Christmas with her Boss (2 page)

‘It's not charity at all,' she managed, feeling a faint stirring of anger. ‘We'd love to have you.' Oooh, what a lie.

But what was the choice? Sleeping bags here was a real possibility, awful as it seemed. She could spend Christmas trying to make this office liveable, working around a situation which was appalling. Or she could try and resurrect Christmas.

If he accepted, then he'd spend the whole time in his room with his computer, she thought. Thank the stars she'd set up Internet access on the farm. It cost more than she could afford, but it had made Scotty jubilant and maybe…just maybe it would be the decider.

‘I do not want to be part of anyone else's Christmas,' he snapped.

‘You don't need to be. You can stay in your room and work. I can even bring your meals to your room, if you want to take it that far.'

‘I can't believe this is the only solution.'

‘It's the only one I can think of.'

No matter what she did, no matter what she offered, she
would
lose her job over this, Meg thought miserably, and then she thought—why don't I quit now? She could walk away and leave this man to do whatever he wanted over Christmas.

But this was the best job. And maybe…maybe he'd even enjoy it. Letty put on a great Christmas. Miracles could happen.

Send me a miracle, she pleaded, starting her Santa list right now.

‘It will work,' she said, managing to sound much more calm than she felt. ‘This is a genuine offer and we'd be very pleased to have you.' She glanced at her watch, acting as if it was time to move on. Acting as if the thing had already been decided. ‘You will be able to work. The room has a lovely view.'
Not exactly like this one
. ‘You will be comfortable and you will be left alone. If you accept my offer, then my train leaves in an hour. I'm sorry you can't get home but this is the best I can do.'

His face was still dark with fury.

If he was so angry, why didn't he contact someone else? she thought. Any socialite in Melbourne would be pleased to be his friend. He was invited everywhere. Surely he didn't wish to spend Christmas with her.

But it seemed he did.

‘Your house is large?'

That was easy. ‘Yes, it is.'

‘No young children?'

‘No.' Scotty was fifteen. Surely that didn't count as young.

‘And I will have privacy?'

‘Yes, sir.'

‘Right,' he said roughly, angrily. ‘I'll pay your family for my accommodation and I'll work from there.'

‘There's no need to pay.'

‘This is business,' he snapped. ‘Business or nothing.'

‘Fine,' she said, accepting the inevitable. ‘I'll get changed. We can walk to the station.'

‘Walk?'

‘It's Christmas,' she said. ‘Traffic's gridlocked and it's four blocks.'

‘I will have privacy at this place?' he demanded again, suddenly suspicious.

‘At my home,' she said, goaded. ‘Yes, you will.'

He hesitated. ‘And your family…'

‘They'll be glad of the extra income,' she said, knowing that this at least was true.

And it seemed it was the right thing to say. He was moving on.

'Don't think I'm accepting this with any degree of complacency,' he snapped. ‘We'll discuss this debacle after Christmas. But for now…let's just get it over with.'

Where was she taking him?

Maybe he should have paid attention, but he'd stalked back into his office and worked until she'd decreed it was time to go. Then he'd walked beside her to the station and stayed silent as she organised tickets. He'd been too angry to do anything else, and too caught up in work. The Berswood faxes had come through just as he left, and he'd spotted a loophole that would have his lawyers busy for weeks.

Had they really thought he wouldn't notice such a problem?

As he walked to the station he was planning his course of attack—and maybe that was no accident. Burying himself in work had always been his way to block out the world, and he was not looking forward to the next three days. Three days immersed in his work, with little to alleviate it, with no hotel gym to burn energy… And missing Elinor and the kids…That hurt.

At least he had the Berswood contract to work on, he told himself as he strode beside his PA, trying to think the legal implications through as she purchased tickets and hurried to the train. Then as the train pulled out, the announcement came through that the train destination was four hours away. What the…?

He and Meg had been forced to sit across the aisle from each other. He looked across at her in alarm. ‘Four hours?'

‘We get off earlier,' she called. ‘Two and a half hours.'

Two and a half hours?

He couldn't even grill her. He sat hard against the window with barely enough room to balance his laptop. Beside him, a woman was juggling two small children, one on her knee and one in a carrycot in the aisle. Meg had someone else's child on her lap. There were people squashed every which way, in a train taking them who knew where?

He was heading into the unknown, with his PA.

She didn't even look like his PA, he thought as the interminable train journey proceeded, and even the Berswood deal wasn't enough to hold his attention. It seemed she'd brought her luggage to the office so she could make a quick getaway. Once he'd grudgingly accepted her invitation, she'd slipped into the Ladies and emerged…different.

His PA normally wore a neat black suit, crisp white blouse and sensible black shoes with solid heels. She wore her hair pulled tightly into an elegant chignon. He'd never seen her with a hair out of place.

She was now wearing hip-hugging jeans, pale blue canvas sneakers—a little bit worn—and a soft white shirt, open necked, with a collar but no sleeves.

