AllFreeNovel
Share Us
'I certainly do,' replied her boss, smiling. 'All expenses paid. Private jets. Designer clothes — the lot!'
'Don't! It sounds too good to be true,' Laura protested.
'Well, it's not. It's legit.' Her boss smiled. 'I've been approached by a friend of a friend — that's how these things work. They want a lawyer who's young, enthusiastic, discreet and...female.'
Why female? ’ she asked.
Her boss gave her a wry look. 'Women bring a different dimension to matters which have the potential to be emotionally explosive — which this one does.'
'But it's...safe?'
He burst out laughing. 'Hell, yes! You're a single woman, and you'd be under the protection of the Sheikh himself in a notoriously strict and old-fashioned country — you'll be as safe as houses!'
It had sounded so easy. Too easy, she now realised — or perhaps she hadn't actually taken into account how the illegitimate son would react to such a piece of news.
Yet maybe she should have done. She should have had the sense to realise that reactions to events weren't straightforward. You could never predict the outcome to a situation, because people weren't predictable.
Laura walked slowly back to the Paradise, wondering just what to do next. Should she ring the Sheikh and tell him about Xavier's initial reaction? Or give the Frenchman time to mull it over?
She was so deep in thought as she walked into the foyer that she barely registered the man who sat in the shadows, observing her with eyes that gleamed like jet.
Who then rose noiselessly to his feet to follow her, his grim gaze never leaving the provocative sway of her bottom.
Laura had just walked into her suite, and was preparing to close the door when it was levered open. Her automatic open-mouthed fear was not banished when she saw that it was Xavier.
'What the hell are you doing? ’ she cried, as he shut the door behind him as if he had some inalienable right to do so.
'What does it look like? You wanted to talk, didn't you?' His voice dipped into a caress of pure silk. 'Well, here I am, cherie...all yours.'
Had he intended to make that remark sound tinged with sexual promise? And did he know that it had worked? 'I would have liked a little notice,' she said breathlessly, her fingers flying to her bare throat. 'Being jumped on like that isn't my idea of fun.'
A nerve flickered at his cheek and an added tension crept into his body. 'No? Then you have not lived. And anyway — I thought you liked the element of surprise,' he drawled softly, enjoying the soft creep of colour into her cheeks which followed his sexual taunt. 'Wasn't that precisely how you ambushed me?'
Laura attempted a smile, but it wasn't easy — not when he was looking at her that way. Did he look at all women as if he could melt their clothes off their body with that sizzling black stare? And did some treacherous side of them always want him to? Assert yourself. Sound professional. Pretend he's just walked into your office. 'Would you like to sit down?'
He glanced around the room, his gaze coming to rest on the four poster bed. ‘And where should we sit, here? Wouldn’t that provide something of a distraction? I don’t know about you, but I would fid it difficult not to get horizontal if I was on a bed with a woman as beautiful as you.
Laura's heart hammered 'Don't be disgusting '
'Disgusting ' ? All I'm doing is telling the truth I wonder, are you always so uptight, cherie'. Her body belied her words, he noted with satisfaction, as he saw the tips of her breasts harden in response to his words, outlined with disturbing detail through the fine material of her dress
Ruthlessly he dragged his thoughts away from the physical—there would be time enough for that 'But let us forget about the bed and all its delightful possibilities and concentrate on the matter in hand ' His eyes glittered 1 want some answers '
Laura nodded Answers she could deal with 'That's what I'm here for. Ask away,' she said
'You think that—even if I had the desire—I could just drop everything and travel east with you?'
'Of course You're the boss—a powerful man who can do as he pleases '
'You flatter me'
'I wasn't intending to '
'Weren't you? Don't you know that all men love to be flattered?'
It isn't something I've made a special study of,' she said archly, something in his taunting tone making her forget her vow to keep this on a strictly business level 'And perhaps some men have had a little too much of it all their lives I suspect you might be in that category, Monsieur de Maistre '
Xavier gave the kind of smile a wolf might give to a helpless lamb before he devoured it. With her defiance, she had sealed her fate—for no conquest was more exciting than that of a woman who was trying very hard not to be interested
