Memo: Marry Me? (4 page)

The aggressive heat in Zach eddied away. She hadn’t been taken in by Hardy’s façade, had recognised something in the known womaniser that made her cautious.

‘You’ll find the proposal for your business in there.’ Lily waggled the folder. ‘You might care to take your seat and peruse it while lunch is being served.’

She was as cool as green salad. Zach suppressed a grin as Hardy stepped back to clasp the folder. A moment later, he had moved on.

They took their seats at the table. Lily sat at his right, and it felt as though she belonged there.

‘Now that they’re all seated, can you name them again for me, please?’ She turned her face to his. ‘Start with the person on my left and work your way around the table. Don’t leave anyone out.’ Her notebook rested on her knee, her pencil at the ready once again.

If he hadn’t seen her hand clenched around that notebook, he wouldn’t have known she was anything less than utterly confident. The knowledge that she was uneasy, a little uncertain, only made her more human in his eyes, more appealing.

Zach lowered his head to murmur the name and a short description of the business of each person. She scribbled it all into her notebook, and nodded now and then to show she was keeping up.

He could brush her ear with his lips, and he doubted anyone would notice. His breath soughed across the object of his thoughts. She shivered, gave a soft gasp and looked up into his eyes.

So responsive. His gaze moved over the honey-gold hair, then shifted to her mouth, to kissable lips and a short, straight nose. To blue eyes the colour of deep tropical seas beneath a hot sun. Without conscious thought, he supplied the final name and relevant details.

She noted the information in her book, released her breath on a choppy sigh and leaned back. ‘Thank you. That will make it easier to match up any comments I need to record.’

Did she know that her eyes took on a dreamy hue when she looked at him? Not avaricious or predatory, like Rochelle’s, but something soft, almost vulnerable, and definitely sexy.

‘Now, you wanted to know about the menu.’ Lily’s lashes fluttered as she whipped out a hand-written sheet of paper Zach had watched her garner from one of the waiting staff when she’d first entered the room. She dropped her gaze to the sheet. ‘We discussed a few options, but what I chose in the end was seafood cups and mini beef-and-vegetable pies for starters…’

‘Which gives us a chance to sample both red and white wines.’ Zach no longer wanted to hear about the menu. He let his gaze linger on her. He wanted to kiss her instead.

She outlined the rest of the menu, and looked into his eyes. Warm spots of colour formed on her cheeks, but she only murmured, ‘Your wine bill will be sky high. I thought you’d want the best.’

He dipped his head. ‘Money is no object in this exercise.’

The guests perused their proposals while the meal was set out. Lively discussion ensued. Zach did his best to throw himself into it and put thoughts of Lily Kellaway’s soft skin, and his desire to touch it, out of his mind.

‘Once a proposal is accepted, it’s handed to one of my team of experts.’ He leaned forward as he explained the procedure to the man seated across the table from them. ‘They either supervise the buy-out, or move straight in to manage the re-shaping if it’s a share situation. No time is wasted. We’re about making things work in the fastest, surest way we can.’

Over the entrées and a fine Sauvignon Blanc, Lily scribbled into her notebook, and picked at delicate prawns and Tasmanian scallops. Zach answered questions, parried comments and told himself he was doing well.

But all the while he was aware of her. In every break in discussions, his gaze went to her unerringly.

He looked at her now, and felt each bite of food she took explode on his own tongue, wanted to meld those tastes in exploration of her mouth. ‘You chose the caterer well. Is it one I’d know?’

‘Possibly not.’ She glanced at the group discreetly situated at the far end of the room, then looked at him again. ‘They — they’re sort of like a galloping garçon. Zippy little van, go anywhere in a hurry. Several local offices have used them.’

‘And you know this because you phoned other secretaries, rather than going at it blind and ringing restaurants and caterers first. Clever.’

Clever, determined, so eager to do her work well, that he couldn’t stop himself from wondering if she’d be equally as enthusiastic and unwavering about pleasing a man under the enveloping cloak of a long, sensual night. It wasn’t a question he should be considering.

But his praise brought her gaze back to his face with startled gratitude.

‘I have to — I try to think outside the box.’ She made it sound like an impediment, and hurriedly took a taste of saffron-rice paella, closing her eyes to savour the sharp, tangy fragrance and taste.

