Secretary on Demand Read Online Free PDF Page A

said steadily, ‘That really is none of your business, Mr Lindley.’
    â€˜No, it isn’t, is it?’ he said softly, but his eyes implied otherwise. ‘Now, there are one or two other minor considerations that come with this job,’ he said slowly, resting both his elbows on the table and leaning towards her. He had rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt so that she had an ample view of strong forearms, liberally sprinkled with fine, dark hair.
    â€˜Minor considerations?’ Shannon met his thoughtful, speculative look with a stirring of unease. What minor considerations? She didn’t care for the word ‘minor’. Somehow it brought to mind the word ‘major’.
    â€˜There are a few duties connected with this job that will require some overtime…’
    She breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t afraid of hard work and clock-watching had never been one of her problems. If anything, she’d often found herself staying on to work when she could have been going home.
    â€˜I’m fine with overtime, Mr Lindley,’ she said quickly. ‘Alfredo will vouch for that.’
    â€˜Good, good.’ He paused and his dark eyes flitted across her face. ‘These duties, however, are possibly not quite what you have in mind.’
    â€˜What do they involve, Mr Lindley?’ Shannon asked faintly, for once lost for words in the face of the myriad possibilities filling her imaginative mind. She hoped that he wasn’t about to spring some illegal suggestion on her because she’d just become accustomed to thinking thatgainful employment was within her reach and to have it summarily snatched away would be almost more of a blow than the original loss of her job.
    â€˜I have a child, Miss McKee…’
    â€˜You have a child ?’
    â€˜These things do happen as an outcome of sexual intercourse when no contraception has been used,’ Kane said with overdone patience. ‘As,’ he added mildly, ‘you are probably aware.’
    Shannon failed to take offence at his tone. ‘I—simply never associated you with a child,’ she stammered, realising belatedly that her admission might give him the idea that she had been speculating wildly about him behind his back.
    â€˜And may I ask why?’
    â€˜You just don’t look…the fatherly sort…’ She shrugged helplessly. ‘I mean,’ she said hurriedly, as his eyebrows slanted upwards, ‘you were always at the restaurant so early… I just assumed that you weren’t much of a family man… How old is your child?’
    â€˜Eight and it’s a she. Her name’s Eleanor.’
    â€˜Oh, right.’ Shannon paused long enough to digest this piece of information. ‘And if you don’t mind me asking, what does all this have to do with me?’
    â€˜At the moment I have a nanny in place to—’
    â€˜You have a nanny in place ?’ She gave a snort of derisory laughter.
    â€˜Would you do me the favour of not interrupting me every five seconds?’
    â€˜Sorry. It’s just the expression you used.’
    â€˜I have a nanny in place who takes Eleanor to school in the mornings and brings her back home. Under normal circumstances, I would have a live-in nanny but Carrie has always insisted on having the evenings toherself and I’ve been loath to replace her because she’s been there since Eleanor was a baby.’
    â€˜What about your wife? Does she work long hours as well?’ Shannon’s voice was laced with curiosity.
    â€˜My wife is dead.’ He glanced down and she felt a rush of compassion for him and for his child. She tried to imagine a life with no siblings, no mother, an absent father and a nanny—and failed.
    â€˜I’m sorry.’ She paused and then asked curiously, ‘When did she die?’
    â€˜When Eleanor was born, actually.’ There was a dead flatness in his voice which she