by Penny Jordan
She mustn’t think like that, Keira warned herself. She must remember the old adage that the thought was father to the deed, and not will her own self-destruction on herself.
The hard, cold reality was that she could not afford to lose this contract any more than she could afford to be sexually vulnerable to him. If she blew this, she would never get another opportunity to match it. Chances like this came once in a lifetime—if you were lucky. Her success here would elevate her to a much higher professional status. All she had to do was to keep the promise she had made herself not to allow herself to be physically vulnerable.
* * *
At exactly two minutes to eight, Keira walked into the hotel reception area and told the girl on the desk that she was expecting a car to be sent for her.
At five past eight Sayeed came hurrying through the hotel entrance, grinning broadly when he saw her.
‘Jay apologises, but he can’t make it after all,’ he told her as he sank down into the plush vibrant pink cushions of the gilded wood chair opposite her own.
He put the A4 manila envelope he had been carrying down on the marble table in front of them before signalling for a waiter, and then, without asking Keira what she wanted, he ordered champagne for both of them, his dark eyes sparkling with excitement.
‘He gave me the contract for you to sign. I’m leaving for Mumbai and then London in the morning, but I’ll make sure I get it back to him before I leave. Oh, and he said he’ll be in touch with you tomorrow about arranging to bring you up to speed with what’s happening and what he’s looking for you to provide. It’s a great deal, Keira. A good payment in advance that will give you some working capital. One thing I will say for Jay is that he expects the best and he’s prepared to pay for it.’
The waiter brought their champagne.
Sayeed picked up his glass and raised it to her in a toast.
‘To success.’
Half an hour later the contract was signed and witnessed, Sayeed had promised to fax her a copy once Jay had signed as well—and Keira’s head was swimming slightly from the combined effects of champagne and her own awareness that there was now no going back.
CHAPTER FOUR
KEIRA HAD JUST finished answering the last of her emails when she heard a knock on her hotel room door. Automatically she went to answer it, her body stiffening when she opened the door to find Jay standing there.
When Sayeed had told her that Jay would contact her she had assumed that he would telephone her, not arrive unannounced outside her room at such an early hour of the morning. Immediately she felt on edge and at a disadvantage.
‘I thought we’d make an early start so that we can drive out to the site before it gets too hot. Then we can come back and go through what I expect from you and the timing,’ Jay told her, stepping into her room so that she had to fall back.
It was a large room, with typical hotel anonymity, but somehow having him inside it with her made Keira acutely conscious of its intimacy and privacy.
‘If you’d rung me I could have met you in Reception,’ Keira told him sharply.
‘If you’d had your mobile on you’d have known that I did ring you—several times,’ he countered.
Keira could feel her face going red as she picked up her mobile and realised that he was right. She’d completely overlooked the fact that she’d switched if off when she was with Sayeed in the hotel foyer last night.
‘You’ll need to wear sensible shoes and a hat,’ he told her, causing Keira to grit her teeth.
‘Thank you, but I have visited building sites before.’
It wasn’t entirely true, but she wasn’t going to have him thinking she was totally incapable.
She paused, and then said steadily, ‘I can be ready to meet you in the hotel foyer very quickly. It won’t take me long to get changed.’
Jay’s mouth thinned. Was she daring to hint that she believed he had come to her room because he had some personal interest in her? After all that he had said to her yesterday? Was this yet another of her teasing games, designed to excite male interest? If so she was going to learn that he was not easily excited, and when it came to playing games he always played to win...
‘Any man who believes a woman when she tells him that is a fool,’ he answered. ‘You’ve got five minutes.’ And then, before Keira could object, he had settled himself in a chair and, having reached for the TV remote, was checking the stock market reports.
It took Keira precisely four minutes to get changed—behind her locked bathroom door—into a pair of sand-coloured and very businesslike cargo pants, a plain short-sleeved white tee shirt, and a pair of comfortable desert-style trainers.
Emerging from the bathroom, she gathered up a hat, her sunglasses, and a long-sleeved cotton shirt to wear over her tee shirt. She put them into the wicker basket which already held her notepad and some pencils, all without daring to look in the direction of the man seated in front of the TV with his back to her.
She wasn’t used to having a man in what was essentially her bedroom. His presence there was making her feel both acutely gauche and even more conscious of him, in a way that somehow caused her thoughts to slip sideways to a place that had her recklessly wondering if he would be watching television whilst he waited for her, if they were lovers who had just spent the night together.
Now her imagination was conjuring up images that made her hands shake, and she felt very glad indeed that he wasn’t looking at her. He would sleep naked—but would he hold his lover in his arms after the act of possessing her, keeping her close as he slept? Would she wake to the intimate drift of his hands on her skin and his kiss on her lips? He would be a passionate lover, but would he also possess a tender side?
