Glass Slippers And Unicorns

Carole Mortimer is one of Mills & Boon’s best loved Modern Romance authors. With nearly 200 books published and a career spanning 35 years, Mills & Boon are thrilled to present her complete works available to download for the very first time! Rediscover old favourites – and find new ones! – in this fabulous collection…The mistress charade…Hot-shot London investor Reed Hunter needs his secretary, Darcy Faversham, to pose as his mistress during a business trip to America. Someone is sabotaging his US business deals and Reed needs Darcy to divert attention from the real reason for his visit…Darcy finds the chance to get closer to Reed too tempting to deny. However Darcy can’t pretend to be in love with Reed…not when she already is!

Glass Slippers and Unicorns Carole Mortimer

CHAPTER ONE

‘FOR God’s sake, Darcy, I know you’re always losing things; but my mother!’

Put like that it did sound a little careless. But it wasn’t completely accurate. She hadn’t exactly lost Maud Hunter; misplaced her was a better way of describing what had happened, she thought.

But Reed didn’t look as if he wanted to hear that right now, and Darcy doubted he would find the distinction at all reassuring. After all, she had gone to the airport to meet Maud Hunter, and she had returned without her and now had no idea where she could be!

Reed stood up in a forceful movement. ‘My God, Darcy, you lost my mother!’

Sparks flew in accusing green eyes, his mouth tight. ‘And I’ll say it again, too, as many damned times as I have to to be able to take it in!’ He paced the room with long legs, his movements not made with their usual fluidity but with spasmodic energy. ‘You lost a sixty-year-old woman who’s just endured a long flight and is on her first trip to England in ten years!’ It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact. ‘This is a human being I’m talking about here, Darcy,’ he growled. ‘Not one of those dozen left shoes sitting in the bottom of your closet—and this is not the time for you to point out that closet means something else over here,’ he snarled as she opened her mouth to speak, satisfaction gleaming in his eyes as she quickly closed it again. ‘… Dozen left shoes sitting in the bottom of your closet,’ he repeated hardly, ‘because you have somehow lost the right ones!’

‘It’s the right shoes in the wardrobe and the left ones lost,’ she nervously corrected; Reed hardly ever lost his temper, but she knew that right now he had, his whole body tensed with it. Well she had misplaced his mother between here and Heathrow. Or did she mean Heathrow and here——

‘Darcy!’ he grated between clenched teeth. ‘I don’t give a damn if it’s half a dozen of each——’

‘I thought you were trying to stop swearing?’ She frowned as he used the word twice in as many minutes after days of holding back his usual habit of cursing whenever something didn’t go exactly as he planned it should.

‘Darcy!’ Her name came out as a fierce guttural growl this time. ‘A saint would swear at a time like this,’ he added in exasperation as she looked at him with bewildered confusion.

A saint was something they both knew he wasn’t. As a professional speculator—in just about anything!—he often didn’t have the time to wait around and be pleasant. Admittedly he was dealing mainly in shares at the moment, but even so he was ruthless, was first and foremost a businessman. He was also very successful at what he did. The only way that Darcy could see he might possibly have fallen down on that success was hiring her as his secretary! And she had a feeling he felt the same way at the moment.

He looked at her with sharp green eyes, stopping his pacing. ‘I suppose you did actually meet her at the airport?’ he asked hopefully.

Her mouth compressed. ‘She’s a short lady, about my height, I suppose,’ she frowned thoughtfully, ‘with curly white hair, and green eyes like yours.’

‘I told you all that before you left for the airport,’ he snapped impatiently.

‘I have her luggage downstairs in the boot of the car!’ Darcy told him exasperatedly. She might have a habit of losing things, but she certainly didn’t invent meeting people. ‘She told me all about how naughty you were as a little boy,’ she remembered, her eyes dancing merrily. ‘How you turned the hose on the——’

‘All right,’ Reed barked irritably, obviously not in the mood to reminisce about his mischievous childhood. ‘I’ll accept that you did meet my mother——’

Reed had such a deep timbre of voice that when he raised it you felt like putting a hand on all the breakable objects in the room in case they clattered from their resting place and shattered on the ground. She saw his eyes narrow as she winced, clasping her hands together in front of her to resist the urge.

