CHAPTER ONE

      BEN GARDINER, CEO and founder of Sahara Clothes, a global fashion house with retail outlets worldwide, stared across at his PA in horror. ‘You want to take some time off next month?’ he echoed. ‘During Milan Fashion Week?’

      ‘Yes.’ Maree looked him directly in the eye. ‘I know it’s short notice but Edward wants to take me away on a romantic break.’

      Ben opened his mouth and closed it again. ‘And it didn’t occur to Edward that you have a job?’

      ‘Of course it did. But he won it—on a radio show. A two-week safari trip—it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.’ Maree took a deep breath. ‘Actually, it’s a bit more than that.’

      ‘Oh?’ Ben studied his PA. He could tell from her expression that she was working up to breaking bad news.

      ‘We’re getting married. The safari will be our honeymoon.’ Once the words had spilled out, Maree smiled radiantly. ‘And I know marriage is your idea of personal hell, but I am really, really happy and I want you to be happy for me.’

      ‘I am happy for you.’ And he was. Though a tiny bit of him was considering the impact on his work schedule. There was also the fact that... ‘Isn’t it a bit sudden? I mean, you haven’t known Edward very long.’

      ‘I know, but I’m sure this is what I want.’

      Maree’s whole face lit up, and obscurely Ben felt a sudden pang of near envy.

      ‘I can’t explain it, and of course I know there are no guarantees, but right here and now I am one hundred per cent sure that I want to spend my life with him and I know he feels the same.’

      Any remaining tinge of green vanished as Ben manfully repressed a shudder and managed, ‘Then I wish you every happiness.’

      Which of course he did. He fully grasped that for some people it was possible to risk one’s heart for love. It was just that personally he couldn’t see the point.

      Seeing Maree’s sceptical look, he raised his hands. ‘I am. Why wouldn’t I be?’

      ‘Because you know what I’m going to say next. My role will need to change a bit. Edward does understand how important my job is to me, and he realises that it is very hands-on, but I won’t be able to work such insane hours any more.’

      Ben knew he expected his PA to do way more than convention demanded—to go the extra mile. That was why he made sure he paid an excellent salary and chose the right person for the role.

      ‘I thought you enjoyed this job.’

      ‘I love it—and I’ve had a blast. But my circumstances have changed. I won’t be able to travel at the drop of a hat, even if it is to a yacht party in Monaco, and I can’t be on duty twenty-four-seven. Like the time last month when you called me at three in the morning to come to a business meeting.’

      Ben gave a quick grin. ‘OK. That was a bit much. But you have to admit it worked. That was an incredible deal we got signed—profitable and ethical. He even agreed to raise the rates he pays his workers to Fairtrade standards.’

      ‘It was a fabulous deal, but I won’t always be able to be part of that now.’ Anxiety touched her grey eyes. ‘You’re not angry, are you? I’ll understand if you want a new PA.’

      ‘I’m not angry. At all. I’m happy for you and I would never do anything to jeopardise that happiness. If I start to expect too much or behave selfishly, make sure you tell me.’

      He meant it; he would not be responsible for the destruction of another marriage. After all, he’d been responsible for the breakdown of his mother’s—had been the catalyst and the unwitting cause of the rupture of a family.

      His mother had had an affair and he was the result: a universally unwanted result. Unwanted by his unknown actual father, rejected by the man he had believed to be his father for the first five years of his life and loathed by his siblings, who blamed him.

      In the bitterness of the divorce his half-brothers had elected to live with their dad and his mother had been stuck with him. She had also stuck by him, shown him care and love, and he would be grateful for ever for that. Even if in the deepest, darkest times of his childhood he’d wondered whether, if she could turn back the hands of time, she’d wish him away. And how could he blame her if she did?

      Enough. He’d come to terms with all that. He had decided to live his life to the fullest and show them all—his birth father, his fake father, his siblings, the whole goddamn world. And he had. He had achieved a success attained by very few, and his mother would never want for anything—he’d made damn sure of that.

      But right now he said, ‘So what are we going to do about a replacement for you next month?’

      ‘I’ll advertise internally and see if there’s anyone who wants to step in.’

      It didn’t take a genius to hear the doubt in her voice.

      ‘I take it you don’t think there will be many volunteers.’

      ‘Nope.’

      ‘Why not?’ For Pete’s sake... He was an excellent boss.

      ‘It’s difficult. I did talk to a couple of people I thought would suit, but... Well, one of them is recently married and doesn’t want to go away. I asked Tom Oliver as well, but his wife has just had a baby and he doesn’t want to travel to Milan.’

      ‘There must be someone else.’

      Maree shrugged. ‘You’re quite a hard taskmaster.’ Before he could protest, she raised a hand. ‘OK. A more diplomatic response might be to say you have high expectations.’

      Ben sighed. ‘I get the picture. You don’t have a queue of qualified people who want to go to Milan with me. Fine. If need be I’ll survive without a PA.’

      He’d find someone else to go to Milan with him. Just in a different capacity.

      Three weeks later

      Sarah Fletcher stood in the ladies’ restroom of Sahara Fashions’ London headquarters, her trusty trolley of cleaning materials next to her, and ran through her mental checklist.