What was more amazing was that she'd tugged her chignon free, and her bouncing chestnut curls were flowing over her shoulders. And at her throat was a tiny Christmas angel.

The angel could have been under her corporate shirt for weeks, he thought, stunned at the transformation. She looked casual. She looked completely unbusinesslike—and he didn't like it. He didn't like being on this train. He didn't like it that his PA was chatting happily to the woman beside her about who knew what?

He wasn't in control, and to say he wasn't accustomed to the sensation was an understatement.

William McMaster had been born in control. His parents were distant, to say the least, and he'd learned early that nursery staff came and went. If he made a fuss, they went. He seldom did make a fuss. He liked continuity; he liked his world running smoothly.

His PA was paid to make sure it did.

Meg had come to him with impeccable references. She'd graduated with an excellent commerce degree, she'd moved up the corporate ladder in the banking sector and it was only when her personal circumstances changed that she'd applied for the job with him.

‘I need to spend more time with my family,' she'd said and he hadn't asked more.

Her private life wasn't his business.

Only now it was his business. He should have asked more questions. He was trapped with her family, whoever her family turned out to be.

While back in New York…

He needed to contact Elinor, urgently, but he couldn't call her now. It was three in the morning her time. It'd have to wait.

The thought of contacting her made him feel ill. To give such disappointment…

‘There's less than an hour to go,' Meg called across the aisle and, to his astonishment, she sounded cheerful. ‘Dandle a baby if you're bored. I'm sure the lady beside you would be grateful.'

‘I couldn't let him do that.' The young mother beside him looked shocked. ‘I'd spoil his lovely suit.'

He winced. He'd taken off his jacket but he still looked corporate and he knew it. He had suits and gym gear. Nothing else.

Surely that couldn't be a problem. But…

Where were they going?

He'd had visions of a suburban house with a comfortable spare room where he could lock himself in and work for three days. He'd pay, so he wouldn't have to be social; something he'd be forced to be if he stayed with any of Melbourne's social set. But now… Where was she taking him?

He was a billionaire. He did not have problems like this.

How did you get off a train?

 

There was a no alcohol policy on the train, which was just as well as the carriage was starting to look like a party. It was full of commuters going home for Christmas, holidaymakers, everyone escaping the city and heading bush.

Someone started a Christmas singalong, which was ridiculous, but somehow Meg found herself singing along too.

Was she punch-drunk?

No. She was someone who'd lost the plot but there was nothing she could do about it. She had no illusions about her job. She'd messed things up and, even though she was doing the best she could, William McMaster had been denied his Christmas and she was responsible.

Worse, she was taking him home. He hadn't asked where home was. He wasn't interested.

She glanced across the aisle at him and thought he so didn't belong on this train. He looked…

Fabulous, she admitted to herself, and there it was, the thing she'd carefully suppressed since she'd taken this job. W S McMaster was awesome. He was brilliant and powerful and more. He worked her hard but he paid magnificently; he expected the best from her and he got it.

And he was so-o-o sexy. If she wasn't careful, she knew she stood every chance of having a major crush on the guy. But she'd realised that from the start, from that first interview, so
she'd carefully compartmentalised her life. He was her boss. Any other sensation had to be carefully put aside.

And she'd learned from him. W S McMaster had compartments down to a fine art. There was never any hint of personal interaction between employer and employee.

But now there needed to be personal interaction. W S McMaster was coming home to her family.

He'd better be nice to Scotty.

He didn't have to be nice to anyone.

Yes, he did, she thought. For the next few days her boundaries needed to shift. Not to be taken away, she reminded herself hastily. Just moved a little. She needed to stop thinking about him as her boss and start thinking about him as someone who should be grateful to her for providing emergency accommodation.

She'd made a start, deliberately getting rid of her corporate gear, making a statement that this weekend wasn't entirely an extension of their work relationship.

He could lock himself in his room for the duration, she thought. She'd sent a flurry of texts to Letty on the subject of which room they'd put him in. The attic was best. There was a good bed and a desk and a comfy chair. It had its own small bathroom. The man was a serious workaholic. Maybe he'd even take his meals in his room.

‘He's not singing,' the elderly woman beside her said. Meg had struck up an intermittent conversation with her, so she knew the connection. ‘Your boss. Is he not happy?'

‘He's stuck in Australia because of the airline strike,' Meg said. ‘I suspect he's homesick.'

Homesick. She'd spoken loudly because of the singing, but there was a sudden lull between verses and somehow her words hit silence. Suddenly everyone was looking at William.

‘Homesick,' the woman beside Meg breathed, loud enough
for everyone to hear; loud enough to catch William's attention. ‘Oh, that's awful. Do you have a wife and kiddies back home?'

‘I…no,' William said, clearly astonished that a stranger could be so familiar.

