Page 9 of His Secretary's Nine-Month Notice
‘I don’t care what you prefer!’
‘I’ve just taken on two start-up software companies and one of them happens to be in Melbourne. Small start-up in the city. Did you know Melbourne is right up there when it comes to density of small businesses? Getting a foothold there is a coup for me. Lots of promise there and I’m going to nurture this baby. I feel this goose might lay a few golden eggs with the right backing, expertise and encouragement.’
‘What does this have to do with me?’ Violet queried, standing up and hovering when he didn’t automatically follow suit. She dimly recalled those two companies, because the very young directors in search of investment had been brought over to discuss details, and they had been full of it.
She walked to the kitchen door and rested her hand lightly on the doorknob.
‘You need routine,’ Matt said in a soothing voice that made her grit her teeth together in exasperation. How was it that he could manage to make something as laudable as needing routine sound like a dismal admission of failure?
‘I think my life will carry on without it for a while,’ Violet responded tartly. ‘Get up. It’s time to go. I’m exhausted.’
‘So I take it that you’re not planning on settling down on the other side of the world?’
Violet clicked her tongue and refused to give him the satisfaction of sitting back down, even though he was making less than zero effort to take the hint and leave.
‘No,’ she conceded after a while. She sighed and sat back down. This wasn’t a victory for him, she reasoned, but plain old common sense from her because if he wanted to carry on talking for ten more minutes, then he wasn’t going to budge, and her legs were feeling distinctly wobbly—probably because she had had her personal space invaded. ‘I couldn’t live over there. It would be a lot easier for Dad to move back here, and that’s going to be part of my job when I go over. To convince him to return to London.’
‘If he’s still got ties here, he might think that they could lead him astray,’ Matt suggested shrewdly, and Violet’s eyes widened.
‘I never thought of that,’ she admitted slowly. ‘You could be right. He’s still pals with the members in his band, and of course they still go to the pub and drink, which would be tough for him. I could persuade him to move closer to the coast. Far enough from London for temptation not to be right there on his doorstep...’ She looked at Matt and realised that this was just another of his talents—an ability to see through the clutter and chaos and get right to the heart of the problem in record time.
She had absorbed that trait, just as she had absorbed all those others, and now she wondered whether, subconsciously, they had all bonded together to turn professional respect for him into something altogether more dangerous.
‘But back to this little start-up of mine,’ Matt drawled, and Violet blinked and focused on him, her mind still playing with the disturbing realisation that he had managed to crawl under her skin a lot more than she had ever suspected.
‘The reason I mention it,’ he continued with a gesture that smacked ever so slightly of a certain smug satisfaction, ‘is because I could use a safe pair of hands over there—steering the newly acquired ship, so to speak. On every single front, it would work for both of us.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, Violet, that you plan on disappearing for months—and having nothing to do on the other side of the world except rally your father’s spirits is going to get very frustrating for you after a very, very short while. You have a good brain and you need to use it. How are you going to do that in Melbourne? Maybe find some casual work behind a bar somewhere? Or else you could take up a hobby. Something you could make use of within the confines of the four walls of your father’s house so that you can keep a watchful eye on him.’
‘Stop being so negative.’ Violet looked at him steadily and calmly. There had been enough departures from common sense for the evening, thank you very much. ‘I’m sure I’ll be able to occupy myself when I’m out there.’
‘Yes, there’ll be adequate cash-in-hand casual labour jobs, although you obviously don’t need the money, which will make any not-much-of-anything temp job all the more frustrating. And, of course, anything more challenging might prove a problem, as you’re not a national. I’ve always got the impression that you enjoy a challenge.
‘So, joining the dots here, you’re going to be bored rigid...and I could use someone I trust implicitly in the initial stages of getting my new company in order. It’ll be a sizeable promotion for you. In charge of one of my fledging companies from ground zero. New title, new set of responsibilities and, of course, new pay cheque to reflect both those things. Don’t worry about work permits and all that tedious stuff. Consider it sorted.’
He allowed a few seconds to elapse so that she could digest all the considerable advantages to what he was offering.
And, Violet was forced to concede, they were indeed sizeable.
Boredom would weigh heavily on her hands. Yes, of course, her time would be devoted to her father, to raising his spirits and going with him for the medical check-ups that she’d recently discovered he had been ignoring. Lord only knew what else would be unearthed once she got over there. But how well this man knew her. How well he knew that doing nothing would get to her very quickly. However, there was one missing link not even Matt Falconer could factor in, and Violet had no intention of enlightening him.
‘I could even set you up in a little apartment of your own, so that you and your father could maintain that very vital independence you’ve probably both grown accustomed to over the years, if you feel the need to bang the drum for financial independence. You could call it a perk that comes with the job.’
‘That’s a very generous offer, Matt...’
‘So shall we call it a deal? Shake on it?’ He dealt her one of those smiles that could knock a person for six. ‘Of course, there would be one or two contingents you would have to take into consideration...’
‘Of course there would be,’ Violet said drily. ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Isn’t that written somewhere in your company manual?’
Matt burst out laughing and his eyes darkened with appreciation at the way she never had any qualms when it came to telling it like it was. Jesus, he would miss that!
‘You would have to sign up to returning to my employ in London after a predetermined length of time, and I’d say that six months would be a pretty generous timescale. You might also have to put up with me descending on you intermittently, just to make sure that everything is ticking over nicely.’
‘I’m very grateful for the offer, Matt.’ Violet pictured him meeting her father and finding a foothold in her life in Melbourne and she suppressed a shudder. He had enough of an effect on her, and that was without him knowing a thing about her. ‘But I’m going to have to say no.’
Matt carried on smiling for a few seconds, then he frowned as her words sank in. ‘You don’t mean that.’
