A Daring Proposition

‘But never you fear,’ he called after her. ‘I’ll work it out. In the end I’ll know just why you’re leaving me. And it’s got nothing to do with needing a break or... Good God!’

She spun round at his shocked tone, only to find herself staring not at his startled expression, but at his completely naked torso. Desperately she lifted her eyes up to his, but the damage had been done, and her peripheral vision was still taking in far too much taut male flesh.

She was panic-stricken at the directions her mind kept taking. Surely her thoughts and feelings must be showing in her face, her eyes?

‘You’re not pregnant, are you?’ he accused.

She was wildly tempted to laugh in his face. Instead she put her energies into trying to get a hold of her thoughts. The exercise was not entirely successful.

‘No, Guy,’ she said stiffly. ‘I’m not pregnant.’

He looked relieved, then annoyed with himself. ‘No. Stupid of me. You wouldn’t be. Not you. Sorry.’ He yawned, spreading out the blanket with a flick of his wrists. ‘I guess I’m not thinking straight this morning. I’ll talk to you about it again tomorrow, make you see reason.’

‘Tomorrow’s Saturday,’ she pointed out curtly.

‘Oh...so it is.’ He crawled in under the blanket and laid down his head with a sigh. ‘Monday, then. Wake me around two, will you, Sam, like a good girl?’

She woke him at one because a call had come through from the hospital that his father’s tests had shown massive blockages of the arteries. The doctor needed immediate permission for a triple bypass. Without it, the chance of a second fatal attack was inevitable and imminent.

Samantha offered to accompany Guy to the hospital but he insisted she stay and hold the fort at the office. In truth, she was glad about this decision, for it gave her the opportunity to regather her defences where he was concerned.

Truly, she was getting worse! Never before had her love for him deteriorated into being so openly lustful. Of course, she had fantasised making love to him, but in the privacy of her night-time dreams, not here in the office. Neither had her fantasies been so blatantly sexual before. They’d always been loving and romantic, sweet and tender.

There’d been nothing sweet and tender in what she had wanted this morning on sighting Guy’s bare chest. Her desires had been very basic, to say the least. And they hadn’t completely receded either. The encounter had left her feeling physically restless, definitely agitated, decidedly angry.

She had been up and down ever since Guy had left the office, walking around, making coffee, staring out of windows, watching the rain.

This was sexual arousal such as she had never felt before, she admitted in the end. The sort of sexual arousal one read about but never envisaged feeling oneself. Intense...compelling...oddly without conscience.

It kept urging her not to run away from her job and her feelings, not to take any notice of things like pride and self-respect. You want this man, a wicked little voice whispered in her ear. If you can’t win his love then settle for his lovemaking. And you haven’t got a hope in Hades of getting even that if you leave. He’ll forget you as quickly as he forgot Debra. If you want something in this world, girl, you have to go after it!

For a few seconds she felt high on a surge of positive thinking, but she was quickly dumped down, swamped by reality, rather than daydreams. How could she successfully seduce a man who had never shown any signs of being sexually attracted to her? It seemed an impossible problem.

She sat back down at her desk and thought and thought.

So what if he’s never thought of you in that way before? she finally resolved. You’re a reasonably attractive woman, aren’t you? He’s a highly sexed man, with needs that aren’t being met at this moment. You could meet them, couldn’t you? All you have to do is convince him how convenient it would be for you to be his mistress. Good heavens, men are doing it all the time, sleeping with their secretaries. And love rarely comes into it on their side. It was mostly nothing more than a sexual convenience, from what she had seen and heard.

The word ‘convenience’ stuck out like a sore thumb in Samantha’s mind. That was the hook which would appeal to Guy most of all.

It came to her quite abruptly, the daring proposition.

What, she thought, wide-eyed and heart thudding, would Guy say if I offered to stay on as his secretary, provided he became my lover?

She could see it now. He would be initially surprised, then thoughtful. Finally he would look up and say, ‘Good idea, Sam.’

The phone rang, making her jump as though she had been found with her hand in the biscuit tin. A guilty conscience, she recognised, and snatched up the receiver.

‘Haywood Promotions.’

‘It’s me, Sam.’

She swallowed. Guy... His voice brought home to her that her boss was a flesh and blood man, not a fantasy person who could be made to react as one wanted. This man was one of the most handsome, intelligent, successful, dynamic men in Australia, who could snap his fingers and have just about any woman he wanted. He was not about to be manipulated into an affair by a silly secretary. If she made her ridiculous proposition he would look at her as if she was mad. And probably laugh.

If, by the remotest possibility, he took the proposal seriously he would want to know why. Girls these days could get sex wherever they wanted it. They didn’t have to blackmail their bosses for it.

It wouldn’t take him long to figure out she’d fallen in love with him and, by golly, her exit would come pretty fast after that. Guy Haywood was not in the business of keeping love-struck women in his office, or in his life. She suspected there had been a few ladies in the past who had fancied him as more than a lover and that they had been given short shrift indeed.

The daring proposition went out of the window.

Which was just as well, she thought wretchedly. She wouldn’t have had the guts to do it, anyway.

‘Yes,’ she said flatly. ‘What do you want?’

‘You sound terrible. Look, Sam, you have to tell me what’s going on with you. It’s bothering me and I can’t wait till Monday. Is it anything I’ve done? For pity’s sake, tell me if it is.’

It’s something you haven’t done, she thought miserably. Why can’t you be a normal boss and make a pass at your secretary? Why can’t you take me out to dinner and then to a motel? I won’t mind. Really I won’t.

‘It’s nothing you’ve done,’ she told him. ‘You’ve been a perfect gentleman to work for.’ Unfortunately...

‘Then what is it, dammit?’

‘It’s exactly as I said, Guy. I want to change the direction of my life. And I want to get out of Sydney.’

‘Aah... Now I get it. It’s a man, isn’t it?’

She hesitated, then decided the truth would do quite well. ‘Yes, Guy. You’re right. It’s a man.’

‘What’s the problem?’ he probed. ‘Is it that he wants you and you don’t want him, or the other way around.’

It perversely amused her that he didn’t use the word ‘love.’ It just wasn’t in his dictionary when it came to man-woman relationships. ‘The other way around,’ she admitted.

Guy digested that for a few seconds. ‘I see... You never talk about your personal life to me, do you? I just realised I don’t know much about you in that regard. Have you been having a...relationship with this man, a...close relationship?’

She smiled wryly to herself. For all Guy’s wordliness, he couldn’t seem to come out with the bare facts in front of her. Truly, did he think that at twenty-five she was a total innocent? Why not ask her straight out if she was sleeping with the man? Still, it gave her the opportunity to mislead him without actually lying. ‘Oh, yes,’ she said. ‘Very close.’

‘Goddammit, Sam, you haven’t been having an affair with a married man, have you?’

She was taken aback by his shocked, even judgemental tone. That was certainly the kettle calling the pot black. Though to be honest she had never known him to have an affair with a married woman.

‘No, Guy,’ she denied firmly. ‘He’s not married. And never likely to be.’

‘Aah, so that’s it. The blighter won’t marry you.’

‘Not in a million years!’

‘That’s no reason to quit Sydney and a perfectly good job.’

‘I think it is.’