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He rocked back on his heels in an indolent manner as he looked around the plush reception area of the salon. ‘Your salon, huh?’ He whistled through his teeth and brought his dark brown eyes back to her flashing blue-green ones. ‘What a pity you won’t be able to keep it.’
She looked at him through narrowed eyes. ‘What did you say?’
He smiled one of his lazy smiles. ‘I’ve just purchased some real estate on this block. It was an absolute bargain. A steal, you could say.’
She felt a sudden chugging in her chest as if her heart were trying to decide whether to beat harder or stop altogether. ‘So?’
‘So …’ he said, deliberately pausing over the word, ‘as of today I am your new landlord.’
Hayley gaped at him. ‘But … but that’s impossible!’
He folded his arms across his broad chest, his dark gaze gleaming with satisfaction. ‘The legal work was finalised this morning,’ he said. ‘That’s why I am here.’
The front door pinged cheerily as another client came in. Hayley gave the woman a quick smile of greeting and mumbled something about Lucy attending to her shortly, before she turned back to Jasper. ‘We can’t discuss this out here,’ she said in a stiff undertone. ‘You’d better come to my office out the back.’
She led the way on leaden legs, her stomach feeling as if someone were twisting her insides into hard little knots. Every time she saw Jasper Caulfield she felt anger charging through her system like high voltage electricity. She hadn’t seen him in three years and yet nothing had changed.
She still hated him with a vengeance.
She pushed open her office door and took refuge behind her desk, but it wasn’t much of a barrier. As soon as he came in the room it seemed to shrink to half its size, and when he took the chair opposite she felt the brush of his long legs against hers under the desk. She clamped her thighs together and hastily repositioned her legs as she sent him another gimlet glare.
‘I suppose you’re going to charge me an outrageous rent or something,’ she bit out resentfully.
‘That depends,’ he said, his dark inscrutable eyes running over her taut features.
‘On what?’
‘Your cooperation.’
She grasped the edge of the desk with both hands. ‘Why don’t you get straight to the point?’ she asked. ‘If you’re here to try and intimidate me, then you can leave right now. It won’t work.’
‘Actually I’m here on another matter.’
‘Oh?’ She gave him a scornful look. ‘So you want a deluxe facial after all, do you?’
‘I want you to be my wife.’
Hayley blinked at him. ‘Your what?’
‘I want you to marry me,’ he said, his darker-than-night gaze still holding hers.
‘You have got to be joking.’
‘I’m not.’
She got to her feet and slammed her chair back into the desk. ‘How dare you come here and waste my time?’ she railed at him. ‘I know it’s a hackneyed cliché, but I told Gerald’s lawyer yesterday I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth and you damn well know it.’
‘Don’t tell me I have to eradicate every other man on earth to see if you’re really telling the truth,’ he remarked dryly.
She blew out a furious breath and pointed to the door with a rigid arm. ‘Get out!’
He leaned back in his chair and crossed one ankle over his knee, his casual pose infuriating her even further.
‘Make me,’ he said.
Hayley felt a fluttery sensation in the pit of her stomach at the glinting challenge in his eyes. Her heart began to thump erratically and her legs were quivering and shaking as if they had just run a marathon without the benefit of training. Being in Jasper Caulfield’s presence always had that effect on her. She didn’t understand how someone she hated so much could make her feel so angry and yet so nervous and unsure of herself at the same time.
‘I’m going to ask you one more time to leave and then I’m going to call the police,’ she said, trying to make her voice sound firm.
