Liam's Secret Son Read online

‘Call me,’ she answered abruptly. Under no circumstances was he to bring Liam anywhere near her! She glanced at her watch. ‘It’s ten-thirty now. Ask him to come in and see you at four o’clock.’ When she would already have left her office for the day in order to collect Bobby from school.

  As Amy had said last night, it wasn’t easy for her juggling motherhood with being head of Shipley Publishing. But with help from people like Amy, and a very loyal and reliable level of management at Shipley Publishing, she managed to keep all those balls in the air. If her own personal life seemed to suffer because of it, then it didn’t really matter; she already had more than she could ever have hoped for.

  ‘That way you aren’t going to look too compliant,’ she told Perry encouragingly. ‘As for the problem of who you’re dealing with; I think his arrogance this morning probably answers that question for you!’

  ‘You’re right,’ Perry agreed. ‘Sorry.’ He grimaced. ‘I was just thrown there for a few minutes.’ He walked purposefully to the door, obviously no longer thrown. ‘I’ll call him and tell him I can spare him a few minutes at four o’clock.’ He paused in the open doorway. ‘Wish me luck.’

  She nodded, smiling—knowing he was going to need it! Liam was a force to be reckoned with—she was just relieved she wasn’t the one who would have to deal with it!

  ‘—told you, Mrs Shipley is busy and— You really can’t go in there!’ Ruth, her secretary, could be heard protesting agitatedly even as the office door was forcefully opened.

  ‘No?’ A sceptical Liam O’Reilly stood arrogantly in that open doorway, dark brows raised as he looked challengingly across the room at Laura as she sat behind the imposing desk in front of the window.

  Laura’s first thought—stupidly!—was that it was only three o’clock! The man shouldn’t have arrived at Shipley Publishing for another hour!

  ‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Shipley.’ Ruth, small, plump, red-haired, very efficient at her job, looked crossly indignant at the way Liam had just trampled over her! ‘This—gentleman she announced sceptically, ‘asked to see you. But as he doesn’t have an appointment—’

  ‘And as I told this young—lady,’ Liam bit back with the same sarcasm, ‘I don’t need an appointment to see you.’ Again he looked at Laura with those hard, challenging blue eyes.

  He most certainly did need an appointment! And if he had asked for one he most certainly wouldn’t have got one. Although, in the circumstances, it was a little late in the day to be worrying about that now!

  Laura slowly put the pen she had been working with down on the desk-top, ignoring Liam to smile reassuringly at her secretary. ‘It’s all right, Ruth,’ she lied. ‘Mr O’Reilly and I are—acquainted.’

  Ruth gave the intruder another indignant glare before turning back to Laura. ‘If you’re sure…?’

  She nodded. ‘It’s fine.’

  It was far from fine!

  How dared Liam just push his way in here? More to the point, how had he known she was here at all?

  ‘Nice office,’ he drawled as Ruth closed the door behind him.

  It was a beautiful office; there were oak-panelled bookshelves on three of the wall’s supporting copies of past and recent books published by the company. Her own desk was of the same mellowed oak and a plush fitted blue carpet covered the floor.

  But, at the same time as Laura acknowledged the luxurious appointments of her office, she knew Liam was no more interested in their surroundings at the moment than she was.

  What was he doing here?

  She eyed him warily as he strode further into the room, blue denims old and faded, grey shirt beneath a loose black jacket. No wonder Ruth had tried to block his path into Laura’s office; he hardly looked the part of a successful author, let alone a millionaire!

  ‘Mrs Shipley,’ he murmured, almost to himself, it seemed.

  Laura stiffened. It wasn’t what he had said so much as the way he had said it. Insultingly. Deliberately so, she was sure.

  ‘Mr O’Reilly,’ she returned with equal deliberation. ‘Or do I mean Mr O’Shea?’

  After all, if he now knew who she was, there was absolutely no longer any point in any pretence on her part concerning his own attempt at subterfuge. At least she had only lied by omission—which was no lie at all; Liam had never asked her for her married name!

  Blue eyes narrowed as Liam looked her over speculatively.

