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CHAPTER TWO
LEXIE had been in complete ignorance for most of her childhood as to exactly who her Grandpa Alex was—apart from being her step-grandfather, of course—but once she’d reached her teens her mother had quietly and calmly sat her down and explained the situation to her.
It was then that Lexie had learned that Alexander St Claire was actually the Duke of Stourbridge, and had been virtually disowned by his three sons after his divorce from their mother, Molly St Claire.
Lexie had instantly decided that all three of the St Claire brothers had treated their father abominably—simply because he had fallen in love with her gentle and beautiful grandmother. A woman none of the brothers had even attempted to meet, let alone get to know. If they had then they might have realised how far removed Sian was from being the femme fatale they so obviously believed her to be. They would also have seen how much she had loved their father. How much their father had loved her in return.
As it was, despite the fact that their father was now her Grandpa Alex, Lexie hadn’t so much as set eyes on any of the three St Claire brothers until Alexander had died eight years ago, when they had dutifully arranged and attended their father’s funeral at the village church in Stourbridge.
Lexie had attended the funeral, too, out of sheer bloody-mindedness, after it had been made clear that her grandmother’s presence would not be welcomed there by the St Claire family.
Out of sheer stubbornness she had decided to represent her own family that day, standing at the back of the church to mourn her Grandpa Alex. Unacknowledged and thankfully unnoticed by any of the St Claire family.
The coldly remote Lucan St Claire had been easily recognisable from the photographs Lexie had deliberately looked out for over the last few years in the business pages of newspapers and magazines. She had also known the youngest St Claire brother, the rakishly handsome actor Jordan Sinclair, which had to make the austerely attractive blond-haired man standing beside him his twin brother Gideon.
But Lexie’s grandmother—the woman Alexander St Claire had loved and shared the last seventeen years of his life with—had been absent from his funeral.
For that alone Lexie would never forgive any of the St Claire family. The head of that family, especially. Lucan St Claire. The man who, upon his father’s death, had become the fifteenth Duke of Stourbridge.
Not that Lucan St Claire ever used the title. No doubt as some further insult to the father he had all but disowned twenty-five years ago.
Lexie’s eyes snapped her resentment now, as she looked up at Lucan St Claire. ‘Can I help you with something else, Mr St Claire…?’
Lucan didn’t believe himself to be a vain man. He recognized that he was cold, occasionally ruthless and that other than with his close family he was almost always chillingly remote. He was also aware that it was as much his considerable wealth and power that attracted all those models and actresses to him as any personal attraction he might or might not have.
That aside, Lexie Hamilton’s initial attitude of dismissal, followed by this disdain, were not things Lucan had ever encountered in any other woman.
Intriguingly so…
‘Are you always this disrespectful?’ he rasped harshly.
She shrugged. ‘My parents brought me up to believe that respect has to be earned, not just given,’ she came back challengingly.
Lucan growled something unintelligible under his breath. ‘I want you to sit in on my ten o’clock meeting and take notes.’
‘Well, that is what you are paying me for,’ she came back sarcastically.
Lucan’s patience—what little he possessed—was fast running out where this particular woman was concerned. ‘If you continue with your present attitude you will leave me with no choice but to call your agency back and explain exactly how ill-suited I believe you to be for this or any other position,’ he warned her coldly.
Lexie grudgingly acknowledged that she might be allowing her inner resentment towards this man to get the better of her. After all, he was Lucan St Claire, world-renowned businessman, and a man who was rich as Croesus and even more powerful. The last thing Lexie wanted was for her parents to return from their cruise and discover the hard-earned reputation of Premier Personnel, which they had so painstakingly built up over the last twenty years, was in tatters after only a matter of days under Lexie’s management!
‘Shouldn’t you at least give me a few hours to prove my efficiency before doing that? ‘ she came back lightly.
Even when this woman was saying all the right words she still somehow managed to sound challenging, Lucan recognised with a frown. Almost as if she had been predisposed to dislike him.
Simply because of the unfeeling way she believed he had behaved towards Jessica Brown?
Or was her dislike for another reason entirely?
