‘You think you know so much about women, don’t you?’
‘I’m an animal behaviourist,’ said Nikolai with a twinkle. ‘I’ve been trained to know about women.’
His grandfather smiled. But he looked perturbed as well.
‘Do you never have any doubts, Nicki?’
Nikolai looked startled. ‘All the time. Every expedition, every paper I write, every lecture I give. If I didn’t have any doubts there wouldn’t be anything interesting left to research.’
‘I didn’t mean about your work,’ snapped his grandfather, suddenly annoyed. ‘I meant about women.’
Nikolai looked at him in concern. The loss of temper was out of character for his gentle grandfather. He slipped his arm round the older man’s shoulders.
‘What is it, Pauli? Regretting lending the château for this junket?’
The older man shook his head. ‘No,’ he said on a half-sigh. ‘No. But your grandmother was saying—it should have been Vladi’s wedding.’
For a moment Nikolai’s expression was stark. Pauli cursed himself for his clumsiness. Vladi had been killed a year ago, but sometimes he wondered whether Nikolai was over his brother’s death even yet.
He said hurriedly, ‘Still, it’s good to see her enjoying herself again. I thought a big party might be too much for her. But she said it would be good practice for your wedding.’
‘Ouch,’ said Nikolai. His expression was half-rueful, half-sad.
His grandfather did not pretend to misunderstand him.
‘Why are you so set against marriage, Nicki?’
Nikolai looked round at the crowded room. The music had started again, louder and heavier now that the older guests were leaving. Men threw off their hot jackets. Girls bared their shoulders and let their elaborate hairstyles fall as they would. Nikolai grimaced.
‘Maybe I’m just not a party animal.’
His grandfather was not deflected. ‘You can party with the best of them when you want. Anyway, marriage is more than a party.’
‘Exactly.’
Pauli peered up at his tall grandson. ‘Are you afraid of marriage, Nicki?’
Nikolai looked away. The firm mouth set into a stubborn line.
He knew that expression, thought Pauli. The shutters had come down. Normally he would have stopped there. But tonight, for some reason, he kept on.
‘We’ve never asked. You like your privacy and we’ve never wanted to intrude. But—have you ever lived with a woman, Nicki?’
Nikolai’s eyes flickered. He gave his grandfather a wide, false smile and shuddered dramatically. ‘Never.’
‘But there have been women,’ said Pauli, revealing that even if he didn’t ask he had other ways of finding out what he wanted to know.
‘Of course there have been women,’ said Nikolai calmly. ‘I just don’t let them move in.’
‘But—’
‘It only encourages them. Once a woman hangs her clothes in your wardrobe, she thinks she’s got rights in you.’
Pauli’s expression darkened. He turned his head away so Nikolai could not see it.
‘You sound very cold-hearted.’
‘That’s me,’ said Nikolai cheerfully. ‘Hot blood. Cold heart. Makes for a peaceful life.’
CHAPTER ONE
‘SO FIRE me!’
Lisa Romaine tilted her pointed chin to a challenging angle. She leaned insolently against the wall, looked her boss straight in the eye and waited.
Behind his desk, Sam Voss shifted irritably. ‘Can’t I give my Head of Bond Trading a hint?’
‘Hint!’
He tried a winning smile. ‘Now, Lisa, don’t overreact. Why don’t you sit down and we can talk?’
Predictably, she did not move. Her green eyes narrowed to slits.
‘Not about my private life,’ she said dangerously.
‘When you work for Napier Kraus, merchant bank to the new industrialists, you don’t have a private life.’
Lisa looked ironic. ‘You might not,’ she said. ‘I do.’
Sam shook his head. ‘I thought you wanted to get on.’
‘Sure,’ said Lisa evenly. ‘That’s why I work hard and deliver the goods. I’m not going to turn myself inside out trying to be a clone of the managing director.’
‘That’s enough.’ Sam’s voice hardened. ‘You’re on the management team now. If you want to stay there, act like it.’
‘At work, of course. But I’m not going to change my whole lifestyle. And turn my back on my friends.’
‘Look, kid—’
‘I’m twenty-two,’ flashed Lisa, suddenly losing her cool. ‘Don’t patronise me.’
‘Then stop digging your heels in. You’re a clever girl and you deserve your chance. Don’t blow it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean the Personnel Committee aren’t sure about you,’ he told her brutally.
‘Why? With my score—’
‘Oh, they like your results,’ he allowed. ‘You’re up there on the shortlist for Trader of the Year. Of course they like your results. They’re just not sure about a woman bossing a lot of punchy guys.’
Lisa gave a scornful shrug, not answering.
‘And, frankly, they’re not sure about your image either,’ said Sam, goaded.
‘What’s wrong with my image?’
He waved a hand. ‘You’re a good-looking kid. Sorry—woman. Get yourself a decent haircut and couple of designer suits and you could be in there mixing it with the MBA dollies. God knows, you’re bright enough. So why go out of your way to look like a punk?’
Lisa looked down her nose. Sam lost no chance to put her down, but on the issue of her appearance she was quite confident. The glass wall behind his desk reflected an image back at her which no one but Sam had any problems with: natural blonde hair, gamine features, long legs in spite of her moderate height and a figure to die for. It had taken all her considerable personality to stop her new staff from wolf-whistling
