No Escaping Love

Exactly three hours later Shauna arrived at Ryder Enterprises, feeling as if she’d been run over by a steamroller. Two years of working in the relatively laid-back atmosphere of Portugal had left her ill-equipped to cope with the frantic bustle of the London Underground.

Struggling with her baggage, she pushed open the heavy glass door and sank into an opulently deep-pile cream carpet. A waft of cloying perfume hit her like a solid wall and her heart sank as she saw the other women in the room. She was in the wrong place! She must be. There was no way that she had anything in common with the other occupants of the room. She stood out like a sore thumb.

The three females sitting around a glass table the size of an ice-rink who had been laconically chatting with each other all froze in unison as they looked her up and down. Their assessment lasted less than five seconds before they gave a group demonstration of superior dismissal, then renewed their conversation, ignoring her completely.

Shauna stood stock-still, frozen with indecision, momentarily debating whether or not she should simply turn right round and leave, when she heard a polite cough, and stared across the room into a pair of smiling eyes. The smiling person wore spectacles, had a slick, dark bob and was seated behind a desk. She was speaking now, and it took a couple of seconds for Shauna to realise that she was addressing her.

‘I’m Mrs Neilson,’ she said. ‘And you must be…?’

‘Shauna,’ she said clearly. ‘Shauna Wilde. I’m so sorry,’ she walked forward and put her case down by the desk, ‘but I’m late.’

Mrs Neilson looked down at a list of names before her. ‘Yes, you are,’ she agreed. ‘And by over an hour, too.’ She looked up, her eyes apologetic. ‘I’m very sorry, but I’m afraid that Mr Ryder won’t tolerate unpunctuality.’

‘Oh, but he must!’ said Shauna hastily. ‘Please?’ She smiled at the receptionist, a pleading look in her eye. She had a lot riding on getting this job. ‘I’ve come straight from the Continent—all the way from Portugal. I was making brilliant time but then my ferry was delayed. Can’t I just wait until he’s interviewed the others? He might see me then.’

‘He might,’ said Mrs Neilson doubtfully, then gave a small smile. ‘You can try. Take a seat—but I can’t promise anything.’

‘Thanks.’ Shauna walked over to a chair, dropped her belongings defiantly on the ground beside her and sat down. The eyes all turned in her direction. Well, she decided—this is a game that more than one can play, and she began to stare back.

The more she saw, the more uneasy she became. The three women looked so much older than her, and confident. And assured. Very assured. Apart from one elegant creature with short hair—and that must have been cut by someone with a degree in technical drawing, judging by the precision and angles of the style—they had the kind of untamed lion’s mane of hair which every woman knew took at least an hour in front of the mirror to achieve. Tousled, yet perfect—while Shauna’s was scraped back like a schoolgirl’s.

Shauna’s hair was undoubtedly her best feature, but black curls which tumbled waistwards were hardly practical for everyday wear. Maybe she should have had it cut to a more manageable length, but she had long since given up going to a hairdresser’s for just that purpose. Every hairdresser she’d ever met had managed to talk her out of it.

Shauna looked at the women again. Oh, why hadn’t she bothered to put some make-up on? Because you slept on the boat and it would have smudged, spoke the voice of reason—and a tiny loo on the train was hardly the place to accurately apply your mascara!

As she waited she considered furtively scrabbling around in her holdall and going off to try and camouflage her shiny face, when a final despairing look at the group convinced her that she would stand no chance against them. They were band-box neat and perfectly co-ordinated. As sleek as well-groomed pedigree cats with their up-market clothes, and Shauna felt like a moggy who’d been left out in the rain all night.

Had things in England really changed that much? she wondered. Was this kind of high-powered dressing really de rigueur for a job as a businessman’s assistant? Nervously, Shauna tugged at the cuff of her suit.

A door behind the woman at the desk opened, and a blonde sashayed her way out of the room without a word.

Mrs Neilson looked up. ‘Would Miss Stevens like to go in next?’

The woman with the short hair headed for the inner sanctum, and Shauna dived into the bottom of her holdall, seriously worried now. Was the job all she had supposed it to be? Had she missed something? Been more naïve than usual? Did these women really look like your run-of-the-mill PAs? Suppose the advertisement was a cover for something else—what had she thought about it sounding too good to be true?

She located the letter nestling against a railway timetable and the remains of an apple-core and read it again. Twice.

No. If there was some subtle message in it then she, Shauna, was too dense to fathom it out. And let’s face it, she thought, if you go in there and some guy offers you a job in his massage parlour, then you smile politely and head for the door.

Shauna’s fingers, when they replaced the advert, were trembling. She had read about places like this in the Sunday papers. Her imagination began to run away with her. What if they wouldn’t let her out? What if a strong hand were to snap itself over her wrist with steely strength…? Don’t be so ridiculous, reprimanded an inner voice. Everyone else is getting out, aren’t they?

The last woman—a luscious-looking strawberry blonde—went in and the phone on Mrs Neilson’s desk bleeped. She picked it up and listened.

