the rest of her life slaving over the estate and company, wasting her life instead of living it?
“Do you have a list of qualities and a timeline for when you’ll meet and mate with this ideal specimen of manhood too?”
Her gaze flashed with warning. “My personal life has no bearing on you. I’m only telling you this because you’re questioning my professional behavior.”
“Yet you dare ask me questions about my visits, about where I’ve been all these years.”
“That’s because I’ve seen the pain you’ve caused Robert for so long. Much as I try, I can’t help wondering what kind of man stays away from everything he knows for a decade, without once looking back. You didn’t even stay for your mother’s funeral. You didn’t care about what happened to your father for a decade. You didn’t come when Maria... If I hadn’t realized that she knew where you were—”
“Enough.”
He leveled a hard look at her and Riya knew she had crossed a line.
“I want a new software model created within three weeks for an executive membership and a package from your team on the front end. You’ll see the launch event.”
Her mouth fell open, her stomach dropping into a vacuum. “It can’t be ready in three weeks. I’ll need to redesign the whole software engine, and we don’t have any of the product development team to put the package together. I have only worked behind the scenes till now.”
“Then step into the front. Work smarter and learn to delegate. Use your staff as more than your cheerleader. And the next time a colleague professes undying love to you on office premises and continues to harass you, you’ll immediately file a report with HR.”
She slapped her palms against the table between them, something snapping in her. “How long will you hate me for what my mother did?”
“Don’t overestimate your place in my life, Riya.” Each word dripped with cutting incisiveness. “Although thanks to your manipulation, I’m veering toward moderate annoyance.”
“Then how long will you punish me for lying?”
“Punish you?”
“Yes. Lording it over me, dragging me across the world, setting goals that ensure my failure, enforcing this...this...”
He stood up from his seat and she craned her neck.
“You’ve got quite the imagination for someone who’s determined to live her life by a plan. We made a deal, one that you started. You’re bending all out of shape now because I’m holding you to your end of it?”
His voice was soft, all the more efficient for it. The angrier she got, the calmer he grew. And perversely she wanted to ruffle that frosty, still exterior, wanted to make him angry, hurt, feel something.
That scared her more than anything.
“Or is it me personally that you can’t deal with?”
She stood up, meaning to get away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He grasped her arm, the lean breadth of his body too close. “If we’re going for all-out honesty, one of us has to state it for what it is.”
Panic unfurled in sharp bursts in her belly.
As long as it was unsaid, as long as it was just in her head, and in their glances and in his knowing, arrogant smile, she could still ignore it, she could still believe it to be just a by-product of how much power he held in her life right now.
“There’s nothing to state.” She tugged at his fingers but his grip was relentless. Bending down, he neatly trapped her against her seat. His gaze moved over her as if it could touch her. Lingered over her eyes, her nose, her mouth. The sound of their breaths, labored and fast, surrounded her in the silence. She didn’t understand where this energy was coming from or why it was so strong.
When she kissed Drew, it had been pleasant, nice. Like a breezy day on the coast, like sitting in front of a warm fire in cold winter.
When Nathan touched her, it felt as if she would come apart from the inside if he continued. Left her feeling shaken when he stopped. Probably how someone would feel when jumping off a cliff. How someone felt when playing with fire.
“Please, Nate, let me go.”
A smile wreathed his mouth. It was full of satisfaction, of understanding, even a little glimmer of resignation. The pads of his fingers pressed into her skin. His breath caressed the tip of her nose, his gaze dipping to her mouth. “You didn’t wonder what would happen if I came back and turned your life upside down. You didn’t expect this current that comes to life when we look at each other. Do you have a plan for what to do in this twisted situation we’re in?”
Emotion, that emotion she wanted to see in him, it coated every word. This unbidden fire between them, for all his forcing the matter, he didn’t like or want it any more than she did.
“Do you think your life is still completely in your control?” he asked.
“It would be if you weren’t so determined to play games with me.”
“I haven’t done one thing today that I wouldn’t have even if you weren’t the most beautiful, most infuriating, the strangest creature I’ve ever met.”
A soft gasp left her mouth at the vehemence in his words.
The small sound reverberated in the quiet cabin.
Releasing her, he stepped back, his gaze a wintry frost again. Glanced at her with unease. As if he didn’t know what had happened.
“You are the problem, Riya. Not me. It rattles you when I come near you, when I lay a finger on you. You fight it by attributing motives to me. Tell me you’ll sell the estate, and I’ll have the pilot turn the plane around. Tell me you’ve had enough.”
“Why are you fighting me so much on this?” she said, desperation spewing from her. “What do you lose by talking to Robert a few times? What do you have in there, a big hard rock for a heart?”
Her attack took him by surprise. A scornful twist to his mouth, he stared at her. And Riya could literally see the minute he decided she wasn’t worth it. Whatever it was.
Perverse disappointment flooded her and she stood immobile in its wake.
“I have no heart. At least not a working one.” His mouth barely moved, his jaw clenched tight. “I’ll never forgive him for what he did to my mother. He let her down when she needed him. Flaunted his affair with Jackie in her face. Just the mere thought of him fills me with anger, reminds me of my own weakness.”
RIYA STRAIGHTENED IN HER leather seat as they touched down on the runway. She had spent the entire flight alternately staring at the screen and catching sneaky glances of Nathan. He, however, seemed to have very effectively removed her from his mind.
The
