A Question of Pride by Michelle Reid Read Free Book Online Page A

will that fit in with ...?'
    'Fine—just fine,' she assured him. 'When does she want to go?'
    'Next month, if they could find a reliable temp. He needs reliability, you see. There's only him, his secretary and a fleet of salesmen.'
    'If I'll suit him, it would be a weight off my mind,' Clea remarked, then added grimly, 'A-about telling Max, Joe?'
    'I don't like it, Clea,' he told her bluntly. 'I don't much like any of it. But we'll do things your way.'
    Clea let out a sigh of relief. 'It will be easier this way,' she assured him. 'I hate uncomfortable goodbyes.
    Max will thank us in the end for doing it this way.'
    Joe took to his feet, moving away from her with a restlessness that spoke of a subdued anger. 'I'm not so sure you're right about that. I simply can't believe that Max is ready to let you go!' He sighed heavily and turned to face her. 'I wish you would change your mind and tell him before you take such a huge leap into the unknown—he might surprise you. He ... '
    'He already has someone else.' She cut in on him with a quiet dignity that roused Joe's temper. 'So you see, I can't use—this, to hang on to him. He would never forgive me, and I couldn't live with myself for doing it.'
    'Damn the bloody fool!' Joe exploded, his lean body stiffening with a need to hit out at someone—Max, preferably. 'He must be blind if he can't see just what he's passing up. You're too good for him, Clea—much, much too good!'
    'Thank you for that.' She went to place a kiss on his angry cheek. 'I needed it.'
    'Clea!'
    'No.' She shook her head sadly. 'You must know I'm right, Joe. Let's just leave it now.'

CHAPTER FOUR
    It waslate, and Clea and Max were up to their eyes in paperwork, trying to put things in order before he went away to Devonshire to visit his mother for what was left of the week. They worked in companiable silence, speaking only when it was necessary to the task in hand.
    He had discarded his jacket and waistcoat during the day, his tie had followed soon after, and now he stood behind his desk with his white shirt-sleeves rolled back and his top button loosened, sifting through a sheaf of papers, while Clea sat in his chair, working on a set of papers scattered over his desk. It had turned dusk outside, and the lights in the office were on. Max had snapped the vertical blinds closed earlier in the afternoon, in order to block out a bright March sunshine. Now the room seemed cut off somehow; the building was almost empty, for everyone else had gone home long ago.
    'Have you got the price list for the new keyboards there?' Clea threw the question over her shoulder without bothering to look up from what she was doing. 'I'll need to take some copies of it if you want the Buying Department to work from it while you're away.'
    Like Max, Clea had removed her suit jacket; she had also tied her hair back at her nape with a piece of red waxed string to stop it clinging to her face while she worked.
    Her enquiry drew Max's gaze to her, a reply ready on his lips, but his movements stilled when he caught the soft, ivory-smooth line from temple to jaw, left exposed by her tied hair. It was warm in the centrally heated office and her cheeks were delicately flushed. There was something distinctly vulnerable about her today, and the impression held him immobile while he absorbed the odd, twisting impact it had on his heart. Her eye lashes were long and black, curling luxuriously away from those wide-spaced purple eyes.
    Her nose was small and straight, her mouth pouting slightly as she concentrated, a rich, naturally red mouth designed for delicious kissing. She stood up unexpectedly, stretching across the desk for something, and Max felt his breath catch as he took in the sensual, curving shape of her, from slender shoulders to rounded hips.
    Max felt the aching pull of her attraction reach right down to his loins, and the overflow of paperwork was forgotten while he allowed himself to experience the heated pleasure of just