  Which was a little like being studied under a microscope! Laura felt as if, just by looking at her in this way, Liam was trying to discover what else it was he didn’t know about her.

  ‘If it’s not too stupid a question,’ she began when she couldn’t stand that cold scrutiny any longer, ‘how did you know where to find me?’

  ‘I asked downstairs and was directed to the top floor,’ he returned satirically.

  ‘Very funny, Liam,’ she said wearily. ‘You know very well that isn’t what I meant at all!’

  ‘Isn’t it?’ he replied sharply. ‘Tell me, Laura, have you enjoyed the little game you’ve been playing with me the last two days?’ he rasped harshly, blue eyes dark with anger.

  ‘Game?’ she echoed dazedly, in no way recovered yet from the shock of his being here, in her office. A place he had no right to be! ‘I haven’t been playing any games, Liam—’

  ‘No?’ he cut in scathingly. ‘Yesterday afternoon at the hotel you and Perry Webster gave no indication that the two of you knew each other, and yet you’re his employer. Last night, when we met for a drink, you deliberately didn’t tell me that you know exactly what I’m doing in London at the moment—’

  ‘Not deliberately,’ she interrupted firmly. ‘Never that. I simply didn’t see the point in—’

  “‘Didn’t see the point”!’ Liam repeated with cold fury, moving across the room with deceptively light footsteps. ‘I’ll tell you what the point is, Laura.’ He stood just across the other side of her desk now, leaning forward menacingly as he spoke to her. ‘The point is that you deliberately made a fool of me.’

  ‘I did not!’ she gasped.

  ‘Oh, yes, Mrs Shipley,’ he insisted, ‘you did.’

  Laura shook her head. ‘I told you I was married—’

  ‘But not who you were married to,’ Liam scorned.

  ‘What difference does it make who I was married to?’ she challenged heatedly. ‘I didn’t see it bothering you last night when you—’

  ‘Yes?’ he taunted softly, suddenly very still. ‘When I what?’

  ‘Oh, never mind, Liam,’ she dismissed, heated colour in her cheeks now. ‘As I see it, you are the one who has been hiding behind another identity, not me!’

  ‘And as I see it,’ he returned forcefully, ‘you’ve known from the beginning that I was Reilly O’Shea—and you’ve used that knowledge to extract a little revenge.’

  ‘A little—!’ She was so angry now she couldn’t even complete her sentence. ‘If you think that’s true, Liam, then you must have a very low opinion of me,’ she said furiously. ‘And an even more inflated opinion of the role you once played in my life!’

  They glared at each other wordlessly across the width of the desk for several long minutes. Laura was determined not to be the first to look away, but Liam was equally determined, apparently.

  And then the atmosphere between them shifted slightly, changed, no longer charged with anger but with something else entirely.

  ‘Do I?’ he finally said.

  Laura’s gaze was locked with his, her breathing low and shallow. ‘Do you what?’ she repeated softly.

  ‘Have an over-inflated opinion of what we once meant to each other?’ he encouraged huskily.

  What they once meant to each other—!

  His implication was enough to break the spell. For Laura, at least. She shook her head, her expression derisive. ‘I think we covered that quite well last night, Liam—I was an infatuated young student; you were an older, more worldly-wise man, flattered by—’

  ‘I’m well aware of the fact that I am
some years older than you, Laura,’ he interjected, straightening away from the desk. ‘I certainly don’t need to keep being reminded of it!’

  She was relieved he had moved his overwhelming presence away from her desk, but at the same time she was determined to put their past relationship in perspective. The way that she’d had to do for herself eight years ago, when she had thought her world was falling apart!

  ‘You—’

  ‘But talking of older men,’ he continued hardly, blue eyes narrowed again, ‘I believe Robert Shipley—’

  ‘I told you last night. I will not discuss Robert with you. Under any circumstances,’ she added tautly as Liam would have spoken, her eyes flashing a warning.

  ‘Robert Shipley was fifty-three when you married him,’ Liam continued, undaunted.

  Laura half rose from her chair. ‘I—’

  ‘And fifty-eight when he died two years ago and left you as his widow and sole heir,’ Liam finished softly.

