by Kate Hardy
Was there any woman as stubborn as this one? He felt a sudden desire to be the one who controlled the reins and melted the fortresses she had erected everywhere around herself.
‘You’re letting your emotions talk and emotions never solved anything. If you run to the bank for a loan, you’ll spend the next few years paying it back along with the crippling interest accrued.’
‘So instead I take the money from you? And in return you get what?’
A vivid image of her lying naked in his bed presented itself and he blinked it away.
‘You can’t hide a problem of this magnitude from your sister. You might want to protect her from everything harsh that life can throw at her, but she deserves to know the truth about what’s happening over here. Give her enough credit not to be a complete fool and come hurtling back to England when she knows that it wouldn’t solve anything. If she finds out that you’ve been keeping this from her, she’ll feel betrayed.’
‘Don’t pretend you know my sister better than I do,’ Rose retorted, but his words set up a chain of thoughts that began to gnaw away at her composure. She had always been the one looking out for Lily, but where did concern end and smothering begin?
Uncertainty shadowed her face and Nick, spotting it, jumped in. ‘I’m not pretending anything, but you have to tell her. Course she’d want to fly over, make sure you were okay, but she might not if…’
‘If what?’
‘If she knew that I was looking out for you.’ Since when had he ever looked out for any woman? The rules of his game had always been simple. No dependency, no strings attached. Rose ignited some other feeling in him. She didn’t conform to his ideas of physical feminine beauty so, whatever weird stirrings he had occasionally felt in her presence, he was certain it wasn’t lust. But whatever it was, it was certainly novel and to his jaded palate the thought of something new was strangely alluring.
‘Oh, please.’
‘I am trying to help you out here,’ Nick told her irritably. ‘Why can’t you just accept it?’
‘I don’t see you as the kind of guy who helps damsels in distress,’ Rose pointed out, omitting to mention the fine print, which was unless they looked like Lily or unless he wanted something from them. ‘You think you ought to offer assistance because you feel guilty. By some weird coincidence, you happen to show up when all this…’ she gestured vaguely around her ‘…is going on and you think you ought to do something because you have a relationship with Lily. You feel sorry for the plain, ungainly sister left behind trying to cope.’
‘I’m not suggesting I hand over the money and walk away. You seem to forget I’m a businessman.’
‘Well, what are you offering, then? Not that there’s any chance I’m going to take you up on your offer.’
‘Because you’re a stubborn fool.’
‘Because I don’t like the thought of being indebted to anyone.’
‘Except the bank.’
‘That’s different.’ Rose flushed, feeling boxed in by his clever use of words.
Novelty value was fast turning into challenge and it was invigorating. ‘Take a couple of months off work…’
‘Take a couple of months off work?’ Was the man a complete lunatic? ‘Have you been listening to a word I’ve been saying?’ She shook her head in disgust and snatched up the mugs, carrying them off to the sink. Nick swivelled round so that he was looking at her and, while he was staring, she spun around and leant against the kitchen sink, arms folded. ‘You know what’s happening here, the financial strain I’m suddenly under, and your breezy solution is for me to have time off work? That activity that pays the bills?’
‘How much do they pay you a month?’
Rose went pink. Wasn’t discussing of salary the final taboo? Not that this man would skirt round a taboo if his life depended on it.
‘Well? No need to be shy.’
‘What I earn is none of your concern.’ She should have asked for a pay rise months ago. She was damned good at her job and worked a lot longer hours than all of her colleagues. If only she had had a crystal ball foretelling her huge household bills were on the horizon she might have been more assertive during her appraisal. She reluctantly told him, knowing that he would just carry on sitting there until she did. He didn’t laugh, as she had expected him to. Instead he looked at her for a few seconds, as though weighing up something in his head.
‘I’m branching out,’ he told her, ‘going into the leisure business. Corporate investment and the money markets pay the bills but I’ve conquered that challenge. Now, I’m investing some of my own reserves in building up a boutique hotel portfolio.’
Rose thought of the reserves she was investing in—making sure she didn’t wake up with the ceiling on her pillow.
‘What’s a boutique hotel?’
‘Something very small and exquisite and strictly for people who don’t want to be surrounded by hundreds of people every time they step out of their bedroom.’
‘Don’t tell me…strictly for the very rich because privacy costs.’
‘Of course. Like I said, I’m a businessman. I’m starting with one in Borneo.’
‘Borneo,’ she echoed sceptically.
‘Trust me…the next must-go-to destination. It’ll be small, eco friendly and built to the highest standards. And here’s where you come in…’ Nick paused. ‘You spend the next two months running the show. You set up the computer system for all the accounting et cetera, you liaise with the architects—’
‘I don’t know the first thing about…hotels. I can’t even think when the last time I stayed in one was.’
‘Which I’ll make sure to put right,’ Nick murmured. ‘Think about it, Rose. You won’t be able to live here while work’s being done…I’m offering to relieve you of the stress of living out of an overnight bag on a friend’s floor. I’ll put you up in three separate hotels in London over the next two months so that you can have firsthand experience of what makes a good one work, and in addition I’ll pay you double what you would have been earning. In return, you can try your hand at something other than sitting in front of a terminal all day long.’