‘I haven’t done anything with her, Reed,’ she denied wearily. ‘On the drive back she mentioned it was years since she had read an English newspaper, and when she fell asleep——’

‘You calmly parked the car and went off to buy her one,’ he finished disgustedly.

‘Will you stop saying that as if you think I had something to do with it!’ she protested, frowning heavily as his raised eyebrows seemed to say, ‘Well, didn’t you?’ ‘When I came back out of the shop with the newspaper, she had gone,’ Darcy defended.

‘That was over an hour ago.’ He glared at her. ‘And you had no right going off and leaving her like that.’

‘I didn’t think she could come to any harm just sitting in the car.’ Darcy glared right back.

At least, she tried to glare. She was sure it didn’t come out quite as fierce as it was meant to do, though, as she squinted slightly to bring her myopic vision into focus enough to read Reed’s expression.

Reed seemed to stiffen even more as he saw that squint. ‘Did you forget to put your contacts in again?’ he asked suspiciously.

‘No, I didn’t forget!’ she snapped, the guilty flush that coloured her cheeks giving the instant lie to that statement. ‘I just haven’t had time to put them in yet! I was late getting up, and then as soon as I arrived you told me I had to go and meet your mother, and——’

‘Great,’ he ground out fiercely. ‘This is just great! I can see it all now.’ He raised his head to look at the ceiling, taking deep controlling breaths. ‘It probably wasn’t even my mother you met. The poor woman probably realised that after a while and made her escape at the first opportunity.’

Darcy stood up indignantly, too angered by his scornful tone to want to admit to the vanity of wearing her rarely used glasses to go to the airport to meet his mother, but of having taken them off only seconds ago before she entered the office, not wanting Reed to see her wearing the heavy dark frames. ‘You’re being very unfair, Reed.’

‘As it’s obvious you have so little confidence in my ability to do anything right, I don’t know why you ever sent me to meet your mother,’ she accused emotionally.

‘I wouldn’t have done, but I thought the rest of the business world needed saving from itself!’ he rasped disgustedly.

Tears instantly made her vision more blurred. ‘My qualifications are good——’

‘But anyone who turns up for an interview as a secretary at nine o’clock at night——’

Reed gave a disgusted snort. ‘It was because my temporary secretary was so incompetent that I needed another permanent secretary! No woman turns up for an interview for a secretary’s position at nine o’clock at night unless the prospective employer has more than just secretarial duties in mind and she’s decided she’s agreeable to that—or she’s just plain stupid!’ he finished contemptuously.

It was so obvious which one he thought she was! ‘I’d only been in London a couple of months; this was only my fourth interview!’

‘No woman in her right mind turns up for an interview in a deserted office building at nine o’clock at night!’ Reed maintained forcefully. ‘Not even a woman from the provinces! I can still remember the look on the night security man’s face when I came in answer to his call that you were here demanding to see me, saying that you had an appointment!’

Darcy was sure the colour in her cheeks was going to remain a permanent fixture as Reed seemed intent on recalling all the stupid things she had done since the moment they had met so awkwardly. Of course she had thought it strange that Reed Hunter wanted to interview her at nine o’clock at night, but it had been her first time in London after living the last twenty-two and a half years with her parents in a village that was so small even the locals said it could be missed if you blinked as you were approaching it! The only two jobs she had had since leaving school six years earlier had been in the small town three miles away; she had just assumed things were done differently in the capital. How was she supposed to know Reed’s temporary secretary had made a typing error and it should have read a.m. in the letter and not p.m.? Reed must have read the letter through before signing it; he should have spotted the mistake, too. Although once again she didn’t think he would appreciate her pointing that out to him just now!

