‘All plain excuses, Keira. You could get this magazine out with your hands tied behind your back and your eyes closed.’ Daniel leant across her desk to blow a puff of breath lightly on her ear. ‘So, how about it?’

‘Daniel!’ Keira sat back in her chair, her fingers going involuntarily to her neck where a wisp of fine fair hair had escaped from her chignon. ‘Don’t do that!’

‘Ah ha! Now I have your attention.’ Daniel grinned at her engagingly.

And that he was an extremely engaging young man, Keira couldn’t deny. Tall. Fair-haired. Blue-eyed. Intelligent. Rich. And, to top it all off, very nice.

‘Daniel, please.’

‘Why won’t you come with me?’ he asked earnestly.

‘Just one minor reason. Because I’m a decade older than you are, that’s why.’

Daniel gave a scoffing laugh. ‘How you adults do exaggerate,’ he mocked. ‘You are but eight years-’

‘Nine,’ Keira put in, ‘which is nearly a decade.’

‘OK,’ Daniel acquiesced. ‘You are nine years my senior, which suits me just fine because I’m more than partial to older women.’

‘At the risk of denting your adolescent ego, I’m not into younger men. Sorry,’ she added wryly.

‘How do you know if you haven’t tried one?’ He straightened and folded his arms, looking down at her with overstated seriousness. ‘As a toy boy, I’m renowned, the cream of the crop so to speak.’

Keira laughed lightly, wondering what he’d say if she gave in to the urge to ruffle his stylish fair hair. I’m sure you are, Daniel. Maybe that’s why I wouldn’t be able to trust myself with you.’

‘I can be trusting enough for both of us,’ he put in quickly, and Keira shook her head.

‘Incorrigible, but tenacious.’ She smiled as she rested her elbows on her desk, her chin in her hands. ‘Which is why you’re going to make a pretty good newspaper man-’ she paused and raised her eyebrows ‘-when you grow up.’