Penny took his hand and he sighed with relief. ‘I understand not wanting to tell her, but if she finds out we’ve been sneaking around behind her back and lying to her she is going to be even more hurt.’

‘I know. I would just like to get to Christmas without upsetting her. I like seeing a smile back on her face again.’

‘OK.’

‘And we’ll just be really careful for the next few days.’

She nodded.

‘Now let’s have a quick shag, whilst she’s on the phone to her friend.’ Henry reached for her, and she laughed, batting away his advances.

Henry chuckled. ‘Come for dinner tonight. I’ll cook you something special.’

Penny nodded. ‘I’ll bring some cake.’

‘Well, if making cakes is your response to getting annoyed with me, I’m going to be as big as a house.’

‘Then don’t annoy me.’

Henry smiled, peered over her shoulder at the still closed connecting door and reached forward to give her a brief, soft kiss, before walking out the door.

Chapter Fourteen

Henry pulled his car into the furniture factory car park and got out. The car park was nearly deserted.

He had been surprised to get a phone call from Audrey, Clara’s assistant, half an hour before, asking him to come in and discuss his designs with Clara and Edward. It was one of the things Henry had brought up in his interview, that he would love the opportunity to design his own furniture. Edward had seemed really interested but hadn’t been sure whether at that stage they would be looking to design anything new when their current lines were selling so well, but he had promised to talk to the design team. Henry hadn’t expected to hear any more about it and certainly hadn’t expected to get a phone call from Clara so late on a Wednesday night just a week before Christmas, especially because, according to Daniel, although Clara headed up the design team, she basically did a big fat lot of nothing. But it wasn’t an opportunity he was going to miss: designing and creating ideas from scratch was something he was passionate about. He loved building a piece that was individual and not like anything that could be bought in shops.

He grabbed his portfolio from the car and walked into the factory just as Daniel was walking out.

‘Oh hey, mate, what are you doing here so late?’ Daniel asked, shrugging on his coat and pulling his hat on over his messy hair.

‘I’ve been asked to come in and talk to Edward and Clara about my designs for some new furniture.’

‘Oh, that’s cool. I hope they like your designs. Oh, before I forget, Maggie wants me to invite you round for dinner tomorrow, you can bring Daisy too if you want.’

‘Thank you, I’d love to. I’ll ask Daisy though I’ll doubt she will come. What time?’

‘About seven thirty is good. I’ll see you then.’

Daniel left and Henry looked at his watch. The nice dinner and evening he had planned with Penny was quickly disappearing. She had been out walking Bernard when he left so he had asked Daisy to start dinner and to pass on a message that he had been called into work but he would be back soon. He only hoped that this meeting didn’t take too long.

He raced up the stairs and walked into Audrey’s office, which led through to Clara’s office. Audrey was just getting on her coat and scarf to leave too.

She looked at him apologetically. ‘I’m sorry to call you in so late, but she insisted,’ Audrey whispered as she walked past him and out the door, leaving him alone.

He approached the door to Clara’s office. Clara was sitting behind her desk, a huge thing that took up almost the entire room. The whole room was covered in dark wood that matched the desk and modern art pictures that were slashes of brown and beige. There wasn’t a single slash of colour in the room, in stark contrast to Edward’s office, which was pale wood, lots of colourful photos of sunsets and beaches and even a little Christmas tree in the corner. There was nothing that indicated that it was Christmas in here.

Clara’s desk lacked any kind of work paraphernalia at all. It was devoid of all the papers that had littered Edward’s desk. It was hard to see what she did with her time all day. Maybe she spent a lot of it on the phone, but he would still expect to see some kind of notes from her telephone conversations. The computer was switched on and she was working on it but there didn’t look like there was anything work-related on there; in fact the screen was filled with lots of photos of expensive-looking dresses.

He knocked softly on the door and she looked up and flashed him a huge smile when she saw him.

‘Henry, do come in, shut the door behind you.’

He did as he was asked but, looking around, he could see they were alone, whereas Audrey had made it sound like there would be members of the design team there too. He took his coat off and left it over the sofa that was in the corner of the room, though he instantly regretted it when he turned to see her appreciative gaze raking over his body.

‘Are Edward or the designers joining us?’ Henry said, hesitantly.

‘Edward has already left for the evening,’ Clara said, coming round the desk towards him. ‘He asked me to arrange a meeting with you and one of the designers but, as the managing director in charge of the design team, I wanted to look through your designs first. We are very hands-on at the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company. Something I’m sure you will appreciate about working here.’

Henry cleared his throat, not at all comfortable with the way she was staring at him like she wanted to eat him.

‘Let’s see what you’ve got,’ Clara said, without taking her eyes off him.

He opened up his portfolio and pulled a few sheets from the folder, spreading them out on her desk as she stood just behind him.

‘I know you’ve just started doing a range in chairs but I thought about maybe expanding it. The chairs we sell are very functional and nice but I think we could make them into something more.’

She moved in next to him, her body pressed close to his, though her eyes were still on him and not the designs. He subtly moved away a few inches.

‘I’ve designed a chaise longue which is classic but with traces of more contemporary styles at the same time. The chaise longue is a most sought after piece with many women, it’s romantic and will make a great addition to any lounge furniture or even the bedroom.’

‘What would you do with it in the bedroom?’ Clara said, raking her fingers seductively over the curves of the chair, her eyes returning to him almost immediately.

‘Well, you would sit on it and read or…’ He trailed off as her fingers skated over his knuckles as he leaned over the desk. He removed his hand from under hers. ‘I thought we could make it from white, black or beige leather as that will fit in with most colour schemes and we can add silver or gold to the legs to make it more—’

‘Will it be big enough for two?’ She stared up at him through long lashes as she ran her fingernails up his arm.

Henry glanced over to the closed door, a sick feeling of panic rushing through him. This was not good. She hadn’t brought him here for the designs. There was only one portfolio she was interested in and it wasn’t the one in his black folder but the one that was mere centimetres from her ever encroaching hand.

In a last-ditch attempt to change the subject and put the conversation back on track, he rifled in his folder for another drawing to show her, moving subtly away from her gold-painted talons.

‘I have some other designs too.’ He grabbed the first design that came to hand and laid it on the desk. His heart sank as soon as he saw which design it was. The two chairs facing in opposite directions, joined together by the S-shaped curves of the backrest and arms, was a very popular style in the late Victorian period and Henry’s design was a modern twist on that but the name was vastly inappropriate for what Clara had planned for this meeting.