A Christmas Affair

Once again she smiled. ‘Two weeks wouldn't be long enough.’ She shook her head.

‘Then take three weeks, a month. Damn it, Cathy,’ he scowled. ‘Talk to me!’

Now he wanted to talk to her. Although she didn't delude herself into thinking he wanted to talk about anything other than persuading her into continuing to work for him.

‘My letter of resignation says it all, Dominic’ She shrugged dismissively, looking through the drawers in her desk to see if there was anything she had forgotten, before moving across the room to the window-ledge where she had slowly nurtured plants over the years into healthy adult plants; to leave them behind now would be like leaving part of herself behind. And she intended no part of her to remain here once she had physically left.

Dominic followed her, and although Cathy didn't acknowledge his presence next to her as she filled the box with the plants, she could feel his nervous energy.

‘You say you want to move on to something different,’ he quoted impatiently. ‘But why? You know you love this job!’

The statement had nothing to do with egotism; she had never made any secret of her enjoyment of the work she did for Dominic, which she had loved from the very first moment, and she would only be fooling herself if she didn't admit she was going to miss the constant excitement the work involved. But her ragged and bruised emotions knew best, realised when it was time to admit defeat in the face of indifference, and move on. Which was exactly what she intended doing.

Besides—and this was something Dominic would never understand—it had never been just a job to her; it had been the only sort of partnership she could ever have with him.

‘So I'll learn to love a new job,’ she told him with confident bravado, looking out of the window at the greying sky. ‘It looks full of snow,’ she murmured to herself.

‘You were born to be my personal assistant,’ Dominic said frustratedly in the face of her obviously wandering attention. ‘Maybe some shares in DomRey would give you more of an incentive to reconsider.’ His eyes were narrowed to emerald slits.

She laughed softly at the suggestion. ‘You don't need a partner, Dominic’

‘I wasn't offering partnership,’ he snapped. ‘Just the interest of a few shares in the company you work for.’

‘Thanks, but no, thanks,’ she refused without the slightest hesitation, glancing up at the sky again; if only it didn't look that awful white-grey colour that often preceded snow! ‘Just hold off another five or six hours,’ she requested of it pleadingly, turning with the box in her arms to knock Dominic full in the chest where he stood so close to her. ‘Sorry,’ she grimaced, stepping aside to make sure she missed him this time.

‘But those shares you've just turned down are worth over——’

‘I am a good PA, Dominic,’ she said without turning. ‘I know what they're worth.’

‘Then——’

‘I'm not interested, in them or in their worth,’ she stated firmly, glancing worriedly at her watch; the day was quickly moving on, and she still had a lot to do.

‘Am I keeping you?’ Dominic demanded irritably as he saw that glance.

Cathy looked up at him, answering him calmly, ‘As a matter of fact, yes.’

‘I'm so sor—good God!’ Sarcasm gave way to alarm as he once again followed her across the room. ‘Those mutterings about snow and hoping it will hold off for five or six hours don't mean that you're thinking of driving back down to Devon today, do they?’ He looked disbelieving.

Considering that she had driven down through the night two days ago, and then back again yesterday evening, Dominic could be forgiven for looking at her as if she must have taken leave of her senses. But she had had very good reasons for making both those unscheduled journeys, and if Dominic had ever shown the slightest interest in her personal life she might have been tempted to confide them to him.

As things had turned out she had more reason than ever for wanting to be back among her family for Christmas. She intended to be there with them all when Jade and David celebrated their engagement; those two, more than anyone else she knew, deserved happiness, and she was thrilled that they had found it together.

‘And if it does?’ she challenged.

‘Then I no longer just think I've been working you too hard, I know I have,’ he returned grimly. ‘You must know as well as I do that the long-term weather forecast is snow, snow, and more snow. You would have to be insane to go out into that again!’

She raised blonde brows. ‘I don't think I have to take that sort of talk from you now.’

Green eyes flashed. ‘I'm just offering you sound common sense.’

‘Dominic, you never offer advice,’ she mocked lightly.

He stiffened, very tall and handsome in the navy blue three-piece suit. ‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning that I intend going back to Devon today, no matter what the weather forecast, no matter what you have to say about it——’

‘No matter what anyone says, by your reckless attitude,’ he bit out tersely. ‘When did you get to be so damned stubborn?’

‘Oh, I've always been pretty determined,’ she dismissed casually. ‘You've just never taken the time to notice before now.’ As he hadn't noticed a lot of other things about her!

Like the very fact that she loved him madly, passionately—futilely.

There had never even been the faintest flicker of awareness on his part of her as a woman. It was all so—depressing.

But she wasn't about to let him see that emotion, today of all days. He might just misinterpret the reason behind that depression. Oh, she was upset at the thought of no longer working for him, but it was the thought of leaving Dominic as a person that was upsetting her more—the fact that her love for him had always gone by completely unrecognised by him.

Not that she wanted him to see her like some fawning idiot, either, with no hope of having him return her love. That was the trouble with loving Dominic; she couldn't ever come out the winner.

Which was why she had to go.

Now, before the flippant façade she had constructed over what she had just done cracked a mile wide and left her emotionally broken …

‘Cathy——’

‘I have to go, Dominic,’ she told him lightly, doing her best to shut out that huskily persuasive voice; if Dominic chose to put his mind to it he could charm the birds out of the trees. He just didn't feel so inclined most of the time and, even when he did, impatience and temper usually took over.

‘The snow isn't going to hold off forever,’ she told him brightly, shaking back her hair as she picked up the box again in readiness for leaving. ‘I guess I'll have to forgo the usual leaving party,’ she added self-derisively; she had never envisaged leaving Dominic in quite these circumstances. She had never envisaged leaving him at all!

His expression darkened even more, almost black brows low over his eyes.

Cathy wished she hadn't looked at those eyes. They were incredibly beautiful eyes for a man, a deep emerald-green, surrounded by the thickest black lashes she had ever seen.

Oh, the dreams she had once had of one day holding a baby of her own in her arms with those eyes, Dominic's eyes …

She swayed slightly, her lids closed over the tears that had welled there. How foolish were her dreams!

‘Damn the leaving party.’ The rasp of Dominic's voice steadied her, and she met his gaze calmly. ‘You're too tired to drive all that way again today; you're almost asleep on your feet!’

If she was honest, she didn't relish the journey for a third time in as many days, but there was no way she was going to miss being with the family for the festive season for the first time in years.

Where had she and Dominic spent Christmas last year? Oh, yes, in a hotel in New York, going over contracts that were finalised as soon as Christmas Day had passed. And the year before that they had been at another hotel, that time in Munich. And the year before that … Oh, what was the use of dwelling in the past? This Christmas she intended being surrounded by the warmth of her family, by people giving and receiving gifts in love and friendship.

She quickly banished from her mind the image she suddenly had of Dominic completely alone at his apartment, with no one to give him even one present and show him love. That was the way he wanted it, the way it always was.

‘It's Christmas Eve,’ she said again brightly. ‘The thought of spending Christmas with the family will be enough to keep me awake and alert. Oh, I forgot to tell you——’ her eyes glowed with pleasure ‘—David is there, too.’

Dominic frowned. ‘You mean David Kendrick?’