time he would be the one to finish things.
‘So, has anyone got any questions?’ she asked briskly.
As he’d predicted a few members of the board gave her a tough time, started to grill her more intensely, but she more than held her own. After a few more minutes he could see that there was a shifting change of attitude and she was winning them over.
‘Well, I think you have just about covered everything, Katie, thank you,’ he said smoothly.
She nodded and started to close her notes. ‘Then, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll leave you to the rest of your meeting, gentlemen, and I’ll press on.’
‘Certainly.’
Relief coursed through her. She couldn’t wait to get out of here.
‘Just one last thing,’ Alexi added nonchalantly. ‘There is another meeting at the office in New York tomorrow, and I will need you to attend.’
She looked up and he held her eyes.
‘Tomorrow?’ Apprehension clutched at her stomach. ‘That’s rather short notice, isn’t it?’
‘One of those things.’ Alexi shrugged.
‘What time is the meeting?’ She wrenched her gaze away from him, picked up her pen and looked back at her notepad.
‘No need to sort flights; you can come with me on the company jet later.’
Katie’s head jerked up. She felt like she was already on that plane and it had just dropped into free fall from thirty-five-thousand feet. Her whole body was telling her that being alone with him for hours was not a good idea! She wanted to say, no way, but how unprofessional would that look?
‘I think it would be sensible to sort things out in the USA as soon as possible,’ Alexi continued coolly.
A few of the people around the table were starting their own conversations now, and under cover of the sudden babble of noise she wanted to lower her voice and tell him that she didn’t think it was a sensible idea at all. That she didn’t want to be alone with him—that she couldn’t handle this situation, couldn’t act as if nothing had happened between them!
But she didn’t say any of those things—she had her pride. Instead her eyes remained locked with his, and her heart thundered so hard that it felt like it might break out of her chest. ‘I suppose so.’ She said the words tightly.
‘Good. I’ll pick you up at seven this evening.’
Was it her imagination or was there a gleam of triumph in those dark eyes?
She looked away from him and picked up her notes with hands that were not entirely steady.
‘I’ll see you later.’ What else could she say or do? she wondered furiously. This was about work. He had her in an impossible situation.
CHAPTER THREE
IT WAS almost seven in the evening, and Katie was pacing her apartment. Her weekend case was packed, and the professional side of her was ready to go—but emotionally she was reluctant.
In fact when Alexi had rung her at her desk earlier, to confirm flight times and the time for picking her up, she’d tried her best to get out of it.
‘Is this trip really necessary so soon?’ she’d demanded heatedly. ‘Don’t you think it would be better for me to get to grips with the job here and get on top of a lot of this paperwork before sorting out the US side of things?’
‘You can sort some of the paperwork out on the flight. I need to press ahead as fast as possible with this,’ he’d answered without hesitation. ‘So be ready and waiting for me.’
Then the line had just gone dead. He’d hung up on her.
The nerve of the guy! OK, he was her boss—but that didn’t mean he owned her twenty-four-seven. He at least owed her the courtesy of some advance warning!
Her mobile phone zinged with a message now as she tried to pull herself together. She took it out of her pocket and opened it. It was from Alexi. It was strange, seeing his name on the screen after all this time. She’d thought he’d probably deleted her number from his phone weeks ago. She’d certainly meant to delete his, she’d just … Well, she hadn’t got round to it.
Quickly she read the message: I’m outside—don’t be long. Anger twisted inside her. Four weeks of nothing and then a curt summons. Then she bit down on her lip and reminded herself that this was about work, nothing else. She couldn’t let emotions cloud the issue.
She went across to the window and looked out, and sure enough his limousine was sitting next to the kerb. Just the sight of it made her heartbeat start to accelerate. She had a choice—she could either forget this job and tell him to go to hell, or she could put work first and get on with it. When she thought about it like that she didn’t really have a choice, she told herself wryly. Her job and her independence were the most important things to her, and she’d always acted in a professional manner. She snapped up her jacket and her bag and headed for the door. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be preoccupied by something that had happened in the past. She had to put work first.
Alexi had just taken his phone out to ring her when she appeared on the street. He smiled to himself and put the mobile away again. Things were going extremely well. Businesswise, he had Katie exactly where he wanted her, and before they returned to London he would have her back in his bed as well. He watched as his driver got out to help her with her bag and to open the door for her.
‘Hi.’ She acknowledged him with a nod as she slid into the seat opposite. He could smell the familiar scent of her perfume, flowery and light, and yet somehow incredibly sexy. She was wearing black jeans with a white shirt, and she had tied her hair back from her face. She looked good. Possibly too good, considering the fact that he had to get some work done during this journey.
‘You’re late,’ he told her sardonically.
‘I was five minutes!’ Her beautiful blue eyes seemed to simmer. ‘And you’re lucky I’m here at all. This is very short notice, I could have had other plans.’
‘But you don’t,’ he concluded.
‘That’s not the point. I really need at least a few days’ notice for business trips away like this.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind for the next time.’
‘The next time?’ She sounded suddenly flustered. ‘Do you think we will have to make many more trips like this?’
He inclined his head. ‘Definitely. We’ll need to iron out as many teething problems up front as possible, and there is no better way than the personal touch.’
‘I see.’ She looked away from him, out of the windows.
What was causing that flutter of panic? he wondered. It couldn’t be work—she was well used to travelling between different offices; she’d done it at Demetri Shipping. Was it the thought of being alone with him?
What had made her finish things with him? he
