‘DO WE have a deal?’
Andi stared blankly across the drawing room at the man who had so recently stormed into her own life and her mother’s.
‘Come on, Andi,’ Linus Harrison prompted tersely as he paced impatiently. ‘It can’t be that difficult for you to realize that you have no real choice but to accept my offer.’
That was the problem. Andi knew she didn’t have a choice. And she didn’t like it one little bit.
Outwardly her expression and demeanour remained calm. Inwardly it was a different matter. What possible reason could this man have for offering her soon-to-be homeless mother somewhere to live in exchange for Andi taking on the job as his PA? A man like Linus Harrison—a man well-known for his ruthless business reputation, amongst other things—certainly couldn’t be making this offer out of the goodness of his heart. Andi wasn’t even sure that he had one of those! The hardness of those pale-green eyes set in a harshly sculptured face did nothing to contradict that belief.
Nothing about Linus Harrison, of Harrison Holdings plc, was in the least reassuring, Andi acknowledged as she felt an uncomfortable fluttering in the pit of her stomach just looking at him. He was well over six-feet tall, at least nine or ten inches taller than her own five-feet-four, with over-long, shaggy dark hair that he pushed impatiently from his brow whenever it tumbled forward. His face was as hard and chiselled as any sculpture. Those pale-green eyes. An arrogant slash of a nose above lips that looked as if they rarely smiled. A squarely carved jaw that more than hinted at his ruthless reputation. The tailored dark-grey suit only emphasized the width of his muscled shoulders and tapered waist above long, powerful legs. The whole package was imbued with a restless energy that was in itself overpowering.
Andi drew herself up to her full height of five feet six inches—in two-inch heels—none of her inner disquiet showing as she looked at Linus Harrison with calm brown eyes. ‘My name is Miss Buttonfield, or Andrea, if you prefer. Only my family and close friends are invited to use the familiarity of “Andi”.’ She raised challenging blonde brows.
Linus’s expression was mocking as his gaze swept over her admiringly. Andrea Buttonfield had class with a capital C!
She was nine years younger than his own thirty-five years. The top of her blonde head barely reached his chin. Her straight, shoulder-length hair was expertly styled, the fringe feathering lightly above huge eyes the colour of rich, dark chocolate. There were dark shadows beneath those beautiful eyes. Her cheeks were slightly hollow, her nose small and straight, and her mouth a perfect bow above a stubbornly pointed chin. Her cool, businesslike appearance was completed by a tailored black skirt and white silk blouse.
In the last three months this woman had been hit with one tragedy on top of another, and yet Linus could see only cool determination in those liquid brown eyes as she continued to look at him unblinkingly.
Linus gave a taunting inclination of his head. ‘In that case, I’ll settle for Andrea. For now,’ he drawled derisively. ‘I should warn you that I’m not a patient man, Andrea,’ he added harshly. ‘My offer is only open until five o’clock today.’
The slight widening of those brown eyes was her only outward response to his ultimatum.
He shrugged. ‘It’s the way I do business, Andrea.’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t possibly make such a life-changing decision in just a few hours.’
‘That will be your loss.’
A frown darkened her creamy brow. ‘Why the hurry?’
‘My present PA is leaving at the end of the month and I need a replacement before that happens.’ Linus moved to lower his long length into one of the goldbrocade armchairs that adorned the perfection of the spacious drawing-room.
As Linus already knew, every room in Tarrington Park was decorated and furnished in this same gracious, elegant style. It was a style that Linus wanted to keep when he took possession of Tarrington Park in several weeks’time and turned it into another of his luxury spahotels and conference centres. It was a style that Marjorie Buttonfield, Andi’s mother, had informed Linus was all her daughter’s own work.
Style—that was the word that applied to everything about Andrea Buttonfield. Not surprisingly. Andi had grown up on the Tarrington Park estate, the only child of Miles and Marjorie Buttonfield. Her childhood had been one of luxury and indulgence. Her private boarding-schools were the best in the country. Her English degree from Cambridge university was one of the highest attainable. Following university, Andrea had moved to live in London, becoming the PA of Gerald Wickham, head of Wickham International.
Yes, Andrea Buttonfield had style.
Linus’s own childhood and education was the complete opposite of Andi’s, and it was her style and class he had coveted from the moment he’d first met her eight weeks ago, when he’d come to look over Tarrington Park with the intention of buying it.
Andrea’s father had been killed in a car accident four weeks earlier, along with her fiancé, David Simmington-Browne. The following weeks had revealed that, not only was her father’s company bankrupt, but there were considerable debts too. Selling the family home had become the only solution to paying off those debts.