She would never know, because she would never know any man’s passion or tenderness. The starkness of the feeling of loss that descended on her shocked her. She looked at the back of Jay’s head, willing the unwanted feeling to disappear.
As she reached for her laptop and put it into the basket, Jay switched off the TV and stood up for all the world as though he had been able to see everything she had done and felt, even though he had had his back to her. It was an unnerving thought.
Five minutes later he was driving them out of the hotel grounds in a sturdy four-by-four, his eyes shaded from the sharp sunlight by a pair of Ray-Bans that made him look even more intimidating than ever.
They turned off the new road that ran from the equally new airport past the old city to the hotel complex onto a rough track, sending up clouds of dust as they went along that made Keira glad of the four-by-four’s air-conditioning and comfortable seats.
‘How far advanced is the building work?’ Keira asked Jay.
‘We’re pretty close to completion and ahead of schedule at the moment, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to relax. We’re planning to launch the development well before the monsoon arrives, with TV and other media coverage in Mumbai, and a big event in the hotel, followed up by free look-and-see flights out for prospective buyers. That’s why I’ve stipulated in your contract that I want you based out here, where I can keep a day-to-day overview of your progress and your exclusive services until your contract with us is complete.’
Keira tensed in shock.
‘You want me based out here? I can’t do that. My office is in London and—’
She gasped as the front wheels of the four-by-four hit a rut, throwing her painfully against her seat belt.
‘I’m afraid that you are going to have to be. The contract makes our terms clear. Didn’t you read it?’
‘I must have missed that bit,’ Keira fibbed. She could see from the look he gave her that he didn’t believe her. It simply hadn’t occurred to her that he would want to oversee her work. If it had...if she had thought for one minute that she would be working closely with him on a d
ay-to-day basis...she would have... She would have what? Refused the contract? She couldn’t afford to financially. But could she afford the emotional cost of the effect he might have on her?
‘I’m going to have to go back to London if only to source things,’ she told him.
He was looking really angry now.
‘It is my express wish that all materials used in the interior design of this development are sourced as locally as possible. That is a key requirement of the contract and a key feature of the project. We have been extremely fortunate in securing both the land and the planning agreement for this project from my brother, the Maharaja, and his granting of that permission was conditional upon us meeting certain set targets with regard to benefits from the project for local people. It is his desire and mine that as a second stage in the redevelopment of Ralapur, the old city itself will become the favoured destination of wealthy cosmopolitan travellers. In order for it to have that appeal it is essential that its unique living history is preserved. Surely Sayeed told you all of this, and informed you that we are working very closely with the Maharaja and his advisers to ensure that his conditions are met? Conditions which, as it happens, I totally support.’
Well, of course he would, seeing as the Maharaja was his brother. He himself was every bit the royal prince, all arrogance and aristocratic pride. No doubt he was used to having his way whenever he wanted it and however he wanted it, with women as well as in business. Well, he wasn’t going to have his way with her!
‘I can’t remember, Your Royal Highness,’ Keira lied again, not wanting to get Sayeed into trouble. Normally she would have been filled with admiration for the stance being taken by both the Maharaja and Jay, but on this occasion she was all too conscious of how difficult it would make putting as much distance as possible between Jay and herself.
The look he was giving her was openly contemptuous, as well as grimly angry.
‘It is not necessary for you to address me in such a manner. Since I have chosen not to play a role that requires me to use my title, I see no reason why I should be addressed by it.’
Now he had surprised her—but why should that bother her? She wasn’t afraid of him, was she? She wasn’t afraid that somehow she would end up begging him to make love to her? No, of course she wasn’t. The very idea was ludicrous, unthinkable. Because if she did then... Her heart had started to pound and a now familiar and very dangerous ache had started to spread slowly but unstoppably through her.
He was driving them up to the top of a steep incline, onto a small plateau, the wheels of the four-by-four were still throwing up clouds of dust, and Keira didn’t know what she would have done to stop that ache from spreading if she hadn’t suddenly caught her first glimpse of the development site and realised just what it was that Jay was creating.
‘You’re building a copy of the old city!’ she exclaimed in astonishment, as she looked through the dust towards the rose-red sandstone city walls and the open gateway into them, beyond which she could see a mass of buildings and workmen. ‘Sayeed said you were building apartments.’
‘We are. These are apartments,’ he told her, gesturing towards the buildings inside the city wall. ‘And once we’ve finished work on this we’ll be building the office blocks that will house the new IT industry on the other side of the new city. The office blocks are going to be mirror-fronted, so that they’ll reflect the natural landscape rather than intrude on it, and we’re using an up-to-date version of traditional building and design methods where the residential area is concerned. The idea of an ancient city excites everyone’s imagination, including mine, so we’ve decided to see if we can recreate it from the outside whilst making what’s inside more suitable for modern-day living, as well as environmentally sound. For instance, the new city will be a car-free area, and each group of homes will share an inner courtyard complete with swimming pool and private family spaces. Flat roofs will be converted into gardens. We want the new community to be serviced as far as possible from within the existing population, rather than bringing in a workforce from outside.’