‘You thought the business world needed saving from itself,’ she finished emotionally.

Bewildered eyes the colour of cornflowers opened wider than ever. ‘My name?’ she repeated incredulously.

Reed nodded again, impatiently this time. ‘That was why you were the first person scheduled for interview that morning.’ He gave a pointed sigh at his mention of the time of day she should have been here. ‘Your qualifications were also a little better than the other applicants’, but it was your name that intrigued me. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if Darcy Faversham was a man or a woman!’

‘It gave you the edge,’ he confirmed irritably. ‘As I said, the other three applicants were almost as well qualified.’

‘Oh, believe it,’ he rasped. ‘Once I’d met you I should have known better!’

‘You make a living by gambling on hunches,’ she reminded him dully, stunned by what he had just told her. To think that if her name had been plain Susan Smith she wouldn’t have got the job! ‘And this time it let you down.’ She straightened her shoulders defensively. ‘I’ll leave——’

‘Not until we’ve found my mother you won’t,’ he cut in fiercely. ‘Forget about your damned pride for a moment and try and help me think where she could be!’

Pride. Yes, her pride was hurt. But so was she. She knew she had a habit of losing things, but she only lost them because she forgot what she had done with them. But her work had always been unquestionably competent, and Reed could never accuse her of ever losing anything of his.

But you couldn’t lose people, not really; they had a habit, adults at least, of always turning up again. She felt sure Maud Hunter would be no exception.

She chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip. ‘She took her handbag with her——’

‘Then at least she isn’t wandering about London completely penniless too!’

She wasn’t a violent woman, believing that passivity often achieved the same results, but if Reed continued to act as if she had thrust the equivalent of a new-born chick into a pack of wolves she knew she wasn’t going to be able to stop the urge her hand had to slap him across one lean cheek.

He wasn’t a handsome man by any standards, but that he was attractive couldn’t be doubted, with his hair thick and dark, almost black in some lights, brows the same colour jutting out over eyes of luminous green, a slight bump to the straightness of his nose where it had been broken playing American football during his teens, his mouth often snapping words too cutting for the sensuousness of his bottom lip to be noticed. Although, from the amount of women who telephoned him at the office, it was noticeable enough! He was well over six feet tall, and still had the physique that could have taken him into pro-football if the challenge of speculation hadn’t been the stronger of the two.

He towered at least a foot over Darcy as she faced him, his stance threatening even if she knew he would never physically hurt her. He was a hawk, why should he bother himself with the little mouse? Even if the mouse did occasionally, very occasionally, roar!

‘Will she?’ he scorned. ‘It’s been almost two hours, and she hasn’t “turned up” yet!’

‘Will not look for a woman who’s only been missing two hours!’ he snapped disgustedly.

She chewed on her inner lip, oblivious to the soreness she was inflicting, not knowing what else to say. Because she didn’t think Maud Hunter was missing, was sure the other woman would make her way here or to Reed’s apartment when she was good and ready. But until she did, Reed wasn’t going to calm down.

And in the meantime she had given him her notice. She was regretting that pride-saving impulse already. He was an interesting man to work for, no two days the same, the heavy workload keeping her occupied long outside the nine until five she was supposed to work. And that suited her. But she knew Reed would never forgive her for this, that he obviously adored his mother.

The day had begun so nicely, too; birthday cards from her family and friends pushed through her letter box by the postman, a couple of parcels left on her doorstep. She was twenty-three today, felt as if she were finally putting the past behind her. And now this. It wouldn’t just be the work she would miss.

She gave a surprised start as Reed shouted at her. Concentrate on one thing at a time, they had told her. And she had. And it had worked. But now, more than two years later, she still had difficulty giving her attention to more than one thing at any given moment. Whatever Reed had been saying to her, she hadn’t heard him. And she could see by the angry glitter in his fierce eyes that he knew that.

