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‘Right.’ She finished her cocktail and hoped the waiter would bring the watercress soufflé and wholemead bread she’d ordered for her starter very soon. She was feeling distinctly light-headed. She looked at her glass of sparkling champagne and knew she didn’t dare try even a sip until she’d eaten something. ‘So you’re a self-made man who enjoys his autonomy. Would that be a fair summing up?’ she asked calmly.
‘I dare say.’ His brow crinkled into a quizzical ruffle. ‘How about you? Are you a self-made woman who enjoys her autonomy?’
Self-made woman was on the grand side for her little tuppenny enterprise compared with Grey Cargo International, but Kay didn’t feel inclined to point that out right now. She nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘And is there a current boyfriend lurking in the background somewhere?’ he asked casually.
That would be the day. She’d had one or two dates in the last three years but only when she’d made it absolutely clear it was on a friends-only basis. Apart from the fact that she had no intention of introducing the odd ‘uncle’ to the twins, she simply didn’t want to ever get heavily involved with a man again, or at least not for the foreseeable future. Maybe when the twins were grown up and off her hands she might consider a relationship if the right man came along, but he would have to understand that the whole marriage thing, even a for-ever type commitment, was out of the question. She had gone there and done that, she had the mental and emotional scars to prove it. She would never give anyone power over her like that again.
Kay took a deep breath. ‘A boyfriend?’ she said evenly. ‘No. I haven’t got the time or the inclination for romantic attachments of any kind.’
He shifted in his chair, leaning towards her as he said, ‘That’s a little harsh, isn’t it? Was your marriage really that bad?’
She had absolutely no intention of discussing her marriage or anything else of a personal nature with this man. She looked into the hard, handsome face, folding her hands in her lap to emphasise she was perfectly relaxed and in control. ‘It’s over,’ she said coolly, ‘and I never look back or discuss the past.’
‘In other words I can mind my own business?’ He folded his arms over his chest, contemplating her with the penetrating, astute gaze she found so disturbing. ‘What about a family in the future, children? Aren’t you a bit young to close the door on that?’
She didn’t answer this directly. What she did say was, ‘What about you? Is that what you want—hearth, home and family?’ her tone disbelieving.
He gave her a hard look before a grudging smile touched the carved lips. ‘Touché,’ he murmured softly. ‘No, as you’ve so rightly discerned, that is not what I want. I don’t see myself as a family man. Children deserve absolute commitment, both from parents to the child and from parent to parent, and the possibility of wanting to stay faithful to the same woman for the rest of one’s life seems ludicrous to me. And if one party does stray it can make family life hell on earth.’
His face had remained the same as he’d spoken but there had been something, just the faintest note in his voice, that made Kay say, ‘Is that what happened to you as a child?’ before she could stop herself.
For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer her, and then he said, his voice very even, ‘This is getting a little deep for a lunchtime chat, isn’t it?’ There followed the briefest of pauses before he added, ‘Yes, that is what happened to me,’ and, looking beyond her, ‘Ah, here comes the food. I trust you will find it enjoyable. I find the chef here one of the best I’ve come across.’
Kay felt thoroughly put in her place. Why, oh, why had she asked him that? She hadn’t meant to. Here was she determined not to reveal a thing about herself and she had gone and asked him something so personal that even a close friend would have hesitated to intrude. She began to eat the soufflé without tasting it, her cheeks burning.
‘It’s all right, Kay.’
The quiet voice brought her eyes up from the soufflé dish and she found he was looking at her, unsmiling but with a curious expression on his face. With anyone else but Mitchell Grey she would have thought it was gentleness.
‘If I hadn’t wanted to answer I wouldn’t have done. Okay?’
He’d known she felt bad. She could feel her cheeks glowing still more as she nodded before saying, ‘I had no right to ask such a personal question; we’re strangers, after all.’
‘I would like to think that isn’t quite true.’
She lowered her gaze and began to eat again, her taste buds telling her the soufflé was a dream and her mind screaming at her that she had to get out of here.
Something had changed and shifted in the last few minutes, something intangible but very real and infinitely dangerous. And she didn’t mind admitting she didn’t know how to handle it—or perhaps she should say she didn’t know how to handle Mitchell Grey. Whatever, it was time to put her original idea into action.
She had finished the soufflé and now she put the last portion of delicious home-made bread into her mouth, swallowing it quickly before she said, ‘Excuse me a moment; I need to powder my nose,’ and she reached for her handbag.
‘Sure.’ As she rose to her feet he stood too and Kay acknowledged that the old-fashioned courtesy surprised her. ‘The cloakrooms are over the far side of the room,’ he said quietly.
‘Thank you.’ She gave him a brief smile and then forced herself not to hurry as she walked in the direction he had indicated. Just before she went through the door to the ladies’ cloakroom she glanced back towards their table. He was seated again, his eyes on her as he drank his champagne. There was a brooding quality to his stance and for a second Kay found it difficult to look away. Then she opened the door to the cloakroom and stepped into the scented interior.
For a moment after the door had closed behind her she stood quite still, her heart thumping so hard it was painful. There was no one else with her, and she glanced round the ultra-deluxe room with its beautifully tiled white and gold walls and granite surfaces in which three washbasins were set, before making her way to the window.
Thank goodness the cloakroom wasn’t an inner room, but did the windows open, and, if so, onto what? The modern frame had one large fixed pane of glass with two top-hung smaller windows either side of it, all with heavily opaque privacy glass.
Kay glanced at the locks on the smaller windows; there was no key that she could see. Please open, she prayed, please, please open. Her heart in her mouth, she tried the one nearest to her and felt a flood of relief as it swung outwards. It opened onto what appeared to be a small yard containing several large plastic dustbins in one corner and various other containers dotted about the limited space.
Directly below the window the area was clear, but it looked to be something like a six-or seven-foot drop to the ground. That wouldn’t have mattered if she had been in jeans or trousers, but her short, slimline skirt didn’t lend itself easily to mountaineering.
So, what were the options? Kay stepped back from the open window and turned to face the room as she ran things over in her mind. Did she let Mitchell Grey get away with tricking her here and all but forcing her to eat with him? No, not all but forcing her, she corrected herself in the next moment. He had forced her. She had decided to teach him a lesson in the car and she still intended to go through with it…didn’t she? The moment of doubt was enough to put steel in her backbone. He had been trying to charm her out there but he had picked the wrong girl and she wasn’t fooled for a minute. She wouldn’t let herself be fooled. Not ever again. Perry had had the sweet talk and beguilement down to a fine art and could be Mr Irresistible himself—when he was getting his own way.
Kay bent down, slipping off her high-heeled shoes and holding them in one hand as she mentally prepared herself. She was going to look pretty silly if anyone came into the cloakroom in the next few minutes but that couldn’t be helped. Better that than letting Mitchell Grey think he could bully her into submission!
