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“This should not surprise me at all. It’s exactly how you make a business deal. No research. It’s a visceral decision for you,” she said with a mix of distaste and wonder. “You decide you want something and you go after it, so sure that you will succeed.”
“It works for me.” He didn’t see any need to apologize for it.
“If there are any obstacles, all the better. It makes the win sweeter. Any enemies blocking your way and it makes the game more interesting for you.”
Cooper narrowed his eyes. “You know this and yet you are in my way.”
“You keep pursuing me without learning anything about me.” She paused to take another sip of her drink. “But I have learned so much about you.”
“I’m touched,” he replied as he watched a drop of condensation fall from her glass and onto her chest. He watched it glide between her breasts, his hands itching to rub it into her oiled, bronzed skin. He wanted to follow the lazy path of the droplet and catch it with the curl of his tongue. “You could have saved yourself the work and asked me directly,” he bit out as the lust pounded in his blood.
“But you wouldn’t have told me what I wanted to know,” she said in the soft, lilting voice that always made his body harden. “Would you have told me that you just made a lucrative deal with the Australian mining company? Congratulations, by the way.”
Cooper squashed the start of surprise and jutted out his chin. “How do you know about that? It hasn’t been announced.”
“Or that you’re secretly negotiating with the telecommunications conglomerate in Zurich?” Her dark eyelashes fluttered. “It’s a gamble, but I think you will pull it off like you always do.”
Cooper’s eyes narrowed. He had just visited Zurich this weekend and both companies had been very careful not to have that information leaked. “Where did you hear that?”
“Around.” She gave a delicate shrug. “And I know you wouldn’t have told me what you won at the Chatsfield poker tournament in Las Vegas last year.”
Cooper frowned. “No one knows...”
“That you won a twenty-five percent stake in The Harrington from John Harrington, Jr.?” she finished for him. “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.”
Cooper stared at Serena. No one knew he had the shares. No one. John Jr. definitely didn’t want anyone to know. How had she found out? And did Serena know why he needed the Harrington shares so badly?
He had underestimated her. The woman had single-handedly uncovered his secrets. How many more did she know? And what did she plan to do with it? “Why have you been acquiring all of this information about me?”
She yawned and stretched, arching her back. He held himself very still as he watched the sensuous roll of her torso and the tantalizing thrust of her breasts. “I guess I just find you so fascinating. Growing up in such wealth and privilege.”
Cooper pulled at his shirt collar. “Serena...”
“After all, you have been living the life I should have had.” Her eyes dulled with cold anger. “You dismissed the opportunities that should have been mine.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask your father,” Serena said in a hiss as she glared at him. “Ask him about Felipe Dominguez. Fourteen years ago he bankrupted my father’s company. Destroyed it.”
His skin prickled as a cold sensation settled in his chest. The name wasn’t familiar but that sounded like something his father would do. “If that happened, it has nothing to do with me.”
“Right,” she said in a drawl. “You only benefited from it. You lived off the spoils of war. But it has nothing to do with you.”
He raked his fingers through his short hair and gave a huff of frustration. “What does this have to do with the Alves land?”
“Everything,” she replied flatly. “I’ll tell you more tonight. Meet me at the grill for dinner here at The Harrington. Let’s say around eight? Where are you staying?”
Cooper stared at her as he shook his head. No way. He would not let her dangle pieces of information in front of him. Put him off and have him heel to her commands. Cooper swiftly moved forward and clamped his hands on the armrests of her chair.
He reluctantly admired Serena’s composure. She didn’t jump or scream. She didn’t curl into a protective ball or push him away. Serena unflinchingly met his gaze as if she already knew what his next move was going to be.
He leaned in, so close to her that the tropical scent of her suntan lotion hit him in the back of his throat. “Tell me everything now,” he ordered. His voice was harsh as his anger started to slip but Serena obviously didn’t give a damn.
“I wish I could but I’m working right now.”
She was such a princess, Cooper thought with disgust. A spoiled socialite who got whatever she wanted the minute the idea popped into her head. She thought the world revolved around her. Cooper fought the urge to grab her out of the chair and toss her into the ocean. “Serena, I swear...”
“You really have no choice in the matter.”