‘I said,’ he ground out between clenched teeth, ‘I think the best thing to do is drive back to where you parked your car and look around there for her. Can you remember where that was?’

Her mouth tightened at his obvious scorn. ‘Of course I can. There’s nothing wrong with my memory——’

‘Reed!’ she gasped her hurt surprise; he had never been deliberately cruel to her before.

He put his hands up in apology. ‘OK, that was uncalled for,’ he acknowledged grimly. ‘I’m upset, and I’m taking it out on you. But I’m damned worried.’ He frowned.

She could see that, had never seen him this agitated before. But she also knew that if she mentioned it he would point out that he had never lost his mother before!

‘Don’t you think one of us should remain here?’ she suggested practically. ‘Just in case she should come here.’

He thought for a moment before nodding. ‘You stay,’ he bit out. ‘I couldn’t stand the inactivity right now.’ He took his jacket off the back of his chair, shrugging in to it. ‘And for goodness’ sake go and put your contacts in so that you’ll at least recognise it is her if she arrives!’

She hurried into the adjoining office, leaving the door open for him to follow, groaning her dismay as the outer door opened and a grinning Marc Kincaid came in. ‘Not now, Marc,’ she said, trying to push him back outside the door before Reed saw him. ‘Reed isn’t in the mood to see you right now,’ she explained frantically as Marc looked down at her in surprise, her efforts to evict him proving ineffectual, Marc being almost as big as Reed.

‘He’s never in the mood to see me,’ Marc dismissed, easily standing his ground. ‘But——’

‘He wants to see you even less than usual today.’ Darcy threw a hunted look over her shoulder; Reed was, thankfully, still in his office. Although her luck couldn’t hold. It hadn’t so far today! ‘Please leave, Marc,’ she begged him desperately.

‘He will want to see me, Darcy,’ he assured her. ‘But how about a kiss first?’ he encouraged huskily, bending his head to claim her mouth with his.

It was far from the first kiss she had shared with this wickedly handsome man; she was still slightly amazed that someone as attractive and popular as he was wanted to date her. He was handsome enough to have any woman he wanted, with his thick blond hair, dancing blue eyes, a seductively smiling mouth, the masculinity of his body undoubted in his tight denims and fitted blue shirt. But for the last six weeks he had asked to see her every night. Not that she had accepted every night, but four out of seven still amounted to a lot of nights.

And Reed was going to be even more furious than he already was if he found him here. She had met Marc because Reed had become his financial partner in the photographic studio he ran on a lower floor of the building, but Reed didn’t approve of their personal relationship spilling over into his office.

‘And just what happens if someone wants to come in the door?’ grated an icy voice.

Marc lifted his head slowly, in no hurry to release Darcy as he looked up to grin at the other man. ‘They either ask us to move or wait until we’re finished,’ he drawled unconcernedly.

‘Darcy tells me you’re in a bad mood,’ he continued as if she hadn’t tried to cut in. ‘Something wrong, Reed?’ he held Darcy snugly against his side, his arm about her shoulders.

‘Yes, something is wrong,’ the other man hissed. ‘I’ll leave Darcy to tell you all about it!’

Marc still blocked the doorway. ‘Maybe I can help?’ His eyes gleamed with amusement.

‘Marc, please,’ she groaned, as Reed looked ready to explode if the other man didn’t get out of his way. ‘Reed is in a hurry.’

Marc grinned. ‘I think so. I think you will, too, if you stop long enough to listen to me.’

‘Marc, unless it’s really important please leave it until later.’ She looked up at him pleadingly. ‘You see, Reed’s mother arrived in London this morning, and I——’

‘… lost her between here and Heathrow, and— What do you mean, you know?’ Darcy frowned up at him as she realised what he had said; Reed went rigid with tension as he looked at the other man with narrowed eyes.