  Laura dropped back into the leather chair, the colour draining from her cheeks.

  Every thing that Liam said was true but one.

  Robert had been fifty-three when they’d married seven and a half years ago. And he had only been fifty-eight when he’d died five years later. Leaving her his widow.

  But Liam was wrong about her being Robert’s sole heir; the houses and half his fortune were hers, yes. But the other half of the money, and Shipley Publishing, she only held in trust. Robert Shipley Junior—Bobby, Liam’s own son—was actually heir to all of that…

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘YOU have been doing your homework, haven’t you?’ she said calmly, determined not to show any signs of the inner panic she felt at his disclosures.

  He had been doing his homework; but not well enough if he didn’t know about Robert Shipley Junior…

  ‘You still haven’t told me how you came to realise I’m now Laura Shipley,’ she prompted, dark brows raised over curious eyes.

  Liam shrugged. ‘It wasn’t that difficult. The taxi you took home last night is based at the hotel. I saw the driver this morning, told him you had left something behind when you left last night, and asked him the address at which he had dropped you so that I could return it.’

  Laura drew in a harsh breath. ‘As easy as that?’ she bit out sharply, wishing she’d had the forethought to have Paul drive her to and from the hotel last night. Except she had already dismissed him for the day when Liam had telephoned and asked to meet her…

  ‘As easy as that.’ Liam nodded his satisfaction. ‘After that it was a simple matter of making a few enquiries about the occupant of a certain house in Knightsbridge.’

  It gave her an uneasy feeling to know that it really had been that easy. She had thought she was safe, protected, and now she felt more than a little vulnerable.

  ‘You can imagine my surprise when the occupant turned out to be one Laura Shipley, owner of Shipley Publishing,’ Liam explained hardly.

  Surprise sounded the least of his emotions!

  ‘And here you are,’ she said brightly. ‘I believe you have an appointment with Perry in forty minutes or so—’

  ‘Forget Perry,’ Liam rasped. ‘It’s you I came here to see—’

  ‘I’m sorry, Liam, but I’m afraid I have another appointment in twenty minutes, and as I have to drive there—’

  ‘Cancel it,’ he grated harshly.

  Her eyes widened incredulously at his arrogance. ‘I most certainly will not,’ she replied indignantly.

  Laura was due to meet Bobby from school today. She usually took him to school in the mornings, and Amy collected him in the afternoons, but on Tuesdays, Amy’s day off, Laura always collected Bobby too. There was no way she would ever be late in doing that, let alone just send Paul to collect him in the car.

  Although she had no intention of sharing any of that information with Liam!

  Liam moved to sit down in the chair facing her desk, his long length slouched against the leather, his eyes narrowed as he studied her thoughtfully. ‘You take all of this quite seriously, don’t you?’ he finally said. ‘Shipley Publishing,’ he added as she looked at him blankly.

  Laura’s thoughts had all been on her son, and it took a moment for her to realise exactly what Liam had said. ‘Of course I take it seriously,’ she snapped. ‘You obviously considered this publishing house good enough for your manuscript,’ she pointed out.

  He looked over at her with scornful eyes. ‘That was before I realised you ran it.’

  She bridled at his deliberate insult. ‘And what difference does that make?’ she challenged.

  His mouth twisted. ‘A lot!’

  She drew in a sharp breath. ‘You’ve signed nothing yet, Liam, and are under no obligation—as we aren’t—to take this any further. In view of that—’

  ‘In view of nothing, Laura,’ he cut in forcefully. ‘What did you think of Josie’s World?’ He watched her with narrowed eyes. ‘And don’t tell me you haven’t read it—because I won’t believe you.’

  ‘One thing about you hasn’t changed in eight years, Liam—you’re just as arrogant as you ever were!’ she said disgustedly.

  He remained unmoved by her outburst, his face expressionless as he continued to look at her. ‘Well?’

  Laura sighed. ‘I’m sure you’re aware that Josie’s World is a brilliantly written, wonderfully emotional book.’

  ‘Is it?’

  She looked at him sharply. For the first time since they had met again yesterday she heard a note of uncertainty in Liam’s voice…

  Did he really not know how good his book was?