Linus had done his homework on Tarrington Park, Andrea and the recently widowed Marjorie Buttonfield. He knew selling the family home would leave the already grief-stricken Marjorie homeless and without any means of support other than the wage her daughter earnt as Wickham’s PA.
It was a chink in Andrea Buttonfield’s armour that Linus didn’t hesitate to use to his own advantage.
‘Think about it, Andrea.’ Linus smiled humourlessly. ‘As my PA, you’ll get an increase in wages. You and your mother get to move into the gate house, which as well as being rent-free has to be less traumatic for the both of you. You could continue to keep your horse at the stables here. As far as you’re concerned, it’s a winwin situation.’
Andi was already well aware of all the pluses of accepting Linus Harrison’s offer. It was the minuses that concerned her. She didn’t know Linus Harrison. She didn’t trust Linus Harrison. Most of all, she didn’t like Linus Harrison!
His well-earned reputation for ruthlessness in business didn’t give the impression that he ever did things impulsively, telling Andi that he must have given this offer a lot of thought before making it. ‘And what do you get out of it, Mr Harrison?’ she prompted shrewdly.
‘In Gerald Wickham’s opinion, the best PA in the western hemisphere!’ Those green eyes openly mocked her.
Andi’s own eyes widened incredulously. ‘You’ve already spoken to Gerald about me?’ That was how he knew that the money he was offering her was an increase…!
Linus Harrison shrugged wide shoulders. ‘I would hardly consider taking you on as my own PA without first talking to your previous employer.’
‘My current employer!’ Andi corrected with an impatient shake of her head as she glared at him. ‘You had absolutely no right to talk to Gerald.’
‘I had every right,’ Linus Harrison cut in coldly, those eyes hard. ‘I would no more consider employing someone because she looks the part than I would consider buying a car just because it has sleek lines!’
Her mouth thinned. ‘I’m not sure whether that was an insult or a compliment!’
‘It was a statement of fact,’ Linus rasped. ‘For all I knew, you could be lousy at your job and just sleeping with Gerald Wickham to keep it!’
It was a possibility that hadn’t found any favour in Linus’s eyes, and definitely detracted from that style and class Andrea Buttonfield possessed in spades. Admittedly, until three months ago Andrea had been engaged to Simmington-Browne. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t also sleeping with her boss. One meeting with Gerald Wickham had convinced Linus that the other man thought of Andrea in the way an indulgent uncle might a favourite niece, rather than an expensive mistress reserved for his physical pleasure.
Why that information should have mattered to Linus he had no idea. Admittedly, his own code of conduct concerning female employees dictated he not become personally involved with any of them, but he knew that a lot of men in his position didn’t feel the same way.
Andi didn’t know whether to be furious or just indignant at the familiarity of this man’s conversation. She decided that disdain probably suited the occasion better. ‘I presume Gerald satisfied your curiosity on that score?’
‘Totally,’ Linus Harrison confirmed.
Andi eyed him frustratedly. ‘I am more than happy with my present employment, Mr Harrison. My mother has been offered a cottage in the village to live in. And one of the local livery-stables has agreed to take my horse. So you see, Mr Harrison—’
‘As I said, I have no use for the gate house, so it would be rent-free. Your horse would also be stabled free of charge. Plus,’ he continued before Andi could interrupt, ‘do you really think that your mother’s already-delicate emotional health is up to moving into a cottage in the village where your family has long been considered the local gentry?’
Andi became very still. The car accident that had killed both Andi’s father and her fiancé had seemed an almost unbearable blow at the time; initially only the necessity to keep focused for her mother’s sake had held Andi’s own grief in check. The revelation only days later of the bankruptcy of her father’s company was a blow Andi certainly hadn’t been expecting.
Her mother hadn’t coped well; the loss of her husband of thirty years, quickly followed by the knowledge that she was shortly to lose her home as well, had left Marjorie balancing on a very precarious mental edge. One more blow and Andi knew her mother was likely to topple over into the precipice.
As it was, these last weeks had been a nightmare as Andi had tried to balance visits to her mother at the weekends and her demanding job in London as Gerald’s PA during the week. It was a strain that Andi knew was beginning to take its toll on her after three months, both emotionally and physically.
The truth of the matter was, her mother would be much happier if Andi moved back to live with her in Hampshire, especially if she was also allowed to stay in the gate house of Tarrington Park. Andi would feel happier knowing that her mother was comfortable. It was only the thought of becoming Linus Harrison’s PA that stopped Andi from jumping at the opportunity he was offering her.