Despite his best intentions, his lids drooped as he watched her enjoy the food.

‘Mmm.’ She glanced at her plate. ‘I have to admit, this is very pleasant.’

He ate
salade de boeuf
with buttermilk mash, and noted the fineness of her bone structure, the delicate shoulders beneath the blazer. His body twitched. Yes, this was pleasant — in a torturous sort of way.

Her attention focussed on him. The colour in her face deepened, and she looked quickly away again.

‘You’ve done a good job with the lunch, Lily.’ He tried to bring his thoughts back to business. Was it to be like this any time they got closer than the width of a desk away from each other? ‘If the rest of your work for me is equally as professional and useful, I’ll be very pleased, indeed.’

She straightened in her chair, primmed her mouth and clutched at her notebook again. ‘You can rely on Best Secretarial Agency to take care of your business needs. You won’t be let down again.’

When the desserts arrived, conversation lulled in favour of enjoyment of the delicate fare. Lily relaxed, let go of the deathly grip on her notebook and turned her attention to her food.

Instead of relaxing with her, Zach’s tension increased.
Why
hadn’t he been able to banish personal thoughts of her from his mind?

Maybe it wasn’t his mind that was causing the problem. Maybe he needed to indulge his curiosity. He twirled the stem of his wine glass between his fingers. One little taste test. Just to see. So he could put it out of his thoughts once and for all…

‘The coffee crème is delicious.’ She turned to him and smiled. A simple smile, yet he wanted to rush her into the supply closet at the rear of the conference room and kiss her among the broom sticks, buckets and mops.

He was losing his mind. Could only think of tasting
her
, nothing else, even though every fibre in his being warned him it was dangerous to think this way. Even for a moment. ‘Um — ’

‘I hope the lemon panna cotta and fruit coulis equals it.’ She dipped her spoon into the confection again. ‘Would you like me to ask the caterers to give you a serving of the coffee crème, too? I’m sure they’d have some spares, if you’d like to try both.’

‘No. Thank you.’ He cleared his throat, forced civil words out, couldn’t quite hide the deeper timbre of his voice. ‘I’ll be fine with…what I have.’

He tried his lemon panna cotta, praised her choice and tried not to think about her mouth. They were in the middle of a conference meeting, and his awareness of her was off the scale.

She blinked. That rapid flutter again of her lashes. ‘That’s very good. I’m glad you’re enjoying your…dessert.’

‘Yes.’ The coffee arrived. With relief, he turned to the man on his right and engaged him in conversation until things began to wind down.

Finally, the time came to deliver his short closing speech. He got to his feet. ‘You’ll all need time to think, to confer with colleagues, to run the figures. I suggest phone conferences tomorrow and Wednesday to conclude our business. Phone Lily in the morning. She’ll let you know what time slots are available.’

From the corner of his eye, he saw Lily scribble something in her notebook and underline it.

With murmured thanks, the guests moved out. Zach saw them off at the door while Lily set the caterers to work on the clean up. She returned to his side just as Hardy clamped an unlit cigar into his mouth and said around it, ‘A phone conference doesn’t suit me. Come to my office tomorrow at 4.00 p.m. I’ll give you my answer then.’

‘I’m not available at that time.’ Zach tried to instil regret into his tone. ‘Nor will I be available for anything but phone conferences for the rest of the week. You’ll understand that I’m busy.’

As a concession, Zach acknowledged the other man’s probable commitments. ‘I’m sure you must have a full schedule, too. Perhaps you’d like to call on Thursday or Friday. I’m prepared to extend the deadline for you.’

‘We’ll see.’ Hardy barged out the door, proposal tucked beneath his arm and a scowl on his face.

‘Nice exit.’ Lily’s chuckle washed over Zach, sensual and free. She looked into his eyes, the smile still lingering on her lips. ‘Do you think he’ll accept your proposal?’

‘I expect he will, eventually.’ He dipped his head closer to her face. Wanted her. Didn’t want to.

She gasped. A soft sigh of sound that revealed her reaction to him. ‘Well, um, I’ll just have one last word with the caterers, then. To make sure they’re, um, all finished catering.

‘Don’t wait for me. You go on back.’ She drew in a shaky breath. ‘I’ll join you when I’ve calmed — in a minute.
I’ll join you in a minute.’

He left. It was either that or snatch her into his arms and kiss them both senseless, momentary acquaintances or not.

