She frowned. ‘Our outback contacts said it wasn’t worth it.’
‘Are you saying that they removed their properties from our books, or they dropped out of tourism altogether?’
It was clear she didn’t want to answer this question. She opened her notebook, stared at a blank page, and then shut it again with a snap.
‘Is that what happened?’ Liam prompted again. ‘These cattle stations stopped taking tourists?’
‘No.’
Liam waited.
‘They went to other tourist agencies.’
‘Why?’ he asked again.
Alice looked away and drew a sharp breath. ‘I’m not sure.’
Now she was lying. He knew that, but he felt a grudging respect for her attempt to protect her colleague.
‘Could it have been a PR problem?’ he suggested carefully. ‘Were a few toes stepped on? A few egos bruised?’
She looked directly at him and the loveliness of her soft grey eyes snagged at his breath.
Very carefully, she said, ‘I guess it’s easy sometimes for people in the city to misread country folk and to believe they haven’t kept up with the times.’
‘But that’s rubbish. When it comes to market trends and meeting consumer demands, the people in the outback are as astute as anyone else.’ He’d told Dennis Ericson as much.
He tapped long fingers on his desk top. ‘As you might have guessed, I plan to turn this situation around. I’m going into the outback tomorrow to check things out. A kind of reconnaissance and goodwill tour.’
Alice nodded, her eyes watching him.
‘I want you to come with me.’
The look of dismay that swept over her face shocked him, but he kept his face stone-hard.
His assessment of the company records showed a clear period of growth while Alice had been in charge of the outback operations. And after observing the way she handled his questions, he felt certain she had the diplomatic skills needed to win back lost clients—if that was still possible.
He cracked a small smile. ‘Just remember I’m the boss and I get to make the decisions.’
His brashness fired two pink spots in her cheeks. ‘I thought your first priority was to hunt down new premises. Somewhere flash on the Esplanade.’
‘I’ve simply changed my priorities. As I see it now, my biggest problem is the outback and I’m going to tackle the most pressing problem first.’
Her hands twisted nervously. ‘You know you shouldn’t be asking me to do this, Liam. Take Shana. She’s from Mount Isa and she has good contacts out west.’
‘Shana’s also a single parent with a rather emotionally fragile pre-school child.’
Her head shot up. ‘You know about Toby?’
‘Yes. You see, Alice, I have looked into alternatives.’
Her eyes widened and he thought he caught a flash of emotion. Annoyance? Pique? Was she miffed that he’d exhausted other possibilities before approaching her? The thought stirred him in ways that it shouldn’t.
‘Shana doesn’t want to spend so much time away from her son,’ he said. ‘And Mary-Ann has specialised almost exclusively in the reef tours and attractions.’
‘And Dennis?’
‘I have other plans for him.’ Liam pressed his point home. ‘Alice, you used to look after the client base in the outback and it was doing well. It makes perfect sense that you should accompany me.’
There was a long, awkward silence and at the end of it she let out a sigh. Of defeat? Liam held his breath.
‘I’m sorry, but I’d rather not,’ she said quietly.
‘I’m afraid you don’t have any option. Alice, I’m telling you that this is not negotiable. It’s a directive.’
‘A directive?’ Her eyes flashed with a mutinous glitter, but he glimpsed a flash of pain behind her defiance.
He felt a stab of guilt. Her husband had treated her shabbily and no doubt she found it hard to trust any man now, especially a man who’d deliberately sought her out, and then seduced her.
‘How long would we be gone for?’ she asked.
He forced a casual shrug. ‘For as long as it takes.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ Her sudden anger launched her to her feet. ‘What kind of answer is that?’ Her eyes turned smoky, angry as thunderclouds. ‘You might be my boss, Liam, but don’t let the power go to your head. Surely you haven’t forgotten our ground rules? You know perfectly well why we should make this trip as brief as possible.’
‘Don’t you trust me?’ He tried to lighten the question with a chuckle, but even to his ears it sounded hollow—rather destroying the effect.
Her chin tilted to a haughty angle. ‘No. Under the circumstances, I think I’d be foolish to trust you.’
Liam knew he deserved that. For a long moment, he stared at the surface of his desk while he breathed in and out slowly. Then he kept his gaze determined as he looked at her.
‘Three days, Alice. That’s all I’m asking.’ God knew how he was going to survive three days in the outback without touching her, but he was determined to stand by his word.
‘There’ll be separate accommodation?’
‘Of course. You have my word this will be strictly business.’
Her response was another venomous glare. ‘You’d better believe it, Mr Conway.’
‘What’s this? A new dress code for the office?’
Alice squirmed beneath Dennis’s scrutiny of her bone-coloured stretch Capri trousers and plain white scoop-neck T-shirt.
‘I’m heading to the bush today,’ she said, nodding to the small backpack on the floor beside her desk. ‘Just for a quick tour of the Gulf Country to try to recoup some of the market share.’
‘On your own?’
‘With…the boss.’
‘Oh? I see.’ Dennis’s voice added layers of innuendo to those simple words.
‘So the boss’s taking you out west? Just the two of you?’ This came from Mary-Ann, who’d just come into the room.
Alice suppressed a sigh. ‘Yes.’
These awkward questions could have been avoided if she’d been able to meet Liam at the airport, but he’d insisted on leaving from the office in full view of the staff. ‘I don’t want to skulk away as if we have something to hide,’ he’d said.
‘Shana won’t be too happy,’ said Mary-Ann.
Alice frowned at her. ‘I thought Shana didn’t want to go.’
‘She didn’t at first, because of Toby. But apparently the boss seemed really keen to take her and Shana went all jammy. I think she’s developed a crush on him. Anyway, she ran around madly until she found a babysitter Toby really likes and she was all hot to trot.’
‘When was this?’ Alice tried to ignore nasty niggles of jealousy.
‘Day before yesterday.’
Before yesterday…Goose-pimples broke out on Alice’s arms. ‘Did Shana tell Liam—I mean, Mr Conway—that she’d found someone to mind Toby?’
Mary-Ann nodded. ‘First thing yesterday morning. But he said he’d