That, and the fact that she simply didn’t like or trust him.
She felt distinctly uncomfortable in Linus Harrison’s presence. She already knew that this man didn’t just look like an iceberg but had the characteristic of one too.
Andi looked at him frostily. ‘I’m not sure I want to work for a man who uses another person’s weakness in order to get what he wants.’
He gave a mocking smile. ‘I don’t think it was part of the job description that you actually have to like me!’
‘Perhaps as well,’ Andi drawled derisively. ‘Could you tell me what that job description does entail?’
Linus gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Obviously, all the duties you have at the moment. Plus, once the work starts, we’ll be spending most of our time here for at least the next year working on the transformation of Tarrington Park into one of Harrison Holdings’ most prestigious hotels and conference centres. I’ll need to go up to my office in London occasionally, as well as giving a certain amount of time to visiting my other hotels. But for the main part I like to work on a handson basis, overseeing every detail of the building alterations myself.
‘Not that there should be too many of those, when this house already lends itself to what I have in mind. The décor is something I would like you to deal with. I usually hire a team in London, but you know this house better than anyone. Your input is going to be invaluable once it comes to furnishing and decorating the rooms in a style that complements its amenities. With your help, I hope, Andrea, Tarrington Park is going to become the most luxurious spa-hotel and conference centre in the country.’
Andi felt a fluttering of excitement as Linus Harrison outlined his plans for her childhood home. Of course she would have preferred that they didn’t have to sell Tarrington Park at all, that her mother could just be allowed to continue living here, but Andi knew after the last few months that that was impossible. With the sale of Tarrington Park they would be able to pay off her father’s debts, and, although Linus Harrison was possibly the last person Andi would ever have wanted to sell it to, his offer of employment meant she would at least be able to have a say in the alternations and the décor. Her mother would be able to remain on the estate too, albeit in the much smaller gate house rather than the manor-house itself.
Linus easily read the wavering resolve in Andi’s expression. ‘Admit it, Andrea—you’re tempted by the idea,’ he taunted.
Her eyes flashed darkly. ‘The idea maybe,’ she allowed waspishly. ‘The reality is a different matter. I’m really not sure I could work for you.’
His gaze narrowed. ‘Why the hell not? No, let me guess,’ he continued harshly. ‘Someone with your privileged background shudders at the mere idea of being employed by someone like me!’
She blinked. ‘Someone “like you”…?’
‘I’m sure you, like every other reader of tabloid newspapers, are aware of my background,’ Linus rasped knowingly.
The press had made much, over the years, of the fact that Linus had started out with nothing fifteen years ago but the sharpness of his brain and a determination to succeed. That, although he was a multi-millionaire now, he had started out as the only child of a single mother, brought up in the back streets of Glasgow, leaving school at the age of sixteen to work as a labourer on a building site.
Within four years he owned his own building company, buying run-down properties and turning them into hotels, each one more luxurious than the next. Until now, fifteen years later, Linus owned dozens of them all over the world.
Along the way he had lost his Glaswegian accent, learnt to wear Armani suits as if born to it, and had become as comfortable in the company of lords and ladies as he was with his own labourers.
Andrea Buttonfield looked confused by his accusatory tone. ‘Why should your background matter to me?’
Why indeed? Linus instantly berated himself for revealing even this much of a chink in his own armour. As far as Andrea Buttonfield was concerned, she had reason enough to dislike him simply because he was the upstart who intended to buy her family home and turn it into a profitable business-venture. For her, he could now see, the added knowledge that their backgrounds were so dissimilar simply didn’t come into the equation.
Some of the tension left his shoulders, although the restless anger remained. ‘I’ve decided I don’t want to wait for your decision after all, Andrea,’ Linus bit out impatiently. ‘What’s it to be? Take it or leave it.’
Andi wanted to leave it. Every instinct in her body told her to do exactly that. But just the thought of how her mother had changed these last three months—of the fragility of her emotional state, let alone her mental one—was enough to give Andi pause for thought.
Linus Harrison’s offer of employment would solve so many problems for her concerning her mother. Andi knew she would be a fool to turn down that offer just because being in the same room with Linus Harrison made her feel so uneasy.
She drew in a deeply controlled breath. ‘Okay; I accept your offer, Mr Harrison. But my contract says I have to give Gerald three months’ notice, not one,’ she added determinedly as she saw the brief triumph that blazed in those beautiful eyes.
Linus Harrison looked completely unperturbed. ‘I can live with that.’
Andi just hoped that she could live with the ramifications of her decision…