Trust Too Much

‘Don’t know much about them.’ The subject plainly bored him and he turned his attention to the wine list that had just been handed to him, courteously seeking her approval of his choice. ‘I just hope you won’t toss it over me this time.’

Fee’s eyes darkened. ‘These days the responsibility lies with you.’

‘In other words, I mustn’t provoke you?’ His glance sparkled with enjoyment, holding hers for a moment, then straying to an extremely pretty Chinese girl at a nearby table and finally returning to Fee.

She laughed, unable to help herself. ‘She’s beautiful, isn’t she?’

‘Lovely. You’re an unusual one, Fee.’ Simon sounded mildly intrigued. ‘Generous. Most women I know get furiously uptight if the man they’re with so much as glances at another woman, even if he means nothing to them personally. They start tearing the other woman to shreds and, in my experience, the more beautiful a woman is, the bitchier she’ll be about other beauties.’

‘I suppose it’s understandable,’ Fee suggested compassionately. ‘So much is made of beauty that they start believing it’s all they’ve got without being able to forget that it doesn’t last, so they become desperately insecure. It doesn’t apply in my case, though, because I’m not beautiful.’

‘No.’ He brought the word out slowly, studying her face thoughtfully, bright, clever eyes lingering on the curve of her nose, the soft flush of her mouth and the way her cheekbones swept downwards from just beneath the delicate hollows at her temples. ‘No, you aren’t exactly.’

That could just be why he had decided it might suit him to have her working for him, Fee reflected wryly. He was intelligent enough to recognise his own weaknesses and, since he did take Rhodes Properties seriously, he probably didn’t like being distracted during working hours.

On leaving Australia, she had promised herself that she would be scrupulously careful in her choice of boss in future, and she had anticipated a long search, but it seemed as if she might have been lucky, because if she got the Rhodes Properties job she wouldn’t need to be afraid of Simon’s turning out to be like Vance Sheldon, however badly he might behave with the legions of beautiful women who did attract him.

She felt confident that she could do the job Simon outlined over lunch and she was even optimistic that he might prove to be less disconcerting as a boss than he was as an acquaintance.

However, as they walked back to Rhodes Properties, he seemed inclined to revert to personal topics.

‘How are things at home? What have you been doing with yourself?’

‘Oh, nothing much.’

‘Not trying to take up where you and Bates left off?’ Simon prompted smoothly. ‘I can imagine that the contrast of his youth might appeal to you after that old man you were involved with in Australia.’

‘As you say, that old man,’ Fee emphasised, incensed by his lack of intuition. ‘Doesn’t that even suggest that you might be wrong about the nature of my “involvement” with him?’

‘What’s wrong? Did he fail to satisfy you?’ he derided lightly and laughed at her furious expression. ‘But then again, Bates is too young for you, not much more than a boy. What you really need in a relationship is a man—’

‘If ever I find myself in need of advice about relationships, I’ll apply to someone with a more successful record than yours, thanks, Simon,’ she cut in caustically, inwardly disconcerted by the personal turn the conversation had taken.

‘I don’t consider any of my relationships to have been failures,’ Simon returned easily, observing her with amused eyes.

Fee laughed incredulously. ‘They haven’t exactly lasted, have they? You’ve never married, for instance.’

‘Marriage is scarcely a proof of success,’ he drawled mockingly. ‘In fact, most marriages look like failures to me, even when the people concerned make an effort to keep up appearances. Have you ever seen one that works?’

‘What about Babs and Charles?‘ Fee demanded rebelliously.