was. It hadn’t taken him any time at all to sort through the situation.
‘It seemed the better way of saving his face when he asked me to go out with him.’ Noah Peverelle gave her a look as if to say the sophisticated image she was trying for had slipped a mile and he had just glimpsed her softer centre. ‘For my sins,’ she went on, not liking that he had observed her softer side, ‘he told my mother I was going steady.’
‘She must have been pleased.’
Sarcastic devil! Again, though, Elexa felt an urge to laugh. Most odd. All this stress must be making her light-headed. ‘My mother phoned me at six this morning wanting to know more about it.’
‘It’s getting you down?’
‘You could say that.’
‘Why not marry one of these men and be done with it?’ Peverelle demanded.
Nothing like being told he’d rather drink burning oil than marry her himself, Elexa thought sniffily. And went on to think, Well, who asked you? But she more or less had. ‘Because they would want to be emotionally involved.’
‘And you don’t?’
‘All I want is time free of my mother being on the phone every five minutes. All I want is to be left alone to get on with the career I love. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, love my mother dearly, and I’d do anything for her but…’
‘But marry some man on a permanent basis?’
‘That’s about it,’ she had to agree, and looked steadily at the grey-eyed man across from her.
As she stared at Noah Peverelle, so he scrutinised her. She would have dearly liked to have known what was going through his mind, but guessed he would only let her know what he wanted her to know.
But, when she was thinking that he was probably considering he had wasted enough time and was about to leave, he surprised her by asking, ‘How do you feel about children?’
Oh, help, was he really, seriously considering…? Had she seriously proposed what she had to this cold, unsmiling man? She wanted to swallow, but wouldn’t, but, since he seemed such a forthright person, she gave his question serious thought, and answered honestly, ‘Up until the day I heard you talking about having a son, I hadn’t given children a thought—having them, that is. The furtherance of my career is important to me, as I mentioned. But, on thinking about children, I’ve realised that, while marriage has never featured in my plans, ultimately I shouldn’t like to miss out and never have a child.’
She didn’t know what she expected him to say to that. But discovered that he was clearly a most decisive man when, getting to his feet he informed her, ‘I’m away from home for the rest of this week. Presumably your mother isn’t too far away. What time shall I pick you up on Saturday?’
Elexa wasn’t sure her jaw didn’t drop. ‘You’re—you’re coming to dinner with me at my parents’ on Saturday?’ she questioned, only just holding down a gasp of shock. Decisive, had she said?
‘I’m not yet ready to be engaged to you—we need to discuss this more thoroughly first, and I’m already running late for another appointment. But I don’t mind being your “steady” in the meantime.’
‘Don’t do me any favours!’ she snapped huffily.
Noah Peverelle looked arrogantly down at her. ‘We’re in the territory of mutual favours here!’ he rapped.
‘So call for me at six-thirty!’ she flared, and felt as if she’d just been poleaxed when, with nothing more than a curt nod, Noah Peverelle strode from her apartment.
How long she sat there, stunned that Noah Peverelle had actually been inside her flat, had asked her a few short and to the point questions, and had then gone on to keep an appointment, Elexa had no idea.
But slowly, as she got herself into more of one piece, it began to dawn on her that with Peverelle’s talk of mutual favours it rather looked—future discussions going well—as if they could be on the way to him marrying her, and to her giving him the son he wanted.
Oh, heck. Ice encased her southernmost extremities but, knowing that her mother was probably sitting by the phone, waiting for her to ring, this was no time to start getting cold feet. He, Peverelle, when all was said and done, had not been the one to approach her with the idea. Rather it had been she who had made the first approach.
Nevertheless, there were several occasions before Saturday arrived when Elexa came within an ace of contacting Noah Peverelle and telling him to forget the whole idea. Two things were against that, however. One was that he was away from home for the rest of the week—she didn’t think he’d appreciate her phoning his office and leaving any kind of ‘Would-you-tell-Mr-Peverelle-I’ve-decided-not-to-have-his-baby?’ type of message. The very big other was that her mother was so excited about actually meeting her steady boyfriend she was never off the phone.
Worse, having been more or less forced to give her his name, her father too had been on the phone. Was her steady boyfriend the Noah Peverelle? Apparently her businessman father, who daily kept up to date with business news, knew all about what went on in big business, seemed as eager as her mother to meet him.
As, too, did Aunt Celia and Uncle Kenneth want to meet him. Aunt Celia had rung saying how delighted she was to hear her news. ‘We’re not engaged, or anything like that!’ Elexa had told her hurriedly.
‘No, but I know you, you wouldn’t be taking him home to meet your parents unless you were serious about him.’
As far as Elexa could remember, she hadn’t had any choice. Her mother had decreed ‘dinner’ and, while Elexa might have wriggled out of it, the lofty Peverelle—no doubt wanting to see what sort of stock she came from—had agreed, without being asked, to go to her parents’ home with her.
At that point she came close to contacting his office and leaving a message to the effect that Saturday’s arrangements had been cancelled. She objected strongly to him giving her parents the once-over. Though since, on reflection that was what her parents were doing, giving him the once-over to see if he was suitable for their only child, Elexa realised she hadn’t got very much to complain about.
The only relief Elexa found from the tangle her private life seemed to be in was at her office. But even there she wasn’t left in peace to do the job she so loved.
‘I didn’t see you at all yesterday,’ Jamie Hodges interrupted her day to complain.
‘I had several meetings—was it something specific?’ she enquired, feeling pretty certain that she knew what was coming.
‘I’ve got two tickets for the theatre on Saturday. I wondered if you were free?’ he began eagerly.
‘I’m not,’ she replied, and knew she was as soft as Peverelle no doubt thought her because she couldn’t tell Jamie more bluntly that he was wasting his time. She did not have the same problem in telling Des Reynolds to leave her alone, however.
‘How’s the most gorgeous woman ever to grace the portals of Colman and Fisher?’ he leered, perching himself on a corner of her desk.
‘Save it for your wife, Des. I’m up to my ears in—’
‘Very beautiful ears, if I may…’
‘I swear somebody turns a key and winds you up every morning.’ She had to laugh. ‘Clear off, Des, there’s a good lad.’ He went, and she supposed he would probably not change very much even if she did tell him she had a steady boyfriend. Jamie Hodges, now he was a different matter.
Elexa was halfway through rehearsing how she would tell Jamie that she was going out with someone she was going to marry when she stopped dead, her stomach churning. Apart from the fact he was a long way from agreeing yet, how could she contemplate marrying Peverelle? She didn’t even like him! The thought of actually going to bed with the cold unfeeling brute was impossible.
Again