Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Boss?

But there was something new. Perched on the window ledge was a silver-framed photograph of a stunningly pretty slim blonde in a flimsy summer dress with legs that went on for ever.

Alexa.

Scott picked up the frame and glanced at it for a second before stashing it in the drawer of the bedside cabinet.

He had taken the photograph that first summer holiday they spent together walking in Switzerland. They were both single, in their twenties and had the whole world ahead of them.

In his eyes Alexa was the perfect woman for him. As a teenager he had watched his very different parents drift apart over the years and lead separate lives until the only thing they had in common was Freya and himself.

He wouldn’t make that mistake.

Alexa was clever, stunningly pretty and, best of all, a total sports fanatic like himself. They used to talk for hours about the things they both loved, laughing over tall tales from all of the exotic places that they had visited. They had been inseparable.

Heady with the mountain air, they had fallen in love. Over the next twelve months, they were so caught up in their engagement and the whirlwind of a top London wedding that he didn’t have time to stop and consider what married life was going to be like.

It was hard to believe that it could have ended so badly.

If Freya thought that being reminded of happier times with Alexa would help him to get over his cheating ex-wife then she didn’t understand.

There were some things a sunny disposition couldn’t fix.

Sometimes betrayal went too deep, like a bullet to the chest which lay too close to vital organs to be removed. Always there. Always catching you out when you least expected it.

A flash of memory surged through his brain, hot and wild. He could almost see Alexa reclining on this same bed, with a look of love in her eyes, beckoning him to join her. Her long straight blonde hair that he used to adore spread out across the pillow, warm, soft and inviting.

The frostbite in his fingers was nothing compared to this type of deep-seated pain.

Scott’s fingers tightened around the edge of the window frame as he looked out into the night sky, which in London was never going to be truly dark or clear.

Closing his eyes for a second, he gave way to the surge of anger and disappointment that he had buried deep inside himself since the moment he had walked into that hospital room in Rome.

It had been one of the most humbling experiences of his life. It was astonishing to see his father looking so low and depressed. Lars Elstrom had given up. Stopped trying. Beaten down by the events of the past few years to the point where he didn’t even see any point in keeping the company as a viable concern.

His speech was slurred slightly and he was going to have problems with the left side of his body for a long while, but his mind was still alive and sharp.

Suddenly the real reason why Freya had pleaded with him to come home for Christmas was only too apparent.

Elstrom Mapping was finished. Over. After two hundred years of creating maps and sea charts, the company was dead in the water.

A dinosaur.

That was the exact word that his father had managed to say to describe the family business that he had devoted his life to. An extinct creature which no longer had a place in the modern world.

His father had given up in every way possible.

How could this have happened so quickly? Two years ago, the business was not only healthy but thriving and he had almost managed to convince his father that modern technology was the best way forward. There had been plans. A budget. They had actually laughed that Elstrom would last another two hundred years.

But, of course, that was before he’d walked out on the company, leaving his stepbrother in charge.

Travis had taken over and destroyed Elstrom Mapping from the inside out. And his father had let it happen without a fight rather than admit that he had made a horrible mistake.

Now he wanted Scott to finish the job that he had started. Would he do it? Would he take over the company and be the final Elstrom at the helm? Even if it was for a short time, it would please him to think that Elstrom Mapping was still in the family.

What choice did he have? Of course he had to say yes.

He loved his sister and admired her more than he could say but there was only one thing that photograph screamed out to him and it had nothing to do with happy memories.

It was failure.

He had failed. Their marriage had failed and Alexa had betrayed him in the worst way possible. The last thing he needed today was a reminder of his past.

Just the opposite. He was going to need every scrap of positive energy he possessed if he had any hope of making good on the promise he had made to his father that afternoon. And a whole lot more.

Nothing was going to stand in his way.

He was going to have to pick up the pieces and prove that he could do what Travis couldn’t. Save Elstrom from going to the wall.

Elstrom Mapping was his. And it was not going to fail.

THREE (#ulink_b2b50b14-ab7a-53f7-99d3-b4cd65f4cf69)

‘So come on. Spill. What happened last night with you and the scruffy rich lumberjack?’

‘Nothing happened,’ Toni replied with a light casual lilt.

There was a roar of boos and hisses from around the chaos of the breakfast table in the tiny apartment Lucy shared with her flatmates and, for the last few days, her pal Amy Baldoni. Usually it was clean and organised. But this morning there were three girls crammed into the small kitchen diner with all of the kit they needed for their six months gap year expedition parked in the hallway. And they were eating as though it was the last decent breakfast they would have for ages. This was probably not far from the truth.

‘Come on, Antonia—’ Lucy grinned ‘—we know that guilty look.’

‘Guilty? Moi?’ Toni replied and pressed her right hand to her bosom in the most elegant ladylike manner.

‘Who’s guilty?’ Amy laughed as she waltzed in with her huge rucksack slung over one shoulder.

‘The girls are accusing me of holding out on the tantalising news about Scott Elstrom, that’s all,’ Toni replied and pressed her lips together tightly.

‘Aha. Busted. You are looking remarkably perky for a twenty-seven-year-old lady who partied late into the night,’ Amy replied and set her rucksack in a corner before taking her place at the table, loading her plate with toast and marmalade and ham and cheese croissants. ‘Go on, then,’ Amy said before biting into the toast. ‘Out with it.’

‘We did have a small interlude after you all left,’ Toni replied in a totally casual voice. ‘The man was jet-lagged, ate all the pizza and most of the pan of brownies. And no—’ she pointed to Lucy, who was just about to say something rude between eating because she always did ‘—I did not ask him to warm my toes for me or any other parts.’

‘Why not?’ Amy asked between chewing. ‘You promised that this year was going to be different. Now that creepy Peter is out on his ear, you’re young, free and single. All ready for a new date to be installed by the summer. That was what we agreed, wasn’t it?’

‘Was that at the New Year’s party?’ Lucy blinked. ‘I don’t remember much after that third cocktail. Or was it the fifth?’

‘New Year resolutions definitely have an expiry date.’ Toni laughed then caught the look that Amy was giving her. ‘Okay, I did sort of say that this year was going to be the start of new exciting things. New job. Lots more travel. New central heating boiler! Redecorating! Those things can be exciting too. So you can stop booing. A new boyfriend is an optional extra.’

‘Six months, darling sister,’ Amy replied, pointing her toast at her. ‘You said that you would be fixed up in six months. I have an excellent memory for facts and dates!’

‘Anyhow, when I surfaced an hour ago his bedroom door was open, his breakfast dishes were washed and draining in the kitchen and the house was in silence. The man had obviously gone to work on a Sunday. Either that or the sight of so many lovely ladies in their lingerie last night was more than he could stand and he took off back to Alaska.’