‘I mean, I know that Maud arrived from America this morning.’ Marc at last released her. ‘You see, I was just on my way out to lunch when I noticed the lady peering up at the notice-board downstairs —and she had a long way to peer, believe me,’ he teased. ‘Anyway, being the helpful soul that I am, I asked her if I could be of any help.’ He raised mocking brows at Reed. ‘She looked too young and beautiful to be your mother, old chap,’ he mocked. ‘But she assures me that’s who she is.’

‘Nothing, she’s right outside.’ Marc shrugged, as if he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Reed pushed him aside none too gently, coming to an abrupt halt as the tiny lady causing all the uproar appeared in the doorway.

‘Hello, darling.’ She reached up to kiss her eldest son on the cheek. ‘I was just admiring your lovely nameplate on the wall outside. You——’

She blinked lids over surprised green eyes as Reed and Darcy spoke at the same time. ‘Yes, dears?’ she prompted interestedly, giving Darcy a chiding look as she did so. ‘I’m sure I asked you to call me Maud,’ she scolded, coming further into the room. ‘My, this is a nice office, Reed,’ she said admiringly as she looked around. ‘Do you——’

‘Mother, where the hell have you been?’ he bit out with controlled violence, his hands clenched at his sides.

She blinked again, obviously surprised by his vehemence. ‘Darling, you know I don’t like it when you swear——’

‘Not another one!’ he ground out exasperatedly, momentarily closing his eyes, the glitter even more intense when he raised his lids. ‘Mother, you disappeared from Darcy’s car two hours ago, where have you been?’ he demanded, the flame in his eyes positively primitive as Marc gave a chuckle at his omission of ‘the hell’ the second time around. Marc’s expression instantly became bland.

Darcy gave him a warning look. Ordinarily the two men were quite good friends, although on the surface they had little in common but their intense professionalism and an eye for beautiful women. Marc was completely dedicated to his work, was a perfectionist, and in a different way Reed was the same about his investments. Their approach to women was different, however, Marc being a different man then, light and frivolous, whereas Reed never let anyone too close to him, not even the women he took as his lovers. Maybe they weren’t so different in that respect after all: being light and frivolous didn’t allow for deeper relationships either! But it was obvious Reed didn’t appreciate Marc’s levity now, although from Marc’s wink in her direction he wasn’t too worried about it.

Maud’s expression seemed to say she didn’t know what all the fuss was about either. ‘I had a nice rest in Darcy’s car after the flight; I had the misfortune to be seated next to a man on the plane who just would not stop talking,’ she said disgustedly. ‘He talked all the way over here—when he wasn’t drinking,’ she added with a frown. ‘Do you know that he——’

‘I wish you would let me tell this in my own way, Reed,’ his mother admonished sternly. ‘You know how I forget things when I’m constantly interrupted— Did you say something, dear?’ She looked concernedly at Darcy as she made a choking sound.

Green eyes twinkled at her from a face still beautiful, not marred by the usual worry lines of a woman her age. And Darcy was beginning to realise why! Why hadn’t she noticed at the airport? Probably because she had been too busy trying to see where she was going to notice just how vague Maud Hunter was!

Maud turned back to her son. ‘As I was saying,’ she said pointedly. ‘I was very tired after the flight. And then this nice young lady met me at the airport.’ She beamed at Darcy. ‘She’s such a nice girl, Reed. I hope you’re good to her.’ She frowned. ‘Anyway,’ she hastily continued as her son looked as if he might explode again, ‘when I woke up I realised Darcy must have been kind enough to let me continue sleeping, and then when I got out of the car to look for her I couldn’t find her. It’s strange the things that come back to you, you know,’ she told them all, ‘because I suddenly realised I was very close to where my old friend Joyce Bennett use to live. After ten years I still remembered——’

‘Mother,’ Reed cut in on her ramblings in a strained voice. ‘You aren’t going to tell us that you calmly went off to visit a friend while Darcy was frantically trying to find you?’

