burst out laughing before sobering up to look at her with a gimlet-eyed warning. ‘I wouldn’t even entertain that notion if I were you,’ he informed her in the sort of voice that did not expect contradiction. ‘In the first few weeks there will probably be a great deal of overtime, and hopping on and off a train to try to get the work done just isn’t going to cut it.’
‘I have nowhere to stay here.’ Once upon a time, there had been a snazzy apartment in Kensington but, she had discovered, that had been mortgaged up to the hilt when the company had started shedding customers and losing profit. It had been sold ages ago.
‘Your brother has stayed in a hotel when he’s been down.’ Javier’s eyes roved over her flushed face. ‘But,’ he mused with soft speculation, ‘as you’re going to be here for considerably longer, I have already made arrangements for you to have use of one of my apartments in Notting Hill. You’ll be within convenient walking distance of the company. No excuse for slacking off.’
‘No!’ She broke out in clammy perspiration.
‘Reason being...?’
‘I...I can’t just decamp down here to London, Javier!’
‘This isn’t something that’s open to debate.’
‘You don’t understand.’
‘Then enlighten me.’ They hadn’t even stepped foot into the renovated office and already they were arguing.
He couldn’t credit that he had originally played with the thought of helping her in return for having her. He couldn’t think of anything less satisfying than having her blackmailed into coming to him as a reluctant and resentful partner when he wanted her hot, wet and willing...
He also couldn’t credit that he had simplistically imagined that one scratch would ease this itch that had surfaced with such surprising speed the second her brother had opened that door back into the past. The more he saw of her, the more he thought of her, the more dangerously deep his unfinished business with her felt. One or two nights wasn’t going to be enough.
‘I have to keep an eye on the house,’ she said with obvious reluctance.
‘What house?’
‘The family home.’
‘Why? Is it in imminent danger of falling down if you’re not at hand with some sticking plaster and masking tape?’
Bitter tears sprang to her eyes and she fought them down as a red mist of anger swirled through her in a tidal rush.
‘Since when did you get so arrogant?’ she flung at him. They stared at one another in electric silence before she broke eye contact to storm off, out of the beautiful reception area, which she had barely noticed at all, and into the first set of offices.
It took a couple of seconds before Javier was galvanised into following her.
Being accused of arrogance was not something he was accustomed to. Indeed, being spoken to in that accusatory, critical tone of voice was unheard of. He caught her arm, tugging her to face him and then immediately releasing her because just the feel of her softness under his fingers was like putting his hand against an open flame. It enraged him that she could still have this effect on him. It enraged him that, for the first time in living memory, and certainly for the first time in many, many years, his body was refusing to obey his mind.
‘Are you sure it’s the house you need to be close to?’ he growled.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Maybe there’s a man lurking in the background...’ Javier was disgusted to realise that he was fishing. Did he care whether there was some lame boyfriend in the background? She wasn’t married and that was the main thing. He would never have gone near any woman with a wedding ring on her finger, but if she had a boyfriend somewhere, another one of those limp ex–public school idiots who thought that a polished accent was all that it took to get you through life, well...
All was fair in love and war...
Sophie reddened. The dull prickle of unpleasant memories tried to surface and she resolutely shoved them back where they belonged, in the deepest corners of her mind.
‘Because, if you have, then he’ll just have to take a back seat for...however long it takes. And word of warning—my apartment is for sole occupation only...’
‘You mean if there was a guy in my life, and I happened to be living in one of your apartments, I wouldn’t be allowed to entertain him?’
Javier looked at her appalled expression and swatted away the uncomfortable feeling that he was being pigeon-holed as some kind of dinosaur when that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Having reached the soaring heights the hard way, he made a conscious effort to ensure that the employees of his company were hand-picked for all the right reasons: talent, merit and ability. He made sure that there were no glass ceilings for women, or for those who had had to struggle to find their way, as he had.
He was not the sort of guy who would ever have dreamt of laying down pathetic rules about men being kept apart from women, like teenagers in boarding schools overseen by strict house masters.
So what was he doing right now? And how was it that he had no intention of doing otherwise?
‘I mean you’re probably going to be working long hours. The distraction of some man who wants you back home to cook his meal by five-thirty isn’t going to work’ was the most he would offer.
Sophie laughed shortly. If only he knew...
‘There’s no man around to distract me,’ she said in a low voice. ‘And, yes, as a matter of fact the house is falling down, and Oliver won’t be there because he’s been dispatched to France to see what’s happening to the company over there...’
‘Your house is falling down?’
‘Not literally,’ Sophie admitted. ‘But there’s a lot wrong with it and I’m always conscious of the fact that if it springs a leak and I’m not there to sort it out, well...’
‘Since when has your house been falling down?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ She sighed and began to run her fingers through her hair, only to realise that she had pinned it up, and let her hand drop to her side. She looked around her but was very much aware of his eyes still on her, and even more aware that somehow they were now standing way too close for comfort.
‘You’ve done marvellous things with the space.’ She just wanted to get away from the threat of personal quizzing. She took a few steps away from him and now took time really to notice just how much had been done. It was not just a paint job; everything seemed very different from what she remembered.
It seemed much, much larger and that, she realised, was because the space within the first-floor office block had been maximised. Partitions had been cleverly put in where before there had been none. The dank carpeting had been replaced with wooden floors. The desks and furniture were all spanking new. She listened and nodded as he explained the dynamics of the place being manned and who should be working the London office. The client list would have to be updated. The sales team would need to be far more assertive. He had identified useful gaps in the market
