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She got out of bed in a hurry, made it behind her and attempted to straighten her rumpled suit and hair. Deciding nothing was actually going to be accomplished until she changed clothes and redid her makeup, she made her way out into the main cabin.
Harrison looked fresh in a crisp blue linen shirt, tie and pants, his jacket slung over the back of the seat beside him. Ready to do battle with Leonid Aristov.
He looked up at her. “Feeling better?”
She nodded. “I apologize for last night. I had no idea that pill was going to affect me that way.”
He waved a hand at her. “Forget about it. It was a bad storm.” He flicked a glance at his watch. “We’re landing in just over an hour. If you want to shower and change, do it now.”
She nodded. She wanted desperately to tell him this wasn’t her, not the way she’d been acting lately. But he stuck his head back in the report he was reading. Not the time to plead her case. And a part of her knew with Harrison, actions spoke louder than words.
She retraced her steps to the bedroom and headed for the shower to make herself into the deadly efficient assistant she knew she was. She could do this. She could.
* * *
They landed without incident at London City Airport, where they were picked up by a car and spirited to the Chatsfield. The opulence of the swanky hotel with its reputation for hosting anyone who mattered bounced off Harrison’s consciousness as they were ushered up to their luxury suite. His mind was focused on the meeting ahead and getting Leonid Aristov to sign on the dotted line.
He checked his smartphone as Francesca dropped her belongings in her bedroom. An email had come in from Aristov. A feeling of foreboding swept over him.
Grant—Stuck in Brussels. I’m hosting a charity gala tonight at my house in Highgate. Why don’t you come and we’ll talk there? Two tickets will be delivered to you this afternoon. L
Rage bubbled up inside of him, swift and all-consuming. Was he kidding? He had dragged himself across an ocean, put together an exhaustive presentation that obliterated the Russian’s concerns about the acquisition and he wanted to talk at a party?
His brain whirred as he struggled to figure out why Aristov was suddenly putting this deal on the back burner when he had been so anxious to sign just weeks ago. Forty million dollars was going to go a long way to pulling the Russian out of the financial mess the oligarch had found himself in recently, bad luck and bad decisions plaguing him in his home country and threatening the empire he’d built.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows with their incomparable view of London, agitation raising his pulse rate. Aristov had told him he was getting out of the automotive business and realigning his assets. So why?
A niggling worry entered his head, one he hadn’t let himself think of until now. Could Aristov have guessed his true intentions? That acquiring Siberius was only a stepping stone to destroying the man who had killed his father? Impossible. He had made sure every company, every lifeline he had snapped up that kept Anton Markovic’s automotive empire in business had been buried so deep behind red tape they could never be traced back to him. The one or two deals he’d made publicly could innocently be explained as smart business strategy.
That Siberius was the only supplier in the world left that could keep Anton Markovic manufacturing engines once Grant Industries cut off his other lifelines was something Aristov could not know.
His head pounded with a deep throb, drawing his hand to his skull. If he didn’t obtain Siberius as planned, Markovic would continue production, the Russian’s company would gain more influence and his plan would be dead in the water.
A fiery feeling stirred to life low in his gut. He would never let that happen, not while he lived and breathed on this earth.
His head took him back to that night. To the horrific scene that had met him when he had walked into the Grant family home on the eve of his father’s announcement he would run for governor. The unnatural silence in the house. The eerie feeling that something was very, very wrong. His father’s body had been limp and lifeless, slumped over the desk he had created such genius at.
His body went rigid. The beast in him climbed out of the box he had placed it in seven years ago and into his head, blurring his vision. Anton Markovic had been as responsible for his father’s death as if he had pulled the trigger himself and he would have a target on his back until he lived his own personal version of hell.
There was no other possible outcome.
The gray mist in his head swirled darker. He pushed it ruthlessly away. If he let the wolves in his head win, if he let the beast rule, he would make a mistake. And any wrong move at this point would bring it all crashing down.
