AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not when you are recounting this story to me. I do not have a father and I never have had Do you understand'?' Laura nodded, because this was something she was well-equipped to deal with.
Denial. People did it all the time-they buried their heads in the sand and pretended that something wasn't happening because the thought that it was hurt too much.
Hadn't she done it herself with her cheating ex-boyfriend, when the writing had been all over the wall in letters twenty feet high that he no longer wanted her? That he had got what he wanted and after that she was expendable. And hadn't she-like a fool-made excuses for the fact that he had been slowly edging her out of his life and making her into a laughing stock into the bargain? Oh, yes, Laura knew all about denial.
'Very well,' she said calmly. 'How would you like me to tell the story'?' For a moment his black eyes narrowed with suspicion. Was she mocking him? But as he searched her pale face Xavier detected a glimpse of empathy in the shimmering depths of her green eyes and he tensed, for he was not a subject in need of pity.
'You will simply answer my questions. For now.' Drawing his broad shoulders back, he shot her an imperious look. 'Who are you working for'?' Laura nodded. What had Malik said to her? 'Bring Xavier here’.
‘I work for Sheikh Zahir of Kharastan.'
His mouth hardened into a slash of censure, his fists clenching by the shafts of his powerful thighs-and suddenly it became easier to channel his frustration and rage outwards, rather than turn it in on himself.
'And just how do yeti come to be in a position to know all this'?' Xavier demanded. 'Are you a hanger-on to this family of sheikhs? One of those women who are turned on by the strong, dark, silent type-perhaps secretly hoping that one of them will whisk you away to his desert tent and ravish you? Is that what turns you on, cherie'?' It was clearly intended to be insulting, and it worked-but unfortunately she found his words erotic as well as a slur.
Had she thought this would be easy? Yes, she had.
Armed with the knowledge that she was about to enlighten Xavier de Maistre and tell him that he was the son of a man so fabulously wealthy that it made your average billionaire look like a pauper, she had imagined that he would want to be on the first plane to Kharastan to rove his eyes greedily over his prospective inheritance.
How wrong could she have been? He had failed to grab at the carrot she had dangled before him. Maybe a man as successful as Xavier could not be bought or even tempted by the lure of a possible inheritance.
'You say nothing,' he taunted softly. 'And you have told me nothing of your own place in this unusual desert hierarchy.'
‘I have no place in it,' she answered. 'I'm working for the royal family of Kharastan', it's as simple as that. I'm a temporary employee with no agenda of my own.'
'No?' His eyes seared into her. 'Everyone has an agenda, cherie.' Especially when a man was as rich and as powerful as Xavier was. He had never met anyone who didn't want something from him. 'TeII me, are you being employed for your legal capabilities-or because you have beautiful breasts and come-to- bed eyes'?' Laura stared at him. He was making her sound like some sort of hooker. .I don't have to stand here and be insulted like that' she said, in a low, shaking voice.
'You think that it is an insult to be admired for your very obvious attributes'?' he mocked. 'But you are right-you do not have to stay and submit yourself to anything which offends you.' He flared his nostrils like an aristocratic racehorse as he gazed at her with haughty contempt. 'You do not like what I say to you? Then leave-and leave now-for I am not stopping you !' He was calling her bluff-he knew it and she knew it. But she did not dare leave for fear that she might not get another chance to return and state her case.
What Xavier de Maistre thought of her and said to her was irrelevant-she was here to do a job, that was all, and this was strictly business, not personal.
So stick to business, Laura told herself. If he only came up to her knee and had spots all over his face would she be melting in some kind of pathetic pool on the Persian carpet? Of course she wouldn't.
She forced a glossy smile. 'Do you have a photograph of your father here in the office'?' 'What do you think'?' His gaze flicked over her, icy-black and unfriendly. 'Do you keep photos of your parents in your office'?'
‘I take that as a no,' she said quietly, ignoring the sarcasm. 'Would you like to see a photo that I've been given'?' What he would like would be to walk away from the potential dynamite of this situation, but it was already too late. Like being witness to a crime. You couldn't rewind the clock and wish you hadn't seen it because of the complications which would follow in its wake.
‘I suspect that you are about to produce one from your bag,' he observed caustically. 'Like a magician performing a trick at a children's party.'
Her fingers were trembling as she unshipped her briefcase and withdrew the card-backed envelope which contained the portrait. She held it out towards him.
Xavier took it from her without a word and sucked in a long, low breath as he stared hard at the photograph.
It was a professional studio portrait, and the man in it had been captured in his most virile prime. Glimpsed beneath a white flowing headdress, held in place with a circlet of knotted gold, his hair was as raven-dark as Xavier's, and the cruel beak of a nose and sensual lips were instantly recognizable.
Xavier felt his throat tighten, for the resemblance was undeniable. 'Okay, so he looks a little like me,' he grated.
A little? But Laura said nothing.
'We both have black eyes and hair,' he said with a shrug, and then, when still she said nothing, he lifted his head to stare at her. Without a word, he put the photo down on his desk, then strode over to where Laura had since sat down.
Something in his expression both alarmed and excited her, and she sprang up to face him, trying not to flinch beneath the fierce onslaught of conflicting expressions which had suddenly turned his rugged face into the face of an adversary.
'Where did you get this'?' he demanded.
‘1 told you,' said Laura, her tongue flicking out to moisten her parched lips as she saw something in his eyes far more threatening than anger or contempt.
Something which looked uncomfortably like desire.