‘C
AN
I help you?’ Lily closed the filing-cabinet drawer, and offered a questioning smile to the boy who stood in school uniform in the middle of the reception area of her office, his shoulders hunched, his profile to her.

Two and a half weeks had passed since she’d started work at Swift Enterprises. Two and a half weeks filled with a growing, unspoken awareness between her and a man unlike any she had known.

Clients had come and gone. Lily had managed the appointments, ploughed through the pile-up of work, and hadn’t bungled anything too badly. Earlier today, Hardy had finally signed on the dotted line, yielding to what he knew was a great deal, just as Zach had predicted he would.

Lots of things had happened, but this was the first time Lily had seen a child in the offices. The boy should have seemed out of place, yet somehow he didn’t.

‘Oh, hi. I didn’t see you there. Is Zach ready?’ He turned fully to face her, slung his backpack onto one of the chairs and pushed his hands into his pockets in a gesture she had seen Zach use countless times. ‘He said we’d have to go by four o’clock.’

‘And it’s almost that now, isn’t it?’ Slowly, she returned to her desk as she tried to assimilate what she was seeing. This boy was the image of the man on the other side of the closed office door. The same thick-fringed hazel eyes, same hair. Same mannerisms, same frown. Everything. It was all there.

Zach’s son?

The possibility hadn’t occurred to her until now. Faced with it, she felt…unnerved. Her mind leapt immediately ahead. Where was the mother of this child? What relationship did Zach have with her? Why didn’t the boy call his father ‘Dad’?

And what game had Zach been playing with
her
? He was a well-known and, it was assumed,
carefree
bachelor, and had been sending out ‘attracted to you’ signals since they’d met. Those signals had only grown stronger on both sides, she had thought, even though Zach had been clearly fighting them all the way.

She’d had no intention of acting on them, either, of course. Had intended to put a stop to her side of things just as soon as she worked out how. Hadn’t she?

Of course she had! But what had Zach been thinking?

‘Um, your fath — Mr Swift — is taking a phone call.’ The boy shouldn’t be made uncomfortable because of her surprise and shock. And she
was
shocked. ‘I’m sure he’ll be finished his call in a moment.’

The boy nodded. ‘I’ll just wait, then.’

‘Yes. Make yourself at home.’ She pretended to go back to work, but all that showed up on her screen as she typed was meaningless gibberish.

At times recently, she had wanted to yield to Zach’s interest, and to her own. To step forward instead of stepping back, just once, and see what happened. She shouldn’t have wanted that. She was living a deception. He wouldn’t want her if he knew her secrets, and she needed to protect herself, too.

But it appeared he also had secrets.

Zach opened his door and came out. He glanced at her, and his eyes flared with familiar heat.

Then he turned and spotted the boy. His face softened in affection and pride. In two strides, he had the young man in a headlock, ruffling his hair as he hugged him close. ‘Dan. Good lad, you’re right on time. You didn’t have any trouble with the buses?’

The boy wrapped wiry arms around the man, pushed his head into his chest and put all his effort into getting loose. He grinned when he broke free. ‘Nope. I’m ready to go. You’re getting weaker, you know. You barely held me that time.’

A bittersweet smile touched Zach’s face. ‘You’re the one getting stronger. You’re growing up too fast.’

Zach made a show of getting his briefcase, but Lily saw the tenderness he tried to hide and, despite her confusion, her heart softened. Zach clearly loved this child.

He rattled off a few instructions to her before he turned back to Daniel. ‘Did you two meet? This is Lily. She’s filling in while Maddie is away. The other secretary…’ he cleared his throat ‘…didn’t work out, so Lily has taken over.’

Lily finished jotting his instructions into her diary. She closed it and looked at the boy. ‘Hello again.’

‘I’m Daniel.’ He shook her hand, mumbled, ‘You’re prettier than the last one,’ and turned a little red in the face. ‘I mean — ’

‘Thank you.’ She turned back to her desk to save him from further embarrassment. And to avoid having to look at Zach. ‘I won’t keep you both. You clearly have somewhere you need to be.’

A slight frown between his brows, Zach nodded. Then the boy drew his attention.