Considering that Lexie Hamilton hadn’t even known Lucan’s ex-PA, the former didn’t sound like an acceptable explanation for her attitude. So maybe it was something else?
Or perhaps it wasn’t personal at all, and she really was just this prickly and outspoken with everyone?
If he could tolerate this woman in such close proximity to him for the next three days he was probably going to find that out.
And he still had to decide what he was going to do about John Barton’s call concerning the damage to Mulberry Hall.
‘Is there something wrong, Mr St Claire?’ Lexie prompted lightly a couple of hours later, once Gideon St Claire had left the office to accompany Andrew Proctor and his legal representative down in the lift.
‘What could possibly be wrong? ‘ Lucan bit out tautly as he stood up impatiently, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw. He moved around the desk, the darkness of his gaze narrowed on her icily.
Lexie gave a shake of her head. ‘I had assumed you might offer to take Mr Proctor out to lunch once the contracts had been signed—’
‘I believe Proctor would much rather have had lunch with you than with me.’
‘Me?’ Lexie repeated incredulously.
‘Don’t play the innocent with me, Lexie; you know exactly what effect you had on Andrew Proctor,’ he growled scathingly.
She frowned. ‘I believe I laughed at several of Mr Proctor’s jokes—’
‘Laughed inappropriately at all of his jokes,’ Lucan corrected disgustedly, fresh anger boiling up inside him just at the thought of the meeting that had just taken place in his office.
Andrew Proctor was a handsome man in his late forties, owner of an extensive transport business that Lucan wished to acquire for the St Claire Corporation. There had been several meetings between Gideon and Proctor’s own legal adviser already, to negotiate the details of the sale, and Lucan had fully expected the meeting this morning—the signing of the contracts—to go off without a hitch.
Obviously he hadn’t taken Lexie’s presence into account when he’d made that assumption!
Andrew Proctor had taken one glance at Lucan’s PA and the whole tenor of the meeting had changed. The man had begun to flirt with her instead of paying attention to the final discussion of the contract that had been drawn up for their signatures.
The fact that Gideon had seemed equally interested in her certainly hadn’t improved the situation.
Lucan’s mouth tightened. ‘You all but got into bed with the man, damn it!’
Lexie’s eyes widened indignantly. ‘Believe me, Mr St Claire, when I get into bed with a man I don’t do it in front of an audience!’
Lucan drew in a sharp breath at the graphic vision that remark instantly induced.
Her complexion was pure ivory, and Lucan had no doubt that the slenderness of her body would be just as palely translucent. Her skin would be soft and smooth to the touch. Her uptilted breasts would be tipped by rose or red-coloured nipples. The silky triangle of hair between her legs would be the same dark—
Good God!
Had he totally lost his mind? Christmas in Scotland, followed by the wedding at Mulberry Hall and now this call from Barton in Gloucestershire—all that had been unsettling, certainly, but surely not enough to addle Lucan’s brain so much he was having these erotic thoughts about her?
Addled his brain?
It was another part of his anatomy entirely that responded to Lexie’s exotic beauty.
‘I have no interest in learning what you do or do not require when you go to bed with a man,’ he bit out grimly—and not altogether truthfully. ‘I am merely endeavouring to point out that your overtly friendly behaviour towards Andrew Proctor made a complete fiasco of what was supposed to be a business meeting.’
Lexie was uncomfortably aware that Lucan’s criticism was partly merited. She had obviously been expected to just fade quietly into the background of the meeting, rather than allow Andrew Proctor to draw her into conversation. And she knew she would have done exactly that if not for the fact that she had seen exactly how annoyed Lucan had looked every time Andrew Proctor spoke to her.
She gave a self-conscious grimace now. ‘I apologise if you found anything about my behaviour this morning less than professional.’
Lucan looked taken aback. ‘What did you just say…?’
Lexie shot him a frowning glance from beneath dark lashes. ‘I believe I apologised,’ she repeated impatiently.
Exactly what Lucan had thought she had done! Totally unexpectedly. So much so that he wasn’t quite sure what to do or say next, damn it.
Indecision wasn’t something he could normally be accused of, either.
What was wrong with him this morning?
From a professional angle Lucan knew he should call this woman’s agency and demand that she be replaced immediately, or he would have no choice but to contact another agency.
