The Beautiful Widow - By Helen Brooks Page 0,8

pull herself together but her voice was gratifyingly steady when she said, ‘That’s very kind of you, Mr Landry. Thank you.’

‘Maggie will call us when the meal’s ready but in the meantime can I offer you a drink?’ He was walking across to the beautifully made glass cocktail cabinet in a corner or the room as he spoke. ‘I usually have a cocktail about this time of night if I’m not driving, but there’s red, white or rosé wine, along with various spirits and mixers, sherry, martini …’

‘A cocktail would be lovely.’ She was glad now she’d eaten the slice of cake Maggie had pressed on her. The day had been hectic and after she had dropped the twins off at their nursery she’d rushed from pillar to post and skipped lunch. Without the cake any alcohol would have gone straight to her head, but she felt Steel Landry would expect a sophisticated career woman to have a pre-dinner aperitif.

She watched as he prepared the cocktails, and as he carried two glasses back to where she was sitting she took one with a smile of thanks. ‘What is it?’

‘A Moscow Mule.’

He smiled, and her heart did a pancake flip. She took a tiny sip and the zingy concoction exploded on her taste buds and then left a warm glow where it travelled.

‘Despite its name it was invented in a Sunset Strip bar in 1940s Hollywood,’ Steel said lazily, sitting down opposite her once more and loosening his tie as he undid the top two buttons of his shirt.

It made concentrating on what he was saying hard, doubly so as he crossed one leg over the other knee and settled back comfortably. It was crazy, ridiculous, but every nerve in her body was registering his smallest action and she didn’t know why. Perhaps it was because he was the most aggressively masculine man she’d ever met, and his voice—deep, smoky, compelling—added to the dark sexual appeal.

Summoning her thought process, Toni said weakly, ‘What’s in it? It tastes pretty powerful.’

He nodded his agreement. ‘Russian wheat vodka, lime juice and ginger beer. Apparently a spirits distributor was having trouble getting the Americans to buy his Russian vodka so he thought up a new drink with a barman who made his own, equally poorly selling, ginger beer. Enterprising, especially as it lives up to their marketing of having a kick like a mule.’

And Steel Landry was a man who would appreciate enterprise and initiative, she thought. Did he realise how intimidating he was? Probably. It was a tool that would serve him well in the cut-throat world of business. Wishing her neatly tailored, pencil-slim skirt were a couple of inches longer—although its knee-length had never bothered her before—she covertly tugged at it and readjusted her position before taking another sip of the cocktail.

‘Kids OK?’ he asked softly.

Startled, she met his gaze. ‘Yes, they’re fine.’

‘Then could you try to relax a little?’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Painfully aware she’d turned an unflattering shade of crimson, Toni didn’t know where to put herself. ‘I am perfectly relaxed, thank you.’

‘You, Mrs George, are like a cat on a hot tin roof,’ he drawled slowly, ‘or maybe little Miss Riding Hood in front of the big bad wolf would be a better analogy. Whatever, I’m not going to try to seduce you over drinks and dinner.’

‘I never thought for a moment you were,’ she said hotly, such transparent honesty in her voice he couldn’t fail to believe her.

His eyes narrowed. ‘Then why so tense?’

She shrugged. How could she say she was desperate for the job? That it would make all the difference in the world to her if he paid half as well as James had intimated he might? She had enjoyed her time working for James’s practice; preparing the sketches and ideas for quotation and then, if the practice won the contract, putting together more detailed specifications and working drawings and getting approval for them. Once she’d put out the contract for the actual work—the decorating, furniture, coverings, etc.—to tender, she had been responsible for supervising it and seeing schedules were kept and problems solved. It had been tough sometimes when things went wrong but she’d been good at it and she knew she could handle anything Steel Landry might ask of her. The alternative was trying to pick up some freelance work or another job, both of which were in short supply to someone who’d been out of the running for the last four years.

She didn’t regret