‘Mum said you’re invited to dinner again tonight, if you want. She’s running errands this afternoon, but she’ll bring home something nice.’ Daniel gathered his school bag and slipped it over his shoulders. He gave Zach a bit of a glare. ‘I could go to the orthodontist by myself, you know. If I can manage a couple of buses, I can manage — ’

‘All the buses. Yes, but I promised when you first got the braces on that I’d take you to every appointment.’ Zach ruffled the dark hair again. ‘And I always — ’

‘Keep your promises, I know. But I’m not a baby. You don’t need to mollycoddle me.’ The boy sighed, and made for the door.

Lily watched him, and tried to contain the anger and dismay that had filled her at Daniel’s innocent words. Zach was still involved with the mother of his child! He had been toying with Lily. She felt stupid for not having realised his interest wasn’t sincere. Felt second-rate, as she had when Richard had ended their engagement.

‘I’m not mollycoddling.’ Zach waved Daniel off. ‘Go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you at the elevators.’

As the boy left, Zach turned back into the room. ‘Is everything all right? You seem agitated.’ A rather ferocious expression closed in on his face, and he said without any inflection at all, ‘Don’t you like children?’

‘No, it’s not that. Everything’s fine.’ His protectiveness of the boy made Lily ache for things she didn’t have, for family to stand by her. But it didn’t change the fact that Zach was now clearly and utterly out of bounds to her. And, right now, she really didn’t like him very much. At all!

She busied herself putting a dictation tape into the machine, fiddled with the wishbone earpieces, then placed her hands in readiness against the keyboard. As she did so, she realised the child’s name had slipped from her memory. She sought for it, but didn’t find it. Darn it! ‘It was nice to meet your son, but shouldn’t you be going?’

‘Ah.’ His eyes narrowed as he studied her. ‘I think you’ve just explained the sudden chill in the air. If there’s a child, there’s got to be a mother, and therefore — ’

‘You’re having dinner with that mother. You’re clearly very close.’ Oh, couldn’t he just go? She didn’t want to have this discussion. ‘It’s got nothing to do with me.’

‘Hasn’t it? You and I have been — ’

‘Hurry up, old man. We’ll be late!’ The warning floated down the corridor, affection wrapped up in the cheeky words. A moment later, the boy poked his head back into the room. ‘Are we leaving some time this millennium, or what?’

Zach hesitated, gritted his teeth and strode to join the boy. ‘Yes, Daniel. We’re leaving. Let’s go.’

Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. His name is Daniel.
Lily pretended not to watch their exit. As soon as they left, she wrote the boy’s name down, although she suspected it would now stick firm for her. Usually, if she could get a piece of information beyond that short-term memory area, it stayed with her for good.

An hour later, after swinging from chagrin to anger and back again, she was doing her best to force Zach Swift out of her mind. She would go on doing that until she crushed every memory of the attraction she had experienced towards him. Utter rejection should have been her response from the start.

As she began to pack up her desk, a middle-aged woman stepped into the room. ‘I hope I didn’t startle you, dear. Are you about to leave?’

‘Hello. Yes, it’s almost closing time, but is there some way I can help you?’ Lily pushed the last of the folders into the drawer and gave the woman her full attention.

‘There is, I hope, but this isn’t really a business matter.’ The lady smiled. ‘Let me introduce myself. I’m Anne Swift, Zach’s mother.’ She stuck out a hand.

Lily snatched up a sticky notepad and scribbled ‘Anne Swift’ onto it, then took the other woman’s hand and looked into kindly yellow-green eyes. She couldn’t help returning the warm smile she found there, even as her picture of Zach shifted for the second time this afternoon.

She had assumed he had no family at all. That he lived for his company, utterly focussed on making money. Lily had even felt a connection, because she didn’t have any significant family ties either. Not any more.

Within the space of an hour, Zach had a son, a mother of that son, and a mother of his own.

‘I’m afraid Zach’s not in. He took Daniel to an orthodontist appointment.’
And, later, he’s going to have dinner with the mother of his child. They’ll probably make love once Daniel’s asleep.

‘Just as I hoped. I timed it so he would be gone when I got here.’ A warm chuckle erupted from the small, well-rounded frame. ‘Now, I know you’re just new, dear, but I need you to join me in a teensy-tiny conspiracy against my darling son.’