‘Were you, dear?’ Maud looked at her concernedly. ‘I am sorry. You see, I——’

Darcy completely sympathised with Reed’s impatience this time; she felt like shaking the muddle-headed woman herself!

Maud sighed. ‘I went back to the car when I couldn’t find Darcy, but that had disappeared as well, and that was when I——’

‘Didn’t you realise that Darcy would be worried about you? That I would be worried about you when she arrived back here without you?’

‘I didn’t mean to be gone quite as long as I was,’ she grimaced. ‘Once Joyce and I started talking——’

‘I’m sure,’ Reed grated. ‘I think you owe Darcy an apology—I think we both do!’

‘You do?’ His mother frowned. ‘I hope you haven’t been shouting at her, Reed,’ she rebuked. ‘It wasn’t Darcy’s fault that I was late getting here.’

‘I’m beginning to see that,’ he sighed heavily. ‘Let’s go through to my office, Mother. I’ll talk to you later, Darcy.’ It was an order, not a request.

‘Can you believe that?’ Marc chuckled as he sat on the edge of Darcy’s desk once they were alone. ‘That sweet little old lady, Reed the Rake’s mother!’

‘He isn’t a rake.’ Darcy automatically corrected Marc’s nickname for her employer, while busily tidying the papers on her desk-top that had no need of it; her desk was always completely organised. ‘And yes, I can believe she’s his mother.’ No two people who weren’t related could have eyes of such a deep green. But other than those eyes the two had no similarities whatsoever!

‘She’s only here until tomorrow,’ Darcy supplied absently. ‘Reed is driving her down to Southampton then to get on her cruise-ship.’ He had told her that much before she left for the airport this morning, although he had told her little else about his charming but vague mother.

‘That’s what I could do with, a nice long cruise.’ Marc stretched lazily. ‘I don’t suppose you would care to come away with me this weekend?’

Her brows rose mockingly at his teasing expression. ‘I don’t suppose I would,’ she drawled.

He grimaced his disappointment. ‘I thought not. So, how is my birthday girl?’

Birthday girl; this was the worst day she had known in a long time! ‘She’s fine,’ she lied, having forgotten that it was her birthday. ‘She is also busy,’ she added pointedly.

He stood up, holding up his hands defensively. ‘I was only doing my good deed for the day——’

‘I know.’ She sighed at her lack of gratitude for the fact that he had safely delivered Maud to Read. ‘I’m sorry.’ She gave him a tight smile. ‘It’s been chaotic here the last few hours, and——’

‘Only a little.’ She grimaced at the understatement. ‘And he had the right.’

Darcy shook her head, feeling too shaken to go into the details of her argument with Reed. ‘Maybe tonight.’ She shrugged.

‘Ah yes, tonight.’ Marc’s eyes lit up excitedly. ‘Put your glad rags on because tonight I have a surprise for you!’

He tapped the end of her nose playfully. ‘If I tell you it won’t be a surprise any more. Just do what little there is to improve on that beautiful face and wear your sexiest dress.’

‘Beautiful face’, Darcy thought despondently a short time later as she looked in the mirror she had used to finally put her contact lenses in. Marc photographed beautiful women all day long, and no one in their right mind could compare her to the multitude of beauties that went into his studio each day. But then, when had Marc ever claimed to be in his right mind?

She looked critically at her reflection, at the bubbly red-gold curls that refused to be tamed, deep blue eyes that seemed to have taken on a permanently vague look, a short nose liberally sprinkled with freckles even during the winter months, a pretty smiling mouth, with a dimple in her elfin chin. No make-up in the world could make her appear sophisticated and worldly; in fact it had the opposite effect, making her look garishly childish. She had been told once that her long dark lashes framing deep blue eyes were her best feature, and so the only affectation she did have was the use of contact lenses rather than glasses, although even that effect was ruined when she forgot to put them in, looking owlishly bewildered then. No wonder Reed lost all patience with her!