‘Yes, Mr Ryder—she is the last, but Miss Wilde has turned up.’ There was a pause. ‘Yes, I know she’s late, but apparently she’s travelled a long way to get here…’

Shauna could hear an angry-sounding voice at the other end of the phone.

‘I realise that,’ interjected Mrs Neilson. Another pause, while she listened to the voice. ‘In my opinion—yes.’ She replaced the receiver and looked at Shauna. ‘He says he’ll see you after the last applicant.’ She stood up. ‘I must go—I’ve got a hungry husband at home, champing at the bit,’ she grinned. ‘Mr Ryder will escort you down to the entrance when the interview’s over.’ Her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Good luck.’

‘Thanks.’ Shauna watched her retreat out of the glass door and began to twist at the black corkscrew curl by her ear, a habit which she’d had since childhood, and one which invariably made her look about sixteen, instead of twenty-three.

She must be crazy! She’d be alone in this building with this man Max Ryder—someone she didn’t know from Adam! Get out now, the voice urged her. Out of this office, into the lift—press for ground floor, and you’re away. She picked up her holdall, and her heart sank to see the strawberry blonde striding out, her eyes glittering, her face a mask of fury.

‘Bastard,’ she muttered, scarcely audibly, and tottered out of the room on high heels like stilts.

Shauna, now seriously alarmed, sprang to her feet and began walking after her, when a deep voice stopped her in her tracks.

‘Going somewhere, Miss Wilde?’

Her heart in her mouth, she turned round reluctantly. ‘I don’t think I’m suited for the job,’ she blurted out, and then her mouth stayed open. She had been conjuring up an image of a small, squat man, with olive skin—possibly with a patch over one eye—and stubby, fat fingers covered with a tasteless display of ostentatious gold rings, but the deep-voiced Mr Ryder couldn’t have been more different.

Initially, because he was wearing a suit, she decided that he looked respectable, but closer inspection convinced her that respectable was not the right description at all. Respectable men weren’t that good-looking!

Every cliché in the book could have been used about this man. Intense. World-weary. Brooding. She’d often read about eyes being like chips of ice and had wondered what that meant. Now she knew. The narrow green eyes which were studying her so closely were as cold as glass. His skin was lightly tanned and his mouth was set in an uncompromising line. She tried to imagine him laughing, and failed.

He was tall. I mean—I’m tall, she thought. But this man made her feel like some tiny little thing, which was an entirely new experience for Shauna. He had dark, dark hair with just a bit of a wave in it—a wayward lock curled darkly on the collar of a shirt which even she could tell was silk. The tie was silk too—a pale grey affair which toned perfectly with the darker grey of his suit, a suit which fitted superbly, falling in folds from the broad shoulders, folds which hinted at hard muscle and sinew…

‘I beg your pardon?’ he was saying.

Shauna’s grey eyes were like terrified saucers. ‘I don’t think I’m suited for the job,’ she repeated. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve wasted your time.’ And proceeded to stare open-mouthed at him again, like a terrified young kitten who had just chanced upon a jungle cat.

‘Do please stop gaping at me like an idiot,’ he said impatiently. ‘And how on earth do you know you’re not suited for the job, when you don’t know what the job entails? Unless you do know what the job entails, in which case you must be clairvoyant.’

Recognising the heavy sarcasm, she shut her mouth hastily and gave him what she thought was a sweet smile. Humour him, she thought.

He began to look worried. ‘You’re not about to be ill, are you, Miss Wilde?’

She shook her head. So much for charm! ‘I feel fine,’ she lied.

‘Good,’ he said curtly. ‘Then, as you’ve been so good as to give me your time, and I—’ here he broke off to glance at a discreet pale gold watch on a tanned wrist ‘—have set aside mine—then perhaps we could conduct the interview on more formal lines?’

She gulped. ‘Sure.’ She hooked the holdall over one slim shoulder and picked up her suitcase.

He gestured with his arm. ‘After you?’ he suggested.

Knowing at once how poor Androcles must have felt as he walked into the lion’s den, Shauna stepped unwillingly into the inner sanctum and her eyes lit up.

‘Oh, but—it’s beautiful!’ she exclaimed, as she slowly took in her surroundings.

There was a huge window which took up almost a complete wall, filling the room with a bright, clear light. London lay mapped out before them like a painting. Then other details of the office began to register—the black ash table, a tiny oak bonsai tree and a sheaf of neat papers its only adornment. And the thickness of the pale coffee-coloured carpet in this room made the deep pile of the one in the outer office seem positively threadbare. She’d never seen such an obvious display of wealth, and her earlier misgivings returned to assail her.

‘The view I mean,’ she finished tamely. ‘The view is beautiful.’

The green eyes narrowed. ‘I like it,’ he said gruffly. He indicated a chair with a wave of his hand, obviously expecting her to sit down, but she remained standing.

‘Just a minute,’ she blurted out. ‘I want you to know that I would never consider doing anything—illegal.’

Dark brows shot up. ‘Illegal?’ His voice was incredulous. ‘Would you care to elucidate?’