The Girl he Never Noticed Read Free Page B

she looked set to take issue with him.
    ‘Oh?’ Liz looked surprised. ‘How so?’
    ‘Remember the Fortune proposal—the seafood marketing one? I virtually tossed it in your lap the first day, because it was incomplete, and told you to fix it?’
    Liz nodded. ‘I do,’ she said dryly.
    He smiled. ‘Throwing you in at the deep end and not what you were employed for anyway? Possibly. But I saw you study it, and then I happened to hear you on the phone to Fortune with your summation of it and what needed to be done to fix it. I was impressed.’
    Liz took another sip of champagne. ‘Well, thanks.’
    ‘And Molly tells me you’re a bit of an IT whiz.’
    ‘Not really—but I do like computers and software,’ she responded.
    ‘It does lead me to wonder why you’re temping rather than carving out a career for yourself,’ he said meditatively.
    Liz looked around.
    A few couples had started to dance, and she was suddenly consumed by a desire to be free to do what she liked—which at this moment was to surrender herself to the African beat, the call of the drums and the wild. To be free of problems… To have a partner to dance with, to talk to, to share things with. Someone to help her lighten the load she was carrying.
    Someone to help her live a bit. It was so long since she’d danced—so long since she’d let her hair down, so to speak—she’d forgotten what it was like…
    As if drawn by a magnet her gaze came back to her escort, to find him looking down at her with a faint frown in his eyes and also an unspoken question. For one amazed moment she thought he was going to ask her to dance with him. That was followed by another amazed moment as she pictured herself moving into his arms and letting her body sway to the music.
    Had he guessed which way her thoughts were heading? And if so, how? she wondered. Had there been a link forged between them now that he’d noticed her as a woman and not a robot—a mental link as well as a physical one?
    She looked away as a tremor of alarm ran through her. She didn’t want to be linked to a man, did she? Shedidn’t want to go through that again. She was mad to have allowed Cam Hillier to taunt her into showing him she wasn’t just a stick of office furniture…
    She said the first thing that came to mind to break any mental link… ‘Who’s Archie?’
    ‘My nephew.’
    ‘He sounds like an animal lover.’
    ‘He is.’
    Liz waited for a moment, but it became obvious Cam Hillier was not prepared to be more forthcoming on the subject of his nephew.
    Liz lifted her shoulders and looked out over the crowd.
    Then her gaze sharpened, and widened, as she focused on a tall figure across the terrace. A man—a man who had once meant the world to her.
    She turned away abruptly and handed her glass to her boss. ‘Forgive me,’ she said hurriedly, ‘but I need—I need to find the powder room.’ And she turned on her heel and walked inside.
    How she came to get lost in Narelle Hastings’ mansion she was never quite sure. She did find a powder room, and spent a useless ten minutes trying to calm herself down, but for the rest of it her inner turmoil must have been so great she’d been unable to think straight.
    She came out of the powder room determined to make a discreet exit from the house, the party, Cam Hillier, the lot—only to see Narelle farewelling several guests. She did a quick about-turn and went through several doorways to find herself in the kitchen. Fortunately itwas empty of staff, but she knew that could only be a very temporary state of affairs.
    Never mind, she told herself. She’d leave by the back door!
    The back door at first yielded a promising prospect—a service courtyard, a high wall with a gate in it.
    Excellent! Except when she got to it, it was to find the gate locked.
    She drew a frustrated, trembling breath as it occurred to her how acutely embarrassing this could turn out to be. How on earth would she explain it to Cameron Hillier—not