My hottest Billionaire a Boss

Episode 20

I thought I could offer you a job on the estate.

Edward pushed himself up from his seat and stretched lazily, the

movement flexing his broad shoulders, drawing the crumpled white shirt

tight against the hard contours of his chest. The fine material was

tugged loose at his narrow waist and, as his arms lifted, she caught a

tantalising glimpse of toned olive skin, lightly hazed with black body hair.

Her mouth dried in response to the memory of the way it had felt to

have the warmth of that skin, the faint rasp of the crisp hairs against

her own flesh as she had writhed underneath him in the grip of the mind-

blowing ecstasy of her o****m.

She was grateful for the way that he turned his back on her, strolling

away to the wide bay window to stare out at the wind tossed trees edging

the huge green lawn. At least this way she didn’t have to worry about the

wave of hot colour that she could feel flooding her cheeks at her

memories. She had little doubt that his astute mind would put two and

two together and come up with the reason why she was reacting in that

way.

‘I understand that you’ve become quite knowledgeable about the place.’

Jarty was teaching me…’

Was there anything he didn’t know? She couldn’t take her eyes from the

tall, powerful figure by the window, hands pushed deep into his trouser

pockets, his dark head lifted as he studied the glorious view. His long

legs were slightly apart, feet planted firmly on the worn, polished boards

of the library floor. She’d seen him like that before, she recalled, on the

first day when he’d arrived back here, the day of Jarty’s funeral. She’d

watched him as he’d stood in much the same position but in the other room and she’d thought then that he’d looked like the lord of all he

surveyed.

If only she’d known. If only there had been some sort of warning that the

thoughts her imagination had come up with were in fact the truth. If only

Jarty had given her some sort of hint as to what was happening so that

she might have been better prepared. She might at least have had a

chance of looking for some sort of employment to provide for herself in

the future, so that she wouldn’t have been left floundering and at the

mercy of whatever Edward had planned for her.

‘And did you enjoy that?’

‘Oh, yes—I was finding it fascinating. We had great plans for the

Copse and for the farms over by Felpersham. We wanted to modernise

their…’

Her voice failed her as she watched him nod slowly, his dark gaze still

fixed on the distant horizon. A tiny spark of hope flared in her heart,

making her snatch in her breath on a sharp gasp.

Was it possible? Was she dreaming or was Edward actually beingkind ?

Could he really be planning to offer her some position helping to manage

field in the way that Jarty had once dreamed that she would? Was

it possible that she could still stay on in some capacity on the estate that

she loved? And maybe even work with him at the same time?

Her mind spun at the thought but if she had been challenged she wouldn’t

have been able to say if it was the hope of staying on at field or

the thought of working with Edward that had the strongest effect on

her. She only knew that her heart seemed to be racing high up in her throat, making it difficult to breathe through the tension in her chest

and her lungs.

‘I have plans for the Felpersham farms too.’

Now she really was struggling for control. If only he would turn around so

that she could see his face, read something from his expression, the look

in his eyes. After a couple of days of being on a wild and crazy emotional

roller coaster, rushing upwards in hope one moment, only to plunge

desperately downwards the next, she had lost all sense of being able to

judge what was coming and so anticipate how to react or nerve herself

for bitter disappointment. And she could read nothing at all from the

long, straight line of his back, the arrogantly held dark head.

‘You do? Great. Is that—what plans?’

‘But they won’t concern you.’

Edward swung round as he spoke and, from longing to see his face, she

now could only wish he had kept his head averted.

Because she read her fate in his eyes, in the grim set of his mouth. The

icy blaze of his glare seared over her, seeming to take with it several

much needed protective layers of skin and she shivered as she felt a

freezing hand of fear reach out and twist in her heart. Suddenly she

knew without hope of redemption that any dream of Edward planning to

bekind was just that a dream a delusion an impossibility.

There was no trace of kindness in that face. No touch of it warmed the

bleak jet eyes. Whatever he had planned for her, it was not the misty edged future that she had foolishly let herself imagine for a moment.

How could she have ever let herself dream like that? This was Edward

the Angel—she knew what he was like. She should have been

forewarned and so forearmed.

‘No?’ she managed, imposing a ruthless control to keep her voice as firm

as she possibly could.