Nick, who donated vast sums to charity on an annual basis, had only ever had nodding acquaintance with altruism on a personal level and he was finding that it felt good to be at the giving end of largesse. In truth, he could increase her salary multiple times and not notice the difference to his bank balance, but he was shrewd enough to know that there was a thin line between a reasonable proposition and a contemptuous act of charity for which he would probably find his hand roundly bitten off.
Because this woman snapped and snarled and yapped and bit and he was looking forward to taming her. He decided to look on it as his pet project. All work and no play…well, he knew the saying well enough and, as he wasn’t playing at the moment, he would devote all of his formidable attention to digging underneath that prickly exterior to the woman inside. And doing her a good turn in the bargain by fishing her out of a pretty nasty hole.
‘Don’t you have people who could do the job for you?’
‘Don’t you have any ability to just say thank you and go away to count your blessings?’
‘Why do I get the feeling that there’s an ulterior motive to your offer?’ Rose asked. She felt driven to find holes in his proposal even though the rational side of her was already calculating the benefits of what he was offering. She had worked long enough for the company to know that they would not have a problem in giving her unpaid leave while she sorted out her domestic situation and the thought of something different was appealing. Stepping out of her comfort zone was appealing. Appealing and frightening at the same time.
‘Because you’re inherently suspicious.’ Nick shrugged and stood up. ‘If you’re not interested, then I’ll leave you to get on with the messy business of sorting your house out with the help of your friendly bank manager.’
‘Wait!’
She raced behind him as he headed for the front doo
r, glancing sideways as she did so, where the shimmer of dust in the air reminded her of the generosity of his offer.
‘What if I fail? I have no experience…’
‘Have faith in yourself. You won’t fail. I take it that that’s a yes?’
‘I shall have to clear it with my boss.’
‘And if you do take up this opportunity…’ Nick lazily appraised her, from her worn bedroom slippers to the shapeless dungarees, which, he now thought, should only ever be worn by labourers on a building site ‘…you’ll have to do something about your wardrobe.’
Rose went bright red. It occurred to her that actually working with the man might just prove to be more stressful than sorting out her situation without his help.
‘I don’t go to work in these clothes,’ she said coolly. ‘I put them on because anything else would have been stupid.’ Lily would have managed to look fabulous in faded, old clothes but she had to stop comparing herself to Lily. ‘If you don’t think that I’m decorative enough to work with you, then you might as well tell me now because I don’t intend to buy a brand-new wardrobe for a two-month stint. And also…’ she drew herself up and stared him straight in the eyes ‘…if I do happen to work for you, then I don’t want you to think that I’m doing it because I actually like you.’
‘Very tactful.’
‘I’m just being honest.’
‘And, believe me, I find that very refreshing, especially in a woman.’ He was so accustomed to women using their bodies and their wiles to get what they wanted that the metaphorical bucket of water Rose kept tipping over him was doing him no end of good. He even contemplated the possibility of taking a little time out to show her the ropes.
‘There might be some travel involved,’ he continued. ‘Do you have a passport?’
Rose nodded as the parameters broadened around her.
‘And because you’ll be working for me directly, I will set you up with an office inside my place.’
‘Whoa. Stop right there. I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because…because it would be a lot more professional for me to…ah…work in an office environment.’ She envisaged somewhere imbued with his masculine scent, with the open door to his bedroom within throwing distance. She shied away from the image with an inward yelp of dismay.
‘You’ll be there on your own,’ Nick said, amused at her discomfiture. ‘And, face it, this is my private project. I can hardly bring you into the office, sit you down and not expect you to become an object of curiosity.’
‘Well, you could explain…’
‘Dangerous curiosity…’ Nick expanded silkily, waiting in telling silence as her eyes widened. ‘People would naturally assume that because I had brought you in to work on my personal project, we were an item.’
‘An item?’
‘Involved with one another. Going out. Lovers. Now, I don’t much give a damn what other people think of me, but I don’t bring my private life to work.’
‘But you…we…we don’t have a private life,’ Rose protested, going bright red.
‘Immaterial. Tongues will wag and I can’t have my power diminished. Does that answer your objection?’
‘Of course, I can see your point of view, but…you have to see mine as well…’
‘And that is…?’ He leaned against the door and stuck his hands into his pockets.
‘Well…’ Rose tried to think of a coherent argument that wouldn’t make her sound prissy in the process. How could she explain that just standing next to him in her own house made her feel nervous and uncomfortable, so how much more difficult was it going to be when she was working in his?
‘Your virtue is perfectly safe with me.’ Nick grinned. ‘Like I said, I won’t be there during the day, and if you’re scared of being around me in my apartment, then we can always catch up on neutral territory. There’s a pub just around the corner. We can avoid the cubby-holes with the subdued lighting.’
‘Of course I’m not scared of you.’
‘Good, because there’s no reason to be, nor is there any reason to feel uncomfortable in my presence.’
Mortified, Rose interpreted his slow, amused smile as his way of telling her that he wouldn’t come near her if she happened to be the last woman on the face of the earth.
‘I’ll let you know after I’ve spoken to my boss. Tomorrow some time. Is that all right?’ What was she letting herself in for?
One month into her new temporary job, she was fast finding out.
A chic five-star hotel tucked away in the bowels of Covent Garden was her first project for inspection. Her brief was to examine why it worked and in detail, with a weekly report to be compiled for Nick’s scrutiny. That, in addition to checking out costs for everything under the sun that might possibly be needed in the construction of a hotel. There seemed to be a hundred people, all of whom she had to liaise with, and Nick, at the end of each day, expected perfect recall and written reports on everything.
He would sweep into his apartment at six-thirty and, although he had told her that she could clear off by five and email him with her findings, she had pretty quickly sussed that, whatever he said, he expected her to work until at least six-thirty and if necessary later.
And she didn’t mind. She had thought, a lifetime ago it seemed, that she would be crammed into his small personal space and, like a cat on a hot tin roof, would spend every minute there in nervous expectation of his sudden entry. She had envisaged being surrounded by his private objects, which would intrude on her, a constant nagging and stomach-churning reminder of his overwhelming personality.
But his apartment, for starters, was vast. It was also peculiarly impersonal. The abstract paintings on the white walls gave no clue to the man except to indicate his wealth. There were no photos in frames or ornaments standing on shelves. Two cleaners came promptly at eight every morning, and departed at ten, leaving the apartment spotless. Her office was no makeshift affair. It was large and kitted out for serious work and, once there, Rose had no trouble concentrating.
And then, just as she was usually packing up to leave, he would sweep in. From the office, Rose would hear the slam of the front door and the jangle of keys as he carelessly tossed them on the granite kitchen counter. Then he would appear in the doorway, tugging at his tie, leaning against the doorframe and watching her for a few seconds in silence as she logged off the computer.
It was the time of day she had been dreading. Yet now, it was the time of day Rose waited for with a sense of heady, forbidden, crawling expectation.
Tonight was no exception and she felt her stomach churn with excitement as she heard him approach. She knew it was wrong but her attraction to him was something she just couldn’t seem to stuff away somewhere conveniently out of reach. It had ambushed her from behind and her only defence against it was to hang onto her veneer of professional self-control.
‘I’ve got those costings for you.’ She had trained her eyes not to stare whenever he tugged his tie off, but, like recalcitrant kids, they still always managed to sneak a look at that glimpse of hard brown chest that was revealed as he undid the top two buttons of his shirt.
‘And I’ve got something for you…’ He walked towards her, waggling a piece of paper in his hand.
‘What is it?’
‘Have a look.’ He gave her the envelope and leant on the computer terminal, watching as she slit it open. ‘We’re going on a trip.’ He smiled slowly as she tipped her face up to stare at him. ‘A little look-see at some prime land in Borneo.’ He moved round so that he was behind her chair and then he bent towards her. Rose could feel his warm breath against her neck. ‘Fish out the summer glad rags, Rose. It’s going to be mighty hot out there…’
CHAPTER FIVE
NICK told Rose everything there was to know about the timetable for his project and what had inspired him to pick Borneo for its location. Over a bottle of wine and some delivery Chinese food, which they at
e in his ultra-modern, rarely used kitchen, he explained his connections with Malaysia, starting with an old university friend with whom the project was to be undertaken, and ending with an impassioned and persuasive belief that Borneo would soon be the rising star as Kuala Lumpur and Penang became overrun with tourists.
Rose did her utmost to play down her excitement and treat the whole thing as something that happened practically every day. She asked cool, sensible questions but her mind was running rampant with thoughts of planes and sea and lush green forests and, of course, being sequestered somewhere remote with him.
That was the most frightening aspect of the whole thing. How on earth was she going to maintain her sang-froid when she would be with him twenty-four seven? How long before her professional mask slipped and she made a complete fool of herself? Thus far, Nick had no idea that she followed him with her eyes, drinking in the powerful lines of his body, feasting on his harsh beauty, filing away throwaway remarks, the way he laughed, the slashing gestures he used when he was in a bad mood, so that she could bring them out at a later date and savour them like a guilty secret.
To him, she was the ugly duckling he had rescued out of obligation who, she hoped, was proving herself to be as efficient an employee as he could have asked for. Occasionally he teased her and very occasionally some of that teasing bordered on flirtation, but Rose, having lived her life in the shadow of her stunning sister, was a realist. Charming, good-looking men liked charming, good-looking women. A beautiful woman, for a man like Nick Papaeliou, was an essential accessory and if he occasionally flirted with his plain employee, then it was simply an overspill from his unconscious ability to charm. She shuddered to think how he would react if he ever found out about her inappropriately lustful imaginings.
She would be brought back down to earth by Nick listing her duties once they arrived at their destination.
Rose, who had been anxiously day-dreaming her way into a fictitious and awkward scenario in which he was roaring with laughter as he spotted her following him with puppy eyes as he dived into an imaginary swimming pool, surfaced to find him frowning.
