A Puppy for Christmas: On the Secretary's Christmas List / The Patter of Paws at Christmas / The Soldier, the Puppy and Me

Bree had fallen in love with him on the very first day she’d come to work at Beaumont House.

The son, not the father.

She had already paid—and paid dearly—for loving the wrong man, and had no intention of repeating that painful experience!

This had turned out to be a wise decision, considering there had been legions of women flitting in and then quickly out of Jackson’s life over the past year. Redheads, blondes, brunettes, and every shade in between—all of them tall and beautiful.

Bree knew there was no danger of Jackson ever seeing her as anything more than his capable assistant: she was only a little over five feet tall, passably pretty rather than beautiful, and had a slender figure that men found all too easy to dismiss—something Bree knew only too well after her engagement had come to a traumatic end just over a year ago.

Just over a year ago …?

Oh, God! What was the date? Surely it couldn’t be—?

It was, Bree realised heavily, the colour draining from her cheeks.

‘You aren’t really concerned about my conversation with Roger Tyler, are you?’ Jackson frowned down at his assistant as he noticed her face growing paler.

Bree blinked before looking up at him.

‘Not if you aren’t, no,’ she dismissed in her usual brisk, no-nonsense tone.

Jackson was always taken by surprise by Bree’s long dark lashes and smoky-grey eyes: remarkable eyes in an otherwise unremarkable face. Bree had a smooth brow, with a smattering of freckles on her cheeks and over the bridge of her nose, and a mouth that was usually thinned in disapproval above a small but determined chin. Her hair was the rich blue-black of ebony, but as it was always scraped back and secured with a clasp on the crown of her head even after a year Jackson had no idea as to its length.

He didn’t want to know either. Jackson had made a point of never taking a personal interest in any of the women who had been his assistants over the years—much to the annoyance of some, he acknowledged ruefully.

But not Bree. At twenty-six years of age, Sabrina Jones was cool, calm and totally unflappable. From the beginning she had made it absolutely clear that she had no personal interest in him either. Which was probably the reason they had lived and worked together so harmoniously for almost a year now. Put just one little spark of sexual intent or innuendo into that mix and the whole thing would fall apart. And as Bree was the best personal assistant Jackson had ever had, as well as being only too happy to sit with Danny in the evenings if Jackson wanted to go out, he had no intention of stepping over that line. Even if that steady calmness of hers did occasionally tempt him to do something to shake her out of her cool complacency!

‘I wouldn’t waste my time worrying about a man like Tyler,’ Jackson replied drily, standing up to snag his leather jacket from the peg on the wall on his way to the door.

‘Where are you going?’ Bree demanded as he shrugged into the jacket.

Jackson straightened. ‘Out.’

‘What about your appointment with Mr Tyler?’

He raised a mocking brow. ‘What about it?’

‘He’s due at the studio in just over an hour,’ she pointed out impatiently.

Jackson gave an indifferent shrug. ‘When he phones back in a couple of minutes, reschedule him for some time after Christmas.’

‘But you just told him to cancel his other engagement so that he could make this afternoon’s appointment with you,’ Bree pressed.

Jackson grinned unabashedly. ‘Sometimes greatness needs reminding that not everyone is here to jump at its beck and call.’

Bree breathed deeply. ‘I believe that statement could just as easily apply to you!’

He gave it some thought. ‘You’re right, it could.’ He finally nodded in agreement. ‘And?’

‘And I’m flattered that you think I’m great, Bree,’ he drawled mockingly.

Bree’s eyes narrowed. ‘Is it my imagination, or are you actually more impossible than usual this morning?’

Jackson grimaced. ‘I probably am,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘Danny and I called on my mother last night to deliver her Christmas presents before she leaves for her Caribbean cruise later today.’

‘Oh.’ Bree’s brow cleared as understanding dawned on her: Jackson and his widowed mother, Clarissa Beaumont, had a way of rubbing each other up the wrong way.

Tall, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Clarissa was a classical beauty who’d had cosmetic surgery in the past, and now received regular Botox injections. As a consequence Clarissa looked no older now than she had when the photographs in Jackson’s study had been taken—when he and his sister, Jocelyn, were small children. Jocelyn had died several years before Bree came to work for Jackson, so she had never met her, but if Jocelyn were still alive she and her mother could probably have passed for sisters!

‘Exactly.’ Jackson grimaced. ‘For some reason Danny’s present wasn’t ready last night, so she’s calling round with it on her way to the airport in …’ he looked down at the slim gold watch around his wrist ‘… oh, half an hour or so.’

‘Which is precisely the reason you’ve decided to go out,’ Bree concluded drily.

‘Which is definitely the reason I’m going out.’ Jackson looked completely unperturbed by her astuteness. ‘Seeing my delightful mother twice in as many days is asking too much of any man! Especially as she’ll have the latest pretty-boy hanger-on with her today,’ he added scathingly. ‘Although I do believe this one may be marginally older than me!’

Bree’s expression lightened as she resisted the urge to smile at Jackson’s look of total disgust. Clarissa Beaumont had been left a very wealthy widow when Jackson’s father had died twenty years ago, allowing her to flit around the world from one social engagement to the next, usually with a handsome young man half her age in tow. In the past year Bree had seen the older woman accompanied by at least half a dozen or so such young men.

Much to Jackson’s obvious disgust.

‘Just stick the present under the tree with all the others when it arrives,’ Jackson told her dismissively. ‘I’ll be back in a couple of hours.’

‘You really are—’ Bree broke off her accusation as the mobile on her desk began to ring.

‘That’ll be Tyler,’ Jackson predicted, grinning. ‘So you’ll have to save any more compliments for me until later!’

‘As if!’ Bree snorted as she picked up the mobile, ready to take the call. ‘Make sure you don’t forget to collect Danny from school at three-thirty.’

‘Yes, ma’am!’ Jackson straightened to give her a salute. ‘And good luck with my mother,’ he added tauntingly as he disappeared through the door.

Bree sighed in exasperation before taking the call, with an apology for Jackson’s unpredictable behaviour at the ready. As usual.

CHAPTER TWO

‘WHAT the hell is that?’

Bree glanced up at an astounded Jackson, standing in the doorway of the main sitting room at Beaumont House. He was staring across at her in horrified disbelief.

‘Well, correct me if I’m wrong,’ she quipped, ‘but it looks like a puppy to me.’

‘Very funny.’ The scowl on Jackson’s brow deepened as he stepped into the room, where Bree sat in front of the log fire, playing with a small dark grey and white bundle of fur and a ball of wool. ‘What I want to know is what it’s doing here? I’m sure I told you I didn’t allow pets when you first came to work for me!’

‘You did, yes,’ she confirmed nonchalantly.

‘Well?’ Jackson prompted impatiently.

Bree smiled, raising a rueful eyebrow. ‘You obviously forgot to mention that particular house rule to your mother.’

‘My mother? What the hell does she—’ Jackson stared down in horror at the mischievous puppy. ‘No … She wouldn’t. She didn’t!’