Sommersgate House (Ghosts and Reincarnation #2)(27)
Author: Kristen Ashley

And to her amazement, he walked to his desk.

She was dismissed.

She stood there not knowing what to do. She’d never met the like of him. One minute, he was so good-looking, so damned sexy that he made her legs tremble and her stomach pitch, the next minute he was so impossibly autocratic, she felt like throwing something at him.

He picked up his phone as he rifled through some papers and she realised that he didn’t even intend to acknowledge her presence in the room.

She’d been there less than a week, she’d left her entire life behind, the life before her was still uncertain and in the midst of all this she had three children who depended on her and, by the way… him.

She wasn’t supposed to do it alone. Tammy and Gav wanted her to have help and that meant far more than a free meal ticket, the use of a car and Douglas publically bestowing his “favour” on her at art galleries.

She didn’t even wage the battle to control her temper, she just let it lose. She downed the contents of her whisky, gagged momentarily as the fire hit her throat and stormed his desk.

“Excuse me!” she slammed her glass down on its shiny surface making his head come up with a jerk. “I’m sure you’re used to strolling into a board room or wherever you work and making everyone do your bidding but I’m afraid that does not work with me. May I remind you that your sister and my brother expect us, no, they trusted us, no, they honoured us by allowing us to raise those children together and I’m not going to let you throw money at it and then get on with your life like nothing’s changed. You’ll pull your weight, you’ll get involved and you’ll damn well quit telling me what to do all the time, because I’m up to here…” she indicated her chin with an angry thrust of her hand, “with it.”

He had the receiver in his hand but, after she finished, he slowly returned it to its cradle.

“Are you finished?” he asked, his tone completely civil.

She took a deep breath.

Was she finished? She didn’t know. Maybe she went too far.

“No, Julia,” he said quietly, “that was too magnificent to question. Simply score your point and go.”

She faltered. “Did I?” He raised his brow in question. “Score a point,” she explained.

He inclined his head briefly.

She was stunned. She was pleased.

For some reason, she was also scared.

One point meant only one point which meant there was a game afoot here. And she did not want to play games with Douglas Ashton. Douglas Ashton always, always won.

Nevertheless, she thought it prudent to take his advice.

“Well then, thank you for the chat. I feel much better,” she lied. “Goodnight.”

She turned to go but his voice calling her name stopped her.

She turned back.

“Yes?” she asked.

He was looking at her in that pleasant way again, something akin to admiration in his eyes, a look that stole her breath away.

His voice was smooth as silk when he spoke. “Last time you said goodnight to me in this room, it came with a kiss.”

The pleasant tremor slid so far up her spine, it went up her neck and made her scalp tingle just as her stomach flipped.

With a supreme effort of will, Julia ignored it.

“I wasn’t annoyed with you last time,” she informed him haughtily.

There was definitely a game afoot and even after this discussion of their “arrangement”, she wasn’t sure of the ground rules.

“I’ll bear that in mind the next time we have a late evening conversation,” he replied, then he picked up the phone and she felt her best bet at that point was to flee the room.

Which was exactly what she did.

Chapter Seven

Douglas’s Decision

The next morning, Douglas rose early and, instead of his usual run, he went to the stables to take one of his horses out to be exercised. They were getting fat and lazy with inattention. Tamsin and Gavin used to come to Sommersgate once a week to take them out but now that they were gone, he was the only one who could do it.

He saddled his chestnut stallion and for over an hour rode him through the wood surrounding Sommersgate. When he was done, instead of leaving it to Carter, Douglas brushed the horse down himself. When he was finished, he went back to the house where he showered, dressed and picked up the phone to call Samantha.

She answered, her voice sounding as if she’d been awake for hours and in that time had arranged peace in the Middle East while baking a complicated soufflé.

He instructed her to clear his schedule as best she could so he could be at Sommersgate in the evenings and to make an appointment at his bank for himself and Julia.

“I see,” she responded meaningfully. “Does this decision have anything to do with a fab… you… las green satin dress?”

Sam had been with him for several years and had lasted longer than all of his PAs. She was able to do this because she was incredibly bright, had the energy of a litter of four week old puppies, was completely circumspect and didn’t fear him. Therefore, he often cut her a fair amount of slack which he would never do for others.

“Just do it,” he told her.

“Righty-ho, boss,” she confirmed jovially and rang off.

He headed to the dining room and could hear the children’s chatter and Julia’s husky-soft voice floating up the stairs.

Yes, in answer to Samantha’s question, it was the green dress. The green dress Julia wore on Saturday evening was superb. That green dress could even be described as sublime.

It was also the green eyes, the way they looked when Julia laughed with Charlotte or when they flashed at him last night when she was angry.

It was also something else, something surprising.

He’d been partial to acquiring empty-headed women because they were easy to acquire and just as easy to throw away.

There was something different about being with Julia.

Julia Fairfax was anything but empty-headed.

He watched as she chatted away with Charlotte and Oliver at dinner, drawing both of them out skilfully and allowing Charlotte to animate the dinner with her usual flair without competition. Then, as Charlotte introduced her around at the gallery, he noted how Julia listened intently to what people said and the judgmental faces changed as she melted their reserve with her natural charm, charm she was able to command even though she admitted to jetlag.

He found he felt what could only be pride when she returned to his side to smile up in his eyes and c**k her ear to hear some banal thing he forced himself to say simply to keep her attention.