[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

soul of conservatism at work. He won't get any excuses to take potshots at me."
"If you say so," he said with a regretful thought for the pretty, feminine dress
that he'd never seen her wear in public. So much for hoping that Matt might have
coaxed her out of her repressive way of dressing. But it was early days yet.
Chapter Ten
For the first few days after her return to work, Leslie was uneasy every time she
saw Matt coming. She shared that apprehension with two of the other secretaries, one
of whom actually ripped her skirt climbing over the fence around the flower garden
near the front of the building in a desperate attempt to escape him.
The incident sent Leslie into gales of helpless laughter as she told Karla Smith
about it. Matt came by her office just as they were discussing it and stood
transfixed at a sound he'd never heard coming from Leslie since he'd known her. She
looked up and saw him, and made a valiant attempt to stop laughing.
"What's so funny?" he asked pleasantly.
176 MATT CALDWELL: TEXAS TYCOON
Karla choked and ran for the ladies' room, leaving Leslie to cope with the
question.
"Did you say something to the secretaries the other day to upset them?" she asked
him right out.
He shifted. "I may have said a word or two that I shouldn't have," was all he'd
admit.
"Well, Daisy Joiner just plowed through a fence avoiding you, and half her
petticoat's still...out... there!" She collapsed against her desk, tears rolling
down her cheeks.
She was more animated than he'd ever seen her. It lifted his heart. Not that he
was going to admit it.
He gave her a harsh mock glare and pulled a cigar case out of his shirt pocket.
"Lily-livered cowards," he muttered as he took out a cigar, flicked off the end with
a tool from his slacks pocket, and snapped open his lighter with a flair.  What we
need around here are secretaries with guts!" he said loudly, and flicked the lighter
with his thumb.
Two streams of water hit the flame at the same time from different directions.
"Oh, for God's sake!" Matt roared as giggling, scurrying feet retreated down the
hall.
"What were you saying about secretaries with guts?" she asked with twinkling gray
eyes.
He looked at his drenched lighter and his damp cigar, and threw the whole mess
Page 62
Palmer, Diana - Long Tall Texans 21 - Matt Caldwell - Texas Tycoon
into the trash can by Leslie's desk. "I quit," he muttered.
Leslie couldn't help the twinkle in her eyes. "I
DIANA PALMER
177
believe that was the whole object of the thing," she pointed out, "to make you quit
smoking?"
He grimaced. "I guess it was." He studied her intently. "You're settling back in
nicely," he remarked. "Do you have everything you need?"
"Yes," she replied.
He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something else and couldn't decide what. His
dark eyes swept over her face, as if he were comparing her dark hair and glasses to
the blond camouflage she'd worn when she first came to work for him.
"I guess I look different," she said a little selfconsciously, because the
scrutiny made her nervous. His face gave nothing away.
He smiled gently. "I like it," he told her.
"Did you need to see Ed?" she asked, because he still hadn't said why he was in
Ed's office.
He shrugged. "It's nothing urgent," he murmured. "I met with the planning and
zoning committee last night. I thought he might like to know how I came out."
"I could buzz him."
He nodded, still smiling. "Why don't you do that?"
She did. Ed came out of his office at once, still uncertain about Matt's
reactions.
"Got a minute?" Matt asked him.
"Sure. Come on in." Ed stood aside to let the taller man stride into his office.
He glanced back to-
178 MATT CALDWELL: TEXAS TYCOON
ward Leslie with a puzzled, questioning expression. She only smiled.
He nodded and closed the door, leaving Leslie to go back to work. She couldn't
quite figure out Matt's new attitude toward her. There was nothing predatory about
him lately. Ever since his return from Houston and the explosive meeting at her
apartment, he was friendly and polite, even a little affectionate, but he didn't
come near her now. He seemed to have the idea that any physical contact upset her,
so he was being Big Brother Matt instead.
She should have been grateful. After all, he'd said often enough that marriage
wasn't in his vocabulary. An affair, obviously, was out of the question now that he
knew her past. Presumably affection was the only thing he had to offer her. It was a
little disappointing, because Leslie had learned in their one early encounter that
Matt's touch was delightful. She wished that she could tell him how exciting it was
to her. It had been the only tenderness she'd ever had from a man in any physical
respect, and she was very curious about that part of relationships. Not with just
anyone, of course.
Only with Matt.
Her hands stilled on the keyboard as she heard footsteps approaching. The door
opened and Carolyn came in, svelte in a beige dress that made the most of her
figure, her hair perfectly coiffed.
"They said he let you come back to work here. I couldn't believe it, after what
that reporter told him,''
DIANA PALMER
179
the older woman began hotly. She gave Leslie a haughty, contemptuous stare. "That
disguise won't do you any good, you know," she added, pausing to dig in her purse.
She drew out a worn page from an old tabloid and tossed it onto Leslie's desk. It
was the photo they'd used of her on the stretcher, with the caption, Teenager,
Lover, Shot By Jealous Mother In Love Triangle.
Leslie just sat and looked at it, thinking how the past never really went away.
Page 63
Palmer, Diana - Long Tall Texans 21 - Matt Caldwell - Texas Tycoon
She sighed wistfully. She was never going to be free of it.
"Don't you have anything to say?" Carolyn taunted.
Leslie looked up at her. "My mother is in prison. My life was destroyed. The man
responsible for it all was a drug dealer." She searched Carolyn's cold eyes. "You
can't imagine it, can you? You've always been wealthy, protected, safe. How could
you understand the trauma of being a very innocent seventeen-year-old and having
four grown men strip you naked in a drug-crazed frenzy and try to rape you in your
own home?"
Amazingly Carolyn went pale. She hesitated, frowning. Her eyes went to the tabloid
and she shifted uneasily. Her hand went out to retrieve the page just as the door to
Ed's office opened and Matt came through it.
His face, when he saw Carolyn with the tearsheet in her hand, became dangerous.
Carolyn jerked it back, crumpled it, and threw it
180 MATT CALDWELL: TEXAS TYCOON
in the trash can. "You don't need to say anything," she said in a choked tone. "I'm
not very proud of myself right now." She moved away from Leslie without looking at
her. "I'm going to Europe for a few months. See you when I get back, Matt."
"You'd better hope you don't," he said in a voice like steel.
She made an awkward movement, but she didn't turn. She squared her shoulders and
kept walking.
Matt paused beside the desk, retrieved the page and handed it to Ed. "Burn that,"
he said tautly. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]