"Is he in?" The woman who had just sauntered into the room was tall, willowy and so beautiful that Lydia found herself gaping for a startled second before she collected herself.
"Yes..." She reached for the buzzer on her desk.
"Who shall I say?"
"Don't bother with that thing." The throaty, attractive voice was warm and confident and wide blue eyes gave her the once-over a moment before the woman opened the door to Wolf’s office and stepped through.
"But you can't--' Lydia followed through the open door a second later, her face aghast, to find the woman leaning over Wolfs desk to deposit a fleeting kiss on his mouth before turning to survey her in the doorway.
"It's OK, Lydia." Wolf didn't look particularly pleased at the intrusion, but neither was he displaying the sort of anger she had expected.
"I'm sorry--' " Oh, Wolf is used to my barging in at any time of the night or day, aren't you, darling. " A perfect little rotund bottom seated itself on the corner of his desk, the manoeuvre exposing a great deal of slim, tanned leg as smiling blue eyes wandered over Lydia in open appraisal
"He's my mentor. Is that the appropriate word, darling?"
"That's enough, Elda." Wolf smiled back at the beautiful brunette indulgently.
"And get off my damn desk."
The brunette's thin but beautifully shaped mouth pouted in a little grimace as she did as she was told, her movements elegant and unhurried. Where did she g
et such amazing self-assurance? Lydia wondered as she turned to leave.
But then perhaps it wasn't surprising really. Sleek dark hair cut in an expert feathery style to complement the graceful head and long neck, huge blue eyes and a perfect skin added up to an impressive whole, and her clothes weren't from the local high street either!
As she returned to her desk, shutting the door quietly and firmly behind her, she found to her dismay that she was shaking slightly.
She sat down with a little plop and took a long deep breath, willing her heart to calm down. So he had a girlfriend? So what? Of course a man like him wouldn't be short of female company, she knew that, didn't she?
But what a girlfriend! The thought was painful. And it wasn't exactly that he had a girlfriend that was bothering her, but the way he had looked at
Elda. She hadn't seen that gentle, soft look on his face before and it had hurt her. Why, she didn't know.
Their working routine had settled down into a pattern that, despite the odd panic here and there, was relatively straightforward, although she certainly couldn't have called Wolf Strade an easy man to work for. He was blunt to the point of rudeness on occasion but, she had to admit, the social standing of the recipient didn't affect his brusqueness at all. He was simply a man who suffered fools badly, be they kings or paupers.
The buzzer on her desk interrupted her train of _thought.
"Lydia? Could you arrange some coffee, please?" Wolf asked pleasantly.
"Certainly."
She normally phoned down such requests but today she took the lift to the canteen herself. Somehow she didn't want to be in the office and, as she carried the tray in to Wolf ten minutes later, she knew why.
There was something too cosy in his acceptance of Elda's easy intrusion.
"Cut along now, Lydia, and I hope all goes well with the kitten." As Wolf gave one of his rare smiles Lydia saw Elda's blue eyes narrow in sudden sharp scrutiny.
"I'll just finish the last page of that report first." She smiled with what she hoped was cool composure, nodded to Elda, who had now seated herself in the large easy chair opposite Wolf's desk, and walked quietly from the room, more shaken than she cared to admit. It was nothing to her who he saw in his private life, she told herself fiercely as she finished the report to the sound of occasional laughter from the connecting room, nothing at all.
Did he make long, passionate love to Elda? She didn't know where the thought came from, but it was enough to jerk her out of her seat as though she had been pricked with a pin. Of course he would, she answered herself irritably as she slipped into her jacket, her eyes stormy and her mouth unconsciously tight. A man like him didn't get to thirty-eight and remain single without perfecting his technique.
And it would be some technique! She shut her eyes briefly and men resolutely turned her mind away from the dangerous path it was following. She was as bad as her predecessors. What had he called them? Oh, yes, empty-headed little bimbos. The chauvinistic phrase still had the power to make her mad.
And _that was the sort of man he was; she'd better remember it. He'd made it perfectly clear over the last few weeks that he viewed her in the same way as the office furniture, and it suited her just fine, just fine. Involvement with him, with any man, just wasn't on the cards.
"That's some frown."
"What?" She hadn't heard him come into the room, but now she saw the connecting door was closed as he stood just in front of it, his eyes quizzical and his mouth straight.