Well, that sounded interesting, if rather dangerous! Why would Zach’s mother want to conspire against him? ‘I’m not quite sure I can help you…’

‘You can, and it will be for his own good.’ Anne gave her merry laugh again. ‘I just need to explain. Come to coffee with me?’

The next morning, Zach greeted Lily with a watchful expression. Lily didn’t know what to think. During their stop for coffee, Anne Swift hadn’t mentioned anyone special in Zach’s life. But, then, Zach’s mother had been focussed on other things and perhaps had seen no reason to say anything.

I hope Anne enjoyed her meal, anyway.

The older lady had bought enough take-out containers of food during that jaunt for coffee to supply several hungry eaters. Perhaps she froze portions for herself. Or maybe she had invited guests that night.

‘Re-direct the phones. We’ll go to lunch early.’ Zach spoke in a silken tone from his position in the doorway that connected their two offices. His words made her jump, because for once she’d had no clue of his nearness.

He shifted his stance slightly. ‘There’s a pub not far from here that serves good, fresh battered fish and chips.’

‘I can’t.’ Lily didn’t quite meet his gaze, stared instead at a spot on the wall behind him.
I won’t make myself vulnerable to you by getting too close.
‘I’m busy.’

‘Let me make this clearer. It’s not an invitation, Lily.’ He looked down his nose at her, let her see the glitter of anger and frustration for a moment in his eyes before he hooded them. ‘Your presence is required.’

Maybe this wasn’t personal. Maybe she had done something, made some mistake here in the office?

Her mind raced with possibilities. She’d been skirting around him since she got here this morning. Had that made her lax in her duties somehow? Or had her shortcomings found her out?

Zach hustled her out of the office while she was still worrying. He rattled off their order to the bistro lady at the pub without consulting Lily for her choice, then led Lily to their allocated table and proceeded to drum his fingers on the polished surface.

‘What if I hadn’t wanted whiting fillets?’ She took the paper serviette from around her cutlery, and set everything just so in front of her. It might not be smart to goad him, yet she couldn’t help herself. ‘I might have preferred the roast pork, or the chicken pot-pie.’

His fingers came to an abrupt stop. He said, apparently out of nowhere, ‘Did you know that Daniel loves fish and chips?’

‘Does he?’ She kept her voice neutral, but wondered about that smooth-as-glass tone of his. ‘That’s nice.’

Their meals and drinks arrived. He held her gaze over the rim of his beer glass until they were alone again. ‘Daniel and I live just around the corner from each other. He stays overnight with me often, drops in evenings and weekends during the day. It’s pretty much open house to him any time I’m home.’

What about Zach staying the night with Daniel’s mother, or vice versa? Not that Lily cared about his bed partners, she told herself fiercely. And he was baiting her right now. She was sure of it. She glared at him, and took a defiant sip of her lemon squash.

Not another word would pass her lips on the topic. If he had something to say, then let him say it.

After eating most of the meal in loaded silence, she began to toy with her half-empty sachet of tartare sauce. Anything to keep her gaze from his, really, but in the end she couldn’t help it. Her resolve teetered, and fell. ‘You mentioned Daniel. What about his mother? What’s her name?’

‘His mother is the same one I have, actually. I wondered how long it would take you to ask.’ He speared a chip with his fork, seemed to take delight in the aggressive movement. ‘Our mother is Anne. Anne Swift.’

While he ate the chip, Lily drew a deep breath of pub-laden air and tried to assimilate this news. Zach and Daniel were brothers. There
was
no woman with a long history of involvement with Zach. Lily had jumped to a massive conclusion.

Her heart began to beat out an uneasy, rapid rhythm. ‘But that’s not, that can’t be — ’

‘Daniel was a change-of-life baby, conceived three months before our father died.’ He laid down his cutlery, drew two well-thumbed photos from his wallet and flipped them one after the other across the table to her.

‘The first is of me and my parents the year before Dad died. It was an aneurysm.’ He spoke without particular inflection, but his fingers clenched. ‘He didn’t suffer. It was very fast.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ She suppressed the urge to touch his hand, and repeated the information over in her head because she couldn’t bear it if she were to forget this later. At times like this she hated her impediment!

‘I miss him.’ The understatement somehow made Zach’s loss all the more real to her. His gaze dropped to the other photo. ‘The second is Mum, Daniel and me. It was taken last year when we visited the Imax theatre here in Sydney for a treat for Dan’s birthday.’