  She could see anxiety in those deep blue eyes now, tension about those sculptured lips as he waited for her answer.

  Could it be, that after an absence of eight years, Liam had actually lost confidence in his ability to judge the worth of his own writing? It wasn’t an inconceivable idea. It was just totally unexpected from a man with Liam’s arrogance!

  But she could see from the stiff set of his shoulders, the tension that emanated from him, that her answer to his question was very important to him.

  Part of her, she inwardly admitted, wanted to play down the brilliance of the manuscript he had presented to them, if only to wipe some of the remaining arrogance off that handsome face. It might also make Perry’s job easier later if she played down how good Josie’s World was…

  But another part of her, the entirely truthful part, couldn’t do that, not even if she did feel Liam needed to be taken down a peg or two. In the face of his obvious—to her!—professional uncertainty, to negate the brilliance of his manuscript would not only be cruel in the extreme, it would be dishonest.

  Liam might bring out a lot of emotions in her, but dishonesty was certainly not one of them!

  ‘It is,’ she confirmed abruptly, shifting some papers on her desk so that she didn’t actually have to look at him and see the look of triumph she was sure would be on his face now. ‘There’s a problem with the name of the author, of course—’

  ‘How long did it take you to realise I had written it?’ Liam interrupted interestedly.

  The first chapter. The first page. The first paragraph.

  ‘Not long,’ she responded carefully. ‘Perry believes the subterfuge is because of a desire on your part not to repeat what happened eight years ago…? The excess publicity, et cetera…’ She looked at him questioningly.

  Liam gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘You have a very bright-senior editor there, Laura,’ he drawled dryly.

  ‘I like to think so,’ she agreed. ‘In view of your obvious satisfaction with his capabilities, I’m sure you will have no problem dealing together—’

  ‘Only the one,’ Liam cut in softly.

  Laura eyed him warily now, not liking the gentleness of that tone at all. ‘Which is?’

  ‘I—’ He broke off as the telephone rang on her desk. ‘You had better take that,’ he advised. ‘It’s probably your watch-dog, Ruth, checking that I haven’t
strangled you!’

  Laura gave him a withering glance before picking up the receiver, colour entering her cheeks as she discovered that Ruth was indeed the caller. But not to check on whether Laura had been strangled by Liam!

  ‘I’ll be right out,’ she told her secretary abruptly before ringing off, looking across at Liam as she did so. ‘My car is waiting downstairs,’ she informed him, standing up. ‘I’m sure Ruth will be happy to provide you with a cup of coffee while you wait for your appointment with Perry at four o’clock.’

  Liam also stood up, instantly dwarfing Laura. ‘And I’m sure that the only thing Ruth would be happy to provide me with is the door! Besides, I have no intention of seeing Perry at four o’clock—or any other time.’

  Laura’s wariness returned. ‘You’ve decided to go to another publisher?”

  From Shipley Publishing’s point of view, she would be very sorry if that were the case. But from a personal point of view…? She could only feel relief at having the possibility of seeing Liam on a regular basis effectively removed!

  ‘Not at all,’ he dismissed. ‘I’ve just decided I would prefer to have you as my editor rather than Perry Webster.’

  Laura stared at him with one very green eye and one very blue one. ‘You—have—decided!’ she finally managed to gasp, shaking her head dazedly. ‘I hate to be the one to break this to you, Liam—’

  ‘I have the feeling you don’t hate it at all,’ he drawled in reply. ‘But whatever it is you hate, Laura, I suggest you save it for when we meet again in the morning; you have an appointment in—ten minutes.’ He adjusted the time after a quick glance at the watch on his right wrist.

  She was going to be late in getting to the school if she didn’t leave now!

  But Liam’s statement of a few minutes ago was so—so unbelievable that she felt rooted to the spot. Just who did he think he was? The obvious answer to that was Liam O’Reilly, but his name, prestigious though it might be in the literary world, did not give him the right to dictate terms to her. Least of all who his editor was going to be! If he really didn’t feel he could work with Perry, then there were plenty of other editors at Shipley he could choose from—though they did not include her!