What he personally wanted to do was another matter entirely.
He relaxed slightly. ‘It’s almost one o’clock. I suggest the two of us go and get some lunch—’
‘Together? ‘ Lexie stared at him uncomprehendingly.
‘Yes—together,’ Lucan drawled mockingly. ‘Perhaps we can come to some sort of truce while we eat?’
To say Lexie was stunned by the suggestion would be an understatement. Unless Lucan meant it as an ultimatum rather than a suggestion? An implication that the two of them either come to that truce or he would immediately go ahead with his threat to have her replaced, and in doing so damage the reputation of Premier Personnel?
Personally, Lexie would be more than happy to go. She had already done what she’d come here to do, and that was to meet Lucan St Claire and have all her preconceived ideas of him confirmed. As well as some unpreconceived ones—namely, he was dangerously attractive.
Unfortunately, the repercussions for Premier Personnel if that were to happen were less acceptable.
Something Lexie should definitely have thought about before acting so impulsively in coming anywhere near a single member of the St Claire family!
Although, Lexie acknowledged grudgingly, she hadn’t found the blond and handsome Gideon St Claire quite so disagreeable as Lucan.
Gideon was supposed to share the same reputation for coldness and arrogance as his haughty older brother, and as such Lexie had fully expected him to ignore her altogether during this morning’s meeting. Instead, Gideon had been effortlessly charming to her, and the warm interest in his gaze unmistakable…
‘Does it usually take you this long to respond to an invitation to lunch? ‘ Lucan rasped impatiently.
‘No, of course not,’ Lexie snapped resentfully, her cheeks heating at the taunting mockery she could see in those coal-black eyes. ‘But it was hardly an invitation, was it?’ she dismissed scathingly. ‘’More like, it’s lunchtime, so let’s eat!’
Lucan frowned his irritation; did this woman have to argue about everything? ‘I see nothing wrong with that statement,’ he bit out impatiently. ‘It is lunchtime, and we both have to eat.’
‘But not necessarily together,’ she came back decisively.
Lucan’s eyes narrowed to dark and dangerous slits. ‘Tell me—is this dislike personal, or do you treat all your employers with the same contempt?’
Lexie stiffened warily. It was one thing for her to treat Lucan St Claire with the disdain she felt he deserved—quite another for him to become overly curious as to why she treated him that way. For him to ever suspect, realise, exactly who she was…
Lexie shook her head. ‘It isn’t personal, Mr St Claire—’
‘Lucan.’
She blinked up at him. ‘I beg your pardon…?’
‘I invited you to call me Lucan, Lexie,’ he drawled ruefully. ‘Don’t tell me you have a problem with that, too?’ He frowned again as she continued to stare up at him.
Of course Lexie had a problem with that! The last thing she wanted—positively the last thing—was to be on a firstname basis with any of the arrogant St Claire family! ‘I would prefer to keep our relationship on a completely business footing,’ she said stiffly.
‘And calling each other by our first names isn’t doing that?’ he prompted.
‘You know it isn’t.’ She frowned. ‘Any more than my having lunch with you is,’ she added coolly.
Lucan scowled his impatience. ‘I fail to see why not.’
Lexie eyed him frustratedly. ‘That could be because you’re being deliberately obtuse—’ She broke off abruptly as he gave a wry chuckle.
A phenomenon that completely changed the austerity of those grimly handsome features, giving warmth to those dark, dark eyes, a softening to the hard rigidity of his cheek and jawline, and revealing an endearing cleft in his left cheek.
All things that Lexie did not want to be aware of where this particular man was concerned.
She gave him a reproving look. ‘I fail to see what’s so funny.’
He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘It seems that even when you try to be polite you can’t help but be rude.’
She bristled. ‘And you find that amusing?’
‘Not really.’ He gave a slow shake of his head. ‘I’ve just never met anyone quite like you before,’ he said.
Lexie wasn’t sure she was altogether comfortable with the softening of his tone. Or the speculation she could see in the warmth of those dark eyes as he looked at her. It was too male an assessment. The assessment of a handsome man looking at a woman he found attractive…
No way!
Absolutely no way!
