CHAPTER ONE

NIK WAS DUE home any minute.

Kezia glanced at the clock on the dashboard and pressed her foot down on the accelerator. At this rate her dynamic and notoriously impatient boss would arrive at his country mansion ahead of her, and all hell would break loose. Nik was bringing a group of Bulgarian businessmen to Otterbourne House, hoping to impress them with his plans for a hotel complex on the Black Sea coast, and he expected his PA to be ready and waiting to greet his guests.

Could the day get any worse? Kezia wondered grimly as she peered through the rain. It was bad enough that the catering company she had booked for tonight's party had pulled out at the last minute. Most of the staff had come down with flu, the harassed administrator had explained. But with a day's notice to try and make alternative arrangements, Kezia had been short on sympathy. Fortunately Nik's housekeeper, Mrs Jessop, had rallied round, and was busy preparing a lavish dinner that was set to impress the guests. It had been left to Kezia to collect a selection of desserts from the patisserie, but the trip into town had taken longer than she had anticipated. The torrential downpour had caused serious flooding along the narrow country lanes, and now dusk was falling.

She needed to focus all her concentration on the road, but as usual it was a certain sexy Greek who dominated her thoughts. An unbidden image of Nik's handsome face filled her mind as she pictured his classically sculpted features. Get a grip, she admonished herself sternly, irritated at the way her heartbeat quickened with every mile that she drew nearer to Otterbourne.

He had been away for the past few weeks, visiting his family in Greece, and she was dismayed at how much she had missed him. It was pathetic for a grown woman of twenty-four to have developed such a ridiculous fixation with a man who was way out of her league, she reminded herself savagely. She felt like a teenager in the throes of her first crush and she would die of shame if he ever guessed how much he affected her.

She reached the outskirts of the village and breathed a sigh of relief. Another five minutes and she would be turning in to the gates leading to Otterbourne House. With any luck she would just beat Nik—although she would have little time to tidy her hair or check her make-up. Not that he would notice, she conceded bleakly. As far as Nik was concerned she was his ultra-efficient PA, whose sole purpose was to ensure that his life ran smoothly.

As he had explained at her interview, three months ago, he didn't want a decorative bimbo running his office; he was looking for someone who was prepared to put in long hours and who would blend unobtrusively into the background. With her unruly curls tamed into a sleek chignon, and her sensible navy blue suit, he had obviously deemed Kezia the ideal choice.

There had been no element of the sexual tension she recalled from their first meeting at the London head office—at least not on his part. He'd given no indication that he even remembered her, and the fact that her tongue had tied itself in knots throughout the interview had added to her embarrassment. It was evident that he was only interested in her organisational skills, and sometimes she wondered whether he would notice if she paraded around the office stark naked.

Without warning something shot out from the shadows and ran in front of the car. Kezia hit the brakes, skidded on the wet road and lost control. She was heading for the trees, and with a frantic cry she jerked the wheel. The engine stalled and she ploughed into the bushes that lined the road. So much for concentrating, she thought shakily. The seat belt had saved her from serious injury, but the force of the impact had caused her to hit her head on the steering wheel, and already she could feel a lump the size of an egg swelling on her temple.

She restarted the engine and cautiously backed up onto the road before climbing out of the car. It was too dark to make a proper inspection for damage, but at least the car was drivable. A wave of sickness swept over her. What was it that had run out? Probably a fox that had now disappeared into the undergrowth, she told herself as she squinted through the rain. She was cold and wet, and running seriously late, but the thought of leaving an animal lying injured on the roadside was abhorrent to her, and with a muttered curse she began to search along the verge.

Ten minutes later she was soaked to the skin and ready to give up when a faint whimper drew her attention to the other side of the ditch. The dog was no more than a bag of bones. Its fur was wet and matted, and in the dark in was impossible to see if it was injured, but when she held out her hand it moved tentatively towards her.

'Come on, boy,' she whispered gently, feeling the animal tremble with a mixture of cold and fright as she lifted it into her arms. 'Let's get out of this rain.'

She waded back across the ditch, but as she scrabbled up the slippery bank she felt the heel of one of her shoes give way and cursed loudly. Her new kitten-heel shoes were ruined, and her skirt was covered in mud. Nik was going to go mad, Kezia acknowledged as she hobbled over to the car and deposited the dog on the front seat. He had spent the past week on the phone, relaying precise instructions for the weekend, and it was safe to assume that he would not be impressed when his PA turned up late, looking as if she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Copyright © 2006 by Chantelle Shaw.