t agree with holding a party just for the sake of it?’ he queried.
‘Did I say that? If you can afford it—’ She broke off and shrugged.
‘You didn’t say it, but I got the feeling you were thinking it. By the way, she happens to be my great-aunt.’
Liz looked rueful and took another sip of champagne. ‘Thanks.’
He looked a question at her.