A Night, A Consequence, A Vow by Angela Bissell

Author:Angela Bissell [Bissell, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2017-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

SIX WEEKS.

That was how long it was before Ramon finally returned to London, although it had taken considerably less time for him to conclude that his morning-after behaviour in Paris had been reprehensible.

Abominable.

He hadn’t reacted well to rejection. Yes, Emily could have handled the situation with more grace than she had, but his own behaviour had lacked any degree of decorum. He wasn’t unfamiliar with self-contempt and regret, but until that weekend those particular demons had not sat so heavily on his soul in a long time.

So he’d respected Emily’s wishes and stayed away, keeping their communication to a minimum.

But six weeks was long enough. He was done with the polite, impersonal emails. The short, stilted phone calls. She still hadn’t hired a replacement accountant and he wanted to know why. If she was keeping the position open in the hope that he would grant Turner a pardon and allow her to invite the man back, she was courting disappointment.

He walked down the carpeted corridor on the executive level of The Royce and saw Marsha sitting at her desk. At his approach, her eyes widened and she jumped up as if she’d been stuck with a cattle prod. ‘Mr de la Vega! I didn’t know we were expecting you.’

‘You weren’t.’ He unleashed a good-humoured smile and gestured to the closed door of Emily’s office. ‘Is she in?’

‘Er...no.’

‘When will she be back?’

She blinked then stared at him.

‘Marsha?’ he prompted.

‘I... I don’t know.’

He frowned. ‘What do you mean, you don’t know?’

‘I mean...she’s not in today. She’s sick...’ Marsha bit her lip. ‘At least, I think she’s sick... She rang yesterday morning and said she was taking the day off—which is very unusual. And then today...she left a message on my phone early this morning, saying she’d be in before noon, but I haven’t seen her yet.’

He glanced at his watch. ‘It’s after two p.m.’

Marsha wrung her hands. ‘I know.’

‘Have you tried calling her?’ he demanded.

‘Twice. I left her two messages. She hasn’t called back.’

An icy sensation hollowed out his gut. That didn’t sound like the dedicated, conscientious Emily Royce he knew.

‘Call me if you hear from her,’ he commanded and turned on his heel.

* * *

Emily opened her eyes.

Someone was pounding on her door. Or was it the pounding in her head that she hadn’t been able to shake for two days that she could hear?

Her doorbell chimed, the sound piercing in the silence of her flat, and Emily groaned. It was a week day and her neighbours should all be at work, except for Mr Johnson, who was retired. But he had never climbed the stairs to visit her. Of course, he could have forgotten to lock the main entrance again, in which case the person banging on her door could be a stranger.

She groaned again, closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into the softness of the sofa.

‘Emily!’

She froze, the sound of her name being barked on the other side of the door forcing its way into her stress-addled mind. She knew that voice.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.