‘No.Edward shook his head, shrugging away the question with supreme

indifference. ‘Things like that do not concern the stable hands. It is none

of their business.’

Stable hands.

Twice Liza opened her mouth to say something and both times her

voice failed her.

Stable hands.

She should have known what was happening; she should have seen it

coming. She knew what Edward was like, and she knew why he was here.

He had come to take over field because, by doing so, he would have

the last laugh. He would have his revenge on her for the appalling events

of his last stay here and the fact that she had had him thrown out of his

job because of the way she had reacted in fear and panic. But, just for a

few foolish minutes, she had been weak enough to wonder. She’d actually

let her thoughts wander into dreamland. Because Edward had told her

that he wanted her so much she had allowed herself to imagine that that

meant more than it did But all he had said was that he wanted her. And that was all he had

meant. It didn’t mean that he cared in any other way or that he was going

to really help her. It didn’t mean that he had forgotten or forgiven the

things that had happened between them in the past.

Quite the opposite. Finding that she was at his mercy, with no one to help

her and nowhere else to go, it seemed he had seen the perfect

opportunity to add an extra twist to the knife and make his revenge even

more exquisite.

‘What has this got to do with the job that you’re offering me?’

Edward’s smile was slow and cruel, the gleam in his eyes brightening in a

way that made her stomach lurch sickeningly. Never before had she felt

so much like a small, quivering mouse caught on the end of a cat’s cruel

claws.

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

‘Not to me,’ Liza flung at him and saw the swift, dark frown that drew

his black brows sharply together.

It was a small triumph but a very necessary one. If he meant what she

believed was in his mind then she was going to make him say it. He was

going to have to come right out and state exactly what he had planned;

she wasn’t going to make things easy for him by putting words into his

mouth. When her outraged common sense screamed at her that she was

still being foolish enough to cling desperately to a hope that hedidn’t

mean what she thought he had, she pushed it away as strongly as she could.

She didn’t need that sort of foolishness undermining her determination

to handle this situation with as much dignity and control as possible.

‘Perhaps you’d care to explain.’

That actually earned her a microscopic glimmer of a smile, one that

quirked up the corners of his mouth for a second and was gone. And it

was only when it disappeared and she felt the sudden rush of cold that

followed that Liza realised how the tiny response had warmed the

atmosphere, easing it subtly.

‘Always the lady of the manor,’ Edward drawled, strolling over to the

table where the drinks from the night of the funeral still stood.

Unscrewing a bottle of mineral water, he poured himself a glassful,

concentrating wholly on the action and not sparing her a single glance or,

apparently, a hint of a thought.

In another man she might have thought that he was reviewing what he

planned to say, organising his thoughts and rehearsing the words, but she

knew that that was not at all likely where Edward was concerned. He

already knew exactly what he was going to say and he would have planned

it all already, aiming for exactly the result he wanted. The studied pause

was just for another effect, dragging it deliberately to keep her waiting

and on edge.

‘I offered you a job…’

Drink poured, he lifted it from the tray and took a slow, considering swallow. And, as he did so, his eyes locked with hers across the top of

the glass, holding her transfixed with a force so strong that she felt her

mouth drying in the impact of it and her throat seemed to have become

paralysed, unable to swallow to ease the discomfort of it.

Knowing—or rather suspecting that she knew what he was going to say—

didn’t ease the sense of apprehension because of it, she discovered.

‘And I’ll keep my word. But I’m not sure you’ll like what’s on offer. You

see, I’m afraid that there is only one position free on the estate at the

moment.’

I’m afraid—piffle! Liza retorted in the privacy of her thoughts. If

he’d said he was sorry, it couldn’t have been any more hypocritical or

cynical. And they both knew it. They were just playing a mind game where

neither of them was actually prepared to admit it.

‘And that is?’

‘The only thing I need is a groom—a stable hand, to be precise. That is

the only job I have a vacancy for.’

She had known it. From the moment he’d mentioned that word, she’d

known just where his mind was going. He wanted his revenge on her and

he had seen the way to make it perfect by turning the tables exactly,

putting them both into the opposite positions in which they had been

years before. Then she had been, as he had always accused her of being,

something close to the lady of the manor. The adored, pampered

possibly, yes, she was prepared to admit it—probably the spoilt

stepdaughter to Jarty, who had so wanted children of his own.