‘So it'll just be your parents missing you,' the woman said. ‘Oh, I couldn't bear it. Where's home?'

‘New York.' The two syllables were said with bluntness bordering on rudeness, but the woman wasn't to be deflected.

‘New York City?' she breathed. ‘Oh, where? Near Central Park?'

‘My apartment overlooks Central Park,' he conceded, and there was an awed hush.

‘Will it be snowing there?' someone asked, and Meg looked at her boss's grim face and answered for him. She'd checked the forecast. It was part of her job.

‘The forecast is for snow.'

‘Oh, and the temperature here's going to be boiling.' The woman doing the questioning looked as if she might burst into tears on his behalf. ‘You could have made snowmen in Central Park.'

‘I don't…'

‘Or thrown snowballs,' someone added.

‘Or made a Snowman Santa.'

‘Hey, did you see that movie where they fell down and made snow angels?'

‘He could do that here in the dust.'

There was general laughter, but it was sympathetic, and then the next carol started and William was mercifully left alone.

Um…maybe she should have protected him from that. Maybe she shouldn't have told anyone he was her boss. Meg looked across at William—immersed in his work again—and thought—I'm taking my boss home for Christmas and
all we're offering is dust angels. He could be having a white Christmas in Central Park.

With who?

She didn't know, and she was not going to feel bad about that, she decided. Not until he told her that he was missing a person in particular. If he was simply going to sit in a luxury penthouse and have lobster and caviar and truffles and open gifts to himself…

She was going home to Scotty and Grandma and a hundred cows.

That was a good thought. No matter how appallingly she'd messed up, she was still going home for Christmas.

She was very noble to share, she told herself.

Hold that thought.

 

Tandaroit wasn't so much a station as a rail head. There'd been talk of closing it down but Letty had immediately presented a petition with over five thousand names on it to their local parliamentarian. No matter that Letty, Scotty and Meg seemed to be the only ones who used it—and that the names on the petition had been garnered by Letty, dressed in gumboots and overalls, sitting on the corner of one of Melbourne's major pedestrian malls in Scotty's now discarded wheelchair. She'd been holding an enormous photograph of a huge-eyed calf with a logo saying ‘Save Your Country Cousins' superimposed.

Tandaroit Station stayed.

When Letty wanted something she generally got it. Her energy was legendary. The death of her son and daughter-in-law four years ago had left her shattered, but afterwards she'd hugged Meg and she'd said, ‘There's nothing to do but keep going, so we keep going. Let's get you another job.'

Meg's first thought had been to get some sort of accountancy job in Curalo, their closest city, but then they'd found Mr McMaster's advertisement. ‘You'd be away from us almost
completely for three months of the year but the rest we'd have you almost full-time. That'd be better for Scotty; better for all of us. And look at the pay,' Letty had said, awed. ‘Oh, Meg, go for it.'

So she'd gone for it, and now she was tugging her bag down from the luggage rack as William extricated himself from his wedged in position and she was thinking that was what she had to do now. Just go for it. Christmas, here we come, ready or not.

Her bag was stuck under a load of other people's baggage. She gave it a fierce tug and it came loose, just as William freed himself from his seat. She lurched backward and he caught her. And held.

He had to hold her. The train was slowing. There were youngsters sitting in the aisle, she had no hope of steadying herself and she had every chance of landing on top of a child. But her boss was holding her against him, steady as a rock in the swaying train.

And she let him hold her. She was tired and unnerved and overwrought. She'd been trying to be chirpy; trying to pretend everything was cool and she brought someone like her boss home for Christmas every year. She'd been trying to think that she didn't care that she'd just ruined the most fantastic job she'd ever be likely to have.

And suddenly it was all just too much. For one fleeting moment she let her guard down. She let herself lean into him, while she felt his strength, the feel of his new-this-morning crisp linen shirt, the scent of his half-a-month's-salary aftershave…

‘Ooh, I hope you two have a very happy Christmas,' the lady she'd been sitting near said, beaming up at them in approval. ‘No need for gifts for you two, then. No wonder you're taking him home for Christmas.' And then she giggled. ‘You
know, I married my boss too. Best thing I ever did. Fourteen grandchildren later… You go for it, love.'

And Meg, who'd never blushed in her life, turned bright crimson and hauled herself out of her boss's arms as if she were burned.

The train was shuddering to a halt. She had to manoeuvre her way through the crowds to get out.

She headed for the door, leaving her boss to follow. If he could. And she wouldn't really mind if he couldn't.

 

The train dumped them and left, rolling away into the night, civilisation on wheels, leaving them where civilisation wasn't. Nine o'clock on the Tandaroit rail head. Social hub of the world. Or not. There was a single electric light above the entrance, and nothing else for as far as the eye could see.

‘So…where exactly are we?' William said, sounding as if he might have just landed on Mars, but Meg wasn't listening. She was too busy staring out into the night, willing the headlights of Letty's station wagon to appear.