his curt instructions echoing in her ears, Sienna approached the lift. It whooshed her swiftly and silently to the top of the building and she emerged in an entrance hall lined with beech panelling and lit by discreet, inset spotlights. Beneath her feet were exquisite tiles in varying shades of bronze and olive green. Glossy-leaved plants stood in corners and a mirror was directly opposite.
She looked, thought Sienna, petrified. Her wide blue eyes were burning like coals in her pale face, her chestnut hair awry, despite having taken care with it before she had left home. And having nervously nibbled her lips while she had waited to gain entrance, her lipstick was non-existent.
This was not the image she wanted to portray and she stood there a moment taking deep steadying breaths, pulling herself together, forcing a smile. She combed her hair, reapplied her lipstick and was popping the tube back into her bag when a door opened and Adam strode towards her.
Sienna took in a sharp breath. The change in him was dramatic. He’d gone from being almost too thin to broad-shouldered and well muscled. She could actually see his muscles rippling beneath the silk of his shirt. His waist and hips were still slender but he had powerful thighs, barely hidden beneath fine linen trousers.
Where had all this body development come from? she wondered. It looked as though he worked out on a major scale and yet from what she knew of him, and what she’d read in the press, he didn’t appear to have time for exercise. Work was still his ethos. If there had been more than twenty-four hours in a day he would have worked most of them.
His strong jaw with its cleft beneath sculpted lips was firm. His eyes, which were a dark, dark blue, were riveted on her face. Thick black brows jutted over them. The only thing that hadn’t changed was his black, curling hair, which was as awry as it had ever been. It touched his shirt collar and looked as though it desperately needed trimming and combing.
‘So—Sienna, I wondered if I’d ever see you again.’ His deep voice rumbled into the open space. ‘Actually, I’m intrigued. How did you know where I lived?’
Sienna allowed her fine brows to rise. ‘You’re in the news these days. A few enquiries and I had your address.’
Over the years it had been easy to keep tabs on what he was doing. He had gone from being a simple property developer to someone who bought ailing businesses, turned them around, and then sold them off at a huge profit. He had been voted businessman of the year on more than one occasion. To give him credit, he did a lot of charity work as well.
Wide shoulders shrugged. ‘I always knew that I would make it.’
‘Such modesty,’ she flashed. ‘But at what cost?’ His driving force, his need to make millions, was one of the reasons she had left him.
Adam’s lips thinned. ‘Are you here to discuss my success? Or is it a share of my money that you’re after? Is that why you’ve never asked for a divorce, so that you can lay claim to half of my worth? Well, I hate to tell you, Sienna—’
‘That is not why I’m here,’ Sienna said defensively, though in truth she could understand why he thought that. There were women who would go for the jugular under similar circumstances but she was not one of them.
She had struggled these last few years but she would never have asked Adam for a penny, not a single penny. She had her pride. And as for a divorce, she had liked the idea of being a married woman.
If she had met and fallen in love with someone else she might have demanded her freedom, but there had been no one, and clearly Adam hadn’t wanted to remarry either—which hadn’t surprised her. He enjoyed his life the way it was.
Inside his luxurious suite she stood for a moment looking around her. The large open space was entirely fronted by glass, which led out onto a wide balcony with a riven slate floor, studded with potted plants and cushioned cane furniture. It looked more like a courtyard than a balcony and the view over the Thames was stunning, but she had no time to give it more than a cursory glance before her attention was taken up with the room she was in.
The furniture was minimal. Chunky brown leather sofas and glass topped tables. A massive television screen on one wall. Everything in muted natural colours and the open-plan kitchen at the far end was to die for. Sienna couldn’t help wondering whether Adam cooked for himself or sent out for food, or even used one of the restaurants she had seen along the riverside walk.
‘Please—sit down.’ Adam indicated one of the leather chairs but Sienna shook her head.
‘I’d prefer to go outside.’ Although the space was immense, she felt suffocated by Adam’s presence. Strange when she had known him more intimately than any other man before or since.
‘As you wish,’ he said, leading the way. ‘Would you care for something to drink or would you prefer to say whatever it is that you came for?’
There was harshness in his voice and Sienna shivered. Adam had changed. He had always been a driven man, working hard, collapsing with exhaustion at the end of each day, but there was a hard edge to him now, a cutting edge. He clearly hadn’t got where he was without being utterly devoid of emotion and manically ruthless.
Thank God she had got out in time.
‘I’d like a drink, thank you.’ Something to lubricate her still dry throat. This was going to be far harder than she had envisaged.
‘Tea? Coffee? Maybe something stronger?’
‘Yes.’ Something strong and intoxicating, something to relax her tense muscles because otherwise she would walk out of here without telling him her reason for coming.
She had not imagined when she set out that Adam would be this coolly controlled man who had her at a disadvantage. She had known it would be difficult, she had rehearsed her little speech a thousand times, but this new Adam was making it ten times worse. She felt that he was toying with her, waiting for the right moment to throw her out and tell her that whatever it was she had come for he wanted nothing to do with it.
A dark eyebrow rose. ‘Yes to all three?’
‘I mean, I’d like…something stronger.’
His lips twitched but he didn’t comment. ‘Wine perhaps? Or brandy? How great is your need?’
His sarcasm wasn’t lost on her and Sienna lifted her chin, her light blue eyes meeting his darker ones. She had almost forgotten how amazingly good-looking he was and for one small moment she felt a rush of heat between her thighs. Banished in an instant, deeply horrifying.
That part of her life was over. Not once since she’d left him had he tried to find her, proving that he hadn’t been particularly disappointed or even worried. In essence it had given him a clear field to work even longer hours. To amass his fortune. She found it difficult to understand why anyone would let money be their god. There was surely more to life.
This apartment, for instance, was nothing more than a status symbol. Why would one man live by himself in a place like this? Unless he used it as a love nest. Did he invite lady friends here? Actually, she had not once seen him in the press with a female on his arm. He was either very careful or working his socks off was still his way of life.
‘Wine would be perfect, thank you.’
Left alone for a few minutes, Sienna closed her eyes, wishing she hadn’t felt the need to seek Adam out after
