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Hiding.
Hiding from her past. Hiding from her marriage. Hiding from her feelings.
She lifted her chin, pride giving her strength. ‘Did you forget to mention that?’ Her eyes were still fixed on Zander, sparking fire and flame. ‘How remiss of you. If you wanted it kept a secret then you picked the wrong woman. I’m not prepared to be anyone’s dark secret.’
Something flashed in those molten dark eyes. For a fleeting moment she thought it might be admiration but then she shook herself. Zander didn’t admire the sort of woman she was. He liked meek, obedient women who played the game and she’d never played the game.
She didn’t do meek, and she didn’t do obedient either.
Alec slid a finger inside his collar, sweat visible on his brow. ‘Well, obviously this—er—I mean we didn’t—Miss O’Neill—I mean Mrs Volakis—’ He broke off and glanced nervously at his boss, waiting for some sort of reaction.
But Zander didn’t speak.
He just watched her.
Using silence as the ultimate weapon. Letting everyone else around him sweat, Lauranne thought grimly.
She clenched her teeth but she didn’t drop her gaze. Wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She knew his tricks. Knew just how skilled he was at manipulating his opponent. If he thought he could intimidate her, then he’d misjudged her.
But then misjudging her was an art that he’d perfected.
‘Why are you here?’ Her breathing laboured, Lauranne straightened her slim shoulders and at that point Tom cleared his throat and stepped forward.
‘This is obviously a mistake. We should just cancel this meeting—’
Still on the receiving end of Zander’s cold stare, Lauranne saw the instant change in him. Saw the lethal flash of white-hot anger as he registered Tom’s voice. The stillness in that athletic frame fell away to be replaced by a tension so powerful that she took an instinctive step backwards. Connected as she was to that dark, molten gaze, she felt his mood shift from restrained to furious with staggering speed. It was like staring into the crater of a volcano on the very brink of eruption.
He dragged his gaze away from hers and fixed his attention on Tom, his fabulous eyes glittering dangerously, anger visible in every angle of his powerful body.
Transported back five years, Lauranne sucked in a breath.
With the shockingly expensive designer suit and the Rolex watch on his wrist, Zander might look every inch the civilised businessman, but she knew that he was anything but civilised. Behind the trappings of success that he wore with such effortless style lurked a male so basic and primitive in his perspective on life that a loincloth would have been more appropriate dress.
‘Zander, no—!’
Suddenly she was the one trying to calm things and instinctively she stepped in front of Tom.
‘Still protecting him, Lauranne?’ Zander’s eyes flashed dark, his voice thickened with anger as he whirled on his unsuspecting employees. ‘Get out. All of you get out.’
The rest of his team stared at him in blatant shock, horrified and fascinated by this unusual display of emotion from a man renowned for his self-control.
Alec cleared his throat, his consternation evident. ‘Zander, maybe we should—’
‘I want to talk to my wife,’ Zander growled, turning back to Lauranne. His gaze slammed into hers with the force of a missile. ‘Get rid of Farrer.’
His own team made their retreat so hastily that if the situation hadn’t been so serious she would have laughed at how pathetic they were.
But the situation was serious, and s
he wasn’t laughing.
Her heart hammering against her chest, Lauranne swallowed and turned to Tom, desperate to defuse a highly charged situation.
‘Go,’ she urged, her slim fingers closing over the back of a chair for support. Her legs were shaking and her palms were clammy. ‘Just go! And you too, Amanda.’
Tom hesitated, both eyes fixed warily on Zander. ‘I’m not leaving you with him.’
She saw Zander’s shoulders tense, saw naked male jealousy and something deeper and far, far more dangerous.
