The Beautiful Widow - By Helen Brooks Page 0,20

pink with pleasure and as she gathered up the plans and drawings he caught a discreet glimpse of creamy cleavage and his body hardened instantly. ‘I’ll take you to the site later today so you can get a feel for the place, but for now let me show you where you’ll be working. For the time being you’ll be sharing Joy’s office. I trust that’s acceptable?’

It was a rhetorical question but Toni answered it anyway, her breathless, ‘Of course,’ lost as he opened the interconnecting door through to his secretary’s office and stood aside for her to precede him. She saw a large desk and chair, a filing cabinet and various items of drawing equipment had been arranged in one half of the room, but even so there was plenty of space. She hoped Joy didn’t mind her imposing, though.

Steel glanced at his watch. ‘Joy should be here shortly so settle yourself in and she’ll tell you what’s what.’

‘Thank you.’

He leaned against the door, his expression slightly quizzical. ‘Don’t look so scared,’ he said softly. ‘I don’t know what you’ve heard about me but I can assure you it’s bound to have been grossly exaggerated. I rarely bite.’

Toni reacted immediately, straightening and giving him a cool smile. ‘I’m merely a little nervous, as everyone is on the first morning at a new job, and in my case it’s been a while since I’ve had to earn a crust.’

Her tone had his eyes narrowing slightly but he made no comment, merely nodding slowly before shutting the door and leaving her alone.

Toni put her hands to her flushed cheeks. Great start. Offending the boss. She sank down on the comfortable leather chair behind the desk and took stock of her surroundings. This would be a lovely place to work. Her corner of the main office at James’s practice had been cramped and on the dark side, as well as noisy. This was altogether different, and she was being paid handsomely to boot. If only Steel were more of an average boss everything in the garden would be coming up smelling of roses. But then, if he were an average kind of guy she wouldn’t be sitting in a fabulous office with a terrific project to get her teeth into and with a salary that had caused her mother to sit down suddenly when she’d told her the good news. Steel was larger than life in every respect and she needed to adapt to that and fast. She couldn’t keep going to pieces around him or, worse, acting as she had just done when all he’d been trying to do was put her at her ease. If only he weren’t so good-looking and aggressively masculine and big, she thought despairingly.

And the sexiest man on the planet, another part of her mind added relentlessly, with that certain something that made it impossible to be in his company without wondering what it would be like to be made love to by a man like him.

There, it was out at last—the thought she’d been fighting against admitting since she’d first set eyes on him. And he had been right a minute ago. He did scare her. She didn’t want to feel attracted to another man for the rest of her life, or certainly a long, long time, and, although she knew there wasn’t the remotest chance of anything happening between Steel and herself, it still terrified her she could feel this way.

But this was her problem, not Steel’s. She simply couldn’t go on being so awkward and jumpy in his presence. To him she was just another employee and she would die, on the spot, if he guessed how she felt. And the irony was that if the impossible happened and he made a move on her she would run a mile. Steel was the last man in the world she’d ever get involved with. Her life was Amelia and Daisy now, and she would never allow a man into their precious threesome. She owed her daughters that at least. They had their grandfather as a stable male influence when one was needed and that was perfect; she could rely on her father not to let the twins down. Anyone else was suspect.

The door opening cut into her thoughts and a tall, slim blonde woman smiled at her, saying, ‘You must be Toni? Hi, I’m Joy, Steel’s secretary. Nice to meet you.’

The rest of the morning flew by. Joy spent some time showing her where everything