Francesca chose that particular moment to walk back into the room. Her apprehensive expression as he turned to face her had him wiping the emotion clean from his face.
“Is something wrong?”
“Aristov is stuck in Brussels. He wants to discuss the deal at a gala party he’s throwing in Highgate tonight.”
Her eyes widened. She wisely held her counsel. He turned back to the windows to study the city he’d flown thousands of miles to reach only to be slapped in the face by Leonid Aristov. He could fly back to the States tonight and be done with it, or he could make one more attempt to try and figure out what was going on in Aristov’s complicated head.
The thought that regulators would be looking at the deal in weeks had him turning around.
“Go buy yourself a dress. We have a party to attend.”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE MOST EXPENSIVE dress she had ever bought, times ten, floating around her ankles, hair tamed into a sophisticated up-do by the Chatsfield salon staff and some simple makeup in place, Frankie finally allowed herself a look in the mirror. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head.
The haute-couture-clad, daring stranger that stared back at her was not the Frankie Masseria she knew. She would never in a million years have bought this dress if the saleswoman had not insisted it was exactly right for “Leonid Aristov’s party of the year.”
“Anyone who is anyone is going to be there, sweetheart. Trust me, you cannot be ordinary.”
So here she was, anything but ordinary, and not at all sure she could carry it off. Ordinary had been her mantra her entire life. Sure, she had a killer figure; reactions from men had told her that. But she didn’t have her two sisters’ striking blue eyes to go with her dark hair. She was not a doctor, psychologist, chemical engineer or entrepreneur. She was the girl her mother sent in to calm a particularly difficult customer when no one else could. She and her nondescript GPA had been so good at it her parents had urged her to stay in the family business. But she hadn’t wanted to do it. She’d wanted to become a somebody. And coming to work at Grant Enterprises had made her feel like a somebody.
She gave her appearance another assessing look. The dress, a stunning, smoky blue color the salesperson had said perfectly matched her eyes clung to every inch of her body as though it had been painted on. But because of the way the beautiful material slipped elusively away from her skin, it was come-hither rather than tacky.
What had sealed the deal, though, and made her set Harrison’s black-label credit card down on the counter was the back of the dress. The gorgeous cutout that revealed the graceful sweep of her shoulder blades and much of her back was sexy yet ladylike.
A knock sounded on the connecting door. Her nerves amped up another notch or two. Harrison. Tessa had been right. You could have timed the Swiss train system after him, he was that punctual.
Wary of keeping the beast waiting, she picked up her wrap, draped it around her shoulders and swung the door open. Her breath stopped somewhere in her chest. He looked obscenely handsome in a tux that was undoubtedly as expensively made as her dress, the elegant formal wear a perfect foil for his clean-edged, dark masculinity.
She looked up at him before her gaping became obvious. But he was too busy looking at her to notice. His dark gaze seemed to be caught in a state of suspended animation as it moved over her, taking in the daring dress. And he didn’t remove it right away. The full-on stare went on for a good three or four seconds, sending a wave of heat through her. Unlike some men’s open admiration that had, in the past, made her feel uncomfortable, Harrison’s stare made her feel unbalanced.
He cleared his throat. “You look...beautiful.”
His uncharacteristic struggle for words unleashed a fluttery feeling deep in her stomach. Stop it, she told herself. He’s your boss. Now is the time to act cool and collected so he knows you can actually do it.
“I hope it’s not too much,” she offered casually. “The saleslady said it was perfect for tonight.”
“It’s not too much.” He looked as if he was going to say something else, then clamped his mouth shut. “We should go.”
The ride to Highgate was smooth and quiet as London flashed by the tinted windows of the Rolls-Royce. Harrison was silent, a frown etched in his brow, formulating a plan of attack for Leonid Aristov, no doubt. Her nerves skyrocketed as they entered the exclusive London suburb. Georgian homes shook hands with fascinating Victorian Gothic structures. Not to be outdone, a handful of architecturally brilliant modern homes made their own statement on the tree-lined street.
