sparing me your observations on my character!’
He released her abruptly and she massaged her wrist, trying to get the blood circulation going again.
‘Why should I?’ he asked too, standing up and prowling round the room, his hands stuffed into his pockets. Corinna followed his movements reluctantly. He moved with the easy grace of someone who was well aware of the physical impact of his presence. He was a tall man, well over six feet, and he carried his height with a confidence that sent a shiver of alarm running through her. She couldn’t remember ever following Michael’s movements with this avidity and she tore her eyes away with a stern reminder to herself that not only was this man highly objectionable, the stuff of nightmares in fact, but he was also insulting and offensive. And she had been stupid enough to give him the benefit of the doubt by imagining that his father had exaggerated his flaws. If anything he had understated them.
He had stopped in front of the marble mantelpiece and he turned to look at her from across the room. It took enormous effort to steel herself against the scrutiny. It was like being cross-examined, she thought, and, worse, it made her feel guilty, as though she had something to hide, when in fact she didn’t.
‘I’m not the intruder,’ he said. ‘My last name is Silver.’
‘What a charming way with introductions you have,’ Corinna threw at him. ‘Are you usually such a sociable character?’
‘When it comes to women like you, I don’t see the necessity for polite exchanges. Bluntness is the only tool you types understand.’
‘Women like me? Types?’ she all but shouted. No one had ever made her so angry in her life before. She had always been a very controlled person, not given to displays of temper. In fact, she found displays of temper alarming and often unnecessary, uneasy reminders of her childhood spent on her parents’ battleground. So it amazed her that this perfect stranger had managed to antagonise her to the point where she felt very much inclined to reach for the nearest heavy object and sling it at him. She took a few steadying breaths and said carefully, ‘I don’t have to stand for this. It’s hardly my fault if you swan in here, in the middle of the night, acting as though you’ve caught me trying to steal the family silver. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, you’re the intruder. You haven’t contacted your father in years, not even so much as a Christmas card, and——’
‘You seem to have mastered the fine art of jumping to conclusions,’ he threw at her forcefully.
‘Your father told me——’
‘I’m sick of hearing what my father told you! Do you actually have any time to do the work you’re presumably paid for in between all these riveting conversations you appear to have with him?’
Corinna stared at him furiously, bereft of speech. It wasn’t fair, she thought, Antonio Silver should be middle-aged, he should be overweight and dull. She would have been able to cope with overweight and dull.
‘It’s late,’ she said tightly. ‘I’m going to bed.’ She turned on her heel but she hadn’t made it to the door when he was in front of her, barring her exit. She hadn’t even heard him move. Businessman? she thought sourly. This man was a businessman? Terrorist more likely.
‘You’re not going anywhere until I’m through with you.’
‘Until you’re through with me?’ she asked, glaring up at him. Her long hair was in its habitual plait. It had swung over her shoulder and lay on her breast like a silver rope. ‘Until you’re through with me? Just who do you think you are?’
‘Someone you should be afraid of, someone who isn’t about to be taken in by those big eyes and reassuring bedside manner which, I suspect, you’ve been laying on thick ever since you set foot into this house! You’ve already shown me the roar behind that carefully nurtured mousy façade. God knows, I’m surprised you don’t play havoc with his blood-pressure.’
Their eyes clashed and she was the first to look away. Very hurriedly. Up this close she could almost breathe in his masculinity. It seemed to go straight to her head like incense, making her feel giddy and unstable on her feet.
‘Not as much as you will,’ she muttered, and he leaned towards her, as if trying to ascertain what she had said. She found herself tempted to step backwards.
‘What was that?’
‘I said that I’d better show you to your room if you intend to spend the night here.’
‘Now whatever gave you the idea that I intended spending the night here?’
‘Your bag?’ she said in the tone of someone talking to a complete idiot, and she was pleased to find that there wasn’t a hint of a tremor in her voice, even though her hands were trembling. ‘The fact that it’s gone midnight and you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else to stay?’
He didn’t appear in the least put out by her tone, though.
‘Oh, you’re on the wrong tack,’ he said with a cool smile, and she brightened.
‘You mean you won’t be staying here?’ That would please Benjamin no end, she thought, because if his son was going to be under the same roof, then who knew what sort of problems would arise? He would never stand for it, she knew. He would collapse on the spot, or else have Edna throw him out on his ear. She eyed Antonio sceptically. No, perhaps not. Even ferocious Edna had her limits.
‘Oh, yes,’ he said casually, killing her short-lived optimism. ‘But not for one night. I’m here for an indefinite length of time.’
‘An indefinite length of time?’ she repeated, dismayed, and he smiled slowly at her discomfiture.
‘I can see you find the prospect appealing.’
Appealing? Corinna thought faintly. Was the prospect of death by slow torture appealing? Was a charging bull appealing?
‘But you haven’t brought enough luggage,’ she said faintly.
‘There are two cases in the car,’ he said, and she could see that he was deriving cruel amusement at her expense. ‘And before you launch into another speech on the definition of your duties, I don’t expect you to carry them up to the bedroom for me. We wouldn’t want you to sully your fair hands with such a menial task, would we?’
‘But why?’ she asked, ignoring the sneer with effort. ‘Why have you suddenly decided to come to England and moreover stay under the same roof as your father?’
‘Two reasons, my dear Miss Steadman. The first is because one of my companies is opening a subsidiary over here, not terribly far away from Deanbridge House, in fact, in Guildford.’
‘And the second?’
‘The second,’ he said softly, there was open threat in his voice, ‘is so that I can keep an eye on you. We wouldn’t want you to start getting ideas beyond your station, now, would we?’
CORINNA had no idea how she managed to get to sleep. By the time her head had hit the pillow, she had been positively shaking with anger.