Darcy jumped guiltily at being caught staring at her reflection, hastily putting the mirror away in her bag, embarrassed by the apparent vanity. She nodded, not quite able to meet Reed’s gaze. ‘He was going to lunch, remember?’ she dismissed lightly.

‘I thought I had better wait around and see if you wanted me to clear out my desk and leave now or if you want me to stay on until you have my replacement.’ She moistened her lips nervously, finally looking up at him, able to see him clearly for the first time today. He looked as forbidding as she had imagined he would! ‘Maybe an incompetent secretary who doesn’t possess a memory is better than none at all; I don’t know.’ She shrugged.

The hard lines of his face tightened even more. ‘I was angry when I said that, Darcy,’ he grated. ‘I didn’t mean it.’

‘Didn’t you?’ she said dully, knowing that at the time he had said it he had meant every word.

‘No.’ He grimaced, moving to stand next to her desk. ‘You’re a damned good secretary, better than I——’ He broke off, sighing impatiently.

‘Better than you ever thought I would be,’ Darcy finished for him ruefully. ‘I manage, as long as I only concentrate on one thing at a time,’ she added bitterly.

‘You are,’ Reed acknowledged forcefully. ‘Hell, I’m not making a very good job of this apology.’ He ran a hand through his already tousled black hair. ‘My only defence for my behaviour towards you earlier is that I was worried out of my mind.’ He gave a weary sigh. ‘You’ve seen my mother at her worst; you can guess why!’

Yes, she could guess why, quite easily. Reed was a man who made important decisions in a matter of seconds, who gambled on the Stock Exchange in millions rather than hundreds, and his mother’s vagueness must be quite an irritation to such a man. But how could she explain to him that her own forgetfulness had been acquired and wasn’t part of her fundamental character? She couldn’t do it without going into the past, and so she knew she would never tell him.

‘Of course I don’t want you to leave,’ he dismissed impatiently. ‘Do you accept my apology?’

Now wasn’t the time to point out that he hadn’t actually got around to making one, not if she wanted to continue working for him. And she did want to continue doing that, very much.

‘Of course.’ She smiled her forgiveness. ‘Would you like me to take your mother to your apartment now? I’m sure she would like to rest.’

‘She would.’ He nodded tersely. ‘But I’ll take her.’ His expression darkened as her eyes shadowed over with pain. ‘It has nothing to do with the fact that between the two of you you would probably forget where you’re going,’ he refuted impatiently. ‘As she only has today in England this end of her trip, I think I should spend a little time with her.’

‘Reed, could we go to Harrods on the way to your apartment?’ His mother came out of his office. ‘I want to buy some tea to take back with me.’

‘Wouldn’t it be better if you waited until you get back from the cruise before doing that?’ he suggested after shooting a resigned look in Darcy’s direction. ‘You won’t need it until then.’

‘I suppose not.’ She nodded thoughtfully, going to the door he held open for her. ‘Maybe we can look at the coffee instead?’ she suggested hopefully.

‘Oh, yes.’ She frowned her chagrin. ‘Well, couldn’t we— Bye, Darcy,’ she called out belatedly as Reed followed her from the office. ‘It was lovely meeting you. I hope I see you again before I go back to the States.’

Darcy had time to lift a hand in parting to the other woman before Reed firmly closed the door behind them, his face having taken on a hunted look as his mother suggested other shopping she would like to do while she was in London.

Darcy slumped back in her chair once they had gone, knowing now that Reed would never ever see her as a woman he could desire, that with her own single-minded forgetfulness she reminded him too forcibly of the vague mother he obviously adored but had no patience for! He might pity her, but he would never desire her.

It was a stunning realisation for the woman who loved him more than life itself, who had felt that way about him from the first night they met.

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Glass Slippers and Unicorns Carole Mortimer

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE