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He dealt her a wry smile. ‘Despite the fact you claim not to be vulnerable to me, I suspect that the only way you and I will ever be able to conduct a conversation of any length, agape mou, is if we meet in a very public place. Hopefully the presence of an audience will curb our natural instincts to strip each other naked.’
She stared at him, shattered at being confronted with such an unpalatable truth. How could she have responded like that? She should have slapped his handsome face, instead of which—
‘I have absolutely no trouble resisting you,’ she croaked and he smiled.
‘Of course you don’t.’
His eyes dropped to her breasts and she was suddenly painfully conscious that her nipples were pushing against the thin fabric of her blouse, visible evidence of her arousal.
Resisting the temptation to cover herself, she lifted her chin, trying to salvage a trace of dignity from the wreckage of her pride.
‘I don’t want to discuss terms.’ She wasn’t going to let him threaten her. ‘I have nothing to say to you, Zander, in private or in public.’
‘Then I’ll do the talking.’ Totally indifferent to her protests, he strolled casually towards the door and then paused, a hint of danger in his glittering dark eyes as he focused his attention on her one more time. ‘Oh, and a word of warning—’ his voice was quiet but she tensed, detecting the steel under that deceptively soft tone ‘—if you want to have a civilised evening, then don’t mention Farrer.’
Civilised?
She almost laughed.
How could an evening with Zander ever be civilised? He was the least civilised person she’d ever met.
‘I won’t be mentioning anything because I’m not meeting you.’
Black eyes slammed into hers, holding her captive. Like two fighters in a ring they faced each other, the atmosphere antagonistic and highly charged.
‘Don’t play games with me, Lauranne,’ he warned softly. ‘The stakes are high. Seven-thirty. And you know well enough that if you’re not here, I’ll find you.’
With that he turned and strolled out of the room with the same degree of cool authority with which he’d entered it.
Lauranne stared after him with helpless hostility, unsure whether to scream or cry. For five years she’d successfully locked her past away. She’d managed to get on with her life. And then Zander had sauntered back into it with his hot black eyes and his arrogant ways and all her attempts to forget what they’d shared, their marriage, were ground to dust. One frantic, febrile kiss later and suddenly he
r emotions were free again.
When he’d walked through the door she’d been spitting and angry, in fact all the things she should have been five years before when she’d been too distraught to defend herself from his accusations.
She knew now what he was and who he was—
Knew that Zander Volakis didn’t possess a soft side—
But all that had ceased to matter when he’d kissed her. She’d forgotten everything except the burning heat of his mouth, the erotic probe of his tongue and the hardness of his body against hers. And her traitorous, yearning body had responded with a desperation that had been humiliatingly obvious to a man as experienced and sophisticated as Zander.
She slid off the table and straightened her clothes, wishing that her emotions could be tidied with the same ease. The knowledge that he could still have such a powerful effect on her filled her with despair.
It didn’t really matter if he agreed to a divorce, she thought helplessly. What they shared was so powerful that all the lawyers in the world wouldn’t be able to negotiate an end to it. And the only answer was to stay away from him.
Once he discovered that he couldn’t bully her, he’d leave her alone. He couldn’t really ruin the business, she reasoned, mentally running through their list of clients. He was calling her bluff.
Trying to frighten her into submission.
There was no way she was eating dinner with him. In fact there was no way she was going to see him again in any shape or form.
He might be arriving to collect her at seven-thirty, but she wouldn’t be here. And if she knew him well enough to know that he’d find her, then he should also know her well enough to know that she wouldn’t make it easy for him.
If he thought he was going to knock on the door and collect her, then he was in for a long and disappointing evening.
CHAPTER THREE
ZANDER strode out to his sports car, furious with himself and cursing his utter lack of control.