Lucan St Claire and his two brothers had all but disowned their own father after he and their mother were divorced. Had totally rejected so much as even meeting the woman their father had loved and spent the rest of his life with.
Lexie accepted that their parents’ divorce must have been tough on three young boys such as Lucan and his two brothers would have been twenty-five years ago. But they had been only boys, and as such couldn’t possibly have been aware of all the details of the situation.
Any more than Lexie, who hadn’t even been born at the time, could really know…
No, she wasn’t even going there.
The whole of the St Claire family had treated Grandpa Alex and her grandmother abominably as far as she was concerned. As such, they were all beneath contempt. It was better for Lexie if she continued to think that way.
Except, as she had realised this morning, Lucan St Claire was lethally and heart-poundingly handsome.
Lucan had seen some of the emotions flickering across Lexie’s expressive, beautiful face. Seen them, but not understood them. Which wasn’t so unusual; so far there was very little about this woman that he did understand.
Except that for some inexplicable reason he was attracted to her.
Her outward beauty was undeniable, but it was the things Lucan didn’t know about her, the things he didn’t yet understand, that intrigued him.
And that, if Lucan were completely honest with himself, was also the reason he had been so annoyed at Andrew Proctor’s flirting with her earlier.
He straightened abruptly. ‘I take it from your earlier remarks that you would prefer to give lunch a miss?’
She frowned. ‘Not completely, no…’
‘Just lunch with me? ‘ Lucan guessed easily.
Her mouth tightened. ‘Yes.’
It was all Lucan could do to stop himself from laughing again. No woman had ever before given him the blunt put-downs that Lexie did so effortlessly!
Put-downs he found more arousing than annoying when they were coming from between Lexie’s full and sensually erotic lips…
He gave a terse nod of his head. ‘I had thought you might appreciate having lunch before we leave. But we can eat later if that’s what you would prefer.’
‘Before we leave for where?’ Lexie said slowly, suspiciously, not liking the gleam of satisfaction she could clearly see in the depths of Lucan’s dark eyes.
Eyes that now met hers with mocking innocence. ‘Did I forget to mention we’re leaving town for a couple of days?’
Lexie very much doubted that this man ever forgot anything—after sitting in on this morning’s meeting, witnessing the precision of his business acumen as he rattled off reams of facts and figures without consulting a single sheet of paper in Andrew Proctor’s file, Lexie no longer believed he had forgotten his previous PA’s name, either. A more logical explanation for that oversight was that the woman had simply been of such insignificance to him that he simply hadn’t troubled himself to learn it.
He didn’t seem to be having the same trouble where she was concerned.
‘Yes…’ Lexie confirmed warily.
He nodded tersely. ‘I finally managed to return Barton’s call earlier. After careful consideration I’ve decided that I should go to Gloucestershire to deal with the problem personally after all.’
Lexie’s heart gave a sickening lurch. ‘And this affects me how?’
Those dark eyes glittered down at her with mocking satisfaction. ‘I would have thought that was obvious, Lexie.’
‘Humour me, Mr St Claire,’ she bit out between gritted teeth.
He shrugged those broad shoulders beneath his tailored jacket. ‘For the next three days you work for me. I need to go to Gloucestershire for the next couple of days at least, to assess the damage to the house there and to organise repairs. Obviously I expect my temporary temporary PA—namely you—to accompany me.’
Lexie felt the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared up at him in stunned disbelief.
Lucan wanted her to accompany him to Gloucestershire? To Mulberry Hall? The St Claire ducal estate in the village of Stourbridge?
The same village where Lexie’s grandmother still lived…
CHAPTER THREE
LUCAN couldn’t help but see the way Lexie reacted as he outlined his plans for spending the next couple of days in Gloucestershire; her eyes had become dark and haunted, her cheeks deathly pale.
Obviously Lucan had a personal aversion to going anywhere near the family estate—which was the reason he had decided to take this intriguing woman with him—but he saw no reason why she should feel the same way. Unless, of course, she had personal commitments that kept her in town—maybe a boyfriend or a live-in lover?
‘Do you have a problem with that? ‘ he rasped harshly.
Did Lexie have a problem with that?
