a lifetime. And she doubted that Conner would want her if she just gave in. She was going to make him chase her.
“I don’t think so, Conner,” she said. “You seem like a very competent man and I am more than confident that if you put your mind to it you could answer my questions easily … unless you’re afraid of what you might reveal if your guard is down.”
She saw that her comment hit its mark as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Where before he’d been leaning forward to engage her, now it was as if a barrier had come down between them. Here was the Conner Macafee she’d expected to find.
He didn’t like that she’d already found a chink in his armor. He knew the only way to handle Nichole was to show her the door and get on with his life. But he wasn’t used to losing and didn’t intend to start now. She wanted him and she wanted her interview and he thought it was about time she learned that Conner Macafee didn’t back down.
He was going to have her and she was going to acquiesce to his demands. No other solution would satisfy him.
“I have no weaknesses, Nichole, but you are welcome to keep looking for them.”
She shrugged delicately and uncrossed her legs again. His eyes immediately tracked the movement. He liked the bit of thigh he kept glimpsing with each shift she made in the chair. He sensed that she was doing it to distract him and probably to turn him on, but he didn’t mind.
He liked that feeling of being on the edge of control. It made him work harder to keep his focus and not let her win this round.
Or any round. He didn’t like losing and he hated that she was using her innate femininity as a weapon. He knew she was aware of it—well, at least suspected she knew how much she affected him. Duh, right? He’d offered to make her his mistress. She knew he wanted her.
“Everyone has weaknesses, Conner, and I’ve already figured out one of yours,” she said.
“And that would be?”
“You like to be in charge, and if someone threatens that control you don’t like it,” she said.
He shrugged. “That’s not an unusual reaction.”
“No, it’s not. But you know that I have something you want and I’m not going to give it up easily,” she said.
“I’m very glad. I don’t like things that are easily attained.”
She smiled at him then and he knew that she was savoring the sparring as much as he was. In another world he would have enjoyed knowing her as a woman, not just as a sex partner.
“Good. So here’s my thought. We start with my questions—”
“Not happening, honey. No matter how many times you cross and uncross your legs, you aren’t going to get me hot enough to agree to that.”
“What would get you hot enough?” she asked.
He shook his head, unwilling to reveal that her flirting with him would be enough. “Become my mistress and you’ll find out.”
“I’m trying to avoid that,” she said.
“Why? We both know it’s what you want,” he said.
She nodded. “It is. But I have my professional integrity to think about.”
“Integrity. I didn’t know that crashing a party had any high moral value.”
“I came as a plus one,” she said.
“Whose?”
“Um …”
“That’s what I thought. I admire that you’re willing to go to any lengths to get this interview,” he said.
“How can you be sure of that?” she asked.
“You are sitting here,” he pointed out. “As I was saying, I admire your guts. But I think you need to acknowledge that all of your cards are on the table and I’m holding an ace up my sleeve.”
“Are we playing for high stakes?”
“Yes, I believe we are. I don’t want you to think that my offering to make you my mistress means I don’t respect you.”
“Sure you do.”
“I definitely respect you and I want you. It’s the easiest way for us both to get what we want. It’s a business arrangement.”
“I’m not interested in that,” she said. “Perhaps if you knew what I was writing about, it would make you see there’s nothing to fear and we could try to have a normal relationship after I write the article.”
He wasn’t interested in that. He knew from his own feelings on the matter of relationships that he would never marry or settle down. And though he’d never formally had a mistress, in general the women he involved himself with knew he wasn’t in it for the long haul.
“I doubt that would work,” he said.
“Why? Because I’m not from your echelon?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. It’s just that I’m not relationship-minded. Never have been. I saw the dark side of it from my parents’ marriage, of course, but also from friends. It’s just not to my taste.”
“I’d love to quote you on that.”
“Well, you can’t.”
“Honestly, Conner. That is the type of article I want to write. I think even you can see that it’s not invasive at all.”
“I’ve already offered to let you interview me if you become my mistress.”
“What if I just ask you about the business?”
“You can do that through my marketing department.”
“But your marketing department isn’t you. I want to know why someone who’s so disdainful of relationships would try to set people up.”
“In a word?”
“If that’s all you will give me,” she said.
He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. He liked that she never just gave in. “Money.”
“Money?”
“That’s right. There’s a lot of money to be made from people looking for that special someone.”
“That’s so cynical.”
He gave a wry shrug of his shoulders. “Obviously I don’t run around telling our clients that, but that’s my feeling. If the company didn’t make money I would have cut it from my portfolio a long time ago.”
She leaned forward. “I thought it was a family business.”
“That’s all you’re getting out
