The Matchmaker Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

accompanying PowerPoint presentation. It all sounded rather dreadful. ‘Well,’ she said diplomatically, ‘it will certainly be nice for you to be able to spend some time with him.’
    ‘Yes…’ Helen sounded hesitant and, although Emily didn’t blame her, she decided they’d had enough personal conversation. Part of her success in Human Resources was to know both when to employ and to curb the personal aspect of her position. ‘Well, since Mr Kingsley can vouch for you, I’m certainly willing to hire you. We’ll just fill out some forms and then I’ll show you around the reception area.’
    Helen beamed. ‘Thank you, Miss Wood.’
    ‘Please, call me Emily. We’re all friendly here.’
    Emily watched as Helen bent her dark head to fill out the forms, a sudden, gentle sort of protectiveness stealing over her. The girl really did seem terribly innocent. She would certainly need someone to look out for her, show her the ropes. And, more importantly, a bit of fun. Clearly Richard wasn’t going to do it.
    ‘Come on, then,’ she said when Helen had finished the forms. ‘We can grab a coffee before I show you ’round. You can meet a few people.’ A few people other than Richard Marsden, she added silently.
     
    The rest of her first day as Head of Human Resources passed uneventfully enough, with no more than the usual common complaints and banal paperwork to round out the hire of Helen that morning. She was surprised to find it already past five o’clock and most of her department gone when she finally finished her last email and pressed send.
    ‘A successful first day, it seems.’
    Emily looked up to see Jason standing in her doorway, and she wondered how she could have missed his approach. Her heart certainly gave a sudden, surprising lurch now.
    ‘Jason, you startled me.’ She smiled up at him, noticing the deeper grooves from his mouth to nose, the faint fanning of wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. The African sun had aged him a bit, but it was not unattractive. Jason could certainly carry off a rather dignified look. And he was quite a bit older…he was nearing forty. Time to think of marrying, perhaps. The thought was unsettling, only because she could not imagine Jason with a wife. He would probably pick someone to suit him just like Richard was with Helen. She could just see him compiling some sort of list. Must be handy with an iron, a golf club and a gardening spade….
    ‘Yes, it was successful,’ she said, stressing the word lightly. ‘No less than you’d expect, of course.’
    ‘Of course.’ He strolled into her office. He wore, as usual, a dark suit with a crisp shirt and blue silk tie, a woollen trench coat over one arm. He looked utterly put together and as always a little remote, and yet he seemed somehow different too. Or perhaps she was the one who was different, for she couldn’t quite keep her gaze from roving over him as that citrusy scent of his aftershave assaulted her senses.
    She rose from her desk, glad she’d chosen a cherry-red power suit with a fitted jacket and miniskirt for her first day as Head. Admittedly, her skirt was a bit on the short side, and she saw Jason’s gaze flick to her bare legs before his mouth tightened into a faint but familiar line of disapproval.
    Feeling a little impish, Emily held one foot out for him to examine. ‘Oh, do you like my shoes?’ she asked, widening her eyes innocently. Today she’d worn a pair of matching red stilettos with diamanté straps. She wasn’t generally that into shoes, but these had been hard to resist. And they matched her suit perfectly.
    Jason stared at her stretched-out leg, looking decidedly unimpressed. ‘Very pretty,’ he said after a moment. ‘Although not necessarily work attire.’
    ‘Well,’ Emily told him, unable to resist the opportunity to bait him just a bit more, ‘I had to liven up this suit somehow.’
    For a split second Jason looked positively thunderous, and Emily wondered if he was