She couldn’t even begin to list the problems she had with going anywhere near the village of Stourbridge in the company of this particular man. With Lucan St Claire. The head of the despised St Claire family.
Lexie had been visiting the village of Stourbridge for years, of course, on frequent visits to her grandmother and Grandpa Alex. As a child she had gone there with her parents, and latterly on her own. Stourbridge was a delightful village, full of charming thatched cottages, and Lexie always enjoyed spending time there with her grandmother.
Which was the pertinent point, of course.
To go anywhere near Stourbridge, the village where Lexie had been known by many of the locals from the time she was a baby, with Lucan St Claire of all people, was simply asking for trouble.
Oh, what a tangled web…
And that web had just become more tangled than Lexie could ever have imagined when she had allowed curiosity to get the better of her!
Her throat moved convulsively as she swallowed hard, and her gaze avoided meeting that probing dark one as instead she looked somewhere over Lucan’s left shoulder. ‘I can’t simply up and leave London at a moment’s notice…’
‘I’ve already checked with your agency, and part of your contract of employment states that you agree to accompany your employer in the course of his/her business,’ Lucan informed her coldly.
Having worked at the agency alongside her parents for the last three years, Lexie knew exactly what the Premier Personnel contract said concerning their expectations of employees. As the daughter of the owners of the company it was also a contract she hadn’t signed—a fact Lexie obviously couldn’t share with him.
Her mouth firmed. ‘Your reasons for going to Gloucestershire appear to be personal rather than business-related.’
‘Correct me if I’m wrong—’ his icily taunting tone implied that he already knew he wasn’t ‘—but I believe the initials PA stand for Personal Assistant…?’
‘Yes. But—’
‘In which case, as you are my PA, I fully expect you to accompany me to Gloucestershire.’
‘I disagree—’
‘And do you believe that your opinion on the subject is of any relevance to me?’ he cut in brutally.
Lexie looked at Lucan searchingly, easily noting the hard glitter of those dark eyes, the pulse pounding in his rigidly clenched jaw, the thin, uncompromising line of his mouth. ‘No,’ she finally acknowledged heavily. ‘But surely this visit could wait until my replacement takes over on Thursday?’ she added brightly.
‘I have no intention of altering my plans to suit you, Lexie,’ he bit out coldly. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I shall be taking a briefcase full of work with me.’
‘Oh…’ She gave a pained grimace.
That ruthless mouth twisted into a humourless smile as he nodded haughtily. ‘I’ll expect you back here in an hour, then, with your case duly packed.’
Lexie could feel the panic rising inside her. She couldn’t go to the St Claire estate in Gloucestershire with this man. She simply couldn’t!
Her grandmother’s cottage was only half a mile away from Mulberry Hall, the majestic mansion that was the St Claire ducal home. Lexie had played in the woods there when she was a child, had taken long walks in the grounds with her grandmother and Grandpa Alex, had often used the indoor swimming pool that had been built onto the back of Mulberry Hall.
Admittedly Lexie had never stayed at Mulberry Hall itself, her grandmother having always refused to live there with Alexander even after his divorce, but Lexie knew she would only have to make one slip, one remark that revealed she had been inside the house or on the estate before, for Lucan to demand an explanation. An explanation she had no intention of giving him.
This wasn’t just a tangled web, it was a steel trap, waiting to snap shut behind her.
Lexie gave a firm shake of her head. ‘I really would prefer not to accompany you to Gloucestershire—’
‘In that case,’ he interrupted grimly, ‘I have no doubt that Premier Personnel will have no choice but to dispense with your services altogether. For their own sake.’
‘Are you threatening me, Mr St Claire?’ Lexie snapped, easily able to guess what that meant. This man had the power and influence to totally ruin Premier Personnel’s reputation in the business world with only a few cutting words.
Something Lexie should definitely have thought of earlier.
‘I haven’t even begun to threaten you yet, Lexie,’ he assured her succinctly.
There was no mistaking the hard implacability of that coal-black gaze—an indication that Lucan was determined to have his own way. What Lexie didn’t understand was why. Why was he was so set on her accompanying him to Gloucestershire when she so obviously didn’t want to go?