So far the evening had been going splendidly. He’d had a number of extremely worthwhile conversations, and had gained a valuable insight into the way to kick-start the economy and stimulate growth.
After all the political problems he’d had to deal with recently, not to mention the unsettling effect Laura had on him, spending an evening within his comfort zone made a nice change.
As did the way he now felt, or rather didn’t feel, about Laura. After she’d left him in the rose garden, he’d gone back to his office, summoned up some of that famed ruthlessness and had simply told himself to get a grip and not to feel anything.
So he didn’t. When she crossed his mind, he felt absolutely nothing. Not a flicker of desire. Not a hammer of his pulse. Not a twitch of his body. The abrupt way in which she’d left him after lunch? Hah. Didn’t bother him one jot.
Laura, metaphorically speaking, was history, and he hadn’t been so relaxed in weeks.
Striding over to the podium and adjusting the microphone, Matt felt an exquisite sense of calm settle over him. Oh, yes. He was back on track and back in control. And nothing, but nothing, could upset it.
Laura hovered at the pair of giant doors that opened into the ballroom, her gaze zooming in on the man standing on the podium speaking to the assembled throng, and her breath caught.
Matt looked absolutely magnificent. Dark and dangerous and devastatingly gorgeous. His dinner suit fitted as if made for him and the snowy white of his shirt emphasised his tan. The aura he emanated and the magnetism he radiated were holding every one of his guests captivated.
God, she’d only just arrived and hadn’t heard any of his speech, yet she was captivated. Her eyes slid helplessly back to him and her blood began to heat. Who knew what he was talking about? She was far too distracted by the hint of a smile curving his mouth and the sexy raise of an eyebrow he gave every now and then. Every inch of him seemed to reach out to her and she was moments away from discarding all her intentions of lofty hauteur, and swooning.
A woman to her right let out a little sigh and Laura felt like going over and patting her arm in sympathy. And then batting everyone out of the way, stalking over and staking her claim on him.
Her totally unfounded claim, she reminded herself, biting her tongue and forcing herself to focus.
‘Small businesses are the backbone to any economy,’ Matt was saying, his gaze sweeping over the assembled gathering, ‘and I plan to see that measures are implemented to—’
His eyes collided with hers and for a second, time stood still. He paused. His face tightened. His eyes blazed and Laura’s heart skidded to a halt. Her mouth went dry. Her entire body froze and then burned as awareness sizzled through her.
And then Matt continued his sweep of the room as if nothing had happened and time set off again.
‘—to encourage their development. Thank you.’
Applause rumbled around her as Matt stepped down, but Laura barely registered it. She could hardly breathe with the nerves that were suddenly attacking her from all sides.
Oh, God, she thought, struggling not to sag against the door. This had been such a bad idea. Because for that brief moment Matt had not looked happy to see her. In fact he’d looked downright furious.
Her heart tumbled. How had she ever thought she could get the upper hand with a man like him? He was a king, for heaven’s sake. A natural born leader. He was alpha through and through, whereas she had spent her whole life sitting squarely at the omega end of the scale. OK, so she might be inching up that particular alphabet but still she was in way over her head.
What the hell had she been thinking? What had given her the nerve to presume she could shake him up? Come to think of it, why on earth would she want to shake him up anyway? Shaking Matt up would be like rattling a lion’s cage while leaving the gate open. Had she gone completely nuts?
Laura’s heart began to race. She ought to leave. Pretend she’d never come. Now.
But with Antonio Capelli striding towards her, smiling warmly in welcome and taking her elbow, it was far too late to flee.
Oh, hell, thought Matt, plucking a glass of champagne off the tray of a passing waiter and forcing himself not to down it in one.
What was Laura doing here? He deliberately hadn’t invited her so he must have done something truly horrendous in a past life to deserve this kind of torment, he thought grimly, gripping the glass and muttering some sort of appropriate response to the question he was being asked.
When his gaze had skated over the room and landed on her, everything had seemed to judder to a halt. His heart had thumped and for a split second his head had gone blank. He’d forgotten where he was, what he was doing and more worryingly what he was supposed to be saying.
It had taken every ounce of strength he possessed to drag his gaze from hers and continue his perusal of the room. With every fibre of his being suddenly on fire what he’d really wanted to do was leap off the podium, shove everyone out of the way and drag her off somewhere private.
So much for his famed ruthlessness. He could only hope to God that no one had noticed him falter.
Matt felt his eyes narrow as he watched Laura being wheeled off by his secretary and suspicion began to wind through him. If Antonio had had anything to do with Laura’s presence at the party he could well be finding a new job come the morning.
But never mind, he told himself as they disappeared into the melee. There were five hundred people in the room and there was absolutely no reason why he’d even need to go up to her, let alone have to speak to her.
All he had to do was forget she was there and everything would be fine.
Forgetting Laura was at the party was easier said than done, Matt thought, an agonising hour later.
He might not have had any need to approach her, but that didn’t stop him being aware of every move she made. It didn’t stop him subconsciously manoeuvring himself towards her, and it didn’t stop him wanting to march over and throw out any man she spoke to, smiled at or laughed with. Of which there were far too many.
Running a finger around the inside of his collar, Matt felt uncomfortably hot and weirdly on edge. His muscles actually ached with the effort of keeping his body where it was and his brain hurt with the effort of concentrating on the conversations going on around him.
Unable to help himself, he glanced over to where she was chatting and smiling, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks pink. He caught her eye. She arched an eyebrow, as if she was well aware he was avoiding her, and something inside him snapped.
This was absurd. Trying to ignore her wasn’t working. Why the hell shouldn’t he just go over and say hello? That wouldn’t kill him, would it?
Gritting his teeth, Matt excused himself and started to make his way over to her.
Which wasn’t as easy as it sounded. She was standing only a few metres away, but she might as well have been in a different country. To his intense frustration people kept coming up to him like heat-seeking missiles. Interrupting his trajectory and wanting to have a word.
By the time he finally made it to her, he’d
