Kate could only hope that she and Luke would have better things to talk about than how familiar his secretary looked. If they thought about it long enough they might remember, and that was the last thing she wanted!

She was waiting nervously when Luke came back after lunch. He didn't say anything, so she breathed again, but he was in a foul mood and kept her working until half-past six.

Kate arrived punctually at nine the following morning, to find Luke prowling around her office and muttering as he rifled through files. Evidently his temper hadn't improved overnight!

Kate judged it best simply to ignore him. She wished him a cool good morning, which was not acknowledged, and hung up her coat. When he was in this kind of mood she had no trouble telling herself that she must have imagined falling in love with him!

The phone rang as she headed towards her desk, and, although she had plenty of time to answer it, Luke jumped on it as if to prove that she wasn't doing her job properly.

`Yes?' he snapped, obviously about to take his bad temper out on some poor unsuspecting employee at the other end of the line, but he was to be frustrated. With some amusement, Kate heard him say, with an effort to sound polite, `Oh, yes, how are you?'

Obviously a client, Kate thought, seating herself behind her desk and reaching for the diary. He wasn't polite to anyone else.

There was a pause and then Luke said stiffly, `Yes, she's here.' He handed the receiver to Kate. `It's Xavier Robard, wanting to speak to my charming assistant,' he said nastily. `I presume that means you.'

Kate took the phone from him with a brilliant smile and proceeded to greet Xavier with a lot more warmth than she did normally. Luke gave her no chance to be private, but remained obstinately perched on her desk, pretending to read a file but patently eavesdropping. Kate was speaking in rapid French, but she had no doubt that he was following the gist of the conversation.

`So when's he coming over?' Luke demanded as she put down the phone.

`Oh, did you miss that bit?' Kate asked sarcastically. `Sorry, I should have spoken more slowly for you!'

Their eyes clashed angrily. His were slate-grey and very hard, hers a hostile gold.

`He's coming tomorrow,' Kate added sulkily, looking away first.

`And you're having dinner with him.' It was a statement, not a question.

`Yes. Do you have any objection?'

Luke grunted for an answer. `Is he coming into the office?’

'He didn't say so. Why, did you want to see him particularly?'

`You might have thought that I might have some details to discuss with him!' Luke said unreasonably.

`I can easily ring him and make an appointment if that's the case.' Kate reached for the phone, but Luke stopped her with an irritable gesture.

`Oh, leave it! If he's coming panting after you he probably won't want to be bothered about business.'

`As a matter of fact, he's coming over on a quite different business matter,' Kate said coldly.

Luke snorted. `That's his story!' He picked up the desk calendar. `Tomorrow's the fourteenth, Valentine’s Day. Funny that his different business should just happen to be tomorrow. I suppose he chose the date deliberately?'

`I think that's most unlikely,' Kate said with a frosty look. `They don't make a big thing of Valentine's Day in France.'

`Well, since you've reminded me of it, I suppose I'd better arrange for some flowers for Helen and Lynette,' Luke said with what Kate strongly suspected was deliberate provocation. `Get a bouquet sent to each of them tomorrow, will you?'

'What, both of them?'

'Why not?' he retorted cynically. `It'll keep them both quiet, and they don't need to know that they're not the only ones.'

Kate made a neat note on her shorthand pad. She was determined not to be upset by the fact that Luke chose to send flowers to other girls. `What sort of bouquet?' she asked, very matter-of-fact.

`Oh, I don't know.' Luke shrugged irritably. `One of those big elaborate jobs. Whatever you would like.'

`Personally, I think those big bouquets are rather vulgar,' Kate said austerely. `A simple bunch of tulips, hand-delivered, would be much more romantic.'

`You're so understated, Kate!' Luke got to his feet, a hint of amusement in his voice. `Still, I think vulgar bouquets would be much more appropriate for Helen and Lynette.' He glanced down at the flowers Xavier had sent and his expression hardened once more. `Send them dozen red roses each.'

`Any message?' Kate asked sweetly. `Or would you like me to make one up for you?

'Just put my name on them,' Luke said wit] a nasty look.

`Very romantic,' Kate murmured as he turned away.

`I'm not a romantic,' he snarled, heading for his office. `And nor are Helen or Lynette.'

`Then why bother sending them flowers?'

