Temptation. This was what it felt like. She had never experienced it in her life before and after John, who had been just the sort of guy she should have felt tempted by, she had resigned herself to her future being about her career. She felt uncomfortable in her own skin, confused by having her neatly ordered life turned upside down.
‘What office politics?’
She paused to stand in front of him, arms folded, mouth pursed. ‘You know what I’m talking about!’
‘I have no idea and I’m not a mind-reader. If there’s some revelation I’ve been missing, then enlighten me...’
‘Katherine,’ she muttered, hating herself for what now sounded like office gossip. She couldn’t even remember where this particular piece of office gossip had originated.
‘Katherine?’ His brows knitted into a perplexed frown.
‘Nothing. Forget it. It’s nothing.’
‘You shouldn’t start conversations you don’t have the courage to finish.’ He’d never had to work so hard for a woman. It was as though she had glanced over her shoulder, thrown him a half smile and then proceeded to lay down a bed of nails and burning embers over which he had to walk if he was to follow the glance and the half smile. And where would he get even if he followed the glance and the half smile?
Nowhere much. He wasn’t interested in a full-blown relationship. She turned him on and her unattainability was even more of a turn-on but he knew that the second he had her they would both be at the beginning of the end. Since his messy divorce and the bitter disillusionment that had come with it, he had had neither the will nor the stamina to sustain any liaison beyond a couple of months. He didn’t jump out of bed with one woman to immediately jump into bed with another, but even after periods of celibacy, sometimes lasting months, he had never had the desire for any relationship with any woman to go beyond its natural course. Which was limited.
So it was puzzling why he was so keen to pursue something that would have a very limited duration.
Sunny could have kicked herself for ever having mentioned Katherine, but wasn’t this the man he was? Sexy...powerful...wealthy...a man who thought he could chase whatever woman caught his fancy?
For all she knew, Katherine might have been busy this evening and so he’d thought he’d chance it with her.
That didn’t sit quite right but it felt good not to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Because she wasn’t going to go to bed with him. It didn’t matter whether she fancied him or not or whether he fancied her or not. Did it?
‘What about Katherine?’ he prompted. ‘Are you concerned that if we sleep together, she’ll find out and sack you?’
‘We’re not going to be sleeping together!’
But they were. Stefano could read the conflict inside her as if it had been written in neon lettering across her forehead and he felt a kick of pure masculine triumph.
Was this just about winning? He’d never thought of sex in those terms. But, then again, he’d never met a woman who hadn’t been eager and willing to fall into bed with him...
‘I won’t tell if you don’t...’ he murmured.
Sunny wondered whether he’d just heard what she’d said. His rampant self-confidence was a treacherous turn-on even though she should have found it repellent. She tilted her chin defiantly. ‘It’s not about whether Katherine finds out...it’s just that I wouldn’t want to step on any toes...’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘The rumour mill has it that the only reason the company got your business was because of Katherine...’
‘Is that a fact...?’
‘I don’t suppose I should be telling you any of this, but I just want to make you see why this is crazy and why...well...why...’
‘Now you’ve started telling me...what it is that you shouldn’t be telling me...perhaps you should finish... What about Katherine? What’s that rumour mill been saying?’
Hoist by my own petard, was what sprang to Sunny’s mind. She hated gossip and yet here she was, repeating it. She couldn’t even pretend that it was illuminating work-related gossip, gossip that Stefano might find useful or that he needed to know.
It was cheap tabloid gossip and she cringed with shame but he was looking at her narrowly, waiting for her to carry on. She couldn’t suddenly change the subject and start talking about the weather or the state of the economy.
‘I don’t usually listen to gossip—I don’t—but it’s been impossible to get away from. The minute everyone found out that you were going to be using Marshall, Jones and Jones, the speculation began because...it’s new on the scene and it’s small. It’s not one of the top five...which is where...you know, one might assume...well...’ She heard herself tripping over her words and she took a deep breath because now that she’d started this stupid, idiotic story she was committed to finish it.
‘One might indeed...’ Stefano murmured. He had no time for gossip and even less time for people who had nothing better to do than to spread it but he found the agonising discomfort on her face made her seem impossibly young and vulnerable, especially because she was desperately trying to keep her cool.
He also believed her when she said that she didn’t usually listen to gossip. Where two or more people were gathered, gossip became an inevitability and, in a work environment, it was almost impossible to escape it.
Unless, of course, you happened to live in an ivory tower, which, as the head of his sprawling empire, he more or less did.
‘So the rumour started that...that...perhaps Katherine was at the heart of it...’
Stefano raised his eyebrows, amazed that wagging tongues could have struck jackpot with nothing to go on but pure speculation. ‘Explain,’ he said with undisguised curiosity.
Sunny allowed herself a little sigh of relief because at least he wasn’t storming around the kitchen, threatening to have her sacked because since when was it part of her job description to gossip to the guy who would be bringing tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of business to their company.
‘Katherine’s very beautiful and someone came to the conclusion that you might have handed some work to the company as a way of...of...of...’
‘Shall I help you along with this?’
Sunny stared at him miserably. She wanted to tell him that that someone who had come to conclusions hadn’t been her. She had no idea whether the conclusions were right or wrong, but she hated the thought that he might end up being contemptuous of her. Too much protesting of her innocence, however, would surely end up not ringing true.
‘You think,’ Stefano said helpfully, ‘that I wanted to climb into bed with the very beautiful Katherine and my method of getting her to go along with that was via bringing business to the company...’
‘Stupid,’ Sunny muttered, mortified.
‘A little insulting,’ Stefano mused. He thought his mother might have been highly entertained at
