on earth are you doing here?’ Her voice was numb with disbelief and it made his lips curve in a wryly amused smile.
‘Well, at the moment it looks like I’m employing you to do a job that you originally told me you didn’t want. Strange old world, isn’t it?’
He sounded so cool and calm, and by contrast Katie was anything but calm. There were a million emotions buzzing around inside her and she couldn’t get a handle on any of them.
‘I don’t understand,’ she murmured. ‘The job you offered me was with Demetri Shipping, wasn’t it?’
‘Demetri Shipping now owns Tellesta and Madison Brown,’ he informed her. ‘I bought them both out and took control about six weeks ago.’ As he spoke Alexi allowed his eyes to rake over her. She looked good, he thought distractedly. Everything about her appearance was businesslike, from the white, crisp blouse to the black pencil-skirt. Yet there was an overt sexiness about her—the wide belt that emphasised her small waist, the hint of red gloss on her lips. She always had been too damn sexy for his peace of mind.
Aware of his scrutiny, Katie could feel herself tensing up even more. She wondered what he was thinking…was there even a small part of him that was glad to see her? Even as she asked the question she was berating herself for being a damn fool. Alexi didn’t reason like that. She was just a notch on his bedpost, for heaven’s sake!
‘So, you had just finalised the deal to buy this place when…?’ She almost said ‘when we were together’, but stopped before making that mistake. ‘When I was working for you?’ she finished instead. They had never been together, she reminded herself, not in the true sense of the word. Not as a couple.
He nodded.
‘I didn’t realize. I mean, when I applied for the job here, I didn’t know it was with you.’
‘I’ve gathered that.’
He was so damn cavalier! she thought angrily. Just once she’d like to see that arrogant, businesslike persona slip.
But the thing that made her really angry was that there was a part of her that was glad to see him. She hated that! It was the weak side of her nature, she told herself sternly, because she was over Alexander Demetri, well and truly over him.
OK—she still found him attractive—but then she would have to be dead not to find those dynamic, forceful good looks a turn on. Every woman with a pulse was attracted to him.
She tried not to look at him too closely, tried not to notice little things like the fact that his thick, dark hair had grown slightly and now just brushed the top of the midnight-blue jacket collar, the fact that there was a slight shadow on the strong jawline, or the sensual, almost cruel curve of his lips. Because when she noticed things like that she remembered how it had felt when he’d kissed her, when he’d crushed her against him, his skin abrasive against the softness of hers, his lips hungry and powerfully compelling.
‘Did you know it was going to be me today?’ she asked him suddenly. ‘Did you know I had this job?’
‘Of course!’ He seemed to find the question amusing. ‘Your name was put on my desk nearly a week ago.’
‘So what are we going to do about this, Alexi?’ For a second there was a raw, unguarded note in her voice. ‘I can’t work for you again.’
His eyes narrowed on her and a strange emotion sizzled through him, an emotion he couldn’t place.
He supposed it was anger. Even though he knew he had no right to the emotion, he’d been furious when she’d turned down his offer to stay within the company and then casually walked away. That fury hadn’t diminished any over the last few weeks. In fact if anything it had increased. Alexi was used to getting what he wanted—used to people dancing to his tune. And Katie had left before he was ready to let her go.
‘I’m surprised that you feel like that.’ He paused and measured his words. ‘I expected you to be more…professional about this. You have just signed a four-month contract to work for Madison Brown. You must want the job.’
She glared at him. How dared he accuse her of being unprofessional? She wanted to tell him that he hadn’t exactly been acting in accordance with the rules of business when he’d taken her to bed! But she held the words back; there was no point in raking over the past, and besides he’d probably point out that she had been as much to blame for what had happened as he was. And he’d be right. ‘Yes, I wanted the job!’ she said instead, her voice tightly controlled. ‘But that was before I realised you owned the company!’
‘What difference does that make?’ He shrugged. ‘I haven’t got a problem with employing you again—so where’s your difficulty?’
She could feel panic rising inside her like a gushing, icy spring. He didn’t have a problem with it because his emotions weren’t involved and hers were—not in a deep way, she reassured herself swiftly. But nevertheless she couldn’t turn herself off to what had happened between them, couldn’t deal with it in the same practical way that he obviously could. This was one of the reasons she had turned down his job offer last time.
He could probably deal with this because he was used to it, she realised numbly, used to taking a woman to bed and then dismissing her from his mind—whereas she was totally inexperienced at this kind of thing. In fact that whole casual-sex thing had been completely out of character for her. She’d only ever had one previous lover.
But she couldn’t tell him that.
‘I haven’t got a problem with it—I just wanted to move on,’ she told him.
Alexi watched as she lifted her chin in that determined way of hers, and something inside him twisted. He was usually the one to tell a woman when it was time to move on. This was the second time that Katie had dealt with him in this offhand manner, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. ‘You know, Katie, you and I used to have a good arrangement. It suited us both.’
‘Yes, well, people change, don’t they, Alexi? What suits one moment doesn’t the next.’
‘Very true.’ His eyes narrowed on her. ‘And it just makes me realise how very alike you and I are.’
Katie wanted to disagree vehemently, but she held her tongue.
‘And we are both in agreement that we’ve enjoyed our fun and now we’re moving on.’ He shrugged again. ‘I don’t have a problem with that, Katie. I wanted you for this job because I believe you are the best person for it. It’s just business.’
‘I realise that!’ She glared at him. ‘I just wasn’t sure that you did!’
For a second she was gratified to see a flare of something in his eyes—fury, or maybe just irritation; she wasn’t sure. But she had struck some kind of response that had ruffled his impassive façade, and she was glad, so glad that it gave her a buzz of elation.
However, the feeling was short-lived, because then he just shrugged once more. ‘I can reassure you that my first priority is work, Katie. It always has been and it always will be.’
The words upset her. They shouldn’t have done—she knew he was just speaking the truth; she knew the score—but all the same it did hurt, and it crushed her brief feeling
