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his inspection. For his lingering exploration.The image sent a rush of heat to his loins and he compensated for that by frowning coldly at her.
    â€˜Not precisely my words…’
    â€˜As good as,’ Lucy clarified brutally. ‘You can rest assured that I won’t, sir .’
    â€˜There is no need to labour the point.’ Nick flushed darkly, fully aware of how he had sounded.
    â€˜Nor,’ she continued, steamrolling over his interruption and barely managing to keep her voice steady, ‘will I suddenly think that I can swan in and out and do as I please because we made a mistake. I won’t.’ Never before had she deviated from her role of efficient secretary, willing to put in whatever hours were asked of her without complaint. Nor had she ever verbally struck out at him, as she was doing now, and it felt good. Good to be letting some of her crushing hurt spill out in anger. If she had to, she could get another job. It might pay half the amount she earned working for him, but at least she would be free of his presence and the havoc he wreaked on her heart without even being aware of it.
    â€˜And just for the record,’ she flung at him, making no attempt to lower her voice, ‘you are no more my type than I am yours!’
    â€˜So, you make a habit of sleeping with men you don’t like?’ He should have closed the conversation. Instead he found himself prolonging it, his dark face flushed and scowling.
    â€˜No,’ Lucy sighed, ‘that’s not what I said at all. And I apologise for…well, for speaking my mind out of turn.’ She ran her fingers through her short blonde hair and then linked them together on her lap. ‘The circumstances were, as you said, extraordinary. I like you well enough, and I respect you, but you’re not the sort of man I would normally…normally…’
    â€˜Be attracted to?’ Nick enquired silkily.
    â€˜If you want to put it that way.’ Thank goodness she wasn’t Pinocchio, she thought, or her nose would be reaching the other side of the office by now.
    â€˜And what sort of man are you attracted to?’
    â€˜Look,’ Lucy said, horrified that she had overstepped the mark with no thought for what he had so recently gone through. As if, at this point in time, he really cared one way or another about her or what she thought! Just another instance of how easy it was for her to lose touch with reality when he was around. ‘Look, I’m sorry. This is the wrong time for us to be pursuing this conversation. You must have had a hellish weekend and you certainly do not need to come in here to work to have a hellish morning.’ She attempted a soothing, understanding smile.
    â€˜You still haven’t answered my question.’
    â€˜No, I haven’t,’ she said in the same soothing voice, which appeared to be having no effect whatsoever. ‘But, if you really want to know, I’m attracted to…nice, thoughtful, caring men…’
    â€˜Nice. Thoughtful. Caring.’
    â€˜Not,’ she amended hastily, ‘that you aren’t. I’m sure you’re all of those things.’
    â€˜But you wouldn’t want to stake your house on it,’ Nick said drily, forcing a reluctant smile from her.
    â€˜Maybe not,’ Lucy agreed.
    This was as close to a truce as they could get, she realised. Now the air had been cleared and work could begin. He had said his piece, she had said hers and she knew instinctively that every word spoken between them would remain behind these four walls.
    â€˜So…’ Nick sat back and extracted a file in front of him ‘…I want you to get some letters out for this lot.I’ve already dictated three into the machine. You’ll need to transcribe those, and, with this one, just write and question some of the bills we’ve been charged. Find out whether our guy in Boston checked out all the suppliers before he