Tall, Dark... Collection

‘You weren’t in the least boring!’ she burst out protestingly as she realised he thought that was the reason for her inattentiveness. ‘I—I was fascinated,’ she told him truthfully—even if that fascination hadn’t exactly been with what he was saying!

‘Prove it,’ he invited, taking a mouthful of the chicken sandwich he had chosen for his lunch.

She swallowed hard, eyeing him warily. If he intended going through a question-and-answer session on his talk that morning she might as well own up to the truth right now; until she had chance to look at a friend’s notes she wouldn’t have a clue what he had actually talked about!

‘Have dinner with me this evening?’ he asked lightly.

Dinner…? Liam O’Reilly wanted her to have dinner with him?

She stared at him, trying to tell from his expression exactly what he meant by such an invitation. He looked back at her with questioning blue eyes—eyes that told her nothing!

Laura moistened her lips again, frowning up at him, her uncertainty mirrored on her face.

Liam chuckled softly. ‘Is it such a difficult thing to decide?’ he teased.

‘I—er—no,’ she answered hesitantly. ‘I just—Why on earth would you invite me out to dinner with you?’ Her frown deepened.

Dark brows rose over deep blue eyes. ‘Because I’ve never met anyone before with such incredible, beautiful, unusual eyes,’ he confessed.

Laura grimaced. ‘I think you’re playing with me, Mr O’Reilly,’ she said heavily.

‘That’s your prerogative,’ he conceded huskily. ‘But the dinner invitation stands. And the name’s Liam.’

‘Laura,’ she returned shortly. ‘Laura Carter.’

‘Well, now that we’ve formally introduced ourselves—would you care to have dinner with me this evening, Laura?’ He quirked dark brows once more.

‘Yes,’ she answered quickly—before she could give herself time to think too much about it and say no!

She had no idea why he had invited her out to dinner—but she knew exactly why she wanted to accept; he was just as mesmerising on a one-to-one basis as he had been on the podium earlier. In fact—more so!

He nodded. ‘And make sure you bring your appetite with you this evening; I can’t abide women who pick at their food.’ He looked pointedly at her almost untouched salad.

By the end of that first evening together Laura was no nearer knowing the reason for Liam’s invitation than she had been when he’d made it.

They had talked about any number of things—books, art, Ireland, what Laura intended doing with her degree—always supposing she got it!—when her course finished next summer—but not by word or deed had Liam made even the remotest romantic move on her.

He had, however, asked to see her again.

And again.

In fact, within a few very short weeks Laura found herself spending most of her spare time with him, helping to type out any lectures he might have to give, often accompanying him to those lectures too, immensely proud of the fact that she was obviously with him.

Over those next few months she was to learn a lot of things Liam ‘couldn’t abide’ about women. They included women being clingingly possessive. Women who talked too much. Women who didn’t have an opinion of their own. Women without a sense of humour. Women who giggled inanely. Extrovert women. Introvert women. Women who were too fat. Women who were too thin. The list seemed endless.

By the time she had listened to all the things Liam didn’t like about women, and had desperately tried to make sure she was none of those things in order that he should continue to spend time with her, Laura had had no idea who or what she was any more!

And now, with his announcement earlier today that he intended her to be the editor of his new book, Liam was obviously still trying to call all the shots!

Well, this was eight years on. And she knew exactly who she was now. She was Laura Shipley. Widow of Robert. Mother of Bobby. Trustee owner of Shipley Publishing.

One thing she most assuredly was not, and never would be, was Liam O’Reilly’s editor!

CHAPTER SIX

‘WHAT on earth do you think you’re doing?’

Liam glanced at her over the top of the business diary he had picked up from her desk and was now looking at. ‘Making sure you don’t have another prior engagement to escape to this morning,’ he finally drawled in satisfaction, snapping the diary shut before dropping it down.

Laura glared at him frustratedly. As he had said he would, Liam had made his appointment to see her this morning; in fact, he was her first appointment for the day. Which didn’t augur too well for the rest of it!

‘Satisfied?’ she snapped impatiently, placing the diary neatly back in its original place.

Liam raised mocking brows. ‘Hardly,’ he replied, dropping down into the chair that faced hers, wearing his usual denims, shirt and a black jacket. ‘Now perhaps we can continue our conversation of yesterday,’ he said, looking across at her with a smile.

Not exactly. As he had said, they had last spoken yesterday; she had had over eighteen hours to recover from the shock of having him invade her office in the way that he had. She had also spoken with Perry when she’d come in the first thing this morning, knew that Liam had cancelled his meeting with him yesterday afternoon…

‘I believe we concluded that particular conversation, Liam,’ she came back calmly. ‘In the circumstances, it was very unwise of you not to keep your appointment with Perry yesterday,’ she added coolly.

Liam arched dark brows. ‘That sounds suspiciously like a threat to me, Mrs Shipley,’ he returned softly.

She was not in the best of humour this morning, had slept very badly after those thoughts of her early relationship with Liam eight years ago had come flooding back with such clarity. She certainly wasn’t in the mood to deal with any more of Liam’s games.

‘Take it as you like, Liam,’ she sighed. ‘I told you yesterday. I run this company; I no longer have the time to be an editor too—’

‘Make me the exception,’ he cut in.

She looked at him incredulously; he was the very last person she would make an exception for—in anything!

She sighed, shaking her head. ‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘Why not?’ she spluttered. ‘It must be obvious why not!’ she said exasperatedly.

‘Because we were once lovers?’ he mused consideringly. ‘But that was years ago, Laura. A lot has happened since then. We’ve both been married to other people, for one thing—happily or not so happily.’ He grimaced with feeling. ‘Surely you aren’t afraid that history might repeat itself, are you, Laura?’

‘Certainly not!’ she gasped indignantly. The only thing she was afraid of was that he would discover she had a son—his son!

The only thing!

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Then where’s the problem?’

‘Liam, are you learning-impaired? Why do I have to keep repeating myself? I—’

‘No longer edit any of the books yourself,’ he finished dryly. ‘I did hear that the first time you said it. As I recall, I asked you to make me the exception. Laura,’ he continued smoothly as she would have spoken, ‘make no mistake. I will go to another publisher.’

She drew in a sharp breath, having given this alternative some thought last night too—when she hadn’t been remembering what it had been like between them in the beginning, eight years ago!