It was a hugely ambitious project, and Keira could hardly take in the scale of it.
‘Ethically it makes good sense,’ Keira agreed, ‘but you have to consider that the local population may not have the necessary skills. Even if they do, they may not be able to service the demands of a large number of new households.’
‘Which is why I am already in discussion with my brother and some of the local family elders with a view to setting up training schemes to be run by skilled local craftsmen to teach the skills that will be needed. By the time the office blocks are ready for occupation, it is my intention that all the necessary infrastructure and practical aspects of comfortable everyday living for the people who will work in them will be in place and working efficiently.’
Jay stopped the car on a dusty expanse of hard flat earth.
‘The first phase of the housing development is almost finished. I’ll take you over so that you can have a look at them. We’ll have to walk from here.’
* * *
Two hours later Keira acknowledged that what she’d been shown was any designer’s dream—or nightmare, depending on that designer’s self-confidence and the support he or she would get from those in charge of financing the project.
The architecture of the residential area followed that of the old city very closely. The homes were grouped in clusters, each with its own personal, enclosed courtyard garden for privacy, and each grouping also shared a larger courtyard with formal gardens. The houses were mainly two-storey, with large balconies on the first floor and access to a sheltered flat roof space. They were either two- or four-bedroom, and each bedroom had its own bathroom. The master bedroom had a good-sized dressing room.
On the ground floor the smaller two-bedroom properties were open plan, with long galley kitchens that could be shut off from the main living area by a folding wall, while the larger properties had separate family-sized kitchens.
Each property had a small office space, and good access onto its courtyard, which was designed to serve as an extra outdoor living space. The concept was both practical and modern, whilst the look of the buildings was traditional, with the houses grouped around what would be an open ‘market square’. There was also what looked like a traditional bazaar, but in fact, Jay explained to Keira, it would be a set of buildings housing modern coffee shops and restaurants, as well as shops selling food and other necessary staples.
The houses were to have traditional hard floors, either in marble or mosaic tiles or, for a more modern feel, slate. The look Jay wanted for the interiors, as he had made plain to Keira, was one of simple elegance, in keeping with the whole concept, with a mixture of traditional and modern styles and furnishings to suit the tastes of the eventual purchasers of the properties.
‘I want a style for these properties which is unique, conveying a certain status and meeting the aspirations of the people who will live here. It must be individual with regard to each property, and yet at the same time create an overall harmony.’
That would mean using strong key colours that would both harmonise and contrast to produce individuality, whilst keeping to an underlying theme—perhaps with plain off-white walls throughout the interiors, but with very different fabrics and furnishings textures and styles, in a palette of colours. Sharp limes and cool blues, hot pinks and reds, bright yellows and rich golds. Indian colours, but used in ways that transcended the traditional whilst still respecting it.
‘I shall need to know if you want each house within a group to share the same style, with each group styled differently, or if you want a mix of styles within each grouping, repeated over several groups,’ Keira told Jay.
‘You’ll be able to see the overall plan more clearly when you see the scale model,’ Jay answered her. ‘Ultimately we intend to give people both the opportunity to work and
live here, or to use it as a leisure facility. We plan to create a lake within walking distance of the development for leisure purposes, which together with the existing lake and hotel—as well, of course, as the attraction of the ancient city—will make this somewhere people want to come and visit, as well as live in. The hotel will be extended to include a facility for corporate entertaining, and we hope with irrigation to be able to source much of the food that will be needed for the new town and the visitors locally.’
Keira was stunned by the breadth of his vision. ‘It’s a very ambitious project,’ was all she could find to say.
‘I’m a very ambitious man,’ he told her.
And a very sexy man. An unnervingly charismatic and sensually disturbing man. Surely it wasn’t possible for the space inside the vehicle to have become smaller, so that she was forced to be more aware of his physical presence as a man? It was the fault of the bright sunlight that she had to turn her head to avoid its glare, and was thus obliged to look at the way his hands held the steering wheel—as knowledgeably and masterfully as he had held her last night.
How had her thoughts managed to slip sideways into that forbidden place she knew they must not go? Keira wondered angrily. It was almost as though her own body was working against her in some way, trying to undermine her.
So what if he was sexy and charismatic and...and sensually disturbing? He was also cruel and unkind and arrogant, incapable of judging her fairly, and she would be a complete fool to let herself be caught in any kind of sexual attraction to him. But wasn’t the truth that she was already acutely aware of him as a man?