'It gives them some kind of trophy to display that's all. And, if all it takes is money, I don' care!'

No, Luke was definitely not a good man to fall in love with.

Kate phoned the florist and tried not to thin: about Valentine's Day. A day for lovers. It wasn't a good day to be hopelessly in love with someone who didn't, would never, love you.

She woke the next morning feeling unusually depressed, and she went through her routine of getting ready without enthusiasm. When the doorbell rang she struggled into her dressing gown and opened the door, expecting to see the postman with something that was too big to fit through the letter-box. Probably a bill, she thought glumly. He certainly wasn't likely to have a pile of Valentine's cards for her!

There was no one there. Kate looked out, puzzled, and then her gaze dropped to the doorstep. A large bunch of pink tulips, still tightly bundled, lay there.

Kate picked them up slowly. There was no message.

What was it she had said? A simple bunch of tulips would be much more romantic. Closing the door behind her, she buried her face in the flowers with a slow smile. They could only be from Luke. Her heart soared even as her mind struggled to keep it firmly under control.

`I'm not a romantic'-but he had given her flowers. Of course, it might be a gesture from a busy man to say that her hard work did not go as unnoticed as she thought. Yes, it might be that. Kate put the tulips in a glass jug and stood back to admire them. It would be just like Luke to do something confusing like this rather than just come out with a compliment!

She speculated about the flowers all the way to work, unable to decide whether she should thank him, or whether he would prefer her to pretend she didn't know whom they were from.

In the event, he solved her dilemma by being out of the office all morning, and in such a bad mood when he finally came in that Kate decided to restrict her comments to the bare necessities. When he had snapped her head off for the fourth time she even began to wonder if she had been mistaken, and was thankful that she hadn't said anything.

`I suppose you want to leave early, since you're going out with your Frenchman tonight?' Luke grumbled as she laid some letters on his desk.

`I don't need to leave early, but I'd certainly like to leave on time for once.' Kate looked back at him calmly.

`There's no need to sound such a martyr. Anyone would think I kept you chained to this desk twenty-four hours a day!'

`I don't usually get away before half-past six,' Kate pointed out, unruffled.

Luke chewed at his thumbnail. `Where's he taking you?'

'I'm not sure-it's a restaurant he knows in Soho somewhere.'

'Xavier would know a little restaurant in Soho!' Luke snorted with disgust and then glared at her suspiciously. `What are you going to wear?

Not that black dress, I hope?'

`I'm afraid I haven't given it much thought yet,' Kate said frostily, resenting the inquisition. What did it matter to him? He had already asked her to book a table for dinner that night, so he obviously had plans of his own.

Kate had grown more and more crabby as the day had passed, and she began to feel foolish about her euphoria over the flowers. Even if he had sent them, it hadn't been the romantic gesture she had hoped. He was far too busy having a good time with Helen or Lynette or any of the other women who rang up and wasted her time insisting on leaving messages for him.

`Is he going to pick you up from home?' Luke persisted.

Kate sighed, exasperated. She felt like telling him to mind his own business, but that would only stir his curiosity even more. `I'll probably meet him in town,' she said in a resigned tone. `He doesn't have a car here, and it would be difficult for him to get to my flat. It's not exactly central.'

`It's not that far,' Luke said, and then stopped as if suddenly realising that he had betrayed himself.

`I didn't realise that you knew where I lived.' Kate lifted one eyebrow coolly, but a treacherous glow of hope began to spread through her.

`Your address is on your CV,' Luke blustered, then grinned a little shamefacedly.

Kate's chill hauteur was no proof against his smile, and even as she warned herself not to give in too easily, she was unable to prevent smiling back.

`Thank you for the flowers,' she said. `They're lovely.'

`They didn't look much to me.' Luke shuffled the papers on his desk gruffly. `Can't see why anyone would prefer something like that to a proper bouquet.'

Kate wondered if he was waiting for her to reassure him that she hadn't read too much into the fact that he had given her flowers.

`There must be something wrong with my taste,' she said lightly. `How did the roses go down?’

'Received with shrieks of delight, I gather, Luke said callously, and then looked up at her She was wearing a straight rust-coloured skirt with the olive-green jumper she had worn in Paris, and looked quietly businesslike. `